effective youth work.

a report by hm
inspectors
Published in 1987, this piece by HM Inspectors is one of the last English government
reports to promote open youth work - albeit with an emphasis on activity, planning
and personal and social development. It drew upon a series of inspection reports to
provide a series of examples of what they then deemed to be good practice.
contents: preface introduction the development of individuals through activity possible environments:
learning from the surroundings decision making: learning from the group obstacles and barriers: learning
to cope and challenge outcomes and results: learning from taking action conclusion appendix: some
recent hmi reports on youth work how to cite this piece
Effective Youth Work looks to work that uses 'young people's
spontaneous or continuing interests'. The writers argue thatyouth
work is concerned 'principally but not exclusively' with personal and
social development. As such it has three main goals. To increase the
ability of young people to:
(a) identify and develop their capacitiesphysical, intellectual,
moral, spiritual, social and emotional;
(b) identify and accept their responsibilities, as individuals, citizens,
group members;
(c) evaluate the contexts in which they live and act accordingly.
The focus is largely upon work happening in associational settings open to a range of
young people such as uniformed organizations, church youth groups, youth clubs and
school-based youth centres. There is also an orientation towards planned intervention and
activity. Taken together, the report can be seen as promoting a form of youth work that
would be familiar to the writers of the Albemarle (1960), Fairbairn-Milson (1969)
and Thompson (1982) reports (although different writers might put more of an emphasis
on community development, informality and relationship and so on). There were some
indicators of what was to come - the concern with 'effectiveness and occasional framing
within curriculum thinking for example. However, one of the striking features is what is
absent: there is no strong interest in targeting particular groups, not one use of the term
'delivery', and no mention of accreditation.
This page is part of the informal education archives' collection of UK government reports
and papers on youth work.
Preface
Since January 1983 the Secretary of State for Education and Science has published all the
reports made to him by Her Majestys Inspectors following formal inspections of schools,
colleges and other educational provisions in England. Individual reports are followed up
with local education authorities and for with others responsible in each case by the
Department of Education and Science. It has also been thought useful for HM Inspectorate
to produce periodic reviews of the reports published, under the title Education Observed.
The present booklet, the sixth in this series, draws on the evidence from inspection of many
different types of youth service, as well as on published reports, to identify examples of good
practice.
[page 1]
Introduction
1. The examples of good youth work practice which follow are taken from HMI
observations. [Throughout this text the phrases youth work and youth worker are used to
describe the range of youth service activities even if the particular contexts were actually
those of, for example, scout troops, church youth groups or school-based youth centres.]
Some have appeared in previously published Inspection Reports, others come from a wide
range of HMI visiting which did not lead to published reports. Most describe work with
young people aged between 15 and 20 years. These examples illustrate attempts to achieve
educational goals through informal work with young people in the Youth Service. The
themes chosen for description and analysis are taken from different facets of youth work.
2. Each local education authority provides some level of youth work staff, buildings and
other facilities for young people. These resources complement and support more formal
educational institutions and a wide range of national and local voluntary youth
organisations. This range encompasses youth clubs; school-based youth centres; uniformed
organisations; residential centres; specialised youth centres, for example in the arts or in
sport. In recent years there has been diversification into special projects for young women,
for young people who are unemployed, for young people from different ethnic communities.
Detached or outreach workers seek to make productive contact with young people not in
formal organisations. Counselling and advice services offer help, for example in dealing with
young peoples relationship difficulties, on drugs or on sexual matters, or on their housing
needs.
The development of individuals through activity
3. Young people voluntarily associate with the youth service. They become involved for
many reasonsto meet their friends; to spend their leisure out of the home; for specific
activities from rock climbing to drama; for help and advice. Some are content if the youth
facility they use is welcoming and friendly, if the activities they participate in are exciting
and creative. Effective youth work seeks to use young peoples [page 2] spontaneous or
continuing interests to foster their personal and social development. Sometimes the youth
worker cannot plan the interventions to encourage the achievement of such goals but has to
take opportunities on the wing in a variety of social or recreational contexts:
A youth centre is available in a less affluent suburb of a major conurbation. It has a games
hall, and a general social area with table-tennis and snooker tables, a canteen and a
workshop used as a store. The club enters virtually all events arranged by the county
association of youth clubs.
Terry and Vince are 15 years old, uninvolved in examination work at school, and have
been for 18 months regular attenders at the club with half-a-dozen other friends. Most of
the time they play table tennis and snooker, envy the motor-cyclists, join in the football,
chivvy the leaders and try to avoid paying their membership and any other dues.
In February the leaders were engaged in the ritual struggle to obtain entries for the
countys cross-country competition. Terry, Vince and their friends bragged about their
prowess, but played as hard to get as possible until there arose the risk that they would be
missed out. Then they all consented to run.
To their surprise, Terry and Vince did so well that they had to represent the county at
regional level, and again were placed high enough to earn a place in the national event.
This real, and not necessarily welcome, challenge elicited not only some serious
preparation but an early morning rise on Saturday unprecedented in their adolescent
history. They did not excel in the national competition, but they were ready on time and
acquitted themselves reasonably.
Since this excursion Terry and Vince have begun to take themselves more seriously,
weighing up different invitations to represent their school and the club, and trying to
decide whether to adopt the necessary discipline and make the effort for a commitment to
cross-country running next season.
4. Everyday as this simple access to a physical activity may be, the safe environment of the
club, made safer by the youth workers collusion in the early show of reluctance which
minimised the risk of ignominy through failure, made it possible for Terry and Vince to
make a modest gain in their self-esteem and to have open to them the possibility of taking
up an interesting activity. [page 3]
5. Often the most obvious difference between youth groups is in the programme of activities
they offer; one youth club being known for its drama and music, another for the emphasis it
places on outdoor pursuits or team games. However, as regards the curriculum of youth
work these differences may be entirely superficial, for the programme of activities, whether
social or recreational, whether based on sports or in the arts, is merely the medium through
which experience which leads to personal and social development is offered.
6. Activities are often the factor which attracts young people into the membership of a group
and are a vehicle through which learning takes place. But the youth worker, besides sharing
his or her skill and enthusiasm, needs to recognise and then realise the potential for
personal development which each situation has to offer. Judgements about the quality of
youth work essentially are judgements about the quality of the learning experience offered
to young people and not about their relative success or failure in undertaking particular
activities, although the quality of the activities and the expectations of youth workers in
respect of them cannot be wholly separated from the learning experiences. Careful planning,
sensitivity to young peoples needs and skill are necessary if the experience is to be
productive:
A detached worker had arranged, in conjunction with a member of staff from a drop-in
centre, a half-day canoeing trip for a half-dozen unemployed young women. This involved
borrowing a minibus, loading the canoes and gear and cajoling and encouraging
reluctant participants both before they would board the bus, and at the waters edge. All
this was carried out with efficiency and sensitivity which acknowledged individual
anxieties, the fact that they did not all know each other and that none of them had canoed
before. The worker was willing, in informal counselling on the bus, to help an individual
girl to disentangle some current problems in her life, including her relationship with
others and a recent brush with the law.
7. This straightforward example illustrates how an activityin this case canoeingcan be
used for a variety of purposes. It offered some young unemployed people a break in their
boredom. Their chance to try a new experience and begin to learn a fresh skill, in a modest
way, enhanced their self-esteem. A casual remark was seized on by the youth worker so as to
promote self-understanding on the part of one individual. Many youth groups, even those
organised for specific purposes such as a football team, offer such opportunities. When
such [page 4] opportunities are taken, the potential of youth service to play a fuller part in
the lives of young people as they grow up is being exploited.
8. Youth work is concerned, principally but not exclusively, with personal and social
development. The goals of youth work as a process of social and personal education are
threefold; it aims to increase the ability of young people to:
(a) identify and develop their capacitiesphysical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, social and
emotional;
(b) identify and accept their responsibilities, as individuals, citizens, group members;
(c) evaluate the contexts in which they live and act accordingly.
Young people can be judged to be achieving these goals when they begin to show an
increasing ability to co-operate with others; to lead and respond to leadership; to exercise
choice; to make decisions both alone and with others; to start, maintain and end
relationships; to find appropriate expression for anger and frustration, love and affection; to
deal with success, disappointment and conflict; and to adopt or reject ideals and viewpoints.
9. Although youth groups differ widely from each other in the activities their members
undertake and in the physical circumstances in which they operate, effective youth workers
nevertheless have a common goal in the personal and social development of young people
and a responsiveness to their expressed needs:
Over a period of time a youth worker had been talking with a small group of older youth
club members about what it would be like to leave home for a job or for college. Some
expressed considerable anxiety about coping with this. A residential weekend was planned
so that the topic could be explored in more depth. The youth workers responsible for the
weekend designed as many aspects of it as possible to contribute to the topic and to
develop skills in those attending. The group organised its own shopping and cooking;
there were exercises with participants taking on the roles of parents, landlords and
flatmates; there were visiting speakers who had themselves recently left home. Each
member had an individual urban trail exercise to visit various helping agencies in the
nearby conurbation. The group became so enthusiastic that it decided to produce a
magazine on the topic of leaving home, incorporating information and cartoons.
The [page 5] youth worker helped them to organise their material and to have it printed.
10. This example illustrates an approach often found useful in youth work. It consists in
offering young people a variety of experiences, encouraging and enabling those involved to
reflect on these experiences and to learn from them. It is through this active involvement
and reflection that young people learn about their capacities and responsibilities and how to
evaluate their circumstances. While, in essence, this is the process by which we all learn
throughout the course of our lives, the process can be accelerated and heightened by a
skilful youth worker.
Possible environments: learning from the surroundings
11. Youth workers operate in a greater variety of settings than most others employed in
education services. A youth worker may be employed to manage a youth club or centre, but
this is rarely, if ever, the only place where he or she works with young people; often the club
is the contact point, the meeting ground for young people, which affords the opportunity to
plan a programme of events much of which takes place away from the club itself. Whatever
the base from which the work is carried out, most youth workers will conduct some of their
work in a range of different placeson mountainsides and lakes as well as in classrooms, in
cafes and public houses as well as in youth clubs. Each setting has its own limitations and
possibilities and the skilful youth worker sets out to maximise opportunities for personal
and social development by making the best use of the working environment. Even a walk in
the country can be stage-managed to some degree in pursuit of worthwhile ends:
A youth worker took a group often boys aged 14 and 15 for a walk in Derbyshire. He knew
the country well and planned the route with great care. He took the view that few young
people actually enjoy walking for its own sake and therefore the journey had to be
interspersed with a number of activities and incidents. [page 6]
The group was shown the route on a map, and someone was elected to find the route for
the first part of the way. Everybody had their turn at this. After a mile or two the group
went through an old railway tunnel, stopping at the centre point where it was not possible
to see the light from either end. There was a good deal of downing about in the total
darkness. A little later the group stopped by a dew pond and the response to the question
How long do we stay here? was five minutes, or until the first one falls in. Nobody did. A
second stop was taken by some large boulders where the youth worker (himself an
experienced climber) encouraged the young people to try their hand at rock climbing. The
group worked strenuously at this, tackling more and more difficult problems, but never
more than two or three feet from the ground. The youth worker taught without appearing
to do so, making suggestions rather than giving instructions, encouraging and joking
while ensuring that everyone had some degree of success. Lunch was taken by a limestone
outcrop. After lunch the youth worker took a geological hammer from his rucksack and
chipped away at some pieces of rock. Asked what he was doing he responded Go away,
Im busy. Within ten minutes everyone was hunting for fossils and talking about them.
The youth worker talked about the geological development of the area, expressing his
detailed knowledge of the subject in simple and dramatic language. The afternoon stop
was taken by a stream and the youth worker encouraged the group to take off their boots
and socks and paddle. No one had done this in a mountain stream before. The final stage
of the walk included a sunset and a viewand the route had been chosen with this in mind.
12. In this example of a quite commonplace activity in youth work the worker has made
skilful judgements about how to use the environment to furnish the young people with a
wide range of experiences. He also showed great skill in carrying out the plan; by feigning a
wish to be left alone when looking for fossils, in persuading the group to paddle, in teaching
elementary rock climbing without appearing to do so.
13. Similar use can be made of urban environments:
A youth worker in a small North Midland town gave a camera and film to a group he was
working with and encouraged them to make a record of their town as they saw it. One
item which surprised many older people, was that the group saw the iron gates which
many shopkeepers found it [page 7]necessary for security to put across their doorways at
night as an obstruction to legitimate shelter from the elementsan important matter for
the section of the population which was often on the streets after dark. Frequent
discussions accompanied the making of the photographic record and the group formulated
a number of points about the town which they wanted to express to other people. With
further help they invited two local councillors to a meeting and expressed their views. They
did not expect tangible results from this encounter, and none were evident, but the group
derived considerable satisfaction from the fact that they were able to express their views in
a way which won respect, if not agreement, from those who listened to them.
14. By helping young people to organise and communicate their views and perceptions,
youth workers help individuals to understand themselves and other people better.
Sometimes, as a bonus, work of this kind may help other sections of the community to a
better understanding of some young people.
15. Effective youth work also takes place in buildings as well as on hills or on the streets.
Considerable effort often goes into creating an atmosphere in youth clubs which is
stimulating, friendly and purposeful. A multitude of factorsthe management of staff, the
relationship with and between members, the status of the members within the organisation,
the established norms of behaviour, the range and quality of the programme and many
otherscontribute to the atmosphere; and the premises themselves play an important part.
Frequently the youth worker is faced with the challenge of creating a stimulating
environment in buildings or rooms which were not designed with youth work in mind:
An unusual example of club refurbishing comes from a large village where the youth dub
had sole use of a hut which had served as the village hall in earlier years. Here the youth
worker worked with members to transform the interior to a western township complete
with saloon, sheriffs office and jail, and to create a total effect like that often achieved in
commercial establishments where a thematic approach to decoration is employed. The
main work was accomplished by using hardboard flats similar to those used in theatres,
and the finishing touches were achieved by altering the shape of windows and doors by
use of appropriate edging. The group chose the theme and undertook the work
themselves, [page 8] incorporating in the decoration minor in-jokes which reinforced
group unity.
The youth worker worked alongside the group throughout and had some of the technical
skills needed to advise the members and overcome difficulties. The whole was constructed
in a way which neither inhibited the normal range of dub activities nor was especially
vulnerable to damage. Members were pleased with the result and enjoyed being in a
building which had individual character rather than a dreary hail which it once had been.
A particular feature of the club was that this project was an annual event. Before being a
western township the club had been a Mississippi River Boat and in the future it could be
whatever the members decide. As most of the material used was commercial and
industrial waste, the cost was minimal and decreased after the first year as much could be
re-used. In this instance, besides achieving a sense of ownership by decoration, members
also experienced some sense of control over their environment because they knew that it
was within their capabilities to alter it when they tired of it.
Decision making: learning from the group
16. In making decisions about their environment the village youth club members described
above had to act democratically. Every member had the right to voice his or her opinion
about what should be done and a decision arrived at that the majority would support.
Another example of responsible democracy in action is drawn from a much larger club
where all the members over the age of 13 have the right to attend a monthly Parliament
which deals with all aspects of club management:
Twenty-two members attended the meeting together with a youth worker, two assistant
youth workers and the helper who looked after the coffee bar.
The youth worker initiated proceedings by asking if any were attending for the first time
and, when three were identified, asked an experienced member to explain the ground rules
of the meeting. The explanation included a description of how [page 9] members ran
things; that the adults present had no vote, and that criticism of other members was not
allowed unless they were informed in advance.
There was an instant response to a request for someone to take minutes of the meeting but
no initial response to a request for a chairperson, although this was resolved later, after a
long discussion.
A long agenda included three items from a previous meeting and another 11 presented at
the time. It was agreed to deal with these in one large meeting although the alternative of
working through sub-groups was discussed.
Decisions were made on items which ranged from the purchase of soft toilet paper to
agreeing to spend 1,000 on a multi-gym. Some ideas concerned with the hire or purchase
of equipment involved a degree of business acumen; others, like that involving the report
of damage to a car outside the premises, required an element of moral judgement as it was
not clear that dub members were responsible for this. The whole meeting lasted for three
hours and during that period nearly all present contributed, displaying respect for the
views of others and an impressive degree of responsibility in arriving at decisions
affecting the club.
17. Examples of large youth clubs functioning in this way are rare. While such a system of
management is a powerfully effective tool for the personal and social development of young
people it is a goal which requires a long-term strategy, and skills and commitment on the
part of the worker and of his or her employers. It is difficult too for youth workers to
establish representational democracy in youth organisations because membership may
change rapidly; higher authorities may limit the range of real decisions permitted to young
people; and if formal modes of conducting business are retained they are initially unknown
by and mystifying to young people.
18. However, while some form of democratic participation in running the youth
organisation itself provides opportunities for involving young people in negotiation and
decision making, many more occur in the day-to-day practice of youth work and will be
seized upon by effective youth workers as they arise:
Some members of a youth club wanted to see a video film as part of their evening dub
activities. The youth worker agreed to the use of the dub equipment to view a film, but
pointed out [page 10] that there was no money in the club funds for its hire. He took the
opportunity to explain to members how their subscription money was spent. He then
pointed out that if 20 people each contributed 10 pence the hire cost would be covered. This
suggestion led to ha lf an hours argument and discussion which involved many club
members, but in which the youth worker took no part. When agreement was reached and
the money collected, the youth worker stipulated that a boy and a girl should go to the
shop to select a film and said that he would not allow the showing of anything
pornographic or excessively violent. In due course a film was selected and shown to the
audience which had paid to see it. While there was little educational value in the film itself
a great deal was learned during the organisation of the activity.
19. Youth work helps young people to understand and take responsibility for financial
matters. Opportunities to do so are provided in various contextsinformally as the previous
example has shown and, for instance, in the management of a youth clubs coffee bar, the
purchase of equipment or fund-raising for charitable causes. On occasion, major projects
are undertaken for example where one group of young unemployed people renovated a
former primary school, redecorating the main room, installing a coffee bar and raising
sufficient funds to pay for insurance and other maintenance costs:
A local education authority has established an Unemployment Forum composed entirely of
young adults under 25 years old, with the guidance of a development officer. The Forum
receives, considers and recommends approval of bids from local projects for money
allocated by the authority for work with the unemployed. Members who take part in the
forum recognise that their decisions are real and not token: if they do not probe those who
submit proposals and are over-generous in their allocation of funding money could be
wasted. The business is conducted smoothly with time for questions, discussion and
reflection and the experience assists members to gain in confidence and to take
responsibility for financial decisions.
20. Although most decisions are important at the time to the people who make them, and
may be the subject of heated argument, it is clear that the examples above are of decisions
which will not have lasting significance for the people involved. Their importance lies not in
the outcome itself but in learning about decision-making processes; weighing the factors
involved; coming to terms with being argued with [page 11] and confronted; coping with the
others involved and with ones own feelings when ideas are rejected. Yet at the same time
that youth workers may be fostering decision-making abilities through the organisation and
management of the programme of recreational activities, they may also be working with
individuals with serious social and domestic problems as will be seen in the next example:
Single mothers, most of whom were within the youth service age group, claimed the
attention of a youth worker. The aim of the worker was to provide support for both
individuals and groups as they decided whether to care for their children or consider
alternative solutions; and in doing so to develop their sense of responsibility,
independence and their ability to make choices about their own lives and those of their
children. This was not easy for, in order to survive, in most cases without employment,
they were obliged to become financially dependent upon housing and social service
benefits. The worker skilfully enabled the group members to express their frustrations and
problems in discussion, and then to share a programme of activities which they planned
and operated. This careful programme of work was continuous and included group
discussion on health and child care topics; liaison with other workers in health and social
services concerning child care and family welfare as well as visits of a recreational nature.
21. To summarise the best practice in this aspect of youth work it is appropriate to quote
from an HMI inspection report Some Detached Youth Work in Sheffield. . . the youth
workers responses are carefully calculated. They use their knowledge of the young people
with whom they work to gauge the extent of intervention appropriate to the situation. They
make positive suggestions and lay down rational rules guidelines of behaviourbut do so
in a way which maximises the freedom of choice and autonomy of the young people.
Obstacles and barriers: learning to cope and challenge
22. Outdoor pursuits and adventurous activities have long been an attractive part of youth
service provision for some young people. Whether such activities as canoeing,
mountaineering and caving [page 12] become lifelong interests, are simply sampled for a
weekend, or are exercises undertaken for the fun of the moment, they have the potential for
social learning:
One group began by simulating a rescue from a crevasse, using climbing equipment
rigged in a tall tree. After this they changed places with another group and were given
pieces of equipment and charged with the task of assembling it to convey all the members
of the team over a simulated electric fence.
Both activities required initiative, teamwork, negotiation and leadership and both proved
very challenging to all the participants. The physical skills required were new to all, but
both groups achieved their objectives.
23. Such exercises are entertaining in their own right and are usually entered on with
enthusiasm if people come to them fresh in new surroundings, but their full potential for
social learning is exploited only when there is a chance, as in this case, to discuss and reflect
upon what happened:
The groups were then invited to consider their styles of working: which techniques had
proved successful and which ones were rejected; how good was the communication
between the members; why had some pieces of equipment been used to build structures;
and why had some others been rejected? How far was the opinion of all members of the
team sought? Who took the initiative and why?
24. Experiences away from the home and its immediate environment have a rich potential
for social learning because, removed from the everyday expectations of the kinds of people
they are and the way they will behave, individuals are often able to respond differently and
see themselves, and others, in a different light:
In one project the two women youth workers ran programmes involving recreational and
cultural activities for a number of different groups of young women. One was a group of
young mothers who were almost all Afro-Caribbean, another was a young lesbians
group.
Groups met at different times at the project headquarters and normally never met each
other, though many of the issues raised by them were common to all Of particular concern
to the project worker was the hostility often directed at the young lesbian group and the
racist remarks sometimes overheard in a[page 13] number of other groups. The workers
planned to bring together a group drawn from all sections of the project for more
structured discussion in a residential centre.
To persuade this varied group of young women to go away together for the first time a
programme was offered that included activities such as riding canoeing music and video-
making as well as discussion sessions on those priority issues currently of concern in the
work of the project.
During the weekend the young women were able to share their experiences of prejudice
with each other. Stereotypes were broken down and friendships and understanding
developed across the groups and suspicion of each other was dissipated by being together.
Discussion of racism, for instance, was initiated by the showing of a video explaining the
history of colonialism and its effects on racism in Britain, and a film in which young
people talked together about how racism affects them in Britain today. For the following
discussions the group was split into two, on the basis of colour. At first the young women
were upset by this; young white women, having made friends with young black women,
now feared that this separation would lead to a resurgence of suspicion. They didnt want
to talk about racism separately and didnt want to be seen, or thought of as being apart.
In the black womens group, however, the young women soon found common ground in
sharing their experiences of living in Britain. Afro-Caribbean and Asian young women
discussed various aspects of being a black woman in British society today. They
appreciated the opportunity to discuss issues relevant to their lives. The separation of the
groups was more difficult for the white women to accept. They expressed the view that if
the weekend was about getting on with each other, they could not really understand the
rationale for separate groups. It was difficult trying to explain the purpose but when
workers talked about the quite different effects of racism on black people and on white
people, nervousness faded and the young white women were able to contribute positively.
The results of the weekend were most apparent in the ways in which young women at the
project later handled any hostile attitudes of newcomers to their groups. For example, the
young mothers who went away together talked about their embarrassment when abuse
was heard from newcomers about the race or [page 12] sexuality of others and sought to
tackle such attitudes with their peers in the group.
25. Although this example does not give this kind of detail, nevertheless the workers used
substantial tutoring, group work and counselling skills during the weekend. Moreover, they
made a number of skilful educational decisions: identifying an important issue common to
all groups; planning a programme which would blend elements of serious interest with
entertainment; and devising appropriate methods of working.
26. Youth workers and young people testify to the value of such residential experiences, and
work of lasting significance can sometimes be accomplished in a short time. A period in a
residential centre gives youth workers an opportunity to provide both formal settings for
learning such as group discussion and role playsand informal support to individuals
who may be struggling to reach new understandings of themselves and their situation.
When the obstacles and barriers are social and emotional rather than physical and the
problems are real rather than artificial then the skills of the youth workers have to be of a
high order.
27. For some young people actually going away is itself an achievement, an activity involving
both difficult personal arrangements and a major task of group organisation. Some of the
educational objectives of learning about abilities and responsibilities can be met by
involving young people in the actual planning of a residential weekend:
Five young women aged between 17 and 21, attending a womens group at a centre, raised
the idea of going away for a long weekend together. All but one of them lived on their own
with their children in two-bedroomed semi-detached council houses. The fathers of their
children had either left them or, where the acquaintance had been more casual, had been
rejected by the young women. The young women found it almost impossible to go away on
any kind of holiday and the youth workers aim was to give them an experience of going
away with friends, which brought them pleasure and satisfaction through involving them
in the planning and through sharing all the responsibilities of living together including
buying and preparing food and child care.
Although the initial idea had come from the women themselves, the youth workers had a
hard task in sustaining the motivation to go away. All the young women were coping
alone with young children, and one had three children all under five. [page 12]
Another had been recently raped in the estate telephone kiosk but had been too frightened
to report it. They spoke of their low morale at home and their feelings of depression and
hopelessness. They were frightened by the trip as well as excited by it. Even packing for
themselves and their children seemed an enormous task. The event took weeks of planning
but it was eventually accomplished. On their return one of the young women wrote:
Its good to be able to go away with your matesthem that we met down at the centre.
Youd never get the chance otherwise. Its easier for men to go away than a woman. Even a
day trip is hard work when youve got kidsyouve got to think what they want all the
timethen theres the prams and so on. Ive never been away like this evernever with
mates. Its great its given me a lot more confidenceknowing we can do it. I didnt know
what to expect because Id never experienced it.
28. The growth in confidence this young woman records is evidence of effective youth work.
Knowing we can do it is a phrase which indicates that important learning and personal
development has probably taken place. It is not only the experiences, but also the positive
acknowledgement of the learningthe knowingfostered by reflection upon the
experiences, which has produced the increased self-confidence.
Outcomes and results: learning from taking action
29. The opportunity to produce something and to have it valued by others is of central
importance for young people as they work towards establishing a sound adult identity.
Youth workers use a wide variety of means to do this from creative arts to community
action. For many young people self-expression is the first step to acquiring self-esteem.
Writing is not an obvious form of self-expression for someone who has failed at school, but
it can bring great satisfaction if handled wisely. The following example describes one young
womans development:
One of the skills she was learning was how to use the computer with its Wordwise chip and
printer. For the first time she was finding a real pleasure in recording how she felt, what
she was learning and what her life was like. Writing on the computer, she said, is not like
at school No one comes and writes all over it [page 16] in red. The youth worker helps you
put it right before it is printed and it looks good.
She described her experience at the centre:
I like coming down to the centre because you meet all kinds of people, and not only that
the people you meet there are all in the same boat as I am. I am a single parent with a little
boy aged 18 months old and if I didnt come down here we would only be bored. The people
who work here are great, theyve helped me to grow up and act like a mother and also
learn how to do thingssewing cooking and making your own photographs and there is
a playroom for the kids which means you can do things without the children being around
you. It gives you a rest from them. I learn to use a machine and make my clothes with
simple patterns and it was really cheap. This I learn to do with Betty. We are going to
learn decorating which I am interested in. I tried to do a bit at home myself but made a bit
of a mess so Betty is going to show me how to do it properly.
The new skills this 18-year-old was learning helped her record and recognise her own
growth in confidence.
30. Sometimes a developing skill in self-expression leads to formal dramatic or musical
productions: on occasion these occur as part of routine youth work in an all-purpose club, at
other times specialised groups form as a youth theatre:
Meeting in evenings and at weekends the young people videotaped improvisations and
gradually built up a script around a central theme. The structure they selected was that of
a machine, each member a cog performing work movements and rhythmically interjecting
key phrases from their characters. The Wimpey Bar boy shouts the orders to the chef the
London Transport guard minds the gap. The machine dissolved to allow individuals and
small groups to play out their connecting scenes which exposed the contrasts between the
working day and the fantasy life of their imaginations. For example, a young black,
London Transport guard established a simple mime of standing by his door to operate the
buttons for the doors opening and dosing. His eyes, but not his body, showed how the train
moved along the platform, and his facial expression showed graphically what caught his
interest a pretty girl, a disturbance. He conveyed to the audience his daily work and life
and in an early scene admitted his interest in tap-dancing. Between [page 17] stations,
when his carriage was empty, he practised up and down the aisle leading to an
increasingly polished performance. A later development took the audience into his fantasy
world where he performed a version of the famous Astaire golf-drive routine with plastic
mugs and a walking stick. A tall, gangling white lad played foreman to the machine and in
several scenes developed different relationships with his cogs. One scene in particular
dearly portrayed the lack of understanding between foreman and worker and ended in a
sacking.
31. Drama may be the vehicle for pointed social comment:
Two black young men got to their feet and performed, in duet and dialogue, a
conversation between a policeman and a black youth. Although full of humour, this made
scathing comment about white racism. The piece was in rhyme and dialect and polished to
perfection. It was no surprise to discover that they had performed it at the Edinburgh
Festival Fringe as in both the sharpness of its content and the skill of its presentation, it
would not have disgraced a cabaret anywhere.
32. In the following example drama is again the medium for personal and social education.
However, several other educational aims are specifically part of this particular projects
goals:
Seated in a circle of chairs inside a schools drama studio was a group of about 20 young
people in their late teens and early 20s. In turn they answered the question, What do you
like about life? Every morning I wake up and know something new is going to happen, I
like its unpredictability, Learning new things and meeting new people, I like the sense of
growing Taking a step up. While many of the answers were similar, each was different in
the way it was presented, and each said something about the individual participant.
People listened to each other intensely, some sitting forward on the edge of their chairs,
others more relaxed with legs outstretched in front of them. There was plenty of good-
natured laughter and a sense of trust, engendered by the skill and sensitivity of the youth
worker in prompting and developing the participants contributions.
At a word from the youth worker, the chairs were pushed back to the edge of the studio
and three members of the group were invited to do an improvisation. It concerned a young
man having trouble with his girlfriend and the response he got from [page 18] two friends.
The improvisation was acted out with feeling humour and a real sense of immediacy.
33. This was part of a twice-weekly session held in a new centre by a community-based
black drama group in a district of a city much in the glare of media publicity. The group was
under the artistic direction of a professional actor. Its public performances, mostly based on
improvisation, were well reviewed in the local and ethnic press. The group aimed to
demonstrate the strength and versatility of black performers in drama, film, music and
dance, and through these acts to portray black people realistically and positively and
counter stereotyped images of black people in the media. One of its aims, therefore, was to
re-educate the community. The project also offered training schemes in management,
production and arts administration and had well-known figures, black and white, from the
theatrical world as its patrons.
34. Self-development and social comment are not the only functions of drama in youth
work. A youth centres theatre group extended its work to cater for the young unemployed
and secured funds from the Manpower Services Commission and the Local Education
Authority in order to employ staff and pay the young people. One aspect of the work was a
class which the young unemployed shared with mentally disabled students from a nearby
college of further education:
The group welcomed the students from the college warmly. These students had been
coming twice a week for five weeks. The workshop was conducted in pairs with the
unemployed young people leading the disabled students through the exercises with
considerable care and understanding. There was a great deal of good humour, and the
students enjoyed taking their partners, each playing a dog for a walk on an imaginary
lead. The concentration and quality of movements made by some of the handicapped
students was impressive. One student with Downs Syndrome achieved dear, rhythmical
movements with his partner. A high level of trust between partners was established and
the unemployed young people showed a high level of concentrated effort.
35. On occasions all the elements illustrated in the above examples can be combined in a
single project undertaken by a group of young people:
A youth worker took over a club in a small town where the level of youth unemployment
was so high that only five per cent of the young people leaving school went straight into
full-time [page 19] employment. Heavy drinking drug abuse, petty crime and vandalism
were common in the area and the young people who used the club were aggressive and
alienated.
Slowly some of the depression that young people felt about their club and their prospects
began to lift. The main instrument in this change of attitude was the clubs Members
Action Group, a small group of 16- to 18-year-olds who met monthly to discuss and agree
the clubs policy and programme. This has included fund-raising activities, the purchase of
equipment, representation on its Management Committee, the redecoration of its
premises, dub outings and, significantly, the making of a video.
The idea of the video was for the young people of the town to present their views about
their lives and prospects to officers, councillors and others responsible for housing
employment, education, social services and recreation in the area. Previous invitations
sent to officials to meet with local youngsters in the dub had been ignored. On the one or
two occasions when they had met with local politicians it had been on the latters own
terms and the young people felt distinctly patronised. The video production enabled them
to express their discontent constructively and to learn skills that would not allow their
elders to evade the difficult questions.
36. The outcomes and results which can be identified in the above five examples are in no
sense end-products. They are of value in themselves, certainly; but they are also starting
points for further learning. Each experience can be subjected to reflection and analysis and
so lead to further social and personal development. In their role as social educators youth
workers have to strike a balance between a number of different requirements.
37. Young people need to be valued for what they are and do now, not for what they will
become, yet youth workers have to be aware that their prime goal is change and
development. Young people choose to be part of the youth service principally for its means
rather than its ends; and managing the meansthat is, the activities, the nature of the
buildings and the relationshipsconsumes most of the effort of youth workers. Yet it is only
the face-to-face youth worker who can translate general statements of goals into particular
objectives for work with particular groups. Youth workers need to have their eyes
simultaneously on a distant horizon and on the present reality of young people. [page 20]
Conclusion
38. In the extracts above there has been no attempt to encompass the whole of youth work.
Although there is great variety in the settings and the people described, the choice of
examples has been limited to a large extent to those transactions between youth workers
and young people which can be written about in simple, direct terms. As much in youth
work does not lend itself to this treatment there are many aspects which receive no mention.
39. The simplicity can also deceive: the observed outcome is often the product of careful
planning and much skilled work to bring the group or the individual to the point at which
we see them. The overall purpose has been to suggest some examples of some good practice
towards achieving youth works main goal of the personal and social development of young
people, especially with those most in need of the experience a good youth and community
service should offer.
40. It is much harder to generalise about the elements which make up good practice. The
range of things that youth workers do is as broad as the range performed, for example, by
teachers. However, there are features which all the examples display, either implicitly or
explicitly. First, much of the work described is part of a planned process; in some cases, for
example the walk in the hills or the young mothers trip away, the planning needed for a
superficially simple task is often elaborate. This leads to the second point: that the youth
workers, and in many cases the young people, were fully aware of the complexity of what
they were doing. Neither of these points should be taken as arguing against the value of
spontaneity and intuition in youth work; but these qualities, like ad libs in a dramatic
performance, are only effective when the actors are well rehearsed in the basics. The third
element is the engagement of the young people in a task. They are neither recipients nor
consumers of what the youth worker is offering, but are both active and willing partners in
the process. All the young people described had some understanding of the objectives of the
task they were engaged in and of what the possible outcomes might be.
41. This approach to social and personal development thus requires youth workers to carry
out four basic functions:
i. to identify and proffer to young people a range of appropriate experiences;
ii. to create the situations in which young people can learn from those experiences; [page
21]
iii. to muster the resources necessary for both the experience and the learning;
iv. to support young people while they undergo the experience and learn from it.
42. Effective youth work to fulfil these functions requires specialist understanding and skill
of high order. Even in a five-minute interchange with a young person a youth worker may be
working towards youth works basic goals, carrying out all four functions and doing much
else beside.
43. Other elements of good practice can be inferred; that as examples of successful planning
the workers have been able to establish clear aims and derive appropriate objectives from
them and use appropriate methods. Further, the workers were able to make and maintain
appropriate relationships with young people and therefore they were aware of their own
roles and functions and of the limitations to them.
44. From the examples, taken together, two further elements of good practice can be
deduced: that the effective youth worker is aware of the richness and diversity of the
material available for social learning and that she or he can apply educational techniques to
further that learning.
45. The examples themselves afford no firm evidence about all the necessary conditions to
foster good practice. Often the youth workers described operated in discouraging
circumstances, with inadequate resources and little or no recognition and support for what
they were doing. Yet it would be quite wrong to deduce from this that youth work is so
dependent upon the professional skill of the individual that nothing can be done to foster
effective youth work beyond employing the right staff. Exceptional youth workers may
succeed in spite of difficult working conditions, but they certainly do not succeed because of
them and they cannot continue indefinitely in such circumstances. It is important to
recognise that appropriately trained and skilled youth workers are the prime resource of
youth work but, at the same time, to take account of the other factors which can contribute
to their success: effective management, adequate resources and appropriate support for
staff.
46. It is hoped that this publication will promote discussion of good practice among youth
workers. Such discussion should be a regular feature of staff and team meetings as examples
of good practice provide a means of focusing upon the important elements of the work, of
sharing [page 22] ideas, of recognising achievement and celebrating success. Sadly, many of
the examples quoted here were not widely known and even colleagues in the same staff
teams did not benefit from the stimulus of hearing about the work and learning from it. The
workers directly involved were often denied the encouragement they deserved for the work
they were doing.
47. Many youth workers work in relative isolation. Good work is likely to be disseminated
more widely if they have regular opportunities to discuss their work with someone who can,
through judicious questioning, bring a critical analysis to detailed accounts of their day-
today work. The process of detailed reflection on practice and on the objectives, methods,
values and assumptions which each individual worker brings to it is generally referred to in
youth-work circles as supervision. The supervisors role can be fulfilled by someone within
the management structure, or by someone external to it and selected by the worker for that
purpose. In some situations both arrangements may be appropriate. At all events it is a
management responsibility to see that each worker frequently and systematically reviews
his or her practice. At the present time adequate professional supervision is available to far
too few workers.
48. For those responsible for managing the youth and community service the identification
of good practice is of crucial significance. The image of what constitutes good practice
influences policy and judgments at all levels, and when the image is not clear, or missing
altogether, the result is often generalised policies lacking contact with reality and uneven
judgments. Those in senior and middle management posts, just as much as others, need
opportunities to talk about good practice and clarify and revise their viewpoints. That is not
a once-only process; it is an appropriate subject for regular in-service training. Often
discussion will benefit if staff can draw on simple examples from work which they have
tested directly. Similarly, the difficult, but increasingly important, task of explaining youth
work to lay people may often be accomplished better by use of examples than by
enunciation of broad aims in abstract terms. [page 23]
Appendix
Some recent HMI reports on youth work:
Some Detached Youth Work in Sheffield (70/85)
Youth ServiceWigan LEA (77/86)
Youth ServiceCornwall LEA (79/86)
Youth ServiceSheffield LEA (81/86)
Youth Work in United Reformed Church (261/87)
Youth Service Provision in Wales (Wales Education Survey 13, 1984)
Youth Work in the Upper Rhondda (FE 3/86)
Youth Wings in West Glamorgan (FE 2/86)
Tracks Youth Advice Service, West Glamorgan (FE 3/87)
City Centre Youth Project, Cardiff, South Glamorgan (FE 11/87)
Copies of reports are available, free, for England from DES
Publications Despatch Centre, Honeypot Lane, Stanmore, Middlesex HA7 1AZ and, for
Wales, from Education Department, Welsh Office, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF1 3NQ.
How to cite this piece: Department of Education and Science (1987) Effective Youth
Work. A report by HM Inspectors. Education Observed 6, London: Department of
Education and Science. Available in the informal education
archives:http://www.infed.org/archives/gov_uk/effective_youth_work.htm
This piece has been reproduced here by the informal education homepage under licence
from from the Controller of HMSO and the Queens Printer for Scotland. The informal
education homepage holds a licence to reproduce public service information and another to
reproduce Parliamentary material.
First placed in the archives: June 2003

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