YouthLink Scotland CEO Tim Frew sets out why youth work must be part of Scotland’s approach to young people’s mental health – providing trusted support before problems reach crisis point.
We are hearing consistently from youth workers across Scotland that mental health and wellbeing is an increasingly significant part of the support young people need. Our latest workforce survey of the youth work sector reflects just how central this has become, with 90% of organisations identifying health and wellbeing as a current priority for their youth work practice and 78% identifying mental health.
This is backed by wider research. The Re-thinking youth work as initial mental health support for young people research involving youth workers in Scotland and England found that most were providing initial mental health support and that this has become a key part of youth work practice since the pandemic. Crucially, it also found youth workers struggling to meet increased demand because of funding shortages.
Our research from the Mental Health Insights Report with more than 1,100 young people aged 12-to-25 across Scotland found that almost half of those responding to the online survey did not feel good about their mental health and wellbeing.
We need to recognise youth work as part of Scotland’s solution. There is a huge space between a young person beginning to struggle and reaching crisis point, and we cannot afford to leave that space empty. Youth workers are often already there, trusted adults who know young people, build relationships with them over time and can provide support before problems escalate.
We also need to join the dots. We will not solve the challenges facing young people’s mental health by looking at CAMHS in isolation. Specialist services are vital, but Scotland needs a much more connected approach to youth mental health – linking youth work, schools, colleges, community services, health services and specialist support around the needs of the young person.
That means building a strong national infrastructure for youth work and recognising the sector as an equal partner in this endeavour, not an optional service sitting at the edges of the system. Scotland needs a national plan for youth work, backed by sustained investment, which sets out how youth work connects with health, education and other services and ensures young people can access high-quality support wherever they live.
A Right, A Space, A Future, Scotland’s Youth Work Sector Manifesto 2026 calls for action maximise the impact of youth work on young people’s health and wellbeing:
Mental health does not exist in isolation from the rest of a young person’s life. Poor mental health can affect attendance, relationships, confidence, attainment and ultimately whether a young person remains engaged in education, training or employment. Youth work can help keep those connections intact, rebuild them when they start to break down and give young people a sense of belonging, purpose and hope for the future.
But there is a stark contradiction at the heart of this. We are increasingly looking to youth work to help deliver prevention and early intervention while the sector itself remains under significant pressure. The workforce has reduced, organisations face continuing financial uncertainty and many struggle to recruit enough volunteers to meet demand.
We cannot keep talking about prevention while simultaneously weakening the services that make prevention possible. Cutting youth work does not make young people’s needs disappear. It simply risks those needs becoming more acute and more costly to address elsewhere.
Scotland has a choice. We can continue to wait until young people reach crisis point and then try to repair the damage, or we can invest much earlier in the relationships, people and places that help prevent them getting there.
If we are serious about improving young people’s mental health and keeping them connected to education, employment and opportunity, youth work needs to be properly funded, nationally planned and embedded as an equal partner in Scotland’s approach. Prevention cannot just be something we talk about – we have to build and sustain the infrastructure that makes it possible.