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Understanding the value of youth work and youth workers
That’s the theory. But how valued is youth work throughout education?
Our 2018 report, Youth Support Services in Wales: The Value of Youth Work, outlined the place of youth work in youth support services. While clearly demonstrating the vital role of this work the report highlighted several issues. These included the lack of an ‘overall strategy for the planning, provision or funding of services, and policy makers and providers do not have one clear, shared vision for the delivery of services, or how youth work contributes to young people’s personal development and their role in community and wider society’.
Another common issue identified was that the term ‘youth work’ is often confused with ‘work with young people’. This leads to conflicting ideologies and priorities, which does not help to support policy development. For example, youth work refers to a professional methodology for working with young people. It is based on a clear set of values and underpinned by the voluntary nature of the relationship between the young person and the youth worker, but this is often confused with the settings in which it is delivered. It is also confused with general work with young people even when there is no supportive or educational aspect.
Strategies
Since our 2018 report, things have moved on. As well as the publication of the Youth Work in Wales Principles and Purposes, the Interim Youth Work Board published the Youth Work Strategy for Wales that was co-developed with young people and the sector.
The five key aims of the Welsh Government Youth Work Strategy for Wales are:
- Young people are thriving
- Youth work is accessible and inclusive
- Voluntary and paid professional youth work staff are supported throughout their careers to improve their practice
- Youth work is valued and understood
- A sustainable model for youth work delivery
The Welsh Government also published an Implementation Plan that sets out arrangements for delivering the youth work strategy.
How the Principles and Purposes of youth work reflect the aspirations and values in Successful Futures
Recent findings
In October 2020 we published our report The Value of Youth Work Training - A sustainable model for Wales. The report paints a positive picture of training (level 2 up to post-graduate level) across Wales. The first 3 main findings set the tone:
‘Youth work qualifications equip students with a sound background in youth work practice and provide them with the skills they need to carry out their profession. The youth work sector has made valuable progress against nearly all of the recommendations in ‘A survey of professional qualification training for youth workers in Wales.’
‘Youth work students generally achieve well even though many have entered higher education from non-traditional education and social backgrounds, and may have faced significant challenges in their lives. Their own experiences often mean that they can understand and empathise with the issues affecting young people.’
‘Youth work training programmes align well with the five key aims outlined in the Youth Work Strategy for Wales 2019. Course content at all levels has a suitable balance between academic and practical training and gives students the skills they need to carry out jobs in a wide variety of youth and community work settings.’
However, our main findings also highlighted the old misconceptions regarding the role and value of youth work:
‘Many secondary schools are now beginning to see the value of having a youth worker on the staff, but in many cases they work only with challenging young people and are seen as aids to behaviour management, or support for young people with ‘problems’, and are often undervalued as educators in their own right.’
‘After training, youth workers are not required, as teachers are, to complete a probationary year, nor are they entitled to professional learning opportunities as a right. The lack of a qualified youth worker status (QYWS) equivalent to qualified teacher status (QTS) means that youth workers do not benefit in the same way as teachers from ongoing training for and recognition of their professional skills. There is also a lack of funding to support ongoing training opportunities. Senior youth workers are not included in national or regional educational leadership programmes and this hampers the development of leadership within the profession.’
You can see all the findings and the full list of recommendations in the report. A recommendation for local authorities notes that they should encourage schools to recognise the specialist skills and professional knowledge youth workers bring to supporting the development of the new curriculum. Also, regional consortia should explore ways to include youth workers alongside teachers in professional learning and educational leadership training opportunities. Read the full report for all our findings and recommendations.
How has the pandemic affected youth work?
During the pandemic, the new context has highlighted the value and flexibility of youth work and youth workers. Before the pandemic, during our field work for the 2020 report, we were struck by the passion of students and lecturers for their chosen field. It’s more than a profession to them; it’s a vocation in the true sense of the word. They believe in what they do.
We’ve been collating information on how different sectors responded to COVID-19. Again, the picture in the youth work sector was a positive one.
We found that local and national youth work providers built on well-established patterns of partnership working to be proactive and agile in their response to the pandemic. Youth workers and trainers have, over the past few years, developed and promoted an understanding of the issues involved in digital youth work. This helped youth workers to be ahead of the game when delivering services and contact online.
As a result, youth workers across Wales set up virtual groups so that young people could stay connected. These included activity groups for young people with disabilities, young carers and groups for young mums, where they can discuss issues and practise skills such as cookery together online. Vulnerable young people were particularly targeted to participate. Youth workers sometimes delivered packs to homes so that young people could take part in activities online together, for example the ingredients to cook something or the parts to build a skateboard.
In Blaenau Gwent, youth workers set up virtual youth clubs online and found that more young people ‘attended’ these clubs regularly than would usually attend their clubs at a physical centre. The virtual Welsh-medium youth club they set up was particularly successful and is helping to change the approach to Welsh-medium youth work.
Many youth workers worked in hubs, particularly in secondary schools, to provide support for young people. Detached youth workers continued to make contact with young people outside their homes, especially those causing concern to local residents. These youth workers used their skills to build relationships with young people, promote their wellbeing, help them consider how their actions affect other people, and signpost them to support where relevant.
Are attitudes towards youth workers changing?
Recently, youth workers were asked to deliver across a wide range of activities. They have done this enthusiastically, energetically and effectively.
However, youth workers feel undervalued as professional educators and say their skills are underused particularly in formal education settings and pupil referral units.
We found that ‘many secondary schools are beginning to see the value of having a youth worker on the staff, but in many cases, they work only with the most challenging young people and are seen as aids to behaviour management, or as support for young people with ‘problems’, rather than for their educational expertise and particular skills in working with young people.’
Clearly, in inspection jargon, there are still areas for development.
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