Report of a conference in November 2016 organised by UNISON and Cardiff Metropolitan University on the future of youth work in Wales. Themes covered:

• Challenges for Young People in Wales Today in the Context of Public Services Cuts 
• The Future of Youth Work as a Practice 
• The Future of Youth Work as a Profession 
• Breakout sessions: Messages for Welsh Government and Trade Unions 

Series of nine papers taken from a research Ph.D. They are focused on data about the maintained Youth Service in Wales, collected and analysed from 2002 to 2007 when the Youth Service was first being directed by the Welsh Government policy ‘Extending Entitlement’.  These are being published in 2017 as there are issues which need to be considered due to the reinvigorated political interest in Extending Entitlement. These papers are intended to be a reminder that the translation of Extending Entitlement policy into practice was not a positive experience for the Youth Service in Wales and that there are inherent dangers that a refreshed Extending Entitlement will have just as many negative connotations unless we learn from, and respond to, the lessons from the past. The papers are:

Extending Entitlement Revisited:

• Paper 1: Setting the scene


• Paper 2: How was the evidence found and analysed?


• Paper 3: The needs of young people and the Maintained Youth Service response


• Paper 4: What did politicians want from the Maintained Youth Service?


• Paper 5: How Knowledgeable were those working in the Maintained Youth Service of its discrete identity during the time of the Extending Entitlement launch?


• Paper 6: Did the Maintained Youth Service have the tools to meet the priorities of Extending Entitlement?


• Paper 7: What was happening in the Maintained Youth Service at the time of Extending Entitlement?


• Paper 8:  What did the Maintained Youth Service do after Extending Entitlement and how was this measured?


• Paper 9:  Findings and recommendations

 

 

Short paper looking at the principles of creativity and how these can enable the practitioner to work with the young person, using a process of experiential learning through which they can seek solutions to problems with which they may require some adult support.

This article is based on the premise that youth work practice is contained within a Community of Practice (Lave and Wenger. 1998) underpinned by and through experiential learning mirroring a quasi-Steiner approach to learning. The amalgamation of these three tenets make youth work, as practiced mainly by qualified workers, an interesting template that tips the balance of learning in favour of young people rather than based on a more formalized curriculum. The blending of both informal, non-formal and formal approaches within a youth work context is, we will argue, a more holistic approach to the development of learning which is based on the needs of young people.

In a previous article (Gallagher and Morgan. 2013) it was argued that while youth work should be independent of the school system it could offer a valuable contribution that will complement the learning process. This article takes the debate further by suggesting a model that could be emulated in other youth work projects and that might form the basis of collaboration between the formal and informal sectors.

 

This article is a positional paper on the need to reinvent or at least reinvigorate the use of group work in a youth work context. While youth work practitioners work with many diverse groups the imposition of an imposed policy curriculum continues to shape the nature of the group process towards, we contend, a more prescribed set of outcomes.

What we are suggesting in this paper is that if we know the expected outcomes that many young people need to achieve in life in order to make them more resilient and self-aware of their lives, do we need to emulate the formal didactic approach to learning, i.e. as in school? If we have a vehicle in which and from which these outcomes can be achieved do we really need a curriculum? Or more appropriately can the curriculum emanate from the lived lives of the young people themselves?

This paper presents a practical approach to the measurement of outcomes in youth work.  What we are proposing is that the ‘core’ of youth development can be addressed and achieved within an ‘experiential growth group’ and that the process is indeed the product. In other words we are proposing a move away from highlighting the end product of outcomes or ‘expected ‘ outcomes to refocusing on the vehicle in which and from which certain less tangible and nebulous outcomes can be nurtured and recorded.

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The central tenet of this article is predicated upon a belief that there is a need to link both the formal with the informal/non -formal sectors without at any point compromising the strengths of either. The analysis within this article deconstructs the ideology and philosophy behind the perceived dominance of the formal sector over the informal youth work sector. It suggests that both worlds need not collide but that they can and should work more closely together in the interest of their common denominator, the development of young peoples’ potential. 

We also contend that youth work practice is qualitatively different from teaching and schooling and that the process used in youth work identifies that difference. We also contend that the inchoate nature of the youth work profession is militating against addressing some of these complex issues that are challenging the essential essence of youth work practice.

The Welsh Government Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015  and the recommendations from Donaldson’s Successful Futures review gives youth work in Wales a refreshed opportunity to prove its value and create for itself a sustainable future.

This article explores the contribution youth work can make to these Welsh Government policy agendas.

Jamie Jones-Mead was awarded a bursary from Youthworkwales to complete this article.

Jamie is a professionally qualified youth and community worker.  He has 15 years’ experience as a youth worker and has worked in a number of settings in Wales, the UK and globally. 

These include in statutory youth services, with young disabled people, young offenders, young cancer patients and significant experience in the third sector.  As well as being an experienced practitioner, Jamie has a particular interest in health and wellbeing, having spearheaded and managed ASH Wales' youth tobacco and smoking programmes, and is currently working in a public health setting.