Inspection Summary Report - Mountcollyer Youth Centre, Belfast

Mountcollyer Youth Centre, Belfast

Inspection Summary Report - March 2026

Mountcollyer Youth Centre’s clearly established and ambitious vision is firmly rooted in the needs, aspirations and contexts of the young people it serves. Its strong commitment to trauma-informed, strengths-based practice ensures that young people across the area have equitable access to high-quality youth work that promotes confidence, resilience and personal growth.
Effective leadership ensures clear alignment between strategic priorities, programme planning and staff professional development to create a purposeful environment where young people are supported to achieve, grow in confidence and participate fully within their community.
Provision is consistently effective and characterised by relational, nurturing approaches which engage the young people and enhance their participation, sense of belonging and emotional well-being.
The needs-led youth work curriculum is consistently planned, evaluated and informed by consultation with the young people.
Staff place a strong emphasis on building trusting relationships with the young people and ensuring that young people feel safe, supported, and well informed; safeguarding is central to every aspect of the provision.
The inclusion of young people from different backgrounds and with a range of complex needs is a strength of the provision and integral to the delivery of programmes.
The young people’s successes, including their personal and social development and accredited qualifications gained, are displayed throughout the building and on social media, reinforced verbally by the staff and celebrated formally through awards ceremonies.
Strong and purposeful partnership-working significantly enriches learning opportunities, broadens the young people’s experiences and contributes to improved community cohesion, particularly through cross‑community, newcomer‑friendly and SEN-focused programmes.
The young people benefit from meaningful leadership and progression opportunities; their voice is making a difference through structures such as Local Youth Voice and Empowerment (LYVE), North and East Belfast Youth Voice and the Local Advisory Group (LAG).
The experienced and reflective staff team demonstrate a commitment to continued professional development, including through shared learning opportunities with neighbouring youth centres, which is strengthened further by a positive and inclusive learning environment that includes a research library within the centre.
At the time of the inspection, the evidence provided by Mountcollyer Youth Centre demonstrates that the arrangements for child and adult protection align to the current statutory guidance. The staff would benefit from training by the EA in adult safeguarding arrangements in the youth environment.

Next steps

Mountcollyer Youth Centre’s clear and ambitious vision is firmly rooted in the needs, aspirations and contexts of the young people it serves: ‘Empowering and supporting every young person to improve their life opportunities by realising their full potential’.

As appropriately identified by the centre, the next step for Mountcollyer Youth Centre is to take forward the following area for action: to develop further their work with young men to strengthen engagement and promote positive masculinity.

The District Inspector will monitor the youth centre’s progress in addressing the area for action, as part of ETI’s routine monitoring processes.

Inspectors identified aspects of highly effective practice from which others may learn. The aspects of practice which should be shared more widely are:

the centre’s active participation in extensive and well-embedded, collaborative networks to support the holistic development of the young people; and
the commitment to early career development of and continuous professional learning for student youth workers.