Youth work services
Early Insights 2025-2026
How does youth work help young people achieve their potential?
Many young people who engage with youth work benefit educationally and personally from the activities available to them. Through informal education, they discover new interests and skills, develop resilience, and improve their general health and well-being. Under the skilful guidance of youth workers, they develop the knowledge and resilience necessary to help them achieve their potential as young adults. In one provider, young people have limited opportunities to use their Welsh language skills.
What’s going well
Educative:
- Young people develop greater confidence, self-worth and resilience through personalised youth work support, helping them improve behaviour, relationships, independence and their ability to manage difficult situations.
- Youth work provision enables a majority of young people to gain practical, personal, digital, creative and civic skills, leading to stronger engagement in education and training, improved wellbeing and greater participation in their communities.
Expressive:
- Young people use expressive activities such as art, photography, music, dance, street art, film-making, outdoor activities and discussion prompts to communicate their feelings, opinions and experiences, helping them build confidence, manage emotions, improve social skills and take increasing responsibility in youth-led projects.
Participative:
- Youth work provision is strongly youth-led, enabling many young people to use their voice to influence services, council decisions and community action while developing confidence, leadership, social responsibility and a clear sense that their contributions make a difference.
Inclusive:
- Inclusive youth work helps young people, including those who are LGBTQ+, from ethnic minority backgrounds, have additional learning needs, or are socially isolated, to feel safe, accepted and valued. The young people participating build their confidence, independence, understanding of others and a stronger sense of belonging in their community.
Empowering:
- Many young people are empowered to understand themselves, make positive choices, build independence and confidence, and use their voice to shape provision and influence decisions.
What needs to improve
- One provider provides limited opportunities for young people to use their Welsh language skills and learn about Welsh culture.
What young people can expect from youth work provision
Across recent youth work inspection findings, provision is consistently strong, relational and responsive, delivered by skilled, passionate practitioners who know their young people and communities well. Youth workers plan purposeful universal and targeted provision that is broad, inclusive and adaptive. Strong partnership working and reflective practice help youth services extend their reach and demonstrate positive impact on young people’s wellbeing, learning, behaviour, personal development and future opportunities.
What’s going well
- Youth work provision is consistently strong, relational and responsive, delivered by skilled practitioners who know their communities well and provide broad, inclusive support that improves young people’s wellbeing, confidence, learning and future opportunities.
- Youth workers are skilled, reflective and highly committed, building trusting relationships with young people, creating safe spaces, and using trauma-informed, flexible and partnership-based approaches to respond effectively to need.
- The universal offer is broad, well planned and youth-informed, providing open access provision that engages young people through purposeful activities, experiential learning and opportunities to develop practical, social and personal skills.
- Support for vulnerable young people is well targeted and responsive, with effective information-sharing, specialist provision and multi-agency working helping young people to access timely support and make positive progress.
What needs to improve
- The quality of open access youth work provision, including workforce development, support and quality assurance processes, is not consistent enough in one provider inspected.
Leading and improving
Youth services are well led and supported by strong partnerships, safeguarding arrangements and workforce development. Leaders use data and young people’s views to shape responsive provision, although scrutiny, self-evaluation and scrutiny oversight are still developing in places.
What’s going well
- Youth services are led with a clear vision and strong commitment to improving outcomes for young people, with senior leaders recognising their strategic value and aligning provision with wider local authority priorities.
- Most leaders work effectively with internal teams, external agencies and third sector partners to co-ordinate provision, reduce duplication, share information and extend support for young people.
- Most leaders use young people’s views, consultation activity, performance information and management data to shape provision, inform planning and respond to emerging needs.
- Most staff benefit from regular supervision, professional learning and a strong emphasis on wellbeing, with leaders providing support that helps staff manage the emotional demands of youth work and continue to develop their practice.
What needs to improve
- In one provider, formal member-level scrutiny arrangements did not include youth work services to be able to provide appropriate oversight and challenge.
- Leaders in one provider do not self-evaluate sharply enough to focus on the impact services have on young people to help drive improvements.
Overview of recommendations from inspections
There were three core inspections in the youth sector. During core inspections:
One provider had a recommendation about how youth work helps young people achieve their potential:
- Increase the visibility of Welsh language and culture and embed opportunities for young people to use their Welsh language skills.
One provider had a recommendation related about what young people can expect from youth work provision:
- Improve the consistency and quality of open access youth work provision, including through strengthening workforce development, support and quality assurance processes.
All three providers had a recommendation related to leading and improving:
- Ensure that Prevent training is completed by all staff and that mandatory safeguarding training is recorded accurately, kept up to date and monitored closely.
- Strengthen the promotion and marketing of the youth service offer to improve awareness and extend engagement with young people and partners.
- Sharpen the service’s self-evaluation processes to focus more clearly on impact and areas for development.
- Ensure that the youth service is included in formal member-level scrutiny arrangements so that elected members can provide appropriate oversight and challenge.
Effective practice identified during inspection
Bridgend Youth Support Service
Read about how Bridgend Youth Support Service youth diversion programme targets early intervention for vulnerable young people through accessible community activities and trusted adult support and, how a youth hub brings key partners in a single location for young people to access co-ordinated support.
Monmouthshire Youth
Read about how Monmouthshire Youth shift project provides tailored mental health and wellbeing support through a co-ordinated multi-agency approach, ensuring that young people receive timely interventions and, how the make your mark initiative enables young people to influence decision making. In addition, how leaders respond to emerging priorities, monitor progress and evaluate impact of services.
Flintshire Youth
Read how Flintshire Youth delivers targeted programmes that help young people explore relationships, identity and wellbeing in safe and supporting environments and, how outdoor learning environments develop young people’s practical, personal and leadership skills.