“If we want real change, we need to address the root cause before the violence ever happens. If we’re serious about reducing youth violence, we need to shift from reactive to proactive”
– Muna, Youth Advisor, YEF
On Tuesday 25 March, the National Youth Agency (NYA) and the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) jointly hosted an annual conference on reducing violence affecting young people and driving positive outcomes for all young people. With the timely release of the Netflix drama series Adolescence in the lead up to the event, the NYA and YEF were keen to bring local and national decision makers together for an energised day of discussions and information sharing to increase demand for and awareness of evidence-based approaches on youth work integrated with violence reduction strategies as well as the value of preventative, upstream services. The conference convened local decision makers including Heads of Youth Services and Commissioning Managers, councillors, funders, national and regional government representatives, public bodies, young people and more.
The day was MC-ed by Ben Lindsay OBE, Co-founder of Power the Fight, who reminded attendees that “this isn’t just a youth sector issue, this is a societal issue – every part of society needs to work together to address this”. The importance of the relationships that youth work build and the way youth workers are always there for the young people they support, as both a preventative and interventional profession, was the golden thread of the day. YEF CEO Jon Yates summed this up in “Relationships really matter and if great youth work is about anything, it’s about relationships”.
“We must push for youth services where every young person can achieve their dreams without the shadow of violence hanging over them”
– Prince, Youth Advisor, YEF
Prince and Muna (young people from YEF) and Ben and Ivan (young people from the NYA) speaking powerfully about the importance of youth voice at the conference.
Prince and Muna (young people from YEF) and Ben and Ivan (young people from the NYA) spoke powerfully about the importance of youth voice, the need for a proactive approach to reducing youth violence and ensuring that youth work is a key part of this approach through the opportunities and support it provides. Prince, Muna, Ben and Ivan all called for action to address the challenges that youth services are facing, including having such little money, the value of youth work not being recognised, and youth provision not being equal in every place. NYA CEO Leigh Middleton OBE echoed these calls arguing that the “focus has to be ensuring that youth work is sustainable, is needs-based and listens to the voices of young people”.
“For far too long we’ve had decisions made on our behalf or without consultation. We all understand and recognise that youth work has to be a part of that – youth work works and needs funding and support”
– Ben, Youth Consultant, NYA
Alongside Prince, Muna, Ben and Ivan’s powerful reflections on their lived experience and the impact of youth workers and youth violence on their lives, one of the most memorable quotes of the event came from Greater Manchester’s Deputy Mayor for Safer and Stronger Communities Kate Green’s keynote speech on innovative approaches to funding and commissioning youth work. Kate made the case that “We should not be having to fund youth work through the lens of criminality – all of our young people deserve access to that professional support”. With headlines around youth violence, anti-social behaviour and online harms ever-increasing, youth work can often be talked about through a deficit model rather than being seen for the transformative positive activities, support, opportunities and trusted adult relationships it can bring to young people through voluntary engagement.
With a £1.2 billion cut in youth services spending over the past decade, an average length of funding for the youth sector of nine months, over 4,500 youth workers lost from the front line and young people facing increasingly complex needs and risks, the conference highlighted the scale of the challenge, whilst also recognising that the Government’s National Youth Strategy is a welcome step in the right direction. At the event, Mayor of Newham Council Rokhsana Fiaz OBE evidenced the benefits of “a whole systems approach to battling and ensuring an organisational and system wide appreciation for youth work practice – it’s not a cherry on the cake, you’ve got to be serious and intentional and you’ve got to respect the youth work practice that complements social work practice”.
Minister for Sport, Media, Civil Society and Youth at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Stephanie Peacock, also gave a keynote speech on the Government’s National Youth Strategy, speaking of the vital role and fragility of the youth work workforce, as well as the Government’s commitment to co-producing the National Youth Strategy with young people and youth workers and taking a cross-departmental approach. Amidst the complex challenges the sector faces with funding, delivery and data curation, there was an air of optimism in the room for what this long-term plan could mean for youth services going forward given that many in the room have called for years for such a measure (you can read the National Youth Sector Advisory Board’s Roadmap to a National Youth Strategy policy recommendations here).
Overall, the day included lots of detailed panel discussions, audience interactions and breakout group discussions on some of the most pressing topics facing youth work, and we’ll be publishing a policy paper summarising the discussions and policy recommendations in the summer.
As we eagerly await the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s National Youth Strategy and the Home Office’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and more in the summer, you can explore the NYA, YEF and Youth Select Committee’s research to date in the meantime:
- YEF Children, violence and vulnerability 2024 report
- YEF Toolkit
- NYA Workforce Survey
- NYA Census
- Youth Select Committee
“What youth work does is unique, it can’t be quantified like other professions can.”
– Ivan, Youth Consultant, NYA
Greater Manchester’s Deputy Mayor for Safer and Stronger Communities Kate Green’s keynote speech on innovative approaches to funding and commissioning youth work.
