Advantaged Thinking: 15 years on but a long way to go

“It is hard not to be pessimistic when you examine the data. But the reason to be optimistic is young people themselves. In almost every conversation I had, there was an interest, a passion, a talent just under the surface…” – Young people and work: interim report, May 2026

This year marks the 15th anniversary of Advantaged Thinking and – while we’re taking the opportunity to reflect on the progress that the Advantaged Thinking community has made – it’s abundantly clear that there’s still work to be done.

We developed the Advantaged Thinking approach to challenge and take action against the prevailing deficit-based practices in systems for young people. Put simply, Advantaged Thinking encourages people to reject the narratives that portray young people as problems to be solved or as unfinished products, and instead focus on the strengths, talents and potential that young people already have.

Over the last 15 years, we’ve been working with our network of Youth Foyer supported housing services to embed the Advantaged Thinking approach into practice with young people who can’t live at home – and the impact shows that it works.

Last winter, 91% of young people we surveyed agreed that their Youth Foyer was supporting them to build motivation, resilience and belief in themselves.

As one young person put it at our ‘Forging a vibrant future in youth supported housing’ event last year, which brought together young people, leaders, practitioners and commissioners in the national sector:

“The work Youth Foyers do makes a difference – helping young people stop feeling like a weed in an overgrown garden but to feel like a flower growing in a beautiful one.” – Ethan, On Route Foyer

What’s more, Advantaged Thinking leads to hard outcomes. Our benchmarking data shows a strong correlation between the percentage of staff trained in strengths-based approaches and the percentage of young people entering paid employment during their stay.

We’ve seen first hand the power that Advantaged Thinking can have in breaking down barriers for and with young people who can’t live at home and, over the years – hand in hand with young people and practitioners from across the Youth Foyer Network as a community of innovators and best practice champions – we’ve taken the approach even further.

From 2021-25, our Youth Power Fund redistributed power in Youth Foyers, encouraging decision-makers to step aside and make space for young people to meaningfully shape and influence their services and communities.

We worked with young people to understand what meaningful power in youth supported housing means to them, and we put young people’s experiences, passions and voices front and centre to challenge the assumptions propping up Youth Foyers’ systems. As one young leader explains it, “[The Youth Power Fund] fosters trust and empowers the youth to take the lead in their own lives.”

By providing Youth Foyers with grants – and complete trust throughout the lifetime of the programme – we saw young people innovate, challenge and grow in ways we could never have predicted. Through this offering of trust and belief – core principles of the Advantaged Thinking approach – we saw youth power evolve to nurture strong, thriving communities of young people making real change happen.

“I’ve grown so much – not just as a leader, but as a person. I’ve learned how to plan events, work as part of a team, and most importantly, how to use my voice to help create something powerful for our community.” – Young Leader

It’s with this experience that, in early 2026, we submitted an evidence-based response to the Milburn Review into the causes of – and solutions to – unemployment amongst young people aged 16 to 24. We advocated for holistic, strengths-based support for young people that enables them to transition to adulthood with the power and agency to thrive – the approach that the Youth Foyer network lives and breathes.

One of our specific recommendations was that support for and narratives surrounding young people should prioritise their strengths and potential, and should hold out the same aspirations for young people as we would for our own friends and families.

So, when the interim report was published last month, we were relieved to see that this recommendation had been taken on board:

“Every young person has something to give: a skill, an aptitude, a potential. No young person should be written off because of where they start in life: the family they are born into, the school they attend, the health condition they have, or the barriers they face.”

The report went further, firmly asserting the need for significant systemic change and shifting blame from young people and onto the institutions that have let them down:

“I do not accept the caricature of a generation that is not interested in employment. I do not accept that mental health is simply an excuse. Nor do I accept that the answer is to tell young people who are struggling simply to try harder. These are myths. Sometimes cruel ones. Young people are not to blame. Institutions that should have provided opportunities to them are the ones that have failed.”

But, while it’s encouraging to see this conversation unfolding on a national scale, and problematic narratives surrounding young people rejected, the report was damning, and highlighted the sheer scale of the problem – precisely the problem that Advantaged Thinking was conceived to address back in 2011:

“It is hard not to be pessimistic when you examine the data. But the reason to be optimistic is young people themselves. In almost every conversation I had, there was an interest, a passion, a talent just under the surface… Too often those strengths had gone unnoticed and overshadowed by the labels attached to them: absent, anxious, difficult, behind, disabled, care-experienced, NEET.”

So, as we reflect on the progress the Advantaged Thinking community has made – and on the thousands of young people who have flourished in and beyond a Youth Foyer – our mandate is clear.

The ideas that inspired Advantaged Thinking 15 years ago are just as relevant today as they were then. And, if anything, the Milburn Review has shown just how urgently they are needed.

Young people need to be recognised, trusted and provided with genuine and meaningful opportunities to shape their futures, and – until every system that serves young people holds that belief at its core – our work is not done.

That is why we’ll continue growing the Advantaged Thinking community – challenging deficit-based narratives, sharing power, and championing strengths, talents and aspirations that already exist in every young person.

15 years on, Advantaged Thinking is no longer just an idea. The Youth Foyer Network shows it works time and time again. The task now is to make sure young people benefit from it across the board – and this can’t be achieved by one person alone.

Find out more and join the Advantaged Thinking movement here.