Editorial: The erosion of voluntary participation

The fact that young people were able to enter freely into relationships with youth workers and choose whether to attend projects or not helped to distinguish it from most other services.

Letting young people have the power to decide whether to participate or not placed an onus on youth services to develop programmes that are attractive to young people. If they failed to do so, young people simply wouldn't attend.

Now this characteristic of youth work is coming under threat. Increasingly, youth workers are expected to work with young people who have not asked to be there or, more to the point, might not want to be. In schools, on youth offending programmes and in custody young people are being "referred" to youth workers without expressing any willingness to do so.

And more of this involuntary participation is expected to come. In July, the Youth Crime Action Plan stated the government's intention to provide young people persistently involved in antisocial behaviour with non-negotiable support from youth professionals. Further reforms in areas such as 14 to 19 education will also lead to more young people like Christina, the young mum in this month's cover feature (see p14), being told to access youth work provision as part of a wider package of support.

So should youth workers fight to keep the ethos of voluntary participation intact? I would argue not. Like every other sector, youth work must move with the times. And this will involve redefining some established principles.