PAPER D
EDUCATION, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
AND LIFELONG LEARNING SELECT COMMITTEE- 20 OCTOBER 2003
DEVELOPMENT OF IW
CONNEXIONS (JANUARY 2003 – OCTOBER 2003)
IW MANAGER OF CONNEXIONS
1. PURPOSE
1. This report seeks to
inform the Education Select Committee of developments since January 2003. It
details further information on most recent developments with young people. In
addition, it includes steps taken to implement the writing of Partnership
Agreements with schools and joint working agreements with other agencies.
2. BACKGROUND
2.1 Connexions is a central Government strategy. The strategy is designed to draw together service providers into a cohesive, holistic service for all 13-19 year olds. This includes all aspects of information, advice, guidance, personal development and academic achievement. The Isle of Wight is part of South Central Connexions Partnership, a company limited by Guarantee. It was given Government approval to commence business on 01-09-02.
2.2
South
Central Connexions region covers the same geographical area as the Learning
& Skills Council region. A draft Memorandum of Understanding exists between
both parties. The Learning and Skills council are represented on the Local
Management Committee. There are places for two local councillors, currently one
place is filled by Mrs Jill Wareham.
2.3
A
Youth Board assists the South Central Connexions Partnership Board. Three young
people from the Island attend the Youth Board. Each local area has a youth
group that inform, advise and contribute to the delivery of the Connexions
service. The IW youth group are represented at LMC level by two Connexors (Peer
Mentors). The involvement of young people is recorded in a policy document
known as “The Systematic framework for the involvement of young people”. A copy
of the policy can be obtained from the local central office in Upper St. James
Street, Newport.
2.4
Within
the Connexions strategy is a discrete Service of Personal Advisers (P.A). These
professionals will be trained to work across traditional organisational
boundaries. Every qualified Personal Adviser will hold a professional
qualification (NVQ Level 4 or equivalent) and the Diploma for Personal
Advisers. The 2003 – 2004 local delivery plan identifies five additional
Personal Advisers, two young people to be Connexors (Peer Mentors) and a
Funding Co-ordinator. The five additional staff compliments the existing
Personal Advisers working within the Careers contract with the two extra
Careers specialist added to the Careers contract. The Education department
holds the contract for two intensively working Personal Advisers, one has been
placed with the Youth offending Team and one with the 16+ Care Leavers Team. A
further Personal Adviser supports transitions from school to post 16 provision
and is based at the IW College and local office.
2.5
The
SCCP Business Plan 2002-2005 identifies nationally agreed targets. It also
identifies the active involvement of young people in the delivery of the
Connexions service; the need to improve the destination statistics of young
people who become "lost" to the system and the intention to increase
the number of young people in education, training and employment. The South
Central Connexions Business Plan was revised during December 2002 and February
2003, following further guidance from Government Office. It contains many of
the suggestions made by young people during the consultation period. A summary
document is available from the local office on Upper St James Street, Newport.
3. MANAGEMENT
ARRANGEMENTS
3. 1 The Isle of Wight LMC is
the local face for the South Central Connexions Partnership Board. The LMC has
agreed a Partnership Protocol with the Partnership Board that establishes lines
of accountability. Terms of Reference for the LMC were reviewed and revised in
July 2003. Each member of the LMC is expected to represent the views of their
sector at the LMC and be responsible for communication between their sector and
the LMC. There is currently a vacancy for one councillor on the LMC.
3.2 The SCCP Chief Executive, Pamela Charlwood, manages the posts providing local administration, quality assurance and contract monitoring on behalf of the LMC. South Central Connexions Partnership employs the two Conexors.
3.3 Connexions delivery will
be undertaken by sub-contract. The Careers service is currently delivered by a
contract with VT Careers Management (Southern). Additional current contracts
are held with the Education Department (Douglas Wright, Senior Education
Officer as lead Officer) for three Personal Advisers and the Comment Mentoring
project. A contract with the Healthcare Trust to support the work of the PA –
Midwife is currently under negotiation. It is intended to add a specialist PA
with mental health expertise to the Healthcare contract following negotiation
with the specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Team manager. It is
anticipated that this post will support the work of Middle schools in
particular. A consultant has been engaged for ten days to develop the
adolescent mental health proposal and report to the LMC in February 2004.
4. TRAINING
4.1 A Training programme available for Partner agencies commenced in January 2003. The programme includes:
· “Introducing Connexions” (One day course, training dates: 16-09-03: 10-12-03)
· “Understanding Connexions” five and half days with accreditation
· “Assessment, Planning, Implementation and Review” two days course will be held on 14 & 15/ 10 / 03. This is particularly important, as Connexions Service National Unit have announced the requirement of APIR to be available for all young people. All EWO’s have completed this training.
· “Diploma for Personal Advisers” commencing in January 2004. It is anticipated that many of the delegates registered for the oversubscribed “Understanding Connexions” in September 2003 will continue onto the remaining Diploma modules.
4.2 As requested at the Stakeholder conference, The Network for staff working with Connexions was launched on Friday 6th June. 45 people attended an informal resources viewing held at 68a Upper St. James Street. The day was co-ordinated by Andy Preskey and Dave Piggott from VT Careers. The core group to plan training for the network will also include Sue Sheer, Diana Howe and the local manager. It is intended to link this network with the regional training programme co-ordinated by Lynne Patterson at SCCP. A training day for Child Protection will be delivered in December 2003. Negotiations are currently underway with John Evans (Social Services) to ensure the course content includes recommendations from Laming Report.
4.3 A one-day training day entitled “Solution Focussed thinking in Educational settings” will run on 12-02-04. This is free training available to anyone registered with the Training Network. Registration forms available from Sue Clifton-Moore on 527565.
5. FINANCIAL DETAILS
5.1 Local funding of £350,000, set by a nationally agreed funding formula, had been allocated according to priorities in the local Delivery Plan. The budget was reported to the Steering Group last week with spending on target. Simon Dear, (Children’s Fund manager) represents the LMC at the Finance and Contracts sub-committee.
5.2 We were successful in bidding for 3 years funding available for a Positive Activities Programme in which we have sub-contracted to Challenge and Adventure to deliver. Copies of the Challenge and Adventure monitoring returns will be made available for the LMC.
5.3 The Youth Justice Forum has reviewed its budget commitment. Unfortunately, it was only able to allocate £1,000 to the Youth Generation event rather than the £3,000 originally anticipated. This shortfall will need to be identified from the local budget. The contingency fund is now committed.
5.4 It is anticipated that a similar level of funding will be available for 2004-2005. The LMC are considering priorities for spending against the business targets.
6. STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENTS
6.1 Partnership Agreements. Each high school and St. Georges School have an approved Partnership Agreement that is complimented by the careers contract details of delivery (called schedule One). The agreements differ according to the schools wishes. Each agreement has a budget cost of approximately £6,000 allocated within the financial year.
6. 2 Joint Working Agreements. To date, completed and signed agreements exist with:
· Education Welfare Service
· Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, Implementation and Review group
· Job Centre Plus
· Youth Service
Draft copies exist for
Drug Action Team,
Looked After Children’s’ Education Service
Youth Offending Team
Island Drugs and Alcohol Service
Opening Doors, the network day held on the 17 July between Connexions, (including the Careers contract staff) and Youth Service staff has produced a report whereby a number of suggestions were made for more co-ordinated working. The recommendations from the day have been put into action.
6.3 14-19 review. A
number of meetings have taken place between Connexions and
the 14-19 co-ordinator, Andrew Briggs.
Following the publication of the RCU report,
an action plan has been developed that will be presented to the 14-19 review group.
The action plan is divided into sections:
Advice and Guidance for Key
stage 4 pupils
Information for Key stage 4
parents
transport issues
Perception of vocational
options.
The area review inspection team expressed
interest in the Action Plan which will be developed over the coming months.
6.4 SEN Transition Planning.
In collaboration with the IW Learning Partnership, the Portsmouth and SE Hants Learning Partnership have developed a transition document. It is to be piloted in Island schools between September and December 2003. It is anticipated that the same framework will be used by all organisations supporting young people with learning difficulties and disabilities through transition following pilot alterations. Full details can be obtained from Rob Faulkner. I participated in the IW Council review of SEN services in July and introduced various aspects of Connexions.
6.5 DfES consultation “Working together; Giving children
and young people a say”.
The youth sub-committee and the Connexors will be holding a number of focus groups to gather youth opinion on a consultation document. This will provide further citizenship opportunities for the island youth. Our local responses will be added to the other areas to formulate a SCCP response to be submitted by November.
6.6 Inspection.
In addition to
contribution to the numerous inspection processes currently taking place for a
number of our partners, SCCP is preparing for its own inspection.
Self-assessment workshops have already occurred for a number of staff and
partners. The steering group is holding “Inspection” workshops on 9th
and 13th October for LMC members.
6.7 Eric2.
The results of research entitled ERIC2, are now available.
Presentations have been made to the Crime & Disorder Partnership
Conference, the Youth Justice Forum and
the SCCP managerment team. Two
thousand, six hundred and forty-nine (2,649) young people completed the survey.
6.8
ESF Co-finance Bids.
Connexions has been involved in the preparation of four Co-financed ESF
bids that were approved by the local Learning Partnership before submission.
7.0
OTHER
DEVELOPMENTS.
7.1 Youth Generation 13th July 2003.
The Youth Generation – the future is ours to create” was held on Sunday 13th July 2003. The emphasis of the day was to provide personal development opportunities for young people. The video editing and the gyroscope provided by the Youth Service proved to be popular. Montrose Natural Healthcare reported that 71 treatments took place. Treatments on offer included Indian Head massage, back and shoulder massage, life coaching and reflexology. Nail artists painted over 200 young peoples hands! The Health promotion resources were viewed with interest. The baby “think-it-over” dolls attracted particular attention. Solent TV broadcast from the event and Platform 1 provided the samba band, youth bands and the DJ workshop. Hannah Field, the Homelessness officer, used the opportunity to give information and advice and to collect ideas from young people. The statistics from the research conducted on the day are available from the Connexions office for any interested party. 3D Education and Adventure had 280 people take the opportunity to have a go on the circus skills workshops and Lincoln Bryden ran two packed dance workshops. The creative writing workshops were also well received.
Disappointments from the day included the failure of a number of schools to present their Global Rock dances. From the ten schools who originally agreed to perform, the following actually turned up on the day: Solent Middle School, Ryde High School, Mayfield Middle school, Somerton Middle School and Archbishop King Middle school. Also failing to arrive were the Skateboarding team with their equipment, the Gnome Painters , the hairdresser and the Army careers display.
Evaluations from the day were extremely positive. The youth sub-committee are considering the possibility of another large event in the summer of 2004 or to run a series of smaller events throughout the year, providing personal development opportunities that have been requested by specific youth groups.
7.2 Community and Voluntary organisations. The following organisations have
received grants from the SCCP voluntary sector fund:
·
Cowes Community
Church Bus £4680 towards
re-furbishment, training and voluntary staff expenses.
·
Streets
Ahead £3,000 towards a text messaging service
·
My-I, £1,000 towards the costs of establishing and
running a Chrysalis-Compact club starting over the summer to provide more
access to mobile youth bus for those in rural locations.
·
SNAP, £5,000 towards dance and sports nights.
·
Street Arts,
West Wight project, £1,000 towards
a community based arts programme.
·
Youth Offending
Team – drama group, £1,000 towards
developing a “script” to be performed for other young people.
7.3 Transforming Youth Work development fund (TYWDF).
We have received notification from GOSE that
further small amount of funding was available. Details from George Weech.
7.4 “Summer Activities for 16 years olds”. 24 young women and 16 young men have participated in this programme. Lorna Neale, transitional PA, will prepare a written report to LMC in November . Meanwhile, the programmes of activities continue. All three residential opportunities have taken place, and feedback from the activities will give SCCP the opportunity to review the guidance given to staff. A end of project party is to be held on 10th October 2003.
7.5 Connexors.
Wendy Nolan and Tamara Perrins have been appointed and worked with the
out-going connexors over the summer period as part of their induction period.
They will report to the LMC on behalf of the youth sub-committee. We have also
been fortunate to use the services of Ralph Hawtin, Emma Jackson and Neil
Ogilvie over the summer to support the Summer Activities programme. All of
these young people formed part of the original youth sub-committee.
7.6 Peer
Educators.
Following a successful DrugScope bid, the youth sub-committee and others, will be undertaking a residential weekend in October half-term, to develop skills that will enhance their knowledge and abilities. This is a multi-agency effort with DAT, Youth Service, Sexual health network and Teenage Pregnancy group all contributing to the training package.
7.7 Cookery classes.
Rosemary Yapp kindly organised cookery classes to occur in the summer holidays at Sandown High school. 27 young people now have the skills to make chocolate éclairs and beef burgers! Rosemary will repeat the exercise during the February 2004 half-term holiday.
7.8 Comment Community Mentoring.
Fifteen people trained as mentors before the summer holiday. Of the 15, five have been matched with young people. More referrals for mentors are always welcome. A number of schools are using the Comment scheme as a support for their Pastoral system.
7.9 Connexions Information Centres in schools
During the spring term, schools were invited to bid for funding of up to £5,000 towards converting the existing careers libraries into Connexions Information Centres. Each high school and Watergate school, now re-named St. George’s and the Thompson House Tuition Centre took this opportunity. In April, the Connexions Information centres were launched with a balloon race. Each school nominated young people who had made a contribution to their school community, to release a balloon. The furthest balloon travelled to South Wales and awarded a young person from Thompson House Tuition Centre with DVD player.
The Select Committee note the report.
Contact Point : Anne Hendon-John, IW Manager, F 527565