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 07
Ymateb gan : Safonau Addysg a Hyfforddiant (ETS) Cymru
Response from : Education and Training Standards (ETS) Wales
Question 1 - What are your views on young people’s access to youth work services, including, for example: - levels of provision across Wales and any regional variation; - issues relating to access for specific groups of young people e.g. language, disability, rurality, ethnicity. |
There is substantial evidence in the public domain to suggest that young people in the UK have been disproportionately affected by austerity. Unison has recently published a research report detailing the impact of reductions in funding for youth services in England and Wales – https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2016/08/23996.pdf . In Wales – whilst accepting there are significant differences between local authority areas – austerity budgets have already led to substantial reductions in resources available for the delivery and development of youth service activity. There is a regrettable lack of detailed and aggregated information about the nature and impact of such reductions on youth programmes and young people in Wales. Nevertheless, it is clear that one major outcome has been a significant reduction in preventative open-access, community-based youth work (sometimes called “universal” youth work), which is delivered by a wide range of providers including local authorities, community, voluntary and faith based organisations, and uniformed groups. At the same time as open – access youth work has been in retreat, there has been an increased focus on interventionist work with young people deemed at risk. The cumulative effect of such pressures means that the existence of two of the fundamental principles of youth work in Wales – that youth work starts where young people are, and that young people engage on a voluntary basis – is under threat. When Julie James AM, now the Minister for Skills and Science, spoke at the National Youth Work Conference in Cardiff on 17th March this year, she made the point that traditional youth work delivery is being dismantled in Wales. She spoke of her desire to see youth work capacity sustained in order that the youth work sector could contribute, for example, to the ambitious agenda for learning detailed in the Welsh Government’s “Successful Futures” report. This is a theme to which we will return later in this response.
In regard to “The Well-being of Future Generations” Act, youth work can make a significant contribution to the implementation of the Act’s long term goals. The nature of youth work activity means that it is often preventative, and youth workers are particularly skilled in assisting young people to take a greater role in the democratic process through supporting youth forums, for example. Empowering young people, too, is at the heart of youth work. If Welsh Government intends that young people will receive the support they need to make their voices heard more strongly in their communities, youth workers are well placed to provide it.
A draft report, commissioned by the Welsh Government and presented to the Youth Work Reference Group earlier this year, pointed out that there are very significant differences in the quality of the contributions made by youth services to the development of the Welsh language. Young people’s access to youth work delivered through the Welsh language is patchy and inconsistent. This is regrettable and inefficient, and arises, in part, from a vacuum in the strategic leadership of youth work in Wales. We will return to this theme later.
We believe there are likely to be significant differences, across Wales, in opportunities for young people to engage with local youth services / organisations through internet-based applications and through social media. This is an area worthy of further research.
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If you believe that there are particular problems, how do you think they could be resolved? |
ETS recognises that officers of the Youth Work Branch work very hard to support youth work in Wales. We are appreciative of this. But there is a discernible lack of strategic leadership capacity in the Wales youth work sector. This is not new; it was, for example, mentioned in a 2010 Estyn survey of professional qualification training for youth workers in Wales – http://www.estyn.gov.wales/thematic-reports/survey-professional-qualification-training-youth-workers-wales-february-2010. However, its continued absence has been thrown into sharp relief by the sustained political and professional commitment to improving the performance of schools and – by extension – their pupils. As recent Estyn inspection reports of education consortia have shown, success in improving outcomes for young learners depends, in part, upon three factors: combining clarity of purpose with strong leadership and sufficient resources to drive change; effective and sustained regional working; and intervening through both support and challenge. The first two factors, in particular, are largely absent from youth work in Wales. The absence of a national lead organisation for youth work in Wales, combined with the absence of a targeted and costed action plan for supporting the roll out of the National Youth Work Strategy, limits the capacity of youth work, and youth workers, for supporting the exciting and developmental agenda for young people’s learning in Wales.
Improvements could be made through: 1. Improving the strategic leadership of the youth work sector in Wales. What is needed is a national lead organisation for youth work, sector-led and responsive to the needs and interests of the sector. Some preparatory research work on how to achieve this has already been undertaken, and discussed in the Youth Work Reference Group, but progress appears to have stalled. 2. The National Youth Work Strategy is at its mid-point. Review what has been achieved to date and drive forward on what remains. Develop a costed action plan and communicate this to stakeholders. 3. Build a much better picture of the impact of austerity budgets on youth work, community and voluntary youth work organisations, and local authority youth services in Wales. Use this as part of the evidence for reviewing the effectiveness of the National Youth Work Strategy to date. |