Call for expressions of interest: "Analysis to inform investment in youth work"

The National Youth Agency and the Young Foundation, in partnership with the Local Government Association, seek expressions of interest from councils to work with them on an exciting new project supporting investment in youth work.

What is the project about?

Through collaborative work and expert insight, this project will build on existing work and good practice1. Our aim is to develop practical approaches that get a real sense of the short and medium term implications of decisions on youth work investment for local authorities, local public agencies and young people themselves. Our approach will build on past business case analysis as well as an extensive literature review of short and long-term impacts.

What will councils’ involvement be?

We are looking to work with four councils between December 2011 and the end of March 2012 to develop and provide bespoke support to implement local analysis which will inform local investment in youth work. The work will include a small number of meetings to be held locally with the project team (including key stakeholders as relevant), attendance at a seminar in London (with travel costs paid), and on-going communication between key contacts at the council and the project team. Councils will benefit through consultancy support from expert analysts, facilitated discussions with key stakeholders, and access to tools and approaches tailored to the local area.

What are we looking for?

We are looking to work with councils which can demonstrate:

• Commitment to work with the project team throughout the duration of the project. Engagement from both senior officers on the outcomes and implications of the work, and inter-action with analysts on research processes is essential
• Processes for taking forward the results of the project among Members and other high level stakeholders
• Strong and established partnership working with relevant stakeholders (such as the police and health service) and the ability to actively engage them in the project
• Access to data on outcomes at an individual level2

How can councils get involved?

Interested councils should forward a one page expression of interest setting out how they feel the project would be of benefit to them/their local area, and responding in particular to the criteria above. Expressions of interest should be received by 12 noon on Wednesday 14 December, sent to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

We will follow up expressions of interest in the week commencing 19 December.

Please also provide details of an operational contact who will be able to speak with a member of the project team that week.

If you would like any further information about the project, please contact Bethia McNeil on 07908 010263 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

1 Further information available: http://www.youngfoundation.org/our-work/youthleadership/informing-investment/informing-investment-youth-work

2 We are keen to make connections both to extrinsic results (that is, ‘hard’ outcomes such as gaining employment, academic attainment and anti-social behaviour) and intrinsic outcomes (that is, personal and social development) of youth work provision in the local area. A key agenda taken forward by the project, if not already available, would be the ability to compare these data against a suitable control group (such as a national data set, or data from a nearest statistical neighbour)