ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the current state of youth work in Wales from the points of theory, policy, structure and practice. By the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, the youth service laid claim to be addressing a plethora of social issues, such as unemployment, housing and homelessness, drug misuse, crime, and sexuality. In research conducted on youth work in Wales, it was clear that different forms of youth work provision attract different types of young people. The youth service has always attempted to ‘educate’ young people to consider the causes and consequences of their behaviour. Youth workers have to perform many roles and there are often times when their primary role as ‘educators’ becomes subjugated by the tasks they have, by necessity, to perform as caretakers, ‘policemen’ and instructors. Many strands within the web of youth work practice have been developed and nurtured over many years.
