Every young person deserves the right to grow up in a safe and nurturing environment, with equal access to education and opportunities to discover their talents. The stark reality is that we have the unhappiest young generation on record – with young people facing unmet mental health needs, unprecedented school absences, risks of violence, exploitation and online harms.
Youth work plays a key role in keeping young people safe, fostering community inclusion and boosting wellbeing, yet there's been a 73% reduction in local authority spending on youth work amounting to a £1.2bn (in real terms) since 2010 . As youth clubs have dwindled, we've witnessed the exodus of 4,500 youth workers from the sector and with them a loss of safe spaces and support for young people.
Whilst cash strapped Local Authorities could be forgiven for baulking at the 2023 refreshed Statutory Guidance to provide services and activities for young people aged 13 -19 (and up to 24 for SEND young people) to improve their wellbeing, instead many have been eager to empower their local voluntary partners to deliver a more cohesive offer, as well as engaging with NYA's guidance and the support of our Peer Networks to understand how they can up their game.
Beacon youth services such as Blackpool and South Gloucestershire are recognising the value of moving away from short-term funding models and fostering partnership working across the youth ecosystem resulting in tangible impacts on young people.
The NYA has long advocated for statutory protections for youth services – as we know optimum youth services can't be achieved by good intentions alone. It's vital that Councils are empowered, supported and given sufficient national direction and investment to deliver a quality local youth offer. Our role, as the national body for youth work, is to help Local Authorities look at the most viable way to develop a high-quality youth offer which is effective, safe and sustainable, whilst growing the evidence base to inform government policy.
The delivery of a National Youth Strategy relies upon the youth work sector being recognised as a valued profession as well as upskilling the existing workforce and attracting new people into the sector, which we're striving to achieve through reform of the qualification framework.
Our latest report Lifting young people up through youth work maintains our call upon national and local government to embed youth work in core policy and funding decisions. The paper is based on the insights gleaned from our conference co-hosted with the Youth Endowment Fund in March, which focused on the role youth work plays in reducing violence affecting young people and driving positive outcomes. The event highlighted widespread evidence that youth work is not just a service, but a profession and a powerful tool for prevention and change.
Amongst the recommendations we're calling for the introduction of a Statutory Youth Services Act which will underpin local authorities' statutory duty to provide sufficient youth services with new legislation. Crucially this should be enabled with the necessary funding for councils to meet the additional legislative burden and the introduction of clear benchmarks around what sufficient youth provision looks like. The proposal is timely, given the prospect of devolution and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government consulting on a new Local Government Outcomes Framework, which includes a measure for 'Participation in youth services'. Furthermore, the English Devolution White Paper (December 2024) promises further reform of local government, so it's vital that youth services are protected amidst these reforms.
We're also calling for a reform of funding systems to promote long-term investment, support collaboration, simplify access for grassroots organisations and reverse historic funding cuts. Alongside this we want to see the development of a central map of where youth work investment comes from and funders and corporates providing additional support to the sector.
The delivery of a National Youth Strategy relies upon the youth work sector being recognised as a valued profession as well as upskilling the existing workforce and attracting new people into the sector, which we're striving to achieve through reform of the qualification framework.
Local Authorities are central to our ambitions to build back the youth sector and we're here to support you to make the shift from reactive to proactive support for young people. In parallel we continue to advocate for the policy and funding streams to be made available to end the postcode lottery of provision and drive a consistently skilled and qualified youth work workforce across the country.
Leigh Middleton OBE is chief Executive, National Youth Agency
