Access to Youth Work: Special Report
Derren Hayes
Tuesday, October 24, 2023
After decade of decline, there are signs that increased investment in youth services and attention by policymakers will boost provision and the workforce to meet a growing demand from young people.
Amid rising concerns over mental ill health, social media pressures and violent crime, the need for high-quality youth work has never been greater. Yet at a time when more young people need support, particularly following the pandemic, the austerity drive of the previous decade has decimated local authority youth work budgets and provision in England.
Despite this, there are green shoots of recovery that offer hope that more young people will be able to access a qualified youth worker in the future: the government is investing in new youth centres, has strengthened guidance for what services councils should provide, and funding more bursaries to train youth workers.
Such national measures are supplementing work on the ground by local authorities and voluntary sector organisations that are developing new ways to support young people – whether through detached youth workers using QR codes to understand young residents’ concerns or the creation of a digital youth club for young people to meet safely online.
Where youth provision is situated in communities is also the subject of debate. Several recent inquiries have made the case for youth hubs to be linked to schools bringing together a range of services to tackle youth violence; others believe purpose-built facilities that offer a wide range of education and leisure activities are needed.
CYP Now’s special report on access to youth work gathers together the key policy and funding drivers across the sector, summarises developments in training youth workers and highlights how three providers of services are meeting the needs of young people in their communities.
