PATRON APPRECIATION

Bernard Davies – 90 years strong and still a champion for Youth Work 

Bernard Davies, our patron since 2019, turns 90 this August and Chilypep wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the enormous impact of his writings, commentary and activism of past, present and, we have no doubt, future (he is still writing!).

In their introduction to his 2005 ‘Youth Work: A Manifesto of our Times’ Youth Policy describe Bernard as having been “the most significant practitioner and intellectual in the field of youth work in the last fifty years. His understanding of the nature of the work is based upon an enduring sympathy for the position of young people in society. This sympathy is informed by a systematic and critical understanding of the structural position which they inhabit as young people and as members of different social groups in an unequal and dynamic world.” It has been 20 years since that description and over those 20 years, Bernard’s appetite for continuing to highlight the importance of youth work and its place within the policies of successive governments has not abated, with his latest book, ‘Youth Work Policies in England, 2019 – 2023, Can Open Youth Work Survive? (Springer Nature, 2024) having been published last year. 

Bernard is, perhaps, the most influential figure in the development of youth work in Britain in last sixty years. His work, initially with Alan Gibson, was central to social education becoming a defining feature of youth work in the 1960s and 1970s. His analysis of youth and youth work continues to allow workers to develop a more critical social and historical understanding of practice. (Infed.org, 22/07/25) 

He trained and qualified as a youth worker back in the 1970s, did face-to-face youth work in Leicester, Leyland in Lancashire and Leamington Spa (also now many years ago!) and for five years was a Youth Officer with what then proudly called itself Sheffield Youth Service. He has also been a tutor on youth work, teaching and social work qualifying courses and after ‘retiring’ did consultancy work with both statutory and voluntary youth organisations. His career highlights include being a visiting professor at Leicester De Montfort University and a trustee of the Muslim Youth Work Foundation and 42nd Street, a young people’s mental health resource in Manchester. His publications include a three-volume “History of the Youth Service in England and Youth work”, and he has continued to research and write about both the history of youth work and current policy developments which affect it and youth services more broadly. 

In 2009 he was a signatory to the ‘Open Letter’ which prompted the creation of In Defence of Youth Work (https://indefenceofyouthwork.com/the-in-defence-of-youth-work-letter-2/) and has been invited to speak at numerous national and international events working closely with colleagues in other countries including Ireland and Japan. 

At present he is on the board of a local community centre in Leamington Spa where he has lived for over twenty years. As well as fulfilling general trustee responsibilities, he has been focussing particularly on how the Centre is able to develop its youth work provision on the large former council housing estate served by the centre. 

In 2019 when he joined Chilypep as a patron he said, ‘what I love about Chilypep is its commitment to making sure young people have not just a voice but an impact on what organisations do and their policies, and the imaginative ways it goes about making that commitment real’.

There can be no doubt that Bernard’s own commitment to ensuring that youth work has a voice and in turn how this has impacted both practitioners and youth work organisations over so many years should and must be celebrated given the crucial recognition that the current Labour government are now placing on youth work through it’s much awaited new Youth Strategy. Bernard’s huge contribution to highlighting youth work as a valid and valuable practice repeatedly over the years and his warmth and personal commitment to young people,  youth work students, youth workers, youth work managers and youth work organisations emphasises the special place that he has within the sector and we all at Chilypep want to wish him a very happy 90th birthday!!! 

&

Bernard Davies Bio – in his own words

I trained and qualified as a youth worker many years ago, did face-to-face youth work in Leicester, Leyland in Lancashire and Leamington Spa (also now many years ago!) and for five years was a Youth Officer with what then proudly called itself Sheffield Youth Service. I have also been a tutor on youth work, teaching and social work qualifying courses and after ‘retiring’ (again many years ago) did consultancy work with both statutory and voluntary youth organisations. I have continued to research and write about both the history of youth work and current policy developments which affect it and youth services more broadly.

In 2009 I was a signatory to the ‘Open Letter’ which prompted the creation of In Defence of Youth Work (https://indefenceofyouthwork.com/the-in-defence-of-youth-work-letter-2/).

I am on the board of a local community centre in Leamington where I have lived for nearly twenty years. As well as fulfilling general trustee responsibilities, I have been focussing particularly on how we might get more youth work provision on the large former council housing estate served by the centre.

I now very much look forward to contributing in some way to Chilypep’s work and on-going development.

What I love about Chilypep is its commitment to making sure young people have not just a voice but an impact on what organisations do and their policies, and the imaginative ways it goes about making that commitment real.