This paper, produced by the Wales Principal Youth Officers' Group (PYOG), is an aide memoir for new and established local authority youth service leads and is intended to inform, support and guide. This paper may also provide a catalyst for discussions around the future role of the Youth Service in assisting local authorities to discharge their statutory function in relation to Youth Support Services.

This paper is developed in conjunction with the PYOG Estyn Comments paper, which includes comments specific to the Youth Service extracted from Estyn inspections of local authority education provision between 2004-2012. This includes themes of good practice observed in the sector during this period.

This paper has been compiled by the Wales Principal Youth Officers’ Group (PYOG) primarily as a tool for observing themes of good practice as part of a process of improving quality and providing evidence that youth work delivery on the whole has remained at a consistently high standard across this 8 year period.

In the last decade, Estyn’s inspection role with the Youth Service in Wales has evolved from a full and specific inspection of the service to specific feedback as part of a broader inspection of Youth Support Services, to no specific feedback under current arrangements for inspection of local authority education services for children and young people (LAESCYP).

Autumn 2015 paper from the Principal Youth Officers' Group (PYOG) on the role of youth work in the current policy environment in Wales.

‘Youth Work in Wales: Principles and Purposes’ has been produced on a collaborative basis by representatives of the voluntary and local authority youth work sectors in Wales and with the Education Workforce Council.

This document has been produced for the managers and trustees of youth organisations, politicians, local authority elected members and officers, practitioners, trainers and people training to be youth workers and youth support workers.

It has also been written for young people, those already involved in youth organisations as well as those wishing to find out more about the kinds of experience youth organisations can provide.