Beyond the State: How ‘Voluntary’ Is the Voluntary Youth Sector?

Abstract

The extent and impacts of cuts in state funding for voluntary youth sector organisations before and after ‘austerity’; some limited government initiatives offering alternative forms of support. Key steps in the restructuring of the voluntary youth sector itself as leading organisations—particularly Ambition, UK Youth and National Council for Voluntary Youth Services—sought more collaborative ways of working and then agreed organisational mergers. Key national voluntary youth organisations’ limited critiques of government youth policies; their overall acceptance of the ideology and operational approaches shaping these; and their (pro-)active participation in their delivery. The consequences of these responses for their role as independent and critical civil society bodies; the sector’s rationale for responding in these ways.