The NYA Blog
New Year Comment from NYA Chief Executive Fiona Blacke
03 January 2012
The challenges for young people, particularly those at risk of exclusion, have never been greater and across the country cuts in public expenditure have disproportionately impacted on young people's services when ironically this is when they are needed most.
Like most in our sector 2011 has been a year of change and challenge but for us in the NYA, in the second part of the year it has also been a period of consolidation, and now growth.
Reflecting on why we are in this position, we have concluded that it was the introduction of our new business model in 2009 and our early, but very painful, decision to make signicant reductions in staffing and costs that have helped us. It also means we can now really focus on promoting the value of youth workers rather than worrying about our own survival.
Looking back at our achievements I am particularly proud of our LGA Routes to Success programme. It has put us right at the heart of the change agenda in local government, with a real opportunity to work directly with councils to ensure quality youth work is , wherever possible, at the core of the transformations local politicians are seeking.
Our work with O2 and Barclays, also described in more detail on these pages, have shown how, by working closely with the corporate sector, we can really add value to youth facing CSRs and we intend to grow this area next year.
Securing an NCS pilot through our O2 relationship was a real bonus and our chance to embed the youth work approach and indeed youth work students in to the programme. It is also providing our local delivery partners with much needed additional income and profile.
And now we are working internationally with Eurodesk and Youth in Action at the centre of a strategy to take parts of our offer globally.
I must mention our work with Catalyst, which amongst many things is providing a mechanism to bring NYA and NCVYS closer together. This can only be a good thing for the sector as the divide between statutory and voluntary service delivery becomes narrower. I also have great hopes that our joint activity around workforce, along with our own exploration of the Institute for Youth Work and ongoing Education and Training Standards function will secure youth workers and youth work skills development within a complex and changing world.
NYA is gearing up to be a new force, building on the legacy we have, but also bringing new ideas and thinking to policy and practice. We know now more than ever young people need youth workers- we need to pursuade others this is the case.