The evidence is there, but it is difficult to see

When I was first confronted with the question, he did not appear to take kindly to my retort: "It all depends on whom I am working with."

I went on to point out that rarely did I know this, or could I plan this, in advance. Young people turned up; I tailored my practice according to my reading of their character, aspirations, circumstances, wants and needs.

To the unknowing onlooker or those obsessive about outcomes, I concede this can look and sound rather "wishy washy". In these days of tight control of public resources and the prevailing requirement to demonstrate value for money by specifying results, youth work is in some difficulty. But the quest for measurable and persuasive outcomes is something akin to seeking the holy grail. We might also invoke the story of The Emperor's New Clothes for those who proclaim they have found the answer.

What I really meant to tell the inspector is that I cut my youth work practice coat according to the participating young people's cloth. For some of those young people, I have no shame about saying that I probably did little more than hold the line. With regard to one aggressive and unpleasant young man, his mates were adamant that my engagement with him had stopped him killing someone, because he had come to display just a little more control over his fits of rage. I once argued facetiously that the natural performance measure in the work I was doing with a bunch of young heavy drinkers in the park was that they threw more of their cans in the bins rather than on the ground. Measuring impact on their drinking and wider lifestyles was a much more amorphous and long-term challenge.

And this is the point. Youth work interventions range over attention to character, relationships, confidence and competence. The last, which I guess more kindly lends itself to measurement, is but one of a package or continuum of activity and interventions that contribute to and corroborate or compensate the learning and development that takes place at home, school or work. A lack of access to youth work provision narrows and impoverishes the constructive experiences and chances available to young people as they are growing up. Youth work provides the space for a variety of achievement that may be hard to specify, but which I know pays off in myriad ways if society has the guts to take the long view.

Howard Williamson is professor of European youth policy at the University of Glamorgan