Speaking on behalf of the association at Young People Now's Joining Up conference in west London, Chester Morrison, Liverpool's principal education officer, said: "I am not sure about the future of youth services in their current form. The principles and concepts of youth work are being taken up by other agencies. Cultural change in the youth service is necessary."
Morrison said the use of the youth work approach by other children and young people's services meant that youth services would vanish or forge new roles, such as representing young people in children's trusts.
"Youth work will still exist, but we'll be looking more at services for children and young people than a youth service," he told YPN after the event.
The one-day conference also heard youth minister Margaret Hodge calling for ideas on the future of the youth service and Connexions.
"We are thinking how we can reconfigure the massive investments in the youth service and ideas are welcome," she said.
Hodge added that young people need to have a say.
Susanne Rauprich, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services, urged trusts to help small voluntary organisations get involved.
"There is a danger children's trusts will fail if the voluntary sector is not there," she warned. "It is often the small voluntary organisation that is providing the most valuable services. There is a need to make funds available for capacity building."
See Feature, p18.
