In this section, you’ll find recent examples of partnership working that is making a positive difference to young people’s experience of education across Scotland – and improving attainment as a result.
Youth work offers learning experiences that nurture learner engagement, improve social and emotional health and wellbeing, and enable skills development. Targeted programmes tackle literacy, numeracy and employability and create opportunities for young people to step up to leadership roles and make change happen in their schools and in their communities.
Post-COVID, Barrhead High School identified a growing number of young people struggling with attendance, engagement, and emotional readiness to learn. Many faced complex barriers linked to poverty, low confidence, family stress, and the cost-of-living crisis. The school used PEF funding to work with FARE Scotland who employed a dedicated youth worker, embedded within Barrhead High and its feeder primary schools to build trust and continuity with families before young people entered S1 and the youth worker partnered with the school to analyse health and wellbeing data across P7 pupils.
This model demonstrates that youth work is uniquely positioned to deliver an effective whole-family approach that strengthens wellbeing, improves engagement in learning, and supports more consistent school attendance.
Boroughmuir NEST offers a voluntary, youth work led space where neurodivergent young people can build relationships, develop confidence and co-design projects that matter to them. Sessions run every Tuesday lunchtime and are supported by the youth worker, the Wellbeing Hub, and a rotational team of 3–4 neurodivergent teachers, offering valued lived-experience role modelling.
This partnership was formed to support young people with Additional Support Needs (ASN), many of whom are affected by poverty, trauma, caring responsibilities or substance use within the family.
The programme blends school ASN support, trauma-informed youth work, and residential outdoor education to develop confidence, emotional regulation, resilience and re-engagement with education.
We Matter was a youth work programme delivered in Edinburgh between November 2024 and April 2025. It was funded by the Corra Foundation and was a collaboration between LAYC, City of Edinburgh Council, local third sector youth work providers and schools. Youth workers supported care experienced young people, identified by schools as being at risk of disengaging from education. The evidence gathered from young people, school partners and youth work practitioners suggests that the approach has the potential to be very effective.
In 2023-24 a group of youth work practitioners and young people from a range of youth work settings across Scotland worked collaboratively to articulate the value and impact of a youth work approach to volunteering. We particularly focused on the volunteering experiences of young people affected by poverty, because research suggests they are traditionally less likely to access these opportunities .
You’ll find a short overview document here, summarising the hallmarks and impact of a youth work approach to volunteering. You will also find and a selection of stories from young people about their journeys in volunteering here.
The Youth Work Education Recovery Fund was established to enable the sector to engage young people in some of the country’s most vulnerable communities and support their educational, social and emotional recovery in the wake of the pandemic.
Projects were awarded funding across all of Scotland’s 32 local authorities and were designed to support effective partnership working between youth work organisations (statutory and third sector) and formal education. Many projects also included elements of outdoor learning and creative arts.
As a result of the fund:
Find out more about the impact the Youth Work Education Recovery had on young people in our full report.
Over 8,500 young people benefited from the Outdoor Education Recovery Fund, with 12,000 hours of outdoor learning experiences provided across Scotland.
The fund was launched in 2021 by the Scottish Government to widen access to outdoor learning and offer vital support for Scotland’s education recovery.
As a result of the fund:
Find out more about the impact the Outdoor Education Recovery Fund had on young people in our full report.
YouthLink Scotland’s National Case Study evaluation encompassed examples of youth work from across Scotland, involving 3000 young people.
Find out more about the national case study evaluation in our full report.
YouthLink Scotland worked with the West Partnership Regional Improvement Collaborative in 2022 to facilitate a practitioner enquiry involving youth workers and formal educators from seven youth work and schools partnerships across the West region. More on the enquiry can be found here. Case studies focused on each participating youth work and school partnerships are below.
