Wales Youth Agency 2002

This draft document was produced by the Principal Youth Officers of Wales (PYOG) with the support of the Wales Youth Agency (WYA) to encourage Local Authority Youth Services to introduce these standards in the context of their total resource allocation.

The document identifies an agreed set of standards for Youth Service provision, which are designed to promote young people’s social development and personal achievement within the economic and social policy agenda of the Welsh Assembly Government. It should complement other standards to secure effective policy for young people across various services. In particular they underpin those of ESTYN in respect of the quality and outcomes of the work of the Youth Service.  Locally agreed standards may improve on these minimum national standards.

[The document remains draft as it was not formally adopted at it's publication due to the financial implications for local authorities in meeting these standards.] 

 

 

This research project from Northern Ireland investigates the thinking behind youth work in schools from a youth work perspective and a school perspective. It discusses theoretical concepts so that youth work can be understood in a formal context. Youth workers, teachers in relevant schools and young people exposed to this intervention were interviewed. The findings were analysed and discussed and the project concludes with a set of recommendations. 

Report of a conference in November 2016 organised by UNISON and Cardiff Metropolitan University on the future of youth work in Wales. Themes covered:

• Challenges for Young People in Wales Today in the Context of Public Services Cuts 
• The Future of Youth Work as a Practice 
• The Future of Youth Work as a Profession 
• Breakout sessions: Messages for Welsh Government and Trade Unions 

Series of nine papers taken from a research Ph.D. They are focused on data about the maintained Youth Service in Wales, collected and analysed from 2002 to 2007 when the Youth Service was first being directed by the Welsh Government policy ‘Extending Entitlement’.  These are being published in 2017 as there are issues which need to be considered due to the reinvigorated political interest in Extending Entitlement. These papers are intended to be a reminder that the translation of Extending Entitlement policy into practice was not a positive experience for the Youth Service in Wales and that there are inherent dangers that a refreshed Extending Entitlement will have just as many negative connotations unless we learn from, and respond to, the lessons from the past. The papers are:

Extending Entitlement Revisited:

• Paper 1: Setting the scene


• Paper 2: How was the evidence found and analysed?


• Paper 3: The needs of young people and the Maintained Youth Service response


• Paper 4: What did politicians want from the Maintained Youth Service?


• Paper 5: How Knowledgeable were those working in the Maintained Youth Service of its discrete identity during the time of the Extending Entitlement launch?


• Paper 6: Did the Maintained Youth Service have the tools to meet the priorities of Extending Entitlement?


• Paper 7: What was happening in the Maintained Youth Service at the time of Extending Entitlement?


• Paper 8:  What did the Maintained Youth Service do after Extending Entitlement and how was this measured?


• Paper 9:  Findings and recommendations

 

 

Series of nine papers taken from a research Ph.D. They are focused on data about the maintained Youth Service in Wales, collected and analysed from 2002 to 2007 when the Youth Service was first being directed by the Welsh Government policy ‘Extending Entitlement’.

This article is based on the premise that youth work practice is contained within a Community of Practice (Lave and Wenger. 1998) underpinned by and through experiential learning mirroring a quasi-Steiner approach to learning. The amalgamation of these three tenets make youth work, as practiced mainly by qualified workers, an interesting template that tips the balance of learning in favour of young people rather than based on a more formalized curriculum. The blending of both informal, non-formal and formal approaches within a youth work context is, we will argue, a more holistic approach to the development of learning which is based on the needs of young people.

In a previous article (Gallagher and Morgan. 2013) it was argued that while youth work should be independent of the school system it could offer a valuable contribution that will complement the learning process. This article takes the debate further by suggesting a model that could be emulated in other youth work projects and that might form the basis of collaboration between the formal and informal sectors.