Our new five-year strategy, Enabling Great Youth Work to Happen, Our strategy for youth work in every place and space, sets out our bold ambitions to build the capacity and sustainability of the youth work sector.
Why youth work?
Youth work matters because it changes lives; it helps young people to feel safe, thrive and have their voices heard, enabling them to take charge of their own futures.
Our vision and purpose
The NYA’s vision is of a world where every young person can access youth work.
Our strategic priorities
Our strategy sets out how we are going to strive to get there.
Over the next five years our strategic focus is on evidencing the value of youth work and seeking opportunities for youth work to take place in the places and spaces where young people are.
We will also be attracting new entrants to the sector and helping to raise the standards and quality of youth work.
Our goals
We will drive excellence in practice and reflect the youth work needs of today and tomorrow
We will continue to build the evidence base demonstrating the need and impact of youth work in our communities, as well as identify research that will inform youth work practice in areas of youth need.
Through campaigns and our policy outreach we will identify new funding streams to enable infrastructure, support and delivery of youth work nationally, regionally and locally.
We will work across government departments to evidence the case for youth work in allied professional settings and identify innovative models of funding youth work.
Key activities will include:
- Building engagement with the National Youth Sector Census
- Evolving a data warehouse to facilitate learning across the sector
- Securing support from existing and new funders, including reaching out to new corporate partners
We will futureproof the youth work profession through widening opportunities for youth workers
We will promote youth work as a career alongside our education and training partners, as well as widen access to the Level 3 and Level 6 qualifications through the availability of apprenticeship funding. Our aim is to bring 10,000 new youth workers into the sector.
We will encourage a diverse and inclusive workforce which enables black, brown and people of colour in leadership to ensure organisations reflect the communities they serve and are utilising homegrown talent.
We will evolve the national infrastructure that protects and grows the frameworks for youth work qualifications and professional growth.
Key activities will include:
- Developing new frameworks to support best practice, notably a new set of youth work standards around equality, equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging
- Deliver a programme of online CPD opportunities and resources
- Promote a career in youth work through marketing activities
- Grow the number of training providers offering youth work qualifications and attract more corporates to support apprenticeships through the Levy Transfer scheme
We will, through partnerships and activity, build the profile and case for youth work across England
We will grow opportunities for youth work practice to evolve by working in partnership and flowing investment to test innovative approaches to ensure provision is responding to changing needs.
Through consultation with our Network, we will continue to develop our standards and frameworks to ensure they are relevant and user friendly.
We will respond to emerging priorities in the sector and work with our partners to devise resources that promote reflective and high-quality practice.
Key activities will include:
- Share best practice in the delivery of digital youth work through a new Digital Youth Work Standards to support safe and effective practice
- Develop new resources to support the integration of the youth work Curriculum in practice and promote optimum safeguarding practices within organisations
- Continue to transform hundreds of young people’s lives through the NatWest Thrive programme delivered in partnership with youth clubs across the country
- Identify and share learning from the Routes to Community Success programme
Shaping the strategy
We have developed our strategy through a process of reviewing what we have achieved over the past three years, as well as reflecting on the opportunity for youth work to help address the myriad challenges facing young people today. We have also considered the opportunity a moment of potential political change.
We’ve been shaping our thinking over the past year in conversation with the sector, including responding to the findings of our 2022 Joining the Dots consultation which aimed to better understand the needs of grassroots youth organisations and how the NYA, along with sector partners, can support frontline youth workers to make great youth work happen.
