Staffordshire Council of Voluntary Youth Services (SCVYS) was established in 1982 by the larger traditional voluntary youth services operating in the County, including Scouts, Girlguiding, Federation of Young Farmers Clubs, Boys and Girls Brigades. The network provided a useful way of sharing information and best practice, coming together for training or networking and to lobby local elected members over different issues of interest and concern.

In 2011 SCVYS was commissioned by Staffordshire County Council to deliver support to the youth sector. SCVYS, now a charitable company, matured whilst more than meeting the initial contractual requirements.

SCVYS was a major partner in mitigating the potential negative implications of the closure of the local authority youth service in 2014. This was achieved by increasing the capacity of the voluntary youth sector enabling it to be strong, safe and sustainable.

SCVYS supports the Council with their statutory duties around sufficient availability of local positive activities and listening to the voice of children, young people and families to improve service provision.

SCVYS is a representative voice for the voluntary sector on a number of strategic boards and provides leadership on partnership priorities such as Early Help and Children, Young People and Families Voice.

Membership of SCVYS has steadily risen from around 15 groups at our inception to our current membership of more than 200 organisations.