Youth work: A 2020 vision editorial introduction

Future commentators looking back on the first decade of the 21st century will undoubtedly be drawn to accounts of the unprecedented political, economic and social changes that have come to define this epoch. Across the UK, the effect of economic austerity has been felt no more acutely than in local youth work services.

Youth work has been placed on the back foot. More and more, the sector must effectively respond to the primacies of government policy whilst also meeting the often-contrasting needs of young people in local communities. Such a task is made more challenging by diminishing resources. This is a tall order, with the added requirement demanded of practitioners to increasingly demonstrate outcomes and impact of their practice intervention in this context. Seemingly against the odds, youth work endures.