I am guessing this quote doesn't surprise you and I surely don't have to tell you how much change our sector is going through right now. Regardless of political persuasion, cuts in public spending were inevitable.
Less money means that commissioners and providers are facing difficult decisions about resourcing their local offer for young people, with a sharply increased focus on value, efficiency and effectiveness. They need to know what works, and which approaches bring the best outcomes, longer-term, for their young people.
Now more than ever before, service providers need to be able to articulate the value proposition in their work with young people. In addition, the sector needs to explore new models of funding work with young people, including social finance.
We aren't lacking qualitative research for demonstrating the impact of youth work on the lives of young people - indeed, the NYA has been at the forefront of a considerable amount of work in this area over the years.
However, while there is extensive evidence on potential paybacks to investment in early years programmes, or preventative measures in crime and health, there is a gap in relation to services for young people - something that didn't go unnoticed in the recent education select committee's hearings into services for young people. The longer this continues, the higher the likelihood of irreversible damage as the cuts truly bite.
This is why the NYA and the Young Foundation, working together with the Local Government Association are working to produce a framework for calculating value in order to inform investment. We held an expert seminar last month to discuss the feasibility of new models of social finance and are now incorporating the learning from this event into the development of the tool. For those interested in finding out more, we will be showcasing this work later this year at the National Children and Adults Services Conference.
So hopefully, through this, service providers will be in a stronger position to evidence the value to commissioners of the services they provide.
Alex Stutz, development officer for policy, NYA. Contact: alexs@nya.org.uk.
