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Hospital Youth Workers 4 Health

The Youth Work for Health team at the NYA is currently working with a number of hospital based youth workers based around the country. This web page has been created to post information on this new and exciting area of work.

In December 2008 NYA ran a seminar ‘Liftling the Lid’ which brought a number of hospital based youth workers together for the first time as Richard McKie, National Programme Manager for health at the NYA, believes hospital youth work needs its own voice, as it requires specific provisions.

‘Most hospital-based youth workers have experience in local authorities and voluntary sector settings. To take what they do into the NHS represents a challenge - training and support needs are different,’ said McKie. He added: "The job can take you from run-of-the-mill youth work skills right through to end-of-life palliative care. It is a niche service, and if you are in a niche you always need a certain degree of specialism."

At the seminar workers called for their own professional body to give them a nationally unified voice and raised the issue of a need for standardised guidelines between youth workers; better information sharing and a need for more understanding between youth workers and the NHS.

Richard McKie would like to hear from any youth workers in hospitals or clinical settings.

Lifting the Lid - A first Networking event for hospital based youth work practitioners

This landmark networking event brought hospital based youth workers together for the first time was held at Birmingham Children’s Hospital in December 2008.

The purpose of the event was to find out the size, scope, needs and wants of the hospital based youth work sector and to examine key issues in the current climate for this work. Discussions on a way forward for this unique group were also programmed in. The seminar was attended by 27 hospital based staff and included a number of related speakers from the sector and small workshop exercises which enabled the group to look at its purpose and possible future. Those attending were encouraged to network with colleagues from other organisations in the sector.

The first attempt to do this happened as part of the Lifting the Lid event in December 2008, and the projects listed below were all in attendance on that day. We will continue to build up the map, and anyone who works in similar settings should get in touch.