Youth work and research

DEBATES ABOUT the interplay between youth work research, policy and practice have gained particular prominence in the past twelve months. The announcement of an Education Select Committee Inquiry into Services for Young People in late 2010 together with its ensuing sessions and published evidence (House of Commons, 2011) has put the issue of youth services, and the question of proof of their impact on young people, into the parliamentary domain. Protests from workers and young people, political organisation by the CYWU, the In Defence of Youth Work campaign have been important counterblasts to the cuts agenda, but the threat to youth services is fundamental. It presages not only the absolute demise of statutory youth work, but also a tightening of central government control over the priorities of the voluntary sector. In the context of diminishing resources and the seeming ease with which cuts have been levelled at youth services, it is inevitable that questions of value, process and impact have been on people’s minds. Recent online debates amongst members of the Association of Lecturers in Youth and Community Work (The Training Agencies Group) about the forthcoming National Occupational Standards for Youth and Community Work, focusing on the question of values, have also challenged contributors to think about the purpose and value of youth.