The National Youth Agency: Comment - Managing for success

But it is surely right to try to ensure the better identification of young people's needs and the effective deployment of resources to meet them.

These key managerial processes have been strengthened by the DfES-funded Transforming Youth Work Management Programme run by FPM, one of The NYA's principal partners. This programme for senior managers in the local authority and voluntary sectors has been evaluated by De Montfort University and its report has just been published.

It makes encouraging reading: "Such a national management programme had never been offered before. It has been highly valued by participants and has equipped them with knowledge, skills and confidence to help them to manage the youth service better." It identifies some of the key reasons for this, including the development of shared language and management tools that can assist more purposeful action. The key handbook will shortly be available from The NYA. Moreover, the evaluators sought to track the impact of this short programme on how participants managed services and brought about successful change - a vital feature for youth services, which endlessly have to reposition themselves, as is shown in De Montfort's parallel study of the Impact of Youth Work, reported elsewhere in Young People Now.