YAC Impact Study 2025/26

September 2026

The YAC Impact Study (2024–2027) was commissioned by the Council for British Archaeology and funded by Historic England to understand the difference YAC makes to young people’s lives. Over three years, members, parents, carers and volunteer leaders have shared their experiences through surveys, interviews, observations and creative evaluation activities.

We are delighted to share the results and final report from the 2025/26 Impact Study! Working with a sample of seven YAC branches across different regions of England, the report explores the difference that YAC makes to the lives of young people…

For over 2000 young people, YAC is a place to discover the heritage on their doorstep, meet friends who share their interests and try something new. It’s where young people can build confidence and social skills, discover what they’re capable of and, sometimes, simply feel like they can be themselves.

Across three years of evidence, the Impact Study has shown that YAC is much more than a place to learn about archaeology. It is a welcoming community where young people explore their interests, develop lasting friendships and grow in confidence. Hands-on heritage is the starting point, but the benefits extend into many areas of young people’s lives.

This is the third YAC Impact Study was made possible thanks to funding from Historic England. Seven YAC groups from across England took part, including a mix of different branch types (CBA-managed, Affiliate and After-school) with varying age ranges and member and volunteer numbers. A big thank you to this year’s participating branches!

• Canterbury YAC
• Brighton YAC
• Manchester YAC
• Museum of Farnham YAC
• Headlands Primary School YAC
• Northamptonshire YAC
• The Sill YAC

We were also really lucky to be able to recruit Rebecca Jacobs, an arts and heritage consultant, to work with us for the second year running to develop the methodology for the study. Rebecca developed a series of surveys YAC members and their parents/carers, online focus groups and on-the-ground activities to be undertaken as part of YAC sessions that would help us explore particular experiences and impacts. Rebecca also conducted in-depth interviews with YAC leaders and members to create some fantastic case studies.

Rebecca also worked with the leaders of the participating branches to co-create some evaluation and consultation tools to help clubs gather feedback from members in a fun and informal way. We plan to share these with the wider YAC network so that all branches can make use of these evaluation tools and embed more youth voice into the running of their clubs.

Thanks to funding from Historic England, a new YAC Impact Study for 2026/27 is already underway. We look forward to exploring future findings and implementing recommendations from the report across the YAC network.

We are really pleased to be able to share the YAC Impact Study for 2025/26: