Innovation Explored: Preventative approaches – Improving Outcomes for Young People
Investing in young people is an investment in the future. The support, opportunities and relationships they experience today shape their health, wellbeing and life chances for years to come. For local authorities, this means looking beyond immediate challenges and considering how prevention can help young people thrive while reducing the need for more intensive support later in life.
Our Innovation Exchange explored how councils are putting this into practice. Tom Bowring, Director of Corporate Resource from the Vale of Glamorgan shared how the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act informs preventative budgeting, including dedicated funding for young people. Simon Fraiz-Brown, Head of Commissioning, Family Help, from Dorset Council discussed the development of targeted youth work. Breakout groups then brought colleagues from across the UK together to share local experiences and explore practical approaches.
Two themes ran throughout the discussion: the importance of embedding youth voice in decision-making, rather than treating it as a one-off exercise, and the complexity of the systems surrounding young people, which makes collaboration across services essential.
Summary of discussion:
Key practical insights
The discussion highlighted how evidence, investment and partnership working can help councils strengthen preventative approaches.
- Research on young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) helped the Vale of Glamorgan make the case for investment. Evidence shared indicated that adults who had been NEET were six times more likely to be out of work in midlife and three times more likely to report poor health. Youth charity Impetus estimates the lifetime cost to government at just under £250,000 per person.
- The Vale introduced an additional 0.5% on council tax to ringfence £500,000 for preventative youth services.
- Youth voice is embedded across the Vale’s work. Tom Bowring explained, “we miss a trick if we don’t consistently talk to young people about the impact our decisions have on them.”
- The Leader of the Council personally visited every secondary school in the county to hear directly from young people when developing her approach to budget setting with the Cabinet. Council-wide strategies must also include young people’s perspectives.
- Dorset expanded its youth voice team, recognising its value in helping other services reach young people whose experiences might otherwise go unheard. Simon noted it’s “not just the young people that are involved with the youth voice team, it’s about how you use their expertise to capture those that most need to be listened to.”
- Dorset’s targeted youth work team grew from 6 to 22 posts, connecting young people with support across home, school and community. Its approach adapts to local needs, from detached youth work in urban areas to planned school drop-ins in rural communities.
- Effective youth work relies on partnerships with schools, voluntary organisations, police, social care, health services and others. However, Dorset identified opportunities to improve coordination between the strategic leads for extra-familial harm, missing children and targeted youth work.
- Since 2021, Dorset’s youth fund has distributed close to £1 million through more than 150 grants, with applicants required to demonstrate how young people shaped their proposals.
- Workforce shortages remain a challenge. Dorset is responding by training staff in-house and offering a youth support worker apprenticeship. Funding for open access youth provision is limited and below pre-austerity levels. The government focus on areas of greater social need does not always take account of rural disadvantage.
Innovation explored
In breakout discussions, our members shared how councils are adapting preventative approaches to their local circumstances, alongside the challenges of sustaining and scaling successful initiatives.
- One district council embedded youth workers in schools to connect young people with support in school and the community, but struggled to secure continuation funding.
- One council adopted an “apprenticeship first” policy, working with HR colleagues to identify roles suitable for apprenticeships and challenge assumptions about the investment required.
- Councils described using existing citywide goals and health and wellbeing strategies to make prevention a shared priority, even where responsibility for youth services sits with another tier of local government.
- Participants highlighted practical ways to strengthen connections between services, including ensuring schools had GP and health and social care contact details, and improving coordination between mental health crisis response and prevention.
- A hospital-based young social prescriber role demonstrated how support can respond to complex needs. Participants also stressed that young people need to feel safe and build trust before they can engage in conversations about their future.
- One council wants to move beyond the “usual suspects” in youth participation by training young people to gather the views of their peers. This followed a youth summit that generated plenty of discussion but insufficient action.
- Participants recognised that prevention takes time to demonstrate results, while political and budget cycles are often short. Because youth services are frequently non-statutory, they can be vulnerable to cuts when financial pressures increase.
The central message was that improving outcomes for young people requires sustained investment, meaningful participation and stronger connections between services. Prevention is not simply about intervening earlier; it is about creating the conditions in which young people feel supported, have their voices heard and can access the right help at the right time. For local authorities, this means looking beyond immediate pressures and recognising the long-term value of investing in young people’s futures.
Other resources:
Sharing power with young people in investment – what worked and what we’d change | LinkedIn
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