In the Netherlands, the term youth is applied to children and young people from 0 up to the age of 24. Approximately one-third of the Dutch population falls into this category, and one in five young people have an ethnic background. As in most other industrialized countries, the proportion of youth in the total population is decreasing.

The vast majority of young people (85%) present no cause for concern: their average level of education is rising, they are healthy and happy, and they get on well with their parents. However, the remaining 15% do need some additional support. A small number of young people (5%) may be said to have serious social and/or psychological problems for which they may use child and youth case services. These services include ambulant care, day care, residential care and foster care, both in youth protection and youth mental health care.

[...] Capelle aan den IJssel (66.000 inhabitants) has won the Young Local Award, an encouragement prize for the Dutch municipality that implements positive youth policy the best.

The graffiti walls are an excellent example of the city’s approach to young people. After complaints about perceived graffiti vandalism, the city did not chase the painters away. Instead it worked hard on establishing a good relationship with them. This eventually resulted in the designation of four public areas, frequented by youngsters, as areas for free expression of graffiti art. The painters were involved in the design of the walls, the choice of the right locations and the promotion of the walls among the target group. The placing of the walls lead to a significant decrease of complaints about graffiti vandalism.

General youth policy, including non-formal education, general youth services, recreational services and facilities and preventive health care. It also includes access to family support and care coordination (with special focus on parenting support). These services are offered by Youth and Family centres, for which the local authorities are responsible.

The youth care system which covers all forms of care provided to an indicated group of children and adolescents with serious development problems and parents with specific parenting problems, for which the responsibility lies with the provincial authorities. This youth care system focuses on children and young people up to the age of 18 (in some cases this can be extended up to 23 years). There is close cooperation with the schools and local child care services, although they are not formally part of the Dutch youth policy field.

In the Netherlands, as in Finland, UK and Flanders, youth care was one of the driving forces behind the development of broader social work. For parental support makes it possible to intervene in families whilst maintaining the principle of the family as the primary and unique upbringing environment. The child’s standard development - the health and developmental possibilities, including the possibility to develop as a good citizen - was constituted as the standard against which the need to intervene was assessed. In such an agency-driven approach parents can take advantage of the support and counselling offered by social work, as long as they recognise themselves in the agency’s framework with regard to the upbringing of their children.

During the last decades social work increasingly established its own thresholds, standards and approaches to intervention with little reference to personal, family and community (and indeed economic) circumstances.

So professional procedures and practice took over from the needs of the clients. The control of social work based on these assumptions led to a technicalisation: the emphasis lies on manageability and its optimization. The aim is to “empower” individuals so that they can “handle their own problems”. Social policies make abstraction however of the context in which problems can be dealt with and thus empowerment can be realised. Policy planners think increasingly in terms of standard definitions and packages and subsequently leading parents and families to the standardised and compartmentalised social work offer.