The NYA has conducted research with academic and sector partners to explore the role of youth workers in safeguarding young people at risk of violence and criminal exploitation, and the impact of open access youth clubs on violence prevention.
In January 2026 the Youth Endowment Fund published its Youth Work and Violence Prevention Guidance to evidence where youth workers support better outcomes for young people and to help shape commissioning and funding decisions.
The Guidance draws upon the research undertaken by the NYA:
The Guidance emphasises that youth workers reduce the risk of harm and involvement in violence through building trusted, voluntary relationships with children and young people and are the “golden thread” running through successful prevention efforts.
Key findings include:
- youth workers play a vital safeguarding role, routinely deescalating conflict, interrupting exploitation, and provide informal mentoring, often without adequate system level recognition
- youth workers are often best placed to reach those most at risk, including young people facing school exclusion, with adverse childhood experiences, criminally exploited, or previous involvement in violence
- youth workers need to be properly embedded within safeguarding and community safety structures, supported by supervision, specialist training, and clear referral pathways
It recommends multi-year funding, manageable caseloads, and investment in training and supervision.
By defining what high quality youth work looks like, the guidance strengthens the professional status of youth workers and provides evidence they can use to advocate for safe, sustained, relationship based practice that genuinely prevents violence and protects young people.
Summaries of NYA’s contributing research
Review of youth workers’ role in safeguarding children and young people at risk of or involved in violence, undertaken by NYA with Professor Carlene Firmin and the Contextual Safeguarding research programme at Durham University.
The review involved a survey of 300 youth workers in England and Wales and found that nearly three-quarters (73%) had provided informal mentoring to young people at risk of violence or crime, and two-thirds (65%) had de-escalated situations that could have led to violence. More than half (55%) had tackled misinformation that might otherwise have fuelled crime or conflict.
The research highlights gaps in training and supervision. Over a third (39%) of youth workers reported having no supervision, mentoring or case discussion on violence-related issues, and only a quarter (24%) had received specialist training in violence prevention.
Many youth workers are well placed to understand local risks and spot warning signs of violence or exploitation. Yet in one in eight local authorities, youth worker involvement in safeguarding and community safety systems is “rare” or “non-existent,” limiting the potential of this insight to prevent harm.
The research highlights challenges around the recognition and understanding of youth work and tensions around information-sharing, power dynamics, and alignment of goals across youth work and allied professionals.
Key recommendations:
- Create a national safeguarding pathway with clear leadership, developed jointly by the Department for Education, the Home Office and key sector bodies.
- Clearly define and formally recognise youth work within safeguarding systems, including its role, value and limitations in multi‑agency practice.
- Strengthen multi‑agency training, ensuring all practitioners understand local safeguarding systems, roles, anti‑discriminatory practice and system tensions.
- Make youth workers’ safeguarding contributions visible, through consistent recording and standardised recognition across social work and youth work sectors.
- Improve partnership working, by piloting collaborative approaches, broadening how impact is measured, and addressing structural barriers such as funding instability and workforce turnover.
Review of youth clubs’ role in supporting children at risk of or involved in violence, led by RSM, with Carmen Villa, University of Warwick, and the NYA
The review examined how youth clubs are set up and operated, what encourages at-risk children to attend and engage, what kinds of support are offered, and what changes to policy and practice could strengthen their contribution to violence prevention.
The research found that a substantial proportion of youth club staff reported direct involvement in helping children exit gangs (39%) or deescalating situations that could otherwise have escalated into violence (40%).
It also highlighted the pivotal role of youth workers as trusted adults able to build relationships through informal, everyday activities. These relationships form the basis for deeper conversations, tailored support, and early intervention, with clubs often acting as a bridge to specialist services such as mental health teams, police, or youth offending teams.
Despite this many workers reported feeling excluded from multiagency safeguarding systems. Alongside this, sector leaders identified persistent challenges including short-term funding, workforce capacity constraints, and weak integration into wider youth services, all of which undermine consistent, sustained support for young people.
Key recommendations:
- Funding and Commissioning
- Invest in long-term, flexible funding to stabilise youth clubs and retain staff, with provision targeted at areas most affected by violence.
- Commission services locally and ringfence funding so clubs can open consistently during peak risk hours, integrated across youth, education and social care systems
- Workforce Development
- Strengthen the youth work workforce by formally recognising youth work as a profession, investing in specialist training, and setting clear national frameworks for pay, supervision and progression.
- Embed youth clubs in multiagency safeguarding systems while protecting dedicated, informal youth centred spaces where trusted relationships can thrive.
- Inclusive, Youth-led, and Place-based Practice
- Support youth clubs to deliver inclusive, youth led provision that reflects local needs and identities, shaped through participation.
- Make funding decisions that prioritise accessible, well located clubs able to provide targeted support alongside open access provision for those most at risk
