PAPER B

 

POLICY COMMISSION FOR CHILDREN AND SCHOOL RESULTS

11 APRIL 2007

YOUTH ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY

 

 

BRIEFING PAPER FROM THE PRINCIPAL YOUTH AND COMMUNITY OFFICER

 

1.                  Introduction

 

Further to the inaugural meeting held on 7 February 2007 a briefing paper was requested which describes in outline the main issues concerning Local Authority responsibilities for youth work and youth services.

 

In 2004 the Government through the Children Act outlined its commitment to improving outcomes for children and young people through ‘Every Child Matters: Change for Children Programme’.  Following Every Child Matters in July 2005 Youth Matter the Youth Green Paper was published and the subsequent consultation ended in November 2005 with over 19,000 responses from young people.  The Government response ‘Youth Matters: Next Steps’ was published in March 2006 and set out the vision for empowering young people, giving them somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to.

 

The Education and Inspection Act 2006 brought about aspects of Youth Matters: Next Steps together and placed new duties and responsibilities on Local Authorities. 

 

2.                  Things to do, Places to go, Someone to talk to

 

A synopsis ‘Things to do, Places to go’ produced by the National Youth Agency is transcribed below.

 

Section 6 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 introduces new duties on local authorities to secure access for young people to ‘positive activities’, including youth clubs, sports facilities and art projects.  Statutory guidance has been published alongside this which gives greater detail on the new duties which include:

 

The duty to secure access to young people to ‘positive activities’.

 

The guidance which outlines the national standards for positive activities which include:

 

•                     Access to two hours per week of sporting activity;

 

•                     Access to two hours per week of other constructive activities in clubs, youth groups and classes which contribute to their personal and social and spiritual development;

 

•                     Opportunities to make a positive contribution to their community;

 

•                     Recreational, cultural and sporting experiences; and

 

•                     A range of safe and enjoyable places in which to spend time.

The duty to take account of young people’s views on activities and facilities available to them. 

 

Local authorities are required to ascertain from young people their views on existing provision of positive activities and facilities, the need for any additional provision and their access to provision.  They must then ensure that these views are taken into account.  It outlines a number of potential approaches that local authorities could consider:

 

•                     Consultation: Young people will require good quality information about the consultation process, and the support available, particularly for those young people who are hardest to reach. 

 

•                     Surveys and qualitative research: Any existing previous survey information could be used, but authorities could also include new ones involving the use of innovative approaches which engage the view of marginalised groups.

 

•                     Provider information and attendance figures: Any existing data on what activities young people use, the levels of demand for services, and what has succeeded in increasing involvement of those hardest to reach should be sued.

 

Local authorities are also expected to identify opportunities to involve young people directly in designing, delivering or assessing the local offer of provision.  The guidance encourages them to consider devolving responsibility for aspects of the delivery of a service.  This could include:

 

•                     Training and supporting young people to act as young advisers who could also act as advocates, linking with wider groups of young people;

 

•                     Training and support to enable young people to participate in local authority inspections;

 

•                     Young people acting as ‘mystery shoppers’; and

 

•                     Recruiting, training and supporting a group of young people to help manage a service or facility with equal involvement in management decisions

 

•                     Publicise the local offer, and keep the information up-to date.

 

Local authorities are required to provide a comprehensive, accurate and accessible information service for young people by expanding the content of an existing website and/or through other media such as leaflets, text-message alerts and e-mail updates.  Authorities should involve young people in the production and design of the information provisions; help identify appropriate content and ensure the relevance, appeal and accessibility of the information provided.

 

Authorities may consider it more appropriate or useful to provide information on positive activities provided across more than one local authority area – for example across a metropolitan area.  Authorities are free to explore whether a regional or sub-regional approach to information provision would result in greater overall participation and/or result in economies of scale.

Local authorities should provide information on:

 

•                     Progress towards reaching the plan for the local offer;

 

•                     Live and forthcoming consultation processes regarding positive activity provision;

 

•                     The results of previous consultations, together with the authority’s response; and

 

•                     The processes and channels young people can sue to hold local authority account for its response under the new duty.

 

Funding

 

Local authorities should use a range of government and non-government funding sources to secure positive activities and will increasingly wish to use Local Area Agreements for this purpose, recognising that through the LAA the government has pooled a range of funding schemes that previously provided positive activities.

 

Transport

 

There are a number of direct actions that authorities can take to address transport issues, including providing, commissioning or subsidising young people’s transport.  Authorities and their children’s trust partners should also consider:

 

•                     Supporting other providers of positive activities by allowing them to use local authority owned transport or allocating funds for transport costs;

 

•                     Providing mobile provision of positive activities, recognising that many young people may be reluctant to participate in activities outside their own neighbourhoods; and

 

•                     Facilitate discussion between young people and local transport providers about potential improvements/changes to services.

 

3.                  Positive Activities for Young People

 

Policy review for children and young people: A discussion paper.

 

The Review of Children and Young People is assessing progress made to improve outcomes and what further action needs to be taken as part of the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review and beyond.  The National Youth Agency has again produced a synopsis and it is transcribed below.

 

Comprehensive Spending Review

 

HM Treasury and the DfES have published their Policy Review of Children and Young People.  This is an interim paper setting out evidence gathered during the first stage of the review, identifying the challenges young people face, and the key areas for action.  It will inform the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review and the government’s forthcoming Ten-Year Youth Strategy, setting departmental budgets form 2008-09 to 2010-11, as well as long-term priorities for investment.

 

The discussion paper focuses of four main areas:

 

•                     A ten year youth strategy;

 

•                     A more preventative system, doing more to build  children’s resilience and intervening as soon as possible when problems do arise;

•                     Providing greater support to families with disabled children; and

 

•                     How services for families and children at risk of becoming locked in a cycle of low achievement can be reformed to deliver better outcomes.

 

The youth strategy examines:

 

•                     How positive activities can make a difference to young people’s outcomes;

 

•                     The barriers some young people face that prevent them from participating in positive activities; and

 

•                     Challenges that need to be overcome in order to ensure that more young people have the opportunity

 

The children at risk strategy examines:

 

•                     The factors more likely to influence outcomes;

 

•                     How those factors vary throughout childhood; and

 

•                     The implications for public services in supporting children and young people.

 

Better outcomes for disabled young people focus on:

 

•                     Incentivising public services to deliver support effectively, including the empowerment of disabled children and families to influence service provision.

 

•                     The scope for further coordination of care across different services; and

 

•                     Information barriers to plan and commission of services effectively.

 

Supporting families focuses on:

 

•                     The characteristics of families whose children are most likely to suffer poor outcomes;

 

•                     The number of families caught in a cycle of low achievement; and

 

•                     The barriers to assist families to make improvements in their outcomes through support and sanctions.

 

The Review will report in Spring 2007 with recommendations to inform and influence the outcomes of the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review.

 

The first part of the review has been completed and the Government recognises some young people will need more support than others and to benefit all young people investment has to be made to expand services, increase arts and cultural activities and sports provision.  Positive activities have been placed at the heart of the youth strategy, including signalling a duty on Local Authorities to secure access to positive activities for personal and social development and setting out expectations for the transition to integrated youth services generally.  £115 million over two years has been put in to provide activities that young people want through the Youth Capital and Youth Opportunity Funds.  It is also recognising a range of need is required and a one-size fits all model is not appropriate and the Governments approach is one of ‘progressive inclusion’. 

 

In developing a future strategy for positive activities will involve:

 

•                     Setting the vision nationally of what constitutes a good quality offer for all young people;

 

•                     Working with local government and Children’s Trust partners to ensure diverse opportunities are available, though they may be provided outside of the statutory sector, by third or private sector bodies;

 

•                     Helping to create the conditions for each sector to play the most appropriate role; and

 

•                     Supporting marginalised young people to access opportunities in which they might not otherwise participate.

 

In the Reviews Call for Evidence these areas were highlighted as giving cause for concern:

 

•                     Transport – some respondents placed emphasis on lack of transport options, particularly for rural young people and disabled young people;

 

•                     Costs – both the cost of transport and the fees for participation or entrance to the activities themselves present difficulties for some young people;

 

•                     Unattractive facilities or activities – inflexible and inappropriate opening times, activities that do not excite or appeal to young people and run down facilities can deter young people from participating.

 

The review has also found that young people valued the support they received form youth workers who inspired and motivated them.  It has also been suggested that there might be value in undertaking targeted youth work within more universal settings, an approach which is used on the Isle of Wight.  Responses to the Call for Evidence were very clear that there is a very high level of commitment to working with young people.  However, there are barriers to achieving a uniformly high quality workforce.  Youth workers’ status in comparison with others who work with young people can appear low.  Additionally, the hours can be antisocial.

 

The Review has identified some particular challenges that need to be addressed in order to create a step change in support for young people:

 

•                     Access – supporting young people to overcomes barriers to participation in the key to ensuring that all young people, especially those who would benefit most, can easily engage with youth services;

 

•                     Active participation and engagement - young people must be able to influence the design of and decision-making processes behind their provision.  And give that better provision for young people can benefit the whole community, communities and parents also have an important role to play here; and

 

•                     Quality – the quality of provision needs to be high to help young people to fulfil their potential.  This means quality across the board, from management and strategic leadership to the critical relationship between adults and young people.

 

The review will make its report in Spring 2007 with recommendations to inform and influence the outcomes of the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review.

 

 

 

 

 

 

GEORGE WEECH

Principal Youth and Community Officer