Walking Beside Young People – The Role of Keyworkers in Tackling Extra-Familial Harm 

It’s been three years since the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care was published by the Department for Education. In that time, families across England and Wales have continued to face challenges related to serious youth violence and criminal exploitation. 

As set out in the care review recommendation, better integration of different organisational responses should be prioritised to minimise the number of plans, professionals and organisations that a young person has to deal with and that support should continue for older teenagers beyond the age of 18. While multi-agency groups were already in place in local authorities, new and strengthened approaches have begun to emerge to better identify and respond to children and young people (CYP) at risk of or experiencing harm outside the home. 

At the heart of many of these models are keyworkers – professionals with lead responsibility for coordinating the care and support provided to CYP affected by harm outside the home. Keyworkers may come from a range of professional backgrounds, including social work, youth work, health, education, policing or voluntary services. While their primary role is to bring together the different services and supports around a young person, keyworkers often build trusted relationships with the young person that make it possible to listen, advocate, and walk alongside them through their recovery and beyond. 

The Agency Collaboration Fund 2 (ACF2) evaluation explored how five of these new multi-agency models – supporting families and CYP aged 10-20 – worked in practice across England and Wales, and what made them effective. All models centralised the role of the keyworker in developing relationships with young people and coordinating their support. The following stories, shared by keyworkers, reveal the depth and complexity of this work. 

Building Trust, One Walk at a Time 

For a Youth Support Worker in Cardiff Council’s Keeping and Stay Safe team, flexibility was key. 

My day usually kicks off by meeting young people wherever suits them best – often outside their homes or at a local park. We usually grab some food, then go for a wellbeing walk, hang out by the lake, or chat in the park. The goal is simple: give them space to talk and decompress. If they leave the session feeling even slightly lighter than when they came, that’s a win.

These casual encounters between keyworker and young person can develop trust. Over time, these small, steady interactions build the confidence young people need to open up and accept further support. 

“Have Banter, or Get Roasted” 

In Swansea Council, a Youth Work Co-ordinator in the Contextual, Missing, Exploited and Trafficked team described her role as a mix of creativity, consistency, and humour. 

Every day is different as a youth worker – that’s why I love it! Rule number one: have banter or get roasted.

Her mornings often started with one-to-one support, whether in schools, homes, or even sitting alongside a young person during a police interview. Afternoons often incorporated group sessions and multi-agency coordination, but not delivery in formal classroom settings. 

We don’t keep young people sat around in schools. I run group work at Pure Football, leisure centres, or local hubs. If it’s not fun, it’s not going to work.

Evenings are dedicated to detached youth work – being present in hotspot areas, checking in with businesses, distributing safeguarding packs, and offering informal chats with young people. A highlight was the Bronwen, the youth work bus – a mobile hub with private spaces, consoles, and sexual health resources. 

Her approach was simple: connect on their level, or risk losing them. 

Tailored Support 

In the London Borough of Newham, a Disruption Youth Support Officer within the Thriving Communities team started each day with a plan but knows it didn’t always go as expected. School visits, home sessions, and multi-agency meetings made up the bulk of her work – but the real focus was on tailoring support to each young person’s need. 

I focus on children who are really vulnerable – those on the edge of school exclusion, dealing with exploitation, or falling through service gaps.

Keyworkers encounter a wide variety of young people, so the support they provide rarely looks the same. For some, it involves structured intervention plans and regular meetings with teachers, health professionals, and social workers. For others, it might mean helping re-establish routines at home or finding safe community spaces. Flexibility and persistence are crucial – as shown in one case where the keyworker fought to secure overdue mental health support for a young person with autism: 

It taught me persistence matters. You’ve got to keep believing in these kids, even when the system puts up barriers.

Her story underlined why a single, standard approach won’t work. Each young person’s journey requires something different – from re-engaging in school to accessing specialist help – and interventions only succeed when they feel relevant and realistic to that young person. 

The Joy of Breakthroughs 

Across the board, practitioners said their greatest rewards come from moments of change. 

One described a young person who barely spoke at first but, after months of consistent support, re-engaged with school, rebuilt family relationships, and distanced themselves from harmful peers. Another spoke of the buzz when a group suddenly clicked during a session, or when a young person approached them during detached work. 

Those moments are everything. They show you the work is landing.

Changing the Narrative Around Harm 

Many keyworkers said this work has reshaped how they see risk and behaviour. 

These kids aren’t ‘bad’. They’re coping. The violence, the shutdowns, the running – it’s all coming from somewhere. When you understand that, you approach it differently.

The lesson was clear: harm isn’t just about bad decisions. It’s often about survival strategies in unsafe settings. What young people need most is early, flexible, relational support and systems that see them as people first, not just cases to be managed. 

What ACF2 Has Taught Me 

Through the ACF2 evaluation, we’ve built a better picture of how multi-agency models can work to disrupt harm and keep young people safe. The insights from keyworkers in Cardiff Council, Swansea Council, and the London Borough of Newham show that good support is more about: 

• Consistency: showing up, again and again. 
• Advocacy: fighting for young people when services are stretched. 
• Creativity: finding fun, safe, and flexible ways to engage. 
• Belief: seeing potential where others may only see risk. 

Keyworkers bring all of this together. They show that strong, trusting relationships can help young people feel supported and start to make positive changes. 

The stories shared here highlight the quiet power of keyworker roles. These professionals walk beside young people in their most vulnerable moments, by offering trust, humour, persistence, and care. 

For more on what we’ve learned through the ACF2 evaluation, please see our full report here. 

Building on this, we will also be producing a practice insight guidance on effective multi-agency partnerships and case management for CYP at risk of involvement in violence. This interim guidance, together with the ACF2 report, will inform YEF’s Area Leaders Programme.