Re-thinking impact, evaluation and accountability in youth work

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The proposed research will investigate the policy and practice of evaluation and accountability in youth work. It will collaborate with young people, youth workers, managers, funders and policy makers/influencers, to understand the effects of impact measurement, and develop approaches to evaluation that are congruent with youth work practice.Youth work can be life-changing for marginalised young people, developing social and cultural opportunities and contributing to wider community benefits. It takes place in youth clubs, community buildings and on the streets, and is open to all, or aimed at groups with shared experiences of oppression (e.g. young women, LGBT young people, young refugees). It is rooted in the 'voluntary principle' (i.e. that it is young people's choice to take part), enabling a more equal power dynamic than that in schools and formal social services. In recent years, spending reductions have led to the closure of many local government youth services and charitable projects. In this context, a 2011 House of Commons Education Select Committee inquiry asked youth organisations in England to demonstrate the value of their work by developing clearer outcomes measures. In response, a new youth impact agenda has emerged, instigated by government and influential third sector organisations, to promote the measurement of impact in youth settings. While the youth impact agenda has been welcomed by many youth sector bodies, some practitioner organisations have argued that measuring predefined outcomes is inconsistent with youth work. Impact is associated with the quantitative measurement of planned outcomes, such as through 'pre and post' tests or randomised control trials. However, personal and social development are notoriously difficult to measure, and impact tools themselves can be inappropriate in youth work settings: for example, questionnaires asking young people about their attitudes or behaviour can be intrusive, particularly early on in a young person's engagement. Impact measurement is particularly challenging in community-based open youth work settings, where outcomes emerge gradually over time rather than being pre-defined.The youth impact agenda has quickly become influential, yet we know little about how it has been implemented in open youth work settings, or what effects it has had on practice. This is important: if funding is tied to quantitative measures of impact, then it will be difficult for open youth work to demonstrate its value according to those measures, and a valuable tradition of practice built up over more than a century might be lost. Even less is known about how young people experience and perceive impact mechanisms; young people are not a homogeneous group, and it could be that some groups of young people gain satisfaction from reflecting on their outcomes, while others might find impact-related questioning intrusive and off-putting.This three-year research project will involve 146 participants in qualitative interviews, focus groups, participant observations and youth participatory methods (photography, peer interviewing and film-making). It will find out how the youth impact agenda is implemented in practice, and how impact processes are experienced and perceived by young people and youth workers. It will include the perspectives of funding agencies and policy makers, and explore how and why 'youth impact' has become so important at this time. Research findings will be shared in peer-reviewed journals, conference presentations, and a symposium to discuss policy and impact in the wider social sector. Findings will be disseminated widely through a short film (made and disseminated by young people); a series of deliberative discussions involving practitioners, managers, funders and policy makers/influencers; policy and practice briefings; and a practitioner conference to share approaches to evaluation and accountability that are congruent with open youth work.