WA Youth Work Code of Ethics - Review

The Western Australian Youth Work Code of Ethics was first established in 2007 and is held in partnership between Youth Work WA and the Youth Affairs Council of WA (YACWA). The Code of Ethics was last reviewed in 2014 - it's time for a refresh!

To assist us with the review, we engaged human centered design specialists - Tolchard, led by Tom Tolchard and Nina Ulyett.

We're keeping this page up to date with the review so that you can see progress from sector consultation and find out about next steps of the review.

Sector Workshops, May - June 2024:

A series of six online workshops were held which explored key themes of the current Western Australian Youth Work Code of Ethics, ways to adapt or add new sections, and above all, explore consistency and usefulness to young people, front line youth workers and youth work organisations.

High level feedback from these workshops was as follows:

• Aboriginal perspectives: the Code should acknowledge and recognise First Nations culture and perspectives.
• Contemporary factors: a number of global events and changes in society has shaped how we work with young people. For example, a move to online services due to COVID-19, a focus on Child Safe Youth Safe practices as a result of mandatory reporting in some settings, and a change int he workforce with Lived Experience and Peer Work roles becoming common.
• Need to increase acknowledgement of different contexts for regional Youth Workers.
• Youth Work is now more professionalised - the Code is appreciated as a standard to support YW and provide a baseline for all workers and volunteers.
• The Code is useful to articulate to other orgs what Youth Work is and how they will operate.

Reference Group, June - August 2024:

• We formed a Reference Group with 13 leaders from across the youth work sector, this equalled a collective total of approximately 250 years of experience!
• Members of the Reference Group represented Youth Workers from the Not for Profit, Local Government, tertiary education, peak body, regional sectors, and one young person.
• Each Reference Group member brought their professional experience to the group and represented their relevant stakeholder group from the WA youth work sector.
• The Reference Group assisted us to work through several iterations of the draft Code and oversee and provide feedback on the process that was undertaken.
• We have one final Reference Group meeting scheduled for late August, which will focus on deciding a way forward for engagement with First Nations Youth Sector representatives and promoting the sector survey.

Sector Survey, September 2024:

• The current stage of the Code of Ethics Review is a short, three question survey to the WA youth work sector to gain final thoughts and feedback on the final draft of the Code. 
• Once we have the results from the survey, we will take this feedback into account to finalise the revised Youth Workers version of the Code.
• The survey is now open and closes on the 20 September. 

We still have a bit of work to do!

Following finalising the review on the Youth Workers version of the Code, we plan to:

• Re-write the young persons version of the Code of Ethics
• Re-write the case studies and examples that sit alongside the Code of Ethics
• Re-design the graphics on all documentation and materials
• 'Test' the draft version of the Code with young people to seek their feedback
• Launch the revised versions of the Code of Ethics along with refreshed Code of Ethics training