Scotland’s Education Recovery Action Plan needs to go further to ensure vital youth work support is there for young people.
In response to the Scottish Government’s Education Recovery: Key Actions and Next Steps, YouthLink Scotland has made key recommendations to the action plan, to make sure youth work is recognised and is funded as an integral and ongoing part of education recovery for our young people.
To ensure the success of the Education Recovery Action Plan, YouthLink Scotland has called for:
In the last year, £3m of funding through the Youth Work Education Recovery Fund has been vital to young people in some of our most vulnerable communities. This money has supported their educational, social and emotional recovery. Youth work has also been pivotal to success of the ‘Get into Summer’ programme, tackling learning loss, mental wellbeing, isolation and food insecurity. Read our Youth Work Education Recovery Fund progress report for more details.
As we move forward, youth work will continue to make an important contribution to the key priorities of:
Our recommendations and response, informed and developed with the sector, looks to strengthen the role of youth work in the next steps of education recovery:
“Youth work has been highlighted as an imperative throughout the coronavirus pandemic and a necessity for meaningful recovery. However, youth work’s role must be fully recognised within the wider education system beyond crisis responding. Parity of esteem needs to mean parity of investment now and in the long term. Therefore, commitment to investment in youth work infrastructure is required to meet the aims laid out in the education action plan.”
You can read YouthLink Scotland’s full response here.