The youth affairs unit at De Montfort University produced the 500,000 study, An Evaluation of the Impact of Youth Work, for the Department for Education and Skills.
Nearly every one of the 50 youth services the researchers spoke to during the investigation reported problems with recruitment caused by a lack of funding and the attractiveness of other services for young people, such as Connexions and youth offending.
The researchers found that youth work is appreciated by participants and has a role to play in uniting communities and encouraging social regeneration, but said a range of factors is hindering its effectiveness.
They include the short-term nature of many grants, a lack of co-operation from schools and difficulties providing adequate support for youth workers.
The study identified various ways of overcoming these problems, including the development of a common way of measuring youth work's impact.
John Goffee, chair of the Association of Principal Youth and Community Officers, said: "The report underpins some of the claims that we have been making for a long time that youth work does have an effect but it is hard to measure it."
Tom Wylie, chief executive of The National Youth Agency, said the report confirms what is known, but that it is good to have it in writing. "I hope that the Government is taking full account of all of this," he added.
A spokesman for the education department said: "These findings will inform the development of the youth green paper and our priorities in relation to the latest phase of the Transforming Youth Work agenda."
www.dfes.gov.uk
See Briefing, p10.
