Local authorities learn youth work lessons
Providing services for young people is now a higher priority for local authorities, according to evidence drawn from Ofsted’s inspections of 100 local authority youth services from 2005 to 2008.
Representatives from local authorities, youth workers and other professionals were presented with the key findings of the inspections at the launch of Ofsted’s Engaging young people report. The report illustrates how the best youth work, properly planned and supported, contributes to young people’s broad education and helps them acquire the wider skills and attributes needed to engage fully in society.
Tony Gallagher HMI, report author and Ofsted’s lead for youth service inspections, said, ‘Engaging young people is published at a point where we are witnessing a wave of youth-related government initiatives. Its findings are more positive than has been the case with our two former national reports, with good evidence that youth work has a distinct part to play in young people’s development. We chose in the report to exemplify young people’s achievement in terms of them making and maintaining relationships, as active citizens, as risk takers and as young adults moving towards independence, as we feel that these capture the key outcomes of effective youth work.’
‘As a manager, the report helps me to better identify what makes an outstanding youth worker and where I can tailor and enhance the training I provide to each individual member of my team’
In 2007–08, the proportion of services in which leadership and management was judged to be good was greater than in previous years, although none was rated outstanding. However, inspectors found that local authoriti
es and the government relied heavily on data to report progress, and gave insufficient weight to the quality of young people’s experiences.
Managers are urged to invest in the professional development of part-time youth support workers, on whom services are highly dependent. And some local authorities have unrealistic expectations of what their youth service could achieve with the resources available.
Inspectors note that some youth workers are able to forge strong, trusting and sustained relationships with young people, by working in an increasingly diverse range of settings, including housing associations, health projects and colleges.
The most effective local authorities recognised the need for youth work (such as homework or special interest clubs, sport and volunteering activities) to be a key part of a package of targeted support for vulnerable young people. And initial work being carried out to integrate staff from different youth-related disciplines, such as Connexions and youth offending services, is promising.
Inspectors found that local authorities and the government relied heavily on data to report progress, and gave insufficient weight to the quality of young people’s experiences
Commenting on the report, Tim Burke of the National Youth Agency said, ‘This report acknowledges how to maintain youth work as a practice within a
n area of many disciplines.’
Marcus Isman-Egal, a youth work manager from the Children’s Workforce Development Council explained, ‘It is important youth work does not get lost in the mix. As a manager, the report helps me to better identify what makes an outstanding youth worker and where I can tailor and enhance the training I provide to each individual member of my team.’
Ofsted recommends that opportunities to publicly celebrate young people’s successes are maximised, that more experienced youth workers are employed in wider settings and that the important role youth work plays in young people’s education and development is communicated better.
To view the report, Engaging young people: local authority youth work 2005-8, visit: www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/080141
