New NYA resources for youth practitioners commissioning or delivering youth work
07 August 2023
As the Professional Statutory Regulatory Body (PSRB) for youth work in England, the National Youth Agency (NYA) sets the occupational standards for youth work. It’s also supporting the sector to build its skills and capacity to enable more young people access the personal, social, and educational development opportunities provided by youth work. In line with its ambition to raise professional standards, the NYA has published a number of new resources to support those responsible for commissioning or delivering youth work to meet their legal requirements and which reflects best practice.
Raising the bar – Youth Work Practice Standards
This resource is the go-to guide to support youth work delivery outlines the requirements for governance, planning and evaluation.
The Practice Standards include a description of what constitutes youth work and its purpose. It also covers where youth work takes place and guidance for recruiting staff, professional pay and parity, and workforce ratios. It also describes how organisations can include young people in decision making, embedding active youth participation in their youth work activities. Alongside the Practice Standards, the Youth Club in a Box is a toolkit containing all the processes, resources, frameworks to help you set up and deliver youth work services.
You can access the Practice Standards via https://www.nya.org.uk/practice-standards/
Safeguarding standards for the youth sector
This resource has been designed to support good safeguarding practices for all those working with children and young people, adults at risk, volunteers and paid staff in youth work environments. This collaborative tool bas been designed for and with youth work organisations and young people.
The Standards outline the legislative framework; how to develop a safeguarding policy and appropriate governance; as well as guidance on collaborating with others; training; and youth participation. It sets out how best to embed a culture of safeguarding across your organisation to support staff (paid and unpaid) and young people.
You can access the Safeguarding Standards via https://www.nya.org.uk/safeguarding-standards
There is an opportunity to find out more about how to incorporate the new standards into youth work practice at the NYA’s upcoming webinar: Understanding the new Youth Work Practice and Safeguarding Standards, taking place on Wednesday 13 September at 1pm . The session which will be delivered by Abbee McLatchie, Director of Youth Work and Xyna Prasad, Safeguarding Manager, NYA will bring to life the essential elements of the new Standards and provide an opportunity to ask questions. You can reserve your place here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0vf-uqqj4jE9wqpcl_84uw8roz1P1lY0X2
At London Youth, we are proud to support the work above and delivers a range of training sessions for youth practitioners that includes youth work practices, organisational development and safeguarding. Our Quality Assurance Programme also provides youth organisations with a badge of excellence and ensures they provide a safe environment for young people and they are delivering high quality and impactful youth services.
We deliver both youth work practice and safeguarding training. We are currently planning the programme and will return in Autumn with a variety of training sessions, so keep an eye on our calendar of events.
