When Carolyn Caldwell walked into an empty office on 6 May last year, she was marking the birth of a new organisation as well as a new career. Connexions, the government’s advice and support service for 13 to 19 year olds, felt it needed an independent voice and the former social work manager was appointed to lead the newly formed National Association of Connexions Partnerships.

Caldwell wanted a fresh challenge after 29 years in social services and swapped her job as assistant director for children and families at Nottingham social services to set up NACP from scratch.

When she applied for the role she saw it as a chance to influence services "for large numbers of young people rather than the small minority that come across your threshold at social services".

Caldwell says the inspiration for the NACP came from staff involved in Connexions’ predecessors, local authority-based careers services.

"Many of the Connexions chief executives formerly ran careers services and they had an association to lobby government and promote their work," she explains. Connexions’ chiefs thought Connexions partnerships would benefit from a similar arrangement, she adds.

Without an independent voice, professionals can do little to influence government. Youth offending teams have already joined forces to set up an independent association, and it will be interesting to see whether the local organisations that deliver other big government programmes for children, the Children’s Fund and Sure Start, follow suit.

The NACP, which is based in Sheffield, was funded by partnerships’ subscriptions. It has a staff of three. "We represent the views of the partnerships, act as a discussion forum, and promote communication," says Caldwell. The association also has an important role in promoting and supporting good practice, she says.

The 47 Connexions partnerships in England have been phased in since April 2001. "The longest established partnerships can prevent the newest from reinventing the wheel," she says.

The key role in Connexions is played by personal advisers who steer young people through the maze of education and career opportunities as well as support those struggling with depression, drug abuse and sexual health problems.

Caldwell says developing the professional nature of the personal adviser role is high on the NACP’s agenda. During a career spanning six different council social services departments and five years in the voluntary sector, she has watched the social work role develop into a recognised profession. She says the adviser role needs to undergo the same process.

In some ways the job is a hybrid, she says. "Some people see it as a careers adviser, others as a youth or social worker. Defining what personal advisers do is one issue we have to tackle."

Another key aspect of the organisation’s business plan is to establish a dialogue with the Connexions Service National Unit at the DfES. "We aim to develop routine consultancy so we can get involved early on in the work they’re doing. I thought they might be a bit wary of us but so far the contact has been very positive."

Departmental civil servants would do well to make friends with the NACP. When Connexions was introduced there were concerns about the service’s ability to offer quality services across the board. A perennial concern is that careers advice is being sidelined as partnerships struggle to meet government targets to help the most excluded youngsters.

Caldwell says feedback suggests the partnerships are working well and that young people are happy with the service.

Whatever aspect of the service is under scrutiny, she says, "we must ask ourselves is this going to help young people and if not why are we doing it at all?"

- National Association of Connexions Partnerships at www.nacp.co.uk