Eastgate House
19 – 23 Humberstone Road
LE5 3GL
Company No.: 6989477
Charity Registration
Number: 1135823
Contents
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Introduction:
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Strategic Actions 2013 – 14
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3
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Extract from 2012 Annual Report
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Policy Papers:
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Introduction
Who we are
The Confederation of Heads of Young People’s Services (CHYPS), was
launched in June 2009, further extending the role of APYCO (the Association of
Principal Youth and Community Officers formed in 1995). The Confederation
represents the interests and advocates on behalf of all those who
deliver, manage and commission youth work and are responsible the effective delivery of all elements of Youth Support
Services. The Confederation is a company limited by guarantee (company no.
6989477) and a registered charity (registration no. 1135823)
CHYPS’ key function is to represent its members at both a
national and local level to influence policy,
campaign and to champion the cause of good quality youth work. It does this
through the maintenance and development of a national and regional infrastructure
It works with partners engaged in youth work delivery, and with those campaigning
to protect youth work in future. It places value on its relationship with its
members and works in partnership with national partners to secure the
best possible outcomes for young people
CHYPS key principles are:
- Placing the needs and aspirations of young people as core to our
function
- Supporting the delivery of Government youth policy for the benefit
of young people
- Improving outcomes for young people
- Promoting young people’s voice
- Young people’s voluntary engagement in learning experiences
- Young people’s personal and social development
- Young people’s positive contribution to their communities
- Promoting and securing the contribution of youth work
CHYPS believes:
Good youth work develops the ability of young people to think for
themselves, provide opportunities for them to shape their own futures and to
act for others.
Youth work services focus directly on the needs and interests of the
‘whole’ young person. They have no other agenda than to support and develop
each young person towards a better future of their own choosing.
Youth work helps young people learn about themselves, others and
society, through non-formal educational activities which combine enjoyment,
challenge and learning.
Youth work is particularly important in building relationships between generations,
in drawing on what people of all ages hold in common, as well as recognising
differences in their experiences. Young people have much to gain from inter-generational
programmes.
Youth work enables young people to contribute to the Big Society, developing
young people as citizens, and supports them with their volunteering
STRATEGIC ACTIONS 2013-14
Advocate on behalf of Young People’s
Services at both a national and local level, supporting and equipping all those
who deliver, manage and commission youth work so they can secure the best
possible outcomes for young people in their local area.
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That the values of the
organisation are underpinned by a commitment a belief that young people should:
- have
the opportunity to engage in a range of activities in their area
- be
able to access the services they need
- have
someone to go to for information advice guidance or support
- be
able to contribute to their community as full partners and citizens
- fully
enjoy their teenage years
- gain
new knowledge, experiences and new skills
The priority areas for the CHYPS business
plan are:
- To
influence policy, championing at both national and local level the value
of young people’s services (including youth work), campaigning on behalf
of all those who deliver, manage and commission young people’s services, articulating their importance in
contributing to young people’s learning and development
- To
recruit and retain CHYPS members and promote the organisation within LA
directly delivered and commissioned services
- To
ensure that the organisation infrastructure continues to be fit for
purpose to meet changing environment;
developing an internal communication strategy, to support the needs
of members and ensure that their views are adequately reflected in
national discussions
- To
build appropriate alliances at both a national and local level to secure
the future of Young People’s Services, particularly with Ministers, the
DfE and identified priority partners.
- To
support, where appropriate, those who deliver, manage and commission youth
work with peer support or limited intervention from the organisation and
with appropriate CPD opportunities to equip them to meet the challenges of
redesigning and commissioning services
Policy Paper: Young people, schools and participation
Introduction
At
the heart of the transition into adulthood is the journey to viable
independence from their families that a young person makes. Achievement in formal education is a key
factor that determines a young person’s future employability, their income,
housing, mental and physical health and well being. Most make that successful
transition, some need additional support. The two groups at greatest risk of
experiencing difficulties are students from poorer backgrounds and those with
special educational needs. Youth workers support young peoples’ engagement and
attainment in education, and young people’s personal and social development.
The introduction of the Pupil Premium and RPA provide opportunities and
challenges for schools and the role of youth support services.
Schools
Schools are a central
feature in all young people’s lives – they are one of a few ‘universal’
services. Young people’s services complement work in schools for vulnerable
young people and those who are disaffected by school; as well as those services
that support the wider student population those who are engaged in positive
activity, youth voice and volunteering. There
is a shared agenda in Education, teaching and learning across schools, colleges
and youth work:
·
Personal
and social development, building resilience and raising aspirations
·
Engagement
in learning for those at risk of dropping out or not achieving their potential
·
Reduction
in risky behaviours which can undermine young people’s life chances, and
prevent involvement in crime and anti-social behaviour
Strong
partnership work can be achieved through local leadership, recognising the role
of schools as commissioners and an alignment of resources:
·
The
NEET agenda and raising the participation age, and record levels of youth
unemployment, act as drivers for greater levels of engagement
·
The
Pupil Premium, with greater targeting of resource, can provide more
personalised support for vulnerable young people
·
Personal
and social development is key in the transition to adulthood supporting key
points of transition as young people progress in their educational careers
This includes partnerships to
make the most of the facilities available within the community – such as
schools, libraries or community facilities – as places for young people to go
and from which to offer integrated or co-located services.
Participation
Being
NEET can be associated with negative outcomes now and later in life, including
unemployment, reduced earnings, poor health and depression. Those outcomes have
a cost for both the individual and the economy: it is critical that services
for young people make a lasting positive impact in particular on those young
people ‘at risk’ of becoming NEET. Local authorities in England are under
duties to secure sufficient suitable education provision and to provide
targeted support to vulnerable young people who are not in education,
employment or training (NEET).
The two new duties placed on local
authorities by Section 68 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 relate to 16-
and 17-year-olds. These are:
·
to
ensure that its functions are (so far as they are capable of being so)
exercised so as to promote the effective participation in education or training
of persons belonging to its area to whom Part 1 of ESA 2008 applies, with a
view to ensuring that those persons fulfill the duty to participate in
education or training;
·
to
make arrangements to enable it to establish (so far as it is possible to do so)
the identities of persons belonging to its area to whom Part 1 of ESA 2008
applies but who are failing to fulfill the duty to participate in education or
training.
·
Local
authority staff must have regard to this statutory guidance issued by the
Secretary of State in exercising their functions under this section
Raising the Participation Age (RPA) to 17 years (2013) and 18 years
(2015) does not mean young people must stay in school; they will able to choose
one of the following options:
·
Full-time
education, such as school, college or home education
·
Work-based
learning, such as an Apprenticeship or Traineeship
·
Part-time
education or training if they are employed, self-employed or volunteering for
more than 20 hours a week
The opportunity
Many Local Authority Youth Support Services are now taking the lead on
the NEET / RPA Agenda, and are responsible for:
·
Producing
the ‘Roni’ (Risk of NEET Indicator) for schools and partner agencies to
identify and target young people to make a smooth and successful transition at
16
·
Providing
or securing personal development programmes for identified young people (this
links directly with the wider agenda of youth work in schools)
·
Being
commissioned by schools to provide Information, Advice & Guidance for
identified young people
·
Providing
out of school provision for life skills
·
Developing
literacy and numeracy skills through alternative programmes
The challenge for Youth Support Service providers is to be clear about
what and how we are contributing or can contribute to education and
participation, including RPA:
·
Being
able to engage with young people and
deliver personal development programmes with demonstrable impact
·
Delivering
accredited numeracy and literacy skills amongst young people through creative
and alternative provision
·
Sharing
key information in order to provide an holistic approach to the needs of young
people (and their families)
·
Encourage
and support young people to look at ‘mobility’ – international. national,
regional and locally
·
Provide
better information and support about the skills and knowledge young people need
to improve their chances of employment
·
Being
better informed about the needs of our local economy and ensure we are sharing
this information with young people. In England last year, 194 000 hairdressers
were trained for just 18000 jobs, while only 123,000 people were trained for
274,000 jobs in construction
·
Support
the development of improved linkages between small and medium sized businesses
and young people
·
Working
with key partners to raise the awareness of the RPA and other key initiatives
such as Work experience opportunities, Apprenticeships and Traineeships
·
Enhance
our relationships with partners to improve support to young people at risk of
‘dropping out’ of provision
Conclusion
Youth Work and wider youth support services are at the forefront of
breaking down the ‘silo’ approach to supporting young people. This leaves us in
a position of understanding what works well both in terms of prevention and
reaction, increased participation and raised attainment. Working closer
together with schools, colleges, training providers and employers is key to
making sure that the ‘support wheel’ for young people remains round and
effective.
Schools continue to be
best placed to purchase services on behalf of young people’s services. The
youth work contribution to support the achievement and attainment of young
people in formal education (Y6/Y7 transitions, school and post 16 education)
should be increased, clearly articulated and provide a priority focus for the
deployment of youth support services and youth work resources. A radical shift of reasons to
support youth work in schools could ensure a youth work offer and secure youth
support services in many local authorities.
Despite current activity on the RPA, more must be
done to provide alternatives for young people not suited to mainstream
education or training. Many young people not participating require entirely
different options to what currently exists, and youth services along with other
partners need to gain a better understanding of the core issues facing this
group of young people.
June 2013
Policy
Paper: Benchmarking Young people’s Services
Introduction
While it is difficult to assess the comparative outcomes of different
services where young people services cover more than just youth work, the
ability to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of these services would be
better served by a framework that would enable bench marking and judgements to
made in terms of value for money.
“Whilst wanting to guard against inappropriate
or distorting measures like simple head counting, there is no good reason why
robust but sophisticated outcome measures should not be developed to allow
services to demonstrate the impact they have on young people’s personal and
social development.” House of
Commons, Education Select Committee, 2011
Background
Under Every Child Matters an
outcomes frame work was developed that covered a range of services to assess
the needs of young people and measure the impact that services made to address
these issues. The Youth Public Service Agreement identified 5 key indicators:
- Reduce the percentage of 16-18 year
olds not in education, employment, training
- More Participation in Positive
Activities
- Reduce the proportion of young people
frequently using illicit drugs, alcohol or volatile substances
- Reduce the under-18 conception rate
- Reduce the number of first-time
entrants to the Criminal Justice System aged 10-17
The role of OFSTED up to 2008 played a vital part in improving the
quality of youth work provision within England. Their inspections processes
have been adopted by many Local Authorities to quality assure their work and
have been used to support their commissioning of youth activities. In its final review of Enhanced Youth Service
Inspections OfSTED highlighted that all local authority services were
satisfactory or better. There were no failing local authority youth services.
Reductions in the local authority service and particularly the capacity to
provide professional youth workers to work with and support young people in
their communities puts at risk the whole range of provision.
“Resourcing Excellent Youth Services” (DFES, 2002) was designed to feed
into Ofsted’s inspection framework for youth work and levels of funding that would enable work to be
undertaken throughout the country. This provided a platform for measuring youth work outcomes, but these are in danger
of being lost with their removal as BVPI’s. These measures did need to be
re-examined and properly understood by all involved; their major drawback was
that in some cases the achievement of accredited outcomes became an end in
itself. However, they afforded local partnerships a means for measuring youth
work and Value for Money.
National measures
When securing their local youth offer Commissioners have a need for a
developed an outcomes framework that can objectively evaluate impact and
compare projects both within their local authority areas and with similar work
elsewhere in the country. This will allow them to and develop consistent
approaches to recording impact and the effectiveness of youth work.
In Positive for Youth (2011) the Coalition Government confirmed that it
wanted quality to be judged by good outcomes as well as reductions in poor
outcomes. Local areas need to have access to reliable statistics on:
- Attainment
at age 19 for all young people and for those eligible for free school
meals
- Participation
in education and training for 16 years olds and for 17 year olds
- Under 18
conception rates
- The number
of first time entrants to the criminal justice system
The aim is to use local data to benchmark with other areas and with the
national average: “local authorities will want to monitor how well they are
discharging their duty to assist encourage,
and enable young people to participate in education or training”. The
Government also said it would publish annually a data set that is more focused
on positive outcomes than any previous set of performance measures. These would
include:
- % of 16 to
18s reporting that they are satisfied with their lives
- % of 16 to
19s volunteering
- % of 16
and 17 year olds in education and work-based learning
- % of 18
year olds in education, employment or training
- % of young
people aged 19 who have claimed free school meals achieving level 3 (to
focus on improving their outcomes relative to others)
- % of 19
year olds achieving Level 2
- % of 10 to
17 year olds who have not had any contact with the criminal justice system
(as measured by a reprimand, warning or conviction)
- % of 11 to
15 year olds misusing drugs and alcohol; and conceptions per 1000 15 to 17
year olds
The first of these measures was to be the new national measure of young
people’s wellbeing that will be recorded as part of the Measuring National
Wellbeing Programme commissioned by the Prime Minister. This was particularly
welcomed alongside the revised guidance as a way of demonstrating the quality
and effectiveness of the of the local youth offer. However, the Government has
not produced this information, which would enable services to measure their
performance alongside that of other services and so demonstrate their
effectiveness and value for money
Challenges
It is the local authorities’ duty to secure, so far is reasonably
practicable, equality of access for all young people to the positive,
preventative and early help they need to improve their well-being. To do so it
needs to be clear about outcomes and benchmarking levels and quality of
services, much of which will no longer be directly delivered by the local
authority:
the Local Government Association in Funding
outlook for councils from 2010/11 to 2019/20 – Preliminary modelling
published in June 2012 began to predict future demands on Local Authority
spending; it paints a picture of how (non-social care) services for young people
will continue to be squeezed. In addition, for benchmarking Local Authorities
will also need an understanding of the strengths of their youth work set in the
context the “right to challenge” under the Localism Act 2011.
Conclusion
It is vital at a local authority level that strong strategic local
leadership harnesses all the resources available to support young people. Where
data exists at a service level, it needs to be pulled together; to date a
survey of local authorities has been the method of collecting such figures. A
local authority will need to engage and inform the variety of local
commissioning groups – Schools, Health and Well-being Boards, Children’s Trusts
- to best meet local circumstances and needs.
To achieve this, a local authority needs to have in place an identified
senior strategic lead whose responsibility it is to develop services for young
people, secure the local youth offer and ensure effective commissioning of
services. The challenge remains for them to be effective in that role they need
access to effective bench marking information.
June 2013
Policy
Paper: Young people and health
Introduction
Local Authorities now have a legal duty to improve the health and
wellbeing of their local populations, and to reduce differences in health
between their communities. Whilst the Health and Social Care Act on one level
was about the transfer of public health staff, programmes and resources from
the NHS into local authorities, the opportunity in terms of health improvement
lies in aligning how the work of the whole local authority can be focused on
improving health and wellbeing of its residents, including young people.
This is complex work not least because of the many ways in which
authorities delivered or commissioned services affect the lives of residents.
Yet here lies the opportunity, public health leadership in the interests of
improving health and wellbeing can be effective within the context of an
integrated package of measures. The development of a local strategic framework
for improving health and wellbeing should be recognised as a corporate issue
that cuts across existing corporate priorities.
Background
The recently introduced new public health system includes Public Health
England, local Director’s of Public Health who lead on the authority’s public
health responsibilities, and Health and Wellbeing Boards with a core aim to
join up commissioning across partnerships. This work is informed by Joint
Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy.
These strategies provide an overarching framework within which commissioning
plans for the NHS, social care, education, public health and other services are
developed.
Local Authority funding for public health is devolved through a non
ring-fenced grant. Commissioning is expected to incentivise and reward the
improvement in health and wellbeing outcomes and effectively tackle
inequalities as well as deliver best value. The relationship between public
health and Children’s Services will be critical. Local authority arrangements
will be expected to cover early intervention and early help, support for young
people to prevent unhealthy lifestyle choices such as risky sexual behaviour,
smoking, drugs, alcohol, support for mental and emotional health and increasing
physical activity.
The new Outcomes Framework for public health alongside an NHS Outcomes
Framework, covers a number of domains including health protection and
resilience, ill health, life expectancy and reducing preventable mortality.
Outcome indicators include: rate of hospital admissions for alcohol related
harm; under 18 conception rate; rate of hospital admissions as a result of
self-harm: and chlamydia diagnosis.
The Challenges
Meeting the needs of young people is a discrete area of work and must be
seen in the context of the physiological and emotional changes that young
people experience during puberty. The agenda for young people and health is
being incorporated into the new structures particularly for those young people
who are most vulnerable to poor outcomes. Within the new public sector
arrangements it is important to maintain the emphasis on the particular needs
of adolescents and not allow this to become subsumed into the aggregated needs
of children and young people or a become a sub set of adult services. Also
important is that the arrangements need to ensure that the young to have a say
in their health services and in health reforms.
The new public health system must encompass the need for services for
young people and the Children & Young People’s Health Outcomes Forum
recommended that:
”all clinical commissioning groups and local
authority commissioners of public health services, commission services in a way
that ensures that teenagers are managed in age-appropriate services”.
Case for young people and health
The overwhelming evidence points to the importance of supporting young
people’s needs as a discrete group this will provide the best support to young
people and their families and help them make a safe and healthy transition into
adulthood. There are some counter arguments, where differentiation by age is
seen as unhelpful. However, for young people there are the associated issues of
physiological and emotional change during puberty; when things go wrong during
adolescence for example, becoming involved in risky sexual behaviour, substance
misuse or they experience poor mental health, or family breakdown, outcomes can
be devastating and have a lifelong impact. The support must be to them as a
‘young person’ that involves their families as and when appropriate. Their
personal and social development is not at a series of single issues. There are
three key points that support age differentiation of the needs of young people:
a) Firstly, the physiological and emotional
changes that occur during adolescence produce key health indicators that need
to be carefully addressed by those skilled in working with adolescents,
particularly when relating to health needs. The Health Outcomes Forum
recommends “coherently addressing the different
stages in life and not tackling individual risk factors in isolation”. This
means building personal resilience to deal with these issues. It is crucial
that the informal and developmental learning opportunities needed during
adolescence are not simply replaced by crisis management.
b) Secondly, relationships with adults in
positions of authority may not always be for some young people the most helpful
in steering a way through. In ‘Positive for Youth’ (DfE, 2011) young people
have commented on the poor quality of PSHE at school, there is a weight of
evidence demonstrating the impact of the breakdown in relationships with
parents/carers during adolescence and many examples of young people wanting to
exert their newfound status as an ‘adult’ sometimes through extreme political
and social views, or where involvement in crime and poor behaviour sets them
apart from their local community. It is important that young people find
supportive, challenging and appropriate adult role models outside the home, the
school or social care who demonstrate mutual respect as the basis for the
relationship.
c) Thirdly, issues for young people’s health
have the potential to cause the most impact in adult lives. If we ignore these
issues for young people during adolescence or deal with them in the wrong way
we set up young people who are less able or less resilient to cope with their
adult lives. Issues such as sexual identity, dietary habits, homophobic and
sexual violence, mental health, self-harm, teenage conception and substance
misuse can also be linked to an inability to get and keep employment and
involvement in crime. This may also have an impact on future generations as
these young people become parents.
Conclusion
·
There
is a large and growing body of evidence to support work with young people
simply because they are ‘young people’: within each local authority there
should be clear links between public health and young people’s health and
wellbeing.
·
The
need to ensure effective support and interventions for young people’s health
and wellbeing through the often chaotic period of adolescence is well
documented. The Early Intervention model is effective when local authorities
clearly see the preventative and developmental aspects for young people: local
Health and Wellbeing Boards should consider soft outcomes for young people
rather than concentrating solely on hard data.
June 2013
Policy Paper: Young people and families
Introduction
The focus of
youth work has traditionally been on the journey from childhood to adulthood,
supporting young people through that transition and adolescence. At the heart
of the transition into adulthood is the viable independence from their families
that a young person makes. This includes access to further education, training,
employment and viable housing alongside the development of skills and abilities
to succeed. Most make that successful transition. Young people whose lives are
“chaotic” need additional support; this takes place within the context of their
family and in the natural progression into independent living.
“Parents and families are the single most
important influence on the lives of young people”...“Providing early help is
not just about supporting families in the early years of a child’s life, nor is
it a one-off inoculation that can prevent later ills. Some negative behaviors
or outcomes can be prompted from later events in a child’s life and cannot
always be predicted from their circumstances earlier in life. It is therefore
important to continue to offer early help in the teenage years as and when it
is needed.” – DfE,
Positive for Youth (2011)
Background
Government
Policy produced by both the current and the previous governments has placed a
greater emphasis on the role of the family in young people’s lives. The Prime
Minister has made a commitment to try to turn around the lives of 120,000 most
troubled families by the end of Parliament, a commitment he reaffirmed in the
wake of the summer disturbances in 2011.
Around 40-50,000 of these families include children and young people
that have behavioral problems or special educational needs that impact on
behavior A new Troubled Families Team,
headed by Louise Casey, has been set up in the Department for Communities and
Local Government to work alongside local areas to ensure that these families
are supported.
Most
difficulties which teenagers experience in their relationships with their
parents and family are part of the normal pressures and growing up. Providing
support to teenagers and their parents when problems are first identified will
help prevent them from becoming more severe in the future. For families of
teenagers with more complex needs, intensive family interventions where a
key-worker co-ordinates the support across services (e.g. youth offending
teams, police, health service, job centres) have been shown to be successful at
turning around the lives of those families.
The Challenge
Strong evidence
shows that the nearly 4,000 families who have received intensive key worker
support so far have significantly improved family functioning and parenting:
- a 53% reduction in truancy
- 58% reduction in anti-social behaviour
- 40% in drug and alcohol problems
- 57% reduction in domestic violence issues
- and 41% reduction in crime
This type of
intensive support can address more serious family problems and prevent problems
being transmitted inter-generationally. Seventy one per cent of family
intervention projects, based on a key-worker co-ordinating family support, are
focused on families where at least one child is aged 12-16 years.
The benefits of
a holistic and familial approach when addressing issues within the home cannot
be underestimated. However, a ‘young people focused’ approach to teenagers
within a family can add significantly to the Troubled Families agenda, and the
expertise brought by youth workers is very relevant. Whilst recognising the
expertise brought by other professionals, the role of the youth worker in
taking a young person centered approach can complement the work being offered.
The part played
by youth workers within the NEET, crime prevention and school attainment
agendas is a strong basis for delivering alongside other professionals within
the Troubled Families agenda. Youth support services and youth workers also
have a role to play with young people who have become estranged from their
families, care leavers living independently, and young people in general where
they require support and advice in matters relating to their own lives and
development.
In particular, Positive For Youth
identified three key qualities of youth work as key professionals to:
- Identify
early any specific and complex problems for which young people need more
specialist help.
- Listen to
young people, and build their confidence and skill to make their voice
heard in decisions.
- Articulate
clearly to commissioners the impact of the services they provide and be
enterprising in seeking opportunities to replicate their proven practice
Specialist youth support services and professionals also provide information, advice, guidance,
and support to young people facing particular challenges or issues.
“Many local authorities have some experience of
running family intervention projects or services... The evidence is strong
enough for us to go further: to adapt
this model to work at less intensive levels with other families who are still
troubled but whose needs might not require someone there day in, day out but
who still need the consistent, assertive, practical input twice a week or even
once a week to keep them moving in the right direction... The youth
sector has something really important to offer in terms of [an] upfront,
assertive and honest approach - something a successful youth worker knows all
about.” – Louise Casey, Troubled
Families Unit, November 2012 (CHYPS Annual Convention)
Conclusion
There is a large and growing body of evidence to support work with young
people simply because they are ‘young people’. Support for young people within
families is one of the key areas of the youth work curriculum. Each local authority
should include tailored support to young people in the context of “troubled
families”. This support is best delivered by youth workers operating in an
integrated structure to support the family, but in settings that are conducive
for the young people concerned. The Confederation of Heads of Young People’s Services sees it as an
intrinsic part of its work to champion and lobby for the youth worker role
within the troubled families’ arena, with both preventative actions and
providing support tailored to the needs of young people.
November 2012
Policy Paper: Young People and Communities
Introduction
“Locally-commissioned
detached and centre-based youth work and youth workers make a vital
contribution to the lives of many young people – helping engage them in their
communities and supporting their personal and social development through
informal learning. This is particularly true for those young people who don’t
get the support or opportunities they need from their family or community.” DfE, Positive for Youth (2011)
Young people are an integral part of active and
sustainable communities in which everyone is valued and can play their full
part. However, we recognise that young people and the wider community are often
seen as two separate entities with specific needs and challenges, at times seen
as being in opposition to each other and
creating a ‘them and us’ culture.
The challenge is to reverse this perception and
promote a sense of pride in the community and its people. Good youth and community work provides an
opportunity to contribute to developing communities where people are
justifiably proud of where they live, learn, work and play. And where the
overall aim includes a commitment to create communities where people respect
and celebrate differences, their circumstances as well as valuing each others’
contributions; with young people as part of the solution and not the
problem.
In the current economic
climate, we need to ensure the delivery of services which equip and enable
communities to value young people and the contribution they can make. This
calls into the question the ability of agencies to engage with young people as
members of our communities able to grow and develop as real active
contributors. We are pushing at an open door; it is entirely possible to work
with young people within a community setting because the rationale and scope of
the duty within Positive for Youth.
The Rationale and scope of the LA duty within
Positive for Youth includes:
1. “With the right
supportive relationships, strong ambitions and good opportunities all young
people can realise their potential and be positive and active members of
society. Most get these from and through their families and friends, their
school or college and their wider community enabling them to do well and to
prepare for adult life. All young people benefit from additional opportunities
and support, but some young people and their families, particularly the most
disadvantaged and vulnerable, need specific additional and early help to address
their challenges and realise their potential.”
2. It is therefore local
authorities’ duty to secure, so far is reasonably practicable, equality of
access for all young people to the positive, preventative and early help they
need to improve their well-being. This includes youth work and other services
and activities that:
a. Connect young people with their
communities, including through volunteering, and supporting them to have a
voice in decisions which affect their lives;
b. Offer young people opportunities in safe
environments to take part in a wide range of activities, through which they can
develop a strong sense of belonging and develop relationships with adults they
trust;
c. Support the personal and social
development of young people through which they build the capabilities they need
for learning, work, and the transition to adulthood;
d. Help those young people at risk of
dropping out of learning or not achieving their full potential to engage and
attain in education or training.
So
what are the challenges that face us in relation to young people and
communities and what should we be striving for in youth support services?
1. To
be clear about what and how we contribute to key agendas including troubled
families, worklessness, community safety, health, regeneration & skills;
and to ensure that youth & community
workers have appropriate and relevant skill sets to respond to the new agendas
2. To
work in partnership with the voluntary and community sector to further develop
their abilities to respond to need including supporting them to secure
commissioned provision; including where local voluntary and community sector
have a greater understanding of their community than larger national
organisations.
3. To
improve how we listen to young people and communities, identify and evidence
need, and ensure quality practice and service is recognised and understood not
only by young people and communities, but by our partners including wider
children’s services, schools and education, police, health and regeneration.
4. Also
raising the awareness of our contribution to communities with elected members,
mayors, police and crime commissioners, and promoting our role in community
cohesion and areas of social unrest, clear about our impact in this area of
work.
5. Overall,
to learn to frame youth and community work in an outcomes and impact model to
demonstrate that youth and community work is worth investing in.
In
conclusion:
There are those in the profession who see
themselves as youth workers and not youth & community workers. Recent
training has focussed on youth and not the wider role. However, it is naive to
think that youth and community do not go together, working with young people
within a community setting. The government has set a clear agenda around ‘family’
and local authorities have set clear directions around integrated approaches.
If we are not clear about our role in ‘targeted work’ in a youth and community
approach, why are we here?
Recent initiatives and the
Positive for Youth guidance gives youth support services an opportunity to play
a pivotal role. History informs us that the needs of young people and
communities do not go away, they are often just re-branded. The needs of young
people often stem from wider core issues that communities face. To ignore these
core issues results in short term medicine as opposed to cure. In response we
need to promote the role of youth support services, enabling young people and
communities in an outcomes- based framework, if we are take the ‘bull by the
horns’ and meet the challenges ahead.
November 2012
Contact Information
David Wright
Chief Executive
0116 318 3745
Carole Aspden
Chair
Service Director
Children and Young
People's Services
Adults and Children's
Directorate
Bournemouth Borough
Council
Bournemouth
01202 456118
David Whewell
Professional Support
0116 318 3827
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