Diagram of Carmarthenshire Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) Strategy to accompany Post-graduate strategic research project report.

Bilingual document which updates the Youth Work Curriculum Statement for Wales. The main objective of the document is to set out the key principles which underpin youth work and to provide an overview of its nature, purposes and delivery. The content of the document applies specifically to youth work in Wales but is likely to be consistent with youth work principles, purposes and practice in other parts of the UK and in the Republic of Ireland.

Report of research undertaken by the Wales Youth Agency incorporating an audit of youth sector training across the 22 local authorities in Wales.

The research consultancy operated from 2nd March 2005 to 24th March 2005, 8 days total consultancy time.

The purpose of this audit was to gather information on youth-work training taking place across Wales and, where possible, identify venue and course details.  Data collected was to be used to assist in resource and information sharing, offering enhancement of existing partnerships and opportunities to develop economies-of-scale and best practice.  Additionally the process offered an overall “snapshot” of current youth sector training activity, and allowed respondents to provide any other information relevant to the review.

This paper, produced by the Wales Principal Youth Officers' Group (PYOG), is an aide memoir for new and established local authority youth service leads and is intended to inform, support and guide. This paper may also provide a catalyst for discussions around the future role of the Youth Service in assisting local authorities to discharge their statutory function in relation to Youth Support Services.

This paper is developed in conjunction with the PYOG Estyn Comments paper, which includes comments specific to the Youth Service extracted from Estyn inspections of local authority education provision between 2004-2012. This includes themes of good practice observed in the sector during this period.

BA(Hons) Youth & Community Work dissertation which considers how effectively the Youth Service responds to the needs of young parents living in rural Wales.

Policies on preventing unwanted teenage pregnancy are currently high on the agenda and reducing rates of teenage conception is one of the key priorities for public health outlined in The Welsh Government Sexual Health and Wellbeing Action Plan (WAG, 2011) However, few studies have considered the specific needs of young parents and especially for those who are living in rural and often isolated areas of Wales.

The main aim of this study will look to demonstrate that through engaging in Youth Work activities young parents will receive the support they need to make a successful transition to adulthood.

This paper has been compiled by the Wales Principal Youth Officers’ Group (PYOG) primarily as a tool for observing themes of good practice as part of a process of improving quality and providing evidence that youth work delivery on the whole has remained at a consistently high standard across this 8 year period.

In the last decade, Estyn’s inspection role with the Youth Service in Wales has evolved from a full and specific inspection of the service to specific feedback as part of a broader inspection of Youth Support Services, to no specific feedback under current arrangements for inspection of local authority education services for children and young people (LAESCYP).

This paper contains the results of part of a questionnaire survey carried out to determine if the maintained youth service in Wales is able to meet the requirements of government policy and the needs of young people while maintaining its specific organisational identity. Information obtained through the questionnaire was gathered and analysed between 2000 and 2002 a period of time affected in a number of significant ways by devolved government and the setting up of the National Assembly for Wales (1999). From this time the youth service has become subject to greater levels of scrutiny within a political agenda that gives significant attention to improving the contribution of all young people to the economic and social well being of Wales. This was a position reinforced by the conclusions and recommendations of Extending Entitlement (NafW 2000) which became the government’s flagship document for the promotion of services to young people.

This booklet is written for people in communities who are interested in setting up a local youth group. It assumes that they will normally be volunteers, that is, people who are not paid for their time. This booklet is not designed to be a comprehensive document, but rather a framework outlining how to get something off the ground.

The youth service and other organisations working with young people have a key role to play in their personal, social and health education. A needs assessment, however, carried out in Wales found that most youth organisations from both the maintained and voluntary sector have not formulated policies and practice to develop this work. Reasons for this are varied but include lack of clarity surrounding the role of the youth service and the legal implications of providing sexual health information and advice. The following pages contain ideas and suggestions for developing a sexual health policy and programme and factual information relating to the legal context for work in this complex area.