11 APRIL 2007
YOUTH ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY
Reference
Number: CO1/07
Evidence
from Dr. Marguerite Howick, Extended Schools Consultant on behalf of the
Healthy and Extended Schools Team, Children’s Centres, the Children & Young
People’s Trust Development Adviser and other interested colleagues including
youth workers, the Connexions Manager and the Voluntary & Community Sector.
Children
and young people have said in our Children and Young People’s Plan that one of
the priorities is they would like more support in getting involved in their
local communities. We now have a golden opportunity in developing a youth
engagement strategy to view our current services for ‘youth’ through a different
lens and to really consider how we best support our young people in achieving
their outcomes and aspirations. Through the desire, of many partners, to be
innovative and creative, we can build packages around individual young people,
embed joint working practices and move towards delivering a more integrated
service.
It
is also about recognising and building upon the credible work that is already
being delivered by individual services as recognised in the Joint Area Review
that rated us a ‘3’ for making a positive contribution. The vision is to move
us to the next level because it is our intention to reach a ‘4’ by making the
work cohesive and bringing it all together within a strong and robust framework
ensuring the ongoing and sustainable delivery of high quality, flexible and responsive
services.
Key
Issues relevant to this enquiry
·
Targeted Youth Support
(TYS). To ensure young people get the
support they need, the green paper ‘Youth Matters’ set out a vision that, by
April 2008, every young person at risk of not achieving the five Every Child
Matters outcomes should be able to access the following TYS from their local
children and young people’s trust:
A single point of contact to support and challenge –
a lead professional within a common assessment framework
A support package that draws on mainstream and
specialist services of sufficient quality and quantity
A single route of referral to extra support from
different agencies as soon as risks emerge ensuring a consistent, positive
approach is taken that includes the Respect Action Plan
Help to access support earlier on
Support to live in a stronger family environment
·
Commissioning an
integrated universal service based on the opinion of children and young people
as identified by the Hear By Right audit.
·
Partnership working
with another Local Authority in order to commission an audit of youth provision
on the Island. The Extended Schools
Consultant has already been working with a London borough since November 2006
due to their willingness to share their progress and lessons learned
Outcomes
for Children and Young People
Access
to:
·
An integrated service
that includes youth workers, Connexions staff, Healthy Schools, Extended
Schools, the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS), Early Interventions, Youth
Offending Team, Social Care workers, Family Learning – one team, one vision
within a Children & Young People’s Trust.
E.g. The Challenge & Adventure Manager has
recently joined the schools’ Behaviour and Attendance network in order that
information may be shared, communication is improved and efforts are dovetailed
for our most vulnerable youngsters.
This is evidence that there is already a willingness in some
professionals to work in a different way to maximise outcomes for young people
·
The continued credible
distribution of Youth Opportunity Funding and Youth Capital Funding so that
young people are meaningfully in control of planning, managing, monitoring and
evaluating their own activities.
·
Local Voluntary and
Community youth provision
·
Information, advice and
guidance from a range of professionals and VCS such as school based teams of
youth supporters; Challenge and Adventure staff and Active 8s summer transition
programme personnel.
E.g. There is already exemplar practice within the
PAN estate cluster of schools and Children’s Centre with multi-disciplinary
school based teams of professionals including youth workers (one funded by the
local community partnership), social care students (placed in an extended
school as part of a joint project with a mainland university), a health visitor
(commissioned to deliver that service), child care coordinators and family
support workers.
·
Volunteering
opportunities such as the involvement of young people in a range of elected and
non-elected bodies including the IW Youth Council and local Youth Forums. E.g.
“Ventnor Together”
·
A wider range of
accredited opportunities including out of school hours learning that can
contribute towards diplomas
Appendices
·
‘Youth
Matters: Next Steps. Implications for Island Services – An Initial View’
(November 2006)
·
Active 8’s Summer Transition Programme
Evaluation Report
·
Youth
Service Plan from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
·
Building on the Best: Overview of
Local Authority Youth Services 2005/06 (published February 2007)