Over 20 youth sector organisations including the NYA, Onside, UK Youth and the Duke of Edinburgh Award came together to develop and publish the Roadmap in 2023. It calls upon government to recognise the professional value of youth work and the positive impact it has on young people’s outcomes through the publication of a Roadmap to a National Youth Strategy.
About the Roadmap
The Roadmap, which has been developed by youth sector experts within the National Youth Sector Advisory Board (NYSAB), aims to ensure all young people can access quality youth work to promote their mental health and wellbeing, develop their life skills, help them have a voice on decisions that affect them and realise their full potential. Young people themselves, were consulted about their needs and aspirations for youth work to inform the Roadmap.
The Roadmap to a National Youth Strategy responds to the fact that since 2010 there has been a £1 billion real terms cut in spending by local authorities on youth services, which has resulted in fragmented provision, a recruitment and retention crises, and youth work as a profession being overlooked and misunderstood.
Key recommendations of the Roadmap to a National Youth Strategy:
- Youth work better integrated into local strategies and multi-agency pathways to support young people
- Local authorities to be given the financial means and resource to fulfil their statutory duty and that there is a clear accountability framework for the National Youth Guarantee and for reviewing the quality of local youth offers
- Long-term funding and a clearer commitment to the youth sector and youth work. Releasing funding from long-term funding pots such as Dormant Assets is one solution, as is the notion of a cross-departmental approach to funding, which would include the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Education, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Department for Health and Social Care and Cabinet Office and other government departments.
- Upskilling the existing workforce, training volunteers and attracting new entrants to the youth sector through the introduction of a Teach First-style training programme, as well as a national recruitment campaign.
- The expansion of the National Youth Guarantee beyond out of school activities to include youth work and youth provision to ensure there is equitable and targeted provision to meet young people needs in every area.
”“Youth workers across the country transform the lives of young people through an educational framework which supports wellbeing, builds resilience and develops essential life skills. Whilst budgets have been cut over the past decade, local authorities and the voluntary sector have continued to respond to need with diminishing funds. We know that excellent youth work is taking place across the country, but the value of youth work to young people’s outcomes just isn’t sufficiently recognised by policy makers and allied professionals. The NYSAB’s Roadmap to a National Youth Strategy sets out a bold ambition for youth work to be given its rightful place at the table, together with the investment needed to build the capacity of the workforce, strengthen the evidence-base and create the policies needed to formally integrate youth work practice into wider youth strategies.”
Tony Gallagher, OBEChair of the NYSAB
