The National Youth Agency’s (NYA) CEO, Leigh Middleton, OBE, discusses his journey into youth work, the challenges facing the sector and the future of the NYA.

Melissa: Can you tell me a bit about your personal journey into youth work and career progression?

Leigh Middleton: When I was 15, canoeing was my hobby. The local youth service ran it and my youth worker gave me an opportunity to get involved in setting up a youth community action project, which we turned into a charitable organisation as a group of young people. It was my first experience of youth voice, and it felt great!

My first proper job was at Cadburys in their laboratories, but I was terrible at lab work. The company's CEO allowed me to work a day a week, seconded to the charity I’d help set up. That became up to three days a week. Eventually, I decided to turn my hobby into my profession and went to study a Youth and Community Studies degree.

From there, I became a detached youth worker on the streets of Berkshire, tackling street crime and anti-social behaviour. Then I was a senior youth worker for North Reading, and then I had a brief stint as a Connexions Manager. Next, I went to Surrey as a Youth Service Manager, responsible for youth services across half the county. I then moved into Children's Schools and Families commissioning, after which, amazingly, I got a job at the NYA. Who’d have thought that dyslexic kid who set up that charity would ever be offered the chance to lead the national body for his profession? So, yeah, it's still a ‘pinch me’ moment.

Melissa: A lot has happened in the seven years you’ve been at NYA. What have some been some of your biggest challenges and moments as CEO?

Leigh: The impact of massive austerity cuts to the youth sector is the biggest challenge. The youth sector has been disproportionately hit compared with other public services. Youth workers are very passionate about what they do, but even so, keeping people’s spirits up is difficult.

As a professional national body, we’re responsible for producing standards, qualifications, training, safeguarding, and practice guidelines, which funders typically view as the state's job. Our team is much smaller than demand, so I’ve had to build an organisational culture that allows everybody to thrive. We call it our ‘people first’ culture. We don't manage anybody by time. Yes, we've got deadlines and customers to satisfy, but you work your hours when you want to work them. We trust people. Many of our employees come from local government, and we often have to spend several months re-programming these brilliant people to the way we work.

Melissa: What in your view are some of the challenges facing the sector?

Leigh: The impact of austerity on communities, and therefore, in the children and young people space, has been a perfect storm. You’ve got a sector that's lost £1.2 billion, not to mention 4,500 fewer professional workers and over 1000 youth centres that have gone, with many more under threat in local authority areas that are in financial dire straits. Youth workers - who continue to jump out of bed to go and support young people – are operating under the most difficult circumstances.

Through our National Youth Sector Census, we know where the sector’s funds are going and recognise the challenge of short-term funding. The average length of funding in the youth sector today is nine months, which means you can't employ people on permanent contracts because you only have nine months of cash. Youth workers can't secure a mortgage, so they'll go and find a job elsewhere. You've also got trustee boards making tough decisions and holding much higher levels of risk than they're comfortable with, but they know the difference those projects make to so many vulnerable young people. It’s so corrosive to our sector.

Melissa: You’ve been open about having dyslexia, how has your dyslexia impacted your work?

Leigh: Gosh. Over the years, writing reports and things like that has been a challenge and many people would read them and think I was illiterate in the early days!
Nowadays, there are tools that make it easier, and I’ve had great support here as I’ve established a culture of adapting to people’s needs and strengths to get the most out of them.

Imposter syndrome is huge, even today, seven years in, and let’s be honest, leadership within the charity sector is not the most diverse. What’s worked for me is knowing my stuff and being super authentic when I talk to ministers, stakeholders and youth workers in the sector.

Melissa: So in 2025 what do you in the youth sector and your organisation hope to see happen?

Leigh: Hey, we've got a new government, and let's hope they can look at the world through a different lens and galvanise things. We all know the country’s financial story and have to be realistic on that front. I think there's plenty of money to fund youth services if we join the dots together and remove the red tape.

NYA has a clear mission: to enable more people to deliver great youth work. However, the focus is on how we can work in partnership and collaborate more to create more youth work opportunities. Digital youth work is another area you can expect to see more about in 2025.
We've got to start the journey to build a modern, contemporary youth offer for young people across the country, and it will be very different from what was there in the past. We’ve spent the last seven years at NYA rebuilding, working with our partners and young people to rebuild all the foundations for a high-quality and more sustainable sector going forward.

And the last thing I leave you with is that earlier this year, we lost the British Youth Council. NYA picked up all of that work, and we’re now consulting on how we can create a modern way of engaging and amplifying the voices of young people across all decision-making levels.

Find out more about NYA here

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