Inspecting the value of youth work

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During our recent youth work services stakeholder forum, we were delighted to welcome a broad range of organisations from the statutory and voluntary sectors to discuss our future inspection plans. 

We currently inspect youth support services as part of our local government education services (LGES) inspections. These inspections cover the local authority youth service and the partnership arrangements led by the local authority for youth support services (YSS).

National policy and the drive to improve services and be more cost-effective means that local authorities are increasingly working in partnership and integrating services. There are also specific references to youth support services in the LGES inspection framework, which cover standards and progress overall, support for vulnerable learners; other education support services and safeguarding. The inspection guidance therefore allows inspectors to scrutinise a broad range of activities, including those undertaken by voluntary bodies, where appropriate.

The aim of the stakeholder forum was part of our extensive ongoing engagement work with the sector. We want to establish potential options for inspecting youth work in a way that reflects the recent and probable future developments within the sector. The valuable feedback included the following points:

  • Our approach to inspection needs to reflect the different ways that youth work is organised and delivered across local authorities
  • Partnership working needs to be evaluated and the important role of the voluntary sector should be highlighted clearly
  • Inspection should reflect the nature of the provision and include virtual and physical session observations, where possible, as well as the usual range of inspection activity
  • Inspection activity should include open-access youth work as well as the targeted youth work activities
  • Inspections should be outcome focussed but not overly driven by data given that outcomes in youth work are often less easily measurable than in school/college settings
  • Inspection should be young person focused
  • As in other sectors, inspection teams focusing on youth work should include peer inspectors 

In the forum we also discussed how important the links between the new curriculum and youth work principles are (as highlighted in the previous blog) and how to capture the longitudinal impact of youth work on young people. 

Stakeholders expressed different views regarding whether inspection within the LGES framework or standalone youth work inspections were the way forward. However, most welcomed the plan for greater emphasis on inspecting youth work in the future.  

We will continue to engage with the sector by attending key meetings and forums, and meeting with other bodies like the Council for Wales of Voluntary Youth Services (CWVYS) to evaluate the full range of views and opinions within the sector. 

These activities will influence our inspection approach and activity within the current LGES inspection framework during the upcoming academic year. We will also continue to discuss and consider whether there’s a rationale and need for a sector-specific youth work inspection framework and will ensure that the sector is involved fully in any such developments.