skip to navigation
Policy

Research

The National Youth Agency research programme, established in 2005, has built a reputation for insightful and
participative social action research. Current projects include:

  • Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children’s and Young People’s Services (C4EO) – a systematic literature review of the engagement of young people in positive activities 
  • Office of the Third Sector (OTS) – youth volunteering and the impact of the recession 
  • Youth Justice Board – an audit of accommodation provision for young offenders 
  • CfBT Education Trust – how are local authorities delivering integrated youth support services?

Completed projects

Recent completed research projects includes the projects listed below. Where available there is a link to the executive summaries. Full reports are available electronically on request.

The NYA produced a series of papers looking at the contribution of youth work to delivering each of the five outcomes of Every Child Matters. Find out more >>

For further information about NYA research or to request reports in full, contact Jon Adamson, Research Coordinator, on 0116 242 7417.

Evaluating the development of young people's participation plans in two Children's Trusts

This evaluation has been commissioned by The NYA Research Programme, in partnership with the Carnegie Young People Initiative, to examine critical success factors in developing and embedding participation across the Children’s Trusts.

The main focus of the evaluation is to examine:

“The process and effectiveness of mapping, planning and implementing arrangements for children’s and young people’s active involvement across the Trust using Hear By Rights standards”

The evaluation was set up as a two-stage process over two years. An interim report was produced previously charting the first year of the research. The Year 2 evaluation report is now available for download here:

Young People's participation in Children's Trusts (May 2009)

Commissioning Positive Activities for Young People

The National Youth Agency commissioned research into current policy and practice concerned with commissioning positive activities for young people in local authorities across England.

The research took place across three government regions (North East, North West, and the West Midlands) between January and April 2008 and involved 17 local authorities in total.

  • What is the nature of competition and contestability – is there a ‘market’ in services for young people?
  • What is the voluntary sector’s experience of commissioning? Are authorities using the ‘intelligent commissioning’ model?
  • What quality and standards frameworks are taken into account?
  • To what extent are young people involved in the commissioning process?

The executive summary is available to download:

Commissioning Positive Activities for Young People - executive summary

The final report is available on request.

Youth Work and Social Networking

Social Networking Sites (SNS) plays an increasingly important role in the lives of many young people and presents them with both opportunities and risks. Many of the reasons young people may encounter risks through SNS have roots outside of the technology, in issues of young people's personal and social development. Young people need support to develop the appropriate skills and resilience to navigate online social networking risks and opportunities. Peer groups need chances to negotiate and develop shared understandings of safe and reasonable online behaviour patterns.

Youth Work can play a key role in supporting young people to navigate the risks and exploit the opportunities of online social networking. Youth work can provide space for young people to reflect upon their online activity, and to develop their ‘media literacy’. Proactive youth work engagement with

SNS offers an alternative to information campaigns (which have limited demonstrable behaviour change impact); and to blanket blocking of SNS sites (which can risk burying potential problems).

Youth Work and Social Networking - Executive Summary (May 2008)

Youth Work and Social Networking - Final Report - August 2008

Non-formal learning and life chances

This paper explores the contribution of non-formal learning, and the distinctive contribution of youth work, to young people’s personal, social and emotional development and to their future life chances. It is part of a wider education project being conducted by the Fabian Society, which is investigating ways of narrowing the gaps in educational experiences and outcomes between children from different social and family backgrounds.

The report describes in detail the impact of non-formal learning on life chances, demonstrating how impacting on self-efficacy, motivation, self-control and interpersonal skills leads to better outcomes in education, employment, health, and the local environment.

The executive summary of the full report and recommendations, with foreword from Fiona Blacke:

Contribution of non-formal learning to young people's life chances: Executive Summary

One in ten – young people not in education, employment or training

Key messages from policy, research and practice about young people who are NEET.

The National Youth Agency and Research in Practice have jointly commissioned a review of policy, research and practice around young people who are not in education, employment or training.

The review draws on a wide range of publications and other sources. It does so in order to extract the messages that might help practitioners and managers improve their understanding of this group of vulnerable young people and families, and build on current endeavours to improve the life chances of those making the transition from compulsory education to young adulthood.

The review is intended for practitioners in all agencies working with and for children and families, and for managers, commissioners and others with strategic, operational and training responsibilities for the delivery of services to promote the Every Child Matters and associated programmes. It set out to explore the literature for answers to the questions posed by those working in the field, and to bring together in one place disparate information about available research and promising practice developments, to form an overview of the topic.

The research was carried out in partnership with Research in Practice.

Download One-in-Ten in full >>

Accessing Positive Activities: Innovative solutions for young people's bus travel

The NYA commissioned research to explore potential solutions to the problems faced by young people using public transport, specifically buses, to access 'positive activities', education, and employment.

Aiming High for Young People, the ten year strategy for positive activities, has begun to offer guidance for local authorities to address the issue of young people and transport. In particular, it suggests:

"In fulfilling their statutory duty to ensure young people's access to positive activities, (local authorities) will want to exploit the full range of options open to them to improve young people's access to transport. For instance, some successful local authorities choose to

  • Subsidise young people's travel
  • Enter into partnerships with local transport providers to develop ways to better serve the needs of young people, or
  • Broker and commission community transport to make the most of any un-used capacity" (DCSF, 2007, p58)

This research aims to support authorities in achieving this aim by:

  • providing a clear outline of the issues faced by young people using buses (or wanting to use buses) to access positive activities;
  • examining the current links between Transport planning and Children's Services planning;
  • Exploring solutions implemented by the statutory/voluntary sector and determining the key lessons from such schemes that may be applicable to all local authorities.

Associated reports available for downloading:

Travel by bus - Summary report for young people