Papers of the National Youth Agency

Papers of the National Youth Agency, including correspondence and minutes relating to the formation of the Agency; staffing and organisational reviews; strategies; policy reviews; liaison with the Department for Education; Joint Negotiating Committee for Youth Leaders reports; papers of the Initial Training and Education Panel; papers relating to the Council for Education and Training in Youth and Community Work; papers relating to aspects of youth work; papers of the global youth work steering group; speeches by Director Janet Paraskeva; and papers relating to conferences on youth services.

Papers of committees including the Executive Board, Management Committee, Education and Training Sub-Committee, Part-time Volunteer Education and Training Steering Committee, Education and Training Standards Committee, Joint Consultative and Negotiating Committee and Partners in Innovation Committee.

Also papers of predecessor body the National Youth Bureau including Executive Committee minutes, papers and correspondence, Management Committee minutes and correspondence, and Finance and Staffing Committee papers.

The collection also includes Inspection reports and Ministry of Education circulars.

In 1990 ministers decided to channel Department of Education funding for five youth service bodies into one high-profile non-departmental public body, to be called the National Youth Agency. The youth service organisations were: the National Youth Bureau, the Council for Education and Training in Youth and Community Work, the National Association for Young People’s Counselling and Advisory Services, the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services, and the British Youth Council.

The National Youth Agency (NYA) was formally launched in October 1991. The new organisation was developed within the existing constitution of the Leicester-based National Youth Bureau as the aims, objectives and governing rules of the Bureau were thought to be broad enough to take on the functions of the new agency. The Director of the Bureau, Janet Paraskeva, was appointed as the first Director of the NYA, Jennifer Wisker was appointed as Chair, while the Bureau’s Management Committee was expanded to reflect the wider interests of the NYA.

The NYA was responsible for the development of youth work curriculum and training development, the endorsement of youth and community work training courses, the accreditation of youth worker staff development policies, the dissemination of information about best practice, assisting with policy development, promotion of partnership working between the voluntary and statutory sectors of youth service, and securing a national focus for the support of youth work.

The National Youth Agency website states that its current aims for to support youth workers by championing their work, enabling them, and professionalising youth work. The organisation is still based in Leicester.

Open for general access.

Deposited by the NYA in September 2011 and February 2012.

A basic list is available from the Archivist on request. A more detailed catalogue will be prepared in due course.

Description prepared by Katharine Short, Archivist, March 2013.

Copyright is held by the NYA.

Alongside the archive, the NYA donated a collection of youth work books, journals, pamphlets and teaching resources. These have been catalogued as a sequence within the DMU Special Collections. This can be searched on the main DMU Library catalogue.