Youth and Local Community Engagement in Devon in the 1960s: Voluntary Sector or State Control after the Albemarle Report?

Abstract

Between the publication of the Albemarle Report on the Youth Service in 1960 and the findings of the Youth and Community Work in the 70s: the Fairbairn-Milson Report in 1969, local authorities in England attempted to rationalize services for young people in line with State directives. The decade began optimistically with policies that aimed to engineer an expansion of the State's role in influencing after-school activities. However, throughout the period progress was uneven and this study focuses on Devon to shed light on the effectiveness of the State ideology in the 1960 directive and its impact on the voluntary organisations that determined local strategies for engaging young people. History from below has a valuable contribution to make to national studies of the Youth Service, and this is enriched by the oral contributions and primary sources that help to develop an understanding of how local authorities responded to the young people in their area, the challenges they faced in improving services, and how far their relationship with the voluntary sector changed as a result of the 1960 Albemarle Report.