Archived decisions
Appendix 1
An Evaluation of the Impact of youth work in England - summary
The Department for education and skills (DfES) commissioned the youth affairs unit at De Montfort University to research the impact of youth work in England. A summary report is attached - appendix 1. The key points and issues raised by the report are summarised below.
The report reinforces youth work's core purpose as the personal and social development of young people, provided through informal education and increasingly its contribution to social inclusion.
Local youth services are responding to broad policy developments of social cohesion, active citizenship, and the enhancement of learning and development opportunities for young people in different settings.
Outcomes for young people through youth work include: increased confidence, making new friends, learning new skills, making decisions for themselves and feeling more able to ask for help and information when needed, better understanding of people who are different from themselves, and the prospects of finding a job were improved through engagement in youth work activities
Factors contributing to positive impact:
Youth workers:
1. have a distinctive educational purpose and work with young people as members of groups and communities.
2. make a positive impact when: they are closely connected to local communities and services and can act as a bridge between young people, their families and services
3. avoid compartmentalising young people's needs
Youth work:
1. enables young people to make their own choices and to find solutions to their own problems
2. offers mediation and advocacy on behalf of and in the interests of young people
Sustained contact:
1. contributes to the impact, as ongoing contact over time can be a vital stabilising impact.
Factors limiting impact:
1. Youth workers having limited control over negative impact of family, friends and community
2. Some mainstream services limited impact which is illustrated by the relationship between youth work and schools. Despite positive benefits schools appear unwilling or unable to maximise youth work's potential
3. The management support and development of youth workers especially where there is a lack of investment in training and ongoing development
4. The short-term nature of funding as it inhibits impact by undermining stability and sustainability.
The influence of variability and stability in youth service funding: The report notes the variability in per capita expenditure and year-on-year variations. Notwithstanding arguments about efficiency, instable funding is likely to contribute to variations in the quality and quantity of provision
Staffing capacity: services reported serious difficulties in recruiting and deploying staff with sufficient skills, qualifications and experience. To overcome this many services are creating more substantive part-time youth work posts.
Use of resources and patterns of provision
Balancing the need for open access and targeting forms of youth work presents a continuing dilemma. Local determination leads to variation of services for some groups. The rationale for patterns of provision ins not always clear and often reflects historical or political pressures rather than identified contemporary needs.
Active involvement of young people
Local youth services have established a variety of measures that encourage and support the active involvement of young people in influencing youth work and other services for young people. Participation in the running of facilities is central to practice, where young people learn about citizenship by practicing it.
Leadership and management of services
Some local services are struggling to combine the strategic and operational functions of leadership and management. Leadership and management of a modern youth service requires managers to be prepared for change, complexity and uncertainty.
Partnerships
Local youth services are engaged in strategic partnerships. There is considerable variation in the quality of partnerships with local youth services and Connexions. Where they are close and confident, youth work is adding value. Other partnerships include health services - particularly working on the teenage pregnancy strategy and involvement in Drugs and Alcohol Advisory Teams.
Recurring themes
Four recurring themes emerged as key issues facing local youth services:
1. The balance between universal or open access and targeted work: There is evidence that local authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a balance between open access and targeted work within finite resources. The report argues these different forms of provision are mutually supportive and there are clear dangers in allowing open access work to decline
2. Processes for identifying need and directing resources: Resource allocation is driven by a range of complex factors where priorities are often in tension with one another
3. The relationship between youth work and schools: There is evidence of current successful youth work in schools, primarily focusing upon alternative curricula for those young people who do not benefit from school, but there is a need for greater clarity about the purpose of this work and its relationship to mainstream schooling; and, a more strategic approach in order to underpin what are frequently loose and uncoordinated arrangements.
4. Retaining the voluntary engagement of young people: youth workers are increasingly required to negotiate young people's involvement in order to retain their voluntary involvement. There is a need for further clarification by youth services and partner agencies so that expectations of youth work practice are clearly understood and agreed.
Conclusion:
This research demonstrates youth work is well positioned to make a sustained impact through the simultaneous development of relationships that connect young people with their communities so they can strengthen them (social capital) and the development of their own personal and social skills (human capital).