Youth work: April 2020 to March 2021

This is the first set of these statistics that cover the period of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (with the exception of March 2020 that fell in the 2019-20 reporting year). This has had a substantial impact on some figures, in particular the ‘members’ and ‘projects’ sections of this release, as outreach was affected by the pandemic and restrictions in place. This should be kept in mind when making comparisons to previous years.

Main points

• There were 32,751 registered members of statutory youth work sector provision in 2020-21, down 62% on 2019-20(a).
• At March 2021, there were around 754 full-time equivalent youth work management and delivery staff working across local authorities in Wales, an increase of 5% compared with the previous year(b).
• The total income for youth work provision in 2020-21 was £38.5 million and total expenditure was £38.1 million. Both saw an increase compared with 2020-21(b).

(a) Comparisons between 2019-20 and 2020-21 are based on the 21 local authorities that provided data for both years.
(b) Comparisons between 2019-20 and 2020-21 are based on all 22 local authorities.