The Evolution of Youth Services: defining a new role for the Community and Voluntary Sector
Youth Services in Northern Ireland have played a critical role in the lives of many children and young people over many decades. Those working in this sector have always been identifiable by their commitment to creating safe places and ensuring that the people coordinating youth services, young and old, can support the personal and social development of children and young people. Youth Services are also identifiable by location; you will find them where aspiration and self–belief require nurturing, mainly due to socioeconomic barriers. However, as we move forward, maintaining these youth services will become increasingly challenging if we do not centralise the role of the community and voluntary sector in delivering all youth work in Northern Ireland.
Many years ago, a colleague provided me with a wide range of papers and minutes of meetings regarding the formal establishment of youth services across NI in the 1970s. Recently, I spent time reviewing this material and was struck by the ambition. The initial focus was on developing comprehensive training programmes for those working with children and young people and constructing youth centres, many of which are still in place today. The synergies between the community and voluntary sectors and the government through the Education and Library Boards (ELBs) resulted in commendable investments in places and people. Those involved with the Department of Education (DE), ELBs and the Community and Voluntary sector (CVS) at that time should look back on their contributions with pride.
Since then, community and voluntary organisations in the youth work sector have gradually improved their strategic planning, service delivery, and governance. They have also innovatively connected their youth work methodologies to a wide range of services that support the needs of children and young people. These youth work organisations engage with themes like homelessness, mental health, play work, and youth justice, to name a few.
Bytes contributes to the sector by providing or supporting youth hubs across NI and overlaying these with a range of expert support services, such as outreach to young people not engaging with regular youth services, supporting schools with those with low attendance, and projects aimed at building personal and social skills. You can read more about Bytes here. I am proud that Bytes is part of the YouthStart consortium, and the expertise we have in this area..
YouthStart comprises seven organisations that annually support almost 1,500 economically inactive young people. We invest our time in the lives of young people by supporting them in regaining their self–belief, nurturing life skills, and assisting them in pursuing training or employment opportunities. The impact of the youth sector, led by the community and voluntary sector, on economic inclusion and skills development cannot be underestimated. This is funded by the UK Government Shared Prosperity Fund, without which these services would have diminished following the ending of the European Social Fund in March 2023. This expertise makes youth work organisations in the CVS flexible, but its stretch across such a wide range of services can place it at risk.
Indulge another example. Over the last three years, Bytes has enhanced our capacity to improve young people’s digital skills. Thanks to a recent investment from SEUPB in our CyberQuest programme, we are now leading a partnership focusing on developing the essential digital skills of 1600 young people aged 16 to 25 and industry–standard cyber skills for 160 young people. This initiative represents a significant step in equipping young people with the skills needed to thrive in the digital age and significantly using a youth work methodology.
Youth Services in the community and voluntary sector are much more than youth clubs
Youth work organisations have been maintained for over fifty years by DE. This link must be maintained; however, DE must reform the youth services structure to consider the current public sector context. The Department is reviewing the youth work policy and has established many working groups to contribute to this process. With great innovation, DE has placed a Young Person Reference Group at the heart of this process. This group has defined, in draft, what they want youth services to do. They want it “to ensure that all young people have access to consistent, convenient and inclusive youth provision that offers a balance of fun and learning opportunities that are adaptable to the needs of individuals and groups”.
What children and young people want from youth services has not changed much in fifty years, but the context in which we operate has. Over the last decade, DE has, to their credit, managed to maintain a similar investment in youth work in NI, but as outlined by the Independent Review of Education, there must be greater investment in these out–of–school youth services. However, we cannot ignore that we face increasing financial pressures, and economic growth is not forecasted to grow as rapidly as our public services require. However, this is not doom and gloom. For example, consider how Bytes has used our investment to deliver DE Youth Work through the Education Authority. Last financial year, roughly 50% of our budget was provided through the DE youth work budget and administered by the EA. We used that investment in core youth services, drew other investments across departments and the private sector, and generated income through enterprise. This poses the question: what might be possible from the CVS with increased investment of the DE budget for youth work?
This brings us to the fundamental change required for youth services. Today, no more than 40% of the DE funding for Youth Work is invested in the CVS to deliver youth work in NI. The remaining investment is locked within the EA Youth Service, which cannot draw other investments across departments, the private sector, and income through enterprise. This is a core problem: statutory youth services are now directly competing with CVS alternatives when many have a more effective business model and, in my opinion, have better community connections.
In the current climate, with all its pressures, the time has come for us all to recognise the role statutory youth services have played in formalising youth work in NI since the 1970s. That has been successfully achieved. Now, we must look for new models of youth work governance that centralise the community and voluntary sector to deliver youth work in NI, locally and regionally. DE cannot increase the financial investment in youth services to £70m, which the Independent Review of Education recommended. However, that does not mean that it is not achievable. It would be possible for DE to change the current delivery structure of youth services and centralise the role of the community and voluntary sector in delivering youth services in NI. The DE resource would act as a catalyst for greater stability and innovation within the community and voluntary sector and those that have diversified their income will continue to grow the DE investment in youth work.
Alongside providing a greater likelihood of increasing the investment in youth work in NI, it will unlock some unrealised strategic opportunities for DE. Here are three examples:
- The Minister’s focus on maintaining education until age 18 could identify new roles for the community and voluntary sector for young people who need a different option from school but want similar outcomes. The CVS could be a more dynamic partner between these young people, employers and colleges; projects like the YouthStart programme evidence this capacity.
- Through the RAISE programme, the community and voluntary sector can link communities and schools meaningfully. There is no better community–based service for engaging children and young people than the network of CVS youth work organisations. However, we need to define the role of youth work in schools more clearly.
- The review of the NI curriculum will identify the potential of the community and voluntary youth work sector to contribute as a partner in developing personal and social skills that are vital for a vibrant society and economy. The CVS is ideally placed, particularly outside of school hours, to support the development of these skills alongside families and schools.
To realise this potential, we must reshape the delivery model of our youth services and centralise the role of the CVS in delivering all youth work in NI. In addition to this change, a National Youth Agency should oversee this change from statutory to CVS delivery models. This ambition will rekindle the youth work sector in NI and give us the energy that those in the 1970s had as they made their plans. It is time for DE and the Minister for Education to ignite that change.
Stephen Dallas is the CEO of the Bytes Project. He is currently a member of the Department for Education Youth Service Policy Review Group and co–chair of a subgroup of this review focused on delivery innovation. His involvement in youth services spans over three decades and has been split between brilliant roles in both the CVS and statutory youth services.
