NYA publishes new youth work guidance for local authorities

The Guidance for Local Authorities on Youth Work Services aims to provide councils with the tools to ensure young people have “access to quality youth services at a neighbourhood level, whether they are directly delivered, commissioned by or run independently from the local authority”.

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The guide sets out a range of recommendations for the delivery of good services and advocates an “access for all” approach aimed at ensuring 80 per cent of all young people are in contact with youth services, 35 per cent on a regular basis, while 10 per cent are supported by targeted, specialist provision. 

It also recommends revising the traditional 13- to 19-year-old age remit of youth services, suggesting it may be beneficial to deliver services to children as young as eight and young adults up to the age of 24.

“Youth services must include the active involvement of young people in decision-making,” it adds.

The guidance also recommends that each youth service has at least two full-time professionals located in a secondary school catchment area, along with a team of at least four youth support workers and trained volunteers.

It goes on to highlight different factors in funding and securing youth services for local authorities, calling for ring-fenced government funding to support youth work services.

“A priority for all local authorities should be to strengthen and maintain the quality of youth services to support young people’s wellbeing,” the guidance states, suggesting that more youth services should be based on the high street, while digital platforms could help services reach more young people at a universal level.

The guide comes after latest research from the YMCA showed a 70 per cent drop for local authority youth services since 2010.

However, Leigh Middleton, NYA chief executive, adds that the Covid-19 pandemic has “brought additional strains to local services and finances”.

He said: “Covid-19 has also amplified the needs of young people and where youth work is recognised as an essential service. Therefore, NYA is supporting local authorities in a call for increased government funding, ring-fenced at a local level to secure and sustain youth services. 

“It is clear that, after year-on-year cuts to youth services the focus now must be on the level and quality of services, in line with NYA guidance, not whether a youth service is delivered. We must be ambitious for youth work. This requires a clear plan for and provision of at least two full-time equivalent, qualified youth workers and team within each secondary school catchment area, whether directly delivered by or independent of the local authority.

“Local authorities hold the duty and need to ensure planning is not undertaken in isolation of other authorities, agencies and services in their area, bringing together the public, private, voluntary and community sector. NYA guidance sets out the practical and reasonable steps a local authority should take.”