Youth Work – Adroddiad Blynyddol | Annual Report
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Youth Work

Early Insights 2024-2025

How does youth work help young people achieve their potential?

How well young people make progress towards and achieve their aims incorporated in the principles and purposes of youth work (Youth Work in Wales: Principles and Purposes of Youth Work in Wales Review Group, October 2022.

Overall, young people develop a wide range of skills and deepen their understanding of issues that affect them and other young people’s lives. They grow in confidence and maturity, which in turn assists them to fulfil their individual potential.

What’s going well

Educative

  • Young people have valuable opportunities through targeted provision to develop skills through structured accredited learning pathways.
  • A few local authority providers assisted electively home educated (EHE) young people to access English classes, coaching, careers guidance and college application support.

Expressive

  • Many young people develop their ability to express their emotions and feelings either through discussion or worthwhile creative arts projects; these projects help young people to work well with peers and develop appreciation and respect for the opinions of others.

Participative

  • Most young people demonstrate high levels of engagement and enthusiasm in both structured and more informal sessions; a few are active and highly effective in becoming advocates for young people in forums such as youth councils.

Inclusive

  • Many young people gain knowledge and understanding of issues faced by others such as young LGBTQ+ people, young carers and asylum seekers.

Empowering

  • Many young people develop their confidence beneficially through activities that are led by other young people; a few develop their leadership skills well, such as through volunteering, and become positive role models for others.

What needs to improve

  • A very few young people do not benefit from further opportunities to achieve accreditation for their formal learning activities that would help them progress to the next steps of their learning journey and prepare them for adult life.

What young people can expect from youth work provision:

The quality of youth work, the universal offer (youth work provision for all young people) and support for vulnerable young people. Youth work providers in both the statutory and voluntary sectors succeed in developing a varied and valuable provision offer that places young people at the centre of the offer although a very few providers do not publicise their offer well enough. Many providers do not offer sufficient opportunities for young people to take part in activities through the medium of Welsh. Overall, young people benefit greatly from the educational opportunities and pastoral guidance that youth workers skilfully provide.

What’s going well

  • Nearly all youth workers ensure that young people are at the heart of all that they do.
  • Nearly all youth workers are enthusiastic and are driven by a clear purpose to achieve positive outcomes for young people underpinned by the values and principles of youth work.
  • Most youth work providers ensure that young people have valuable opportunities to express their opinions and influence the provision offer.
  • Nearly all providers work well to develop young people’s understanding of healthy relationships, helping them lead healthier and safer lives.
  • Many providers offer highly beneficial targeted support through activities for vulnerable groups of young people as well as through formal learning activities, including in school settings.

What needs to improve

  • A very few providers do not offer sufficient opportunities for young people to influence decisions that affect them.
  • A very few providers do not publicise the services they offer to young people effectively enough.
  • Many providers do not offer meaningful opportunities for young people to undertake activities through the medium of Welsh.

Leading and improving

Leaders have a clear vision of the importance of promoting the value of youth work. They plan provision well and, overall, provide professional development opportunities to staff. However, many providers need to improve their ability to self-evaluate and plan for improvement.

What’s going well

  • Senior leaders display a strong commitment to the ethos and value of youth work.
  • Most youth work providers work well in partnership with other providers, in both the statutory and voluntary sectors, to plan and widen the provision offer to young people.
  • Most providers offer valuable professional development opportunities for staff to update their skills and knowledge around areas relevant to young people’s development and well-being.
  • Many providers work effectively to alleviate the impact of poverty on young people, for example through providing warm spaces in the winter, distributing free food, providing food bank vouchers and personal hygiene products.

What needs to improve

  • Many providers do not self-evaluate and plan for improvement effectively enough.
  • Ensuring sustainable funding is a significant challenge, in particular for voluntary youth work organisations; organisations rely on multiple, often short-term, funding sources, many of which are one-off grants.

Overview of recommendations from inspections

There were four core inspections in the youth sector and one themed inspection. During core inspections:

Two providers had recommendations about how youth work helps young people achieve their potential:

  • Set out a clear strategy for the youth and play service by mapping youth work provision across the local authority area and develop a plan to co-ordinate the services across both internal and external partners in Newport to ensure that young people’s needs are met.
  • Increase relevant opportunities for young people’s learning to be accredited.

One provider had a recommendation relating to what young people can expect from youth work provision:

  • Strengthen the youth and play service’s self-evaluation process to aid improvement planning and more accurately measure and evaluate the impact of youth work on young people.

Three providers had a recommendation related to leading and improving:

  • Two were recommended to improve self-evaluation processes to enhance improvement or strategic planning.
  • One was given a recommendation to improve opportunities for young people to influence decisions that affect them at a county level.
  • One was recommended to increase participation in youth services so that more young people can access youth work opportunities.

In addition, one provider was given a recommendation to develop a proactive offer to promote and facilitate services for young people whose language of choice is Welsh.

Recommendations from the themed inspection (healthy relationships) of four voluntary sector bodies

Following the themed inspection there was one recommendation about what young people can expect from youth work provision:

  • Work with regional partners to improve accessibility to transport to enable young people from rural areas to benefit from services.

There were three recommendations related to leading and improving:

  • Work with relevant national and regional partners to formulate a consistent professional learning offer, that is funded appropriately and provides the capacity for staff to attend.
  • Work with the Welsh Government and relevant partners to access consistent funding streams that ensure sustainability and allow for more in-depth strategic planning.
  • Work with regional and national partners to ensure that that staff have access to suitable support for their mental health and well-being.