At this critical time for education renewal, YouthLink Scotland’s Youth Work and Schools Partnerships team, funded by the Scottish Government as part of the Scottish Attainment Challenge, has undertaken a national case study evaluation to review the impact of a cross-section of youth work programmes in Scotland over the last 12 months, including work carried out over the lockdown period. Our aim was to build a rich picture of the youth work sector’s current contribution to attainment – to evidence what is working, and to inform priorities for support and capacity-building as we move forward.

Download the National Case Study Evaluation summary

The completed study encompasses 67 case studies, involving 3000 young people, across 23 local authorities, from both CLD and third sector youth work teams. It provides compelling evidence of positive impacts across a range of attainment-related outcomes including learner engagement, literacy and numeracy, health and wellbeing, skills development and school attendance.

A growing bank of the individual practice examples from the study can also be found here.

For more information about the National Case Study evaluation, please contact ggracie@youthlinkscotland.org