Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru | National Assembly for Wales
Y Pwyllgor Plant, Pobl Ifanc ac Addysg | Children, Young People and Education Committee
Ymchwiliad i Waith Ieuenctid | Inquiry into Youth Work
YW 04
Ymateb gan : Plant y Cymoedd
Response from : Valleys Kids
Question 2 - How effective do you think the Welsh Government strategy and policy on youth work is? In considering this question you may wish to think about: - the Welsh Government’s specific youth work policy and strategy such as ‘The Youth Work offer’; The Wales Charter for Youth Work; The National Youth Work Strategy for Wales 2014 to 2018; - Welsh Government departmental responsibilities and whether there is a cross-departmental and co-ordinated approach to support youth work provision. |
Valleys Kids have always had a commitment to work with the most challenged and the most challenging young people. When I look at some of the strategy I have concerns that the emphasis on eligibility for employment. Our Youth Work is about training young people for life, developing life skills.
Some of the emphasis is on the young people getting accreditation and while it mentions the DofE some of the other accreditations have limited value to employers. While some of the life skills are much more appropriate in the arena of employment.
With our emphasis on working with the disengaged there is a journey that youth work needs to take the young people on. That can be a long journey and accreditation is something at the end of the journey not the beginning so there is a need for the resources for the beginning of the journey.
There is certainly a need for cross departmental approach to how youth work is supported. Especially with the new Wellbeing Act |
How do you think the Welsh Government could approach its youth work strategy and policy differently / to better effect? |
While I have always argued that youth work is part of education the Welsh Government needs to be less concerned about formal qualifications within the youth work field but rather about the more soft outcomes, about the journey that a young person is taking and how the youth work being provided is aimed at enabling the young people to grow in confidence and enabling them to achieve their potential. Youth work that gives them ‘hope’ that they can achieve and enable them to have aspirations and high expectations of themselves. |
Question 3 - What are your views on the funding available for youth work, including through Local Authority, Welsh Government, European Union, and Third Sector. |
I believe that there is not nearly enough funding available for youth work in any area.
As a local Third Sector organisation it is not easy to access some of the funding for the kind of youth work I have described for example Communities First outcomes are again much more about formal education. I do not see that the youth work role is about that formal education but in enabling the young person to be ready to engage in formal education. |
If you believe there are problems in this area, how do you think they could be resolved? |
I believe there is a need for the outcomes to be explored and to ensure that when outcomes are being decided that people working with the young people in a variety of settings are involved. There needs to be thinking about using different methods to measure what is good youth work, using methods such as “out come star” rather than accreditations. |