2.1 Explore youth work’s historic and ongoing relationship with other services working with young people

This guide will help you answer 2.1 Explore youth work’s historic and ongoing relationship with other services working with young people.

Youth work maintains links with many other agencies that support young people. These connections shape services, create opportunities, and can sometimes cause tension. The relationship has changed over time. Early youth work started as charity provision, focused on recreation, religion, and moral guidance. Gradually, youth work became more formal, with government funding and policy influence. Today, youth work works with statutory, voluntary, health, social care, education, and justice services.

Knowing about these links helps youth workers see how practice sits in the wider support system. Collaboration or coordination with outside agencies is now common. Often, youth work acts as an advocate or bridge for young people. Sometimes, youth workers challenge other services if they think something is not in the young person’s best interests.

The Historical Development of Youth Work and Other Services

Early Years of Youth Work

Youth work began in the 18th and 19th centuries, driven by churches and philanthropists. Examples include Sunday Schools, YMCA, and the Boys’ and Girls’ Brigades. Early work focused on moral and spiritual guidance. At this time, links to other services were informal and often based on personal contacts.

During industrialisation, living and working conditions for young people were tough. There was growing recognition of the need to support young people outside school and work. Youth clubs began offering sport, craft, and discussion.

The Impact of Social Policy

By the early 20th century, government started to take notice of young people’s needs. The Albemarle Report (1960) called for more organised youth services. This led to government funding for youth centres, professional training, and closer links to education and social services.

Youth work became a partner for schools and welfare agencies. Youth workers attended local committees discussing crime prevention, education, and employment. From the 1970s, new youth policy focused on participation, rights, and inclusion.

The Influence of Policy and Legislation

Major policies shaped how youth work linked to other services:

• Children Act 1989: Placed duties on local authorities to safeguard children, including young people. Youth work had to coordinate with children’s social care.
• Every Child Matters (2003): After the Victoria Climbié case, agencies had to work together to improve outcomes for children and young people. Information sharing became a requirement.
• Youth Matters (2005): Set out the requirement for partnership working and integrated youth support.
• The Troubled Families Programme: Encouraged joined-up working between youth workers, schools, police, and social care.

These changes made collaboration a core skill for youth workers. Recording, reporting, assessment, and participation in multi-agency meetings became part of daily practice.

Types of Other Services Working With Young People

Youth work sits as one part of a complex network. The following are main types of services youth workers interact with:

• Education: Schools, colleges, training providers, pupil referral units.
• Health: School nursing, community health, sexual health clinics, mental health services (CAMHS).
• Social Care: Early help, child protection, leaving care services, foster care, support for looked after children.
• Justice and Crime Prevention: Youth offending teams, police, probation, courts.
• Housing and Homelessness Services: Supported accommodation, advice services, emergency shelters.
• Substance Misuse Services: Drug and alcohol workers, outreach.
• Employment Services: Jobcentre Plus, careers advice, supported employment, apprenticeships.
• Voluntary and Community Sector/Charities: Uniformed youth groups, faith-based projects, clubs, specialist charities.

Each has different goals, cultures, and ways of operating. Some focus on prevention, others on crisis management or statutory intervention.

Examples of Joint Work and Partnerships

Inter-agency and multi-agency working now happens daily. Here are examples of how youth workers interact with other services:

Team Around the Family (TAF) Meetings
A young person at risk of exclusion, offending or homelessness may be discussed at TAF meetings. Youth workers give insight into a young person’s strengths and relationships, which might not be obvious to other professionals.

Drop-ins and Outreach
Nurse-led health checks in youth clubs reach people who don’t go to GPs. Youth workers support engagement and provide trusted adults for questions on sensitive topics.

Youth Offending Teams (YOTs)
YOTs work directly with young people involved in crime. Youth workers may run sessions, offer advocacy, and contribute to case reviews. They can be a positive influence, supporting young people to avoid repeat offences.

Information Sharing to Safeguard
Youth workers may be the first to notice signs of abuse or exploitation. Safeguarding requires that they share worries with social care, following clear protocols. They may attend child protection conferences or help create action plans.

Early Intervention and Prevention Programmes
Youth work often targets young people at risk of dropping out of school, crime or substance misuse—joining up with local education or drug teams.

Transitions to Adulthood
Care leavers, disabled young people, and others moving from children’s services to adult support often need extra help. Youth workers can advocate during transitions and link with social care and housing to plan next steps.

Historic Challenges and Tensions

Working with other agencies brings challenges.

• Different Approaches: Youth work is voluntary, informal, and based on trusted relationships. Other services may be statutory, with enforcement powers. This can cause friction about methods or expectations.
• Professional Language: Each sector uses its own jargon and forms. Youth workers translate information for young people.
• Data Sharing Concerns: Concerns over privacy, consent, and the sharing of sensitive details can create barriers.
• Resources and Priorities: Agencies may have competing priorities, and resources can be stretched. Youth work often faces funding cuts, affecting partnership ability.
• Changing Policy: Government policy can reshape how and why agencies work together. A sudden shift can damage established relationships.

Despite this, practice shows collaboration usually helps young people.

Positive Outcomes From Working Together

Multi-agency work often achieves better outcomes for young people. When youth workers link with other professionals:

• Young people have more choice and better information.
• Hidden needs can be picked up sooner.
• Services are more joined-up with fewer gaps.
• Young people are less likely to fall through the net.
• Professionals can share ideas and resources.

Early intervention is more likely to succeed when agencies combine skills and knowledge.

Relationship With Statutory Services

Statutory services—like schools, social care, health, and justice—must act when need or risk meets a threshold. Youth work links to these services in many ways. For example, a youth worker may attend education reviews for a young person often absent from school.

In safeguarding, youth workers have a duty to share concerns with social care. They follow local safeguarding procedures and work closely with police or schools if abuse is suspected. Youth work’s trusted relationships often reveal early warning signs missed by other services.

Court orders and anti-social behaviour contracts often bring youth workers into partnership with police and youth justice. Youth projects may agree to supervise a young person’s community activity or provide reports to courts.

Relationship With Voluntary and Community Sector

Many youth work projects are charities or voluntary groups. These often form partnerships to offer broad services, from open-access clubs to specialist support for groups such as LGBTQ+ youth or care leavers.

Charities and faith-based organisations may lead local youth provision, often working alongside statutory agencies. Networks, forums, and partnerships help them combine resources and campaigns. This sector often fills gaps in state provision.

Joint events, campaigns, and grants encourage information sharing and mutual referrals. Regular meetings between voluntary groups, councils, police, and schools ensure a co-ordinated response.

The Youth Worker’s Role in Multi-Agency Work

Youth workers play several roles when working with other agencies:

• Advocate: Representing young people’s views and rights in meetings.
• Facilitator: Helping young people understand their options across services.
• Connector: Linking young people to health, housing, or employment support.
• Negotiator: Working with professionals to personalise support plans.
• Challenger: Holding other services to account if actions might harm young people.
• Supporter: Accompanying young people to appointments with new services.

Strong partnership work needs clear communication, shared aims, and respect for each professional’s expertise.

Ongoing Changes and Future Trends

The relationship between youth work and other services keeps shifting as funding, policy, and young people’s needs change.

Recent trends include:

• Integrated youth support services: Some areas have combined youth, health, and advice services for ‘one-stop’ centres.
• Digital collaboration: Online meetings and record-keeping have increased, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Early help approaches: Youth workers are part of early intervention teams, supporting families before problems escalate.
• Campaigning and advocacy: Youth work continues to campaign for young people’s rights within policy, education and local offers.
• Co-production: Young people help design services, attend partnership boards, and evaluate outcomes.

Despite challenges, links with other services continue to grow.

Good Practice in Multi-Agency Work

Youth workers should:

• Know the key contacts and referral pathways in their area.
• Attend local forums and training on partnership working.
• Keep accurate, factual records of joint work and decisions.
• Share information sensitively, only with proper consent or as required by safeguarding policy.
• Prepare young people for meetings with professionals and explain their rights.
• Follow up on referrals and advocate where needed.
• Build trust and honesty with partners.

Good partnership work relies on mutual respect and realistic understanding of limits and powers.

Final Thoughts

Youth work’s links with other services have evolved over two centuries, moving from informal, charitable roots to formal, policy-driven partnerships. Today, young people’s needs are more complex and require joined-up support.

Youth workers bridge gaps, offer expertise on participation and relationships, and challenge or support other services for the benefit of young people.

Collaboration brings challenges but usually achieves better outcomes. Understanding this history and current context helps workers deliver modern, effective youth work.
Staying up-to-date with local and national developments, and reflecting upon partnership practice, enables youth workers to improve both their own work and the wider support system.