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Supporting Youth Work

 Supporting Youth Work

The National Youth Agency is dedicated to ensuring youth work and the youth sector is supported and appropriately represented during these challenging times.

We are working at all levels to ensure a sustainable future for the sector and these pages have been designed to provide an overview of our work and government initiatives that are influencing our focus.

Key Debates on Youth Work and the Sector  

  • The Education Committee Inquiry and Call for Evidence into Services for Young People – The NYA has compiled a sector response and submitted accordingly.
  • Lord Browne’s report – “Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher Education in England”: The review into higher education was launched on 9 November 2010 and sets out key principles that need to be addressed to assure the future of higher education. The NYA has drafted a response that details how we feel this review will impact on professional youth work courses and has provided this to the Department for Education.

Supporting Local Authorities with the Local Government Association

The NYA is one of three Education Support Bodies to receive funding through the top-sliced revenue support grant under the Local Government Finance Act 1988. The Local Government Association (LG Association) has oversight of all three bodies, governed by a Memorandum of Understanding, originally with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and now with Communities and Local Government. As the lead national organisation supporting and improving services for young people, this funding supports NYA’s work and promotes the role of local government and its partners in youth policy.

Find out more about NYA's LG Association projects.

Some of the ways we are supporting local authorities through our work with the LG Association include:

  • Valuing Youth Work – This report uses case studies of local-authority funded projects to show how organisations and councils can effectively work together to deliver youth services. This report has been sent to local authorities nationally and provided to key Coalition Government Ministers.
  • ‘Hard Times: Great Expectations – Transforming Services for Young People’ event will be held on 20 January 2011 at Local Government House, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HZ to give Lead Members with responsibility for Children's Services, Directors/Associate Directors of Children's Services, and Heads of Service the chance to contribute to debates about youth provision in the new post-Spending Review  landscape.
  • Making available the performance statistics relevant to young people for all top tier local authorities for 2010/11

Working With the Sector for a Positive Future

The NYA is an active participant of the Youth Work Stakeholder's Group, which brings together key national youth work bodies in England - the NYA, British Youth Council, The Confederation of Heads of Young People’s Services and National Council for Voluntary Youth Services - to advocate for and promote the critical role of youth work in supporting young people’s learning and development and building healthy, strong and sustainable communities.

We are supporting the National Indoor Rally for the Future of the Youth Sector on 12th February 2011.

Showcasing Youth Work’s Achievements

Each year the NYA supports a national celebration of youth work by providing materials for youth organisations to showcase their achievements during Youth Work Week – held annually over the first week of November.

Find out what happened in 2010 >>