Services for young people

Memorandum submitted by Hertfordshire County Council

1.0 The relationship between universal and targeted services for young people.

1.1 Hertfordshire County Council provides youth work / positive activities for 13 – 19 year olds (up to 25 for those with a learning difficulty or a disability) through Youth Connexions. Youth Connexions works closely with the voluntary sector (including part funding a countywide umbrella organisation for voluntary youth work organisations) and other partners through the Children’s Trust arrangements including borough and district councils.

1.2. Under our current strategy the delivery of youth work / positive activities is increasingly focused at vulnerable groups and identified localities within the context of providing a universally available service including continuing to sustain and increase the focus on Friday and Saturday evening provision and holiday programmes.

1.3 Targeted work is usually delivered after a clear assessment of the young person’s or young people’s needs. Individuals or groups identified are signposted or their participation actively brokered into the wider youth (universal) offer to enable the development of personal and social skills and the increased resilience and emotional well being of the young person.

1.4 The young person should make a positive choice to engage in targeted work as constructive outcomes are more likely as a result.

1.5 The outcomes of targeted work can be framed as successful learning outcomes for the young person in their widest context.

1.6 The work of targeted work should aim to prevent young people from developing more complex needs, should be holistic and based on key aspects of the young person’s experience, including their education or learning, their place in the community, their family and their engagement in youth work / positive activities that enable them to develop the personal and social skills and resilience to effect change for themselves.

2.0 How services for young people can meet the Government’s priorities for volunteering, including the role of National Citizen Service.

2.1 Hertfordshire has a strong record of recruiting, training and utilising adult volunteers in youth work projects and as mentors. In recognition of the national agenda and raised profile of the importance of volunteering Hertfordshire will be looking early next year to actively recruit and train an increased number of adult volunteers. One of the strengths in Hertfordshire’s local authority delivery is that training and supervisory support for volunteer youth support workers is the same as that undertaken by their paid equivalents. We look to use volunteers in the local communities that they are based.

2.2 The local authority in Hertfordshire is working towards the development of common youth work / positive activity standards in the promotion and delivery of all activities for young people including the provision of safe working practices. This is facilitated through a formal partnership with the county-wide umbrella organisation for voluntary youth work (Pro Action). It is increasingly enabled at a local level through Services for Young People led youth strategy groups involving a wide cross section of providers.

2.3 Volunteering was a key element of Youth Matters: Next Steps and the Youth Connexions Hertfordshire (YCH) Youth Offer. The vtalent year, full-time volunteering programme for young people 16-25 created volunteering opportunities for young people within children and young people’s services. The project highlighted the benefits of having young people volunteer within the youth workforce and the use of volunteering as an alternative to paid work for those seeking employment. The two year project provided 30 young people who were not in employment, further education or post 16 training with exciting, high quality and structured opportunities to volunteer in a variety of placements. Young volunteers undertaking these placements worked towards a VRQ level 2 Certificate in Youth and Community work adding to a range of opportunities YCH offered for young people to learn.

2.4 Most young people benefit from a secure pathway into adulthood but there is still a significant gap between the outcomes for vulnerable young people and others. The NCS pilot is open to all young people that have reached their 16th birthday by 31st August 2011 and will be used as one of the many interventions deployed to reduce the gap that exists for vulnerable young people. The NCS pilot in Hertfordshire will aim to mix participants from a variety of backgrounds that will include vulnerable populations such as ethnic minority groups, young people in care and those that have received a service from the criminal justice system.

3.0 Which young people access services, what do they want from those services and their role in shaping provision.

3.1 Universal provision has been increasingly focused in areas of deprivation and the need to support more vulnerable groups. This will be an increasing shift in emphasis from early next year in the context of reduced resources. However it is important to note that many "vulnerable" individuals or groups of young people do not wish to be labelled as such or have specific provision exclusively for themselves – rather they wish to have supported access to "mainstream" provision which could include an identified group or named workers within a larger universal offer. Examples of this exist in weekly youth work / positive activities provision eg young carers and in holiday programme provision.

3.2 Through regular service wide questionnaires, focus groups, on line surveys, detached / street based work and accessing schools - workers are able to receive feedback and suggestions from young people and target resources where most required. Workers have regular discussions and feedback from young people locally in youth projects on the streets, in parks, at events and activities. In addition young people are locally involved in planning the programmes for their youth projects and in area etc events, projects and activities.

3.3 Improving the scope and young people’s participation in youth work / positive activities has been a key focus for Hertfordshire’s local authority youth work teams over the last few years. In 2009/10 the youth work teams worked with 29% of the 13-19 year old population in the County. The number of ‘accredited outcomes’ such as DofE that have been achieved by young people has risen by 68% in the past 3 years.

3.4 The local authority has proved its ability to respond flexibly to the needs of young people such as significantly increasing the quantity of Friday and Saturday evening provision over the past 2 years which helps deliver the crime prevention agenda and enables young people to access fun and educational activities. Young people are involved in the planning and, increasingly, in the delivery of these activities.

3.5 As of early December 2010 Hertfordshire’s youth work teams have had contact with 19,179 young people (this financial year) of which 8.1% identified themselves from a non-white ethnic background, 42% are female and 0.4% identified themselves with having a learning difficulty or disability (it should be noted that many LDD young people do not identify themselves in this category) . Of the population of young people accessing service 45.3% have attended provision on 3 or more occasions of which 7% identified themselves from a non-white ethnic background, 40% are female and 0.6% identified themselves with having a learning difficulty or disability.

3.6 Increasing the retention of young people within provision is factored into the business planning process with young people’s views sought throughout the year on the youth work / positive activity provision they wish to access and the quality of service they have received.

3.7 Young people request a variety of services that responds to their needs, interest and future aspirations. Yet the messages that are consistently received are to do with the quality of services that are provided more than the activity itself.

3.8 Young people want the staff to be welcoming and helpful, for the activities and events to be well organised and affordable. Young people want to meet with their friends in a place that is safe, free from bullying and abuse, and to be able to talk to someone that they trust. Young people want good and safe public transport that enables them to access facilities and activities available from the range of different providers, this is often a challenge in Hertfordshire.

4.0 The relative roles of the voluntary, community, statutory and private sectors in providing services for young people.

4.1 It is vital the voluntary and statutory sectors work well locally and strategically to plan, promote, organise and develop services for young people. In Hertfordshire this is delivered locally through 10 youth strategy / 11-19 groups involving a wide range of statutory and voluntary sector partners. County-wide this is achieved through a formal partnership with Pro- Action the umbrella organisation for voluntary youth work. Outcomes have included pooled funding to promote and deliver joint holiday / diversionary programmes, the identification and delivery of joint training, plus the identification in gaps of provision.

4.2 Hertfordshire’s local authority universal services are increasingly focusing their delivery at "hard to reach" young people, "vulnerable" groups and deprived communities while making their offer e.g. youth work / positive activities as universal as possible to both benefit the maximum number of young people and to encourage groups and communities to mix with each other and learn from one another.

5.0 The training and workforce development needs of the sector.

5.1 Essential basic core training should include safeguarding, health and safety, awareness of the needs of diverse communities, an awareness of integrated practice and access to ongoing appropriate refresher training.

5.2 There should be sufficient numbers of professionally qualified practitioners who are capable and confident in working with the most hard to reach and vulnerable young people, of performance managing, recruiting, training, supporting and developing paid and voluntary staff.

5.3 The local authority in Hertfordshire is aiming to build an excellent young people’s workforce across the county to support and deliver the priority outcomes detailed in the Children's and Young People's Plan . A workforce development programme led by Youth Connexions, received funding from the Children’s Workforce Development Council will see the creation of 30 Advanced Apprenticeships and 25 Foundation Degree places. Participants are from both the local authority and a wide cross section of the voluntary sector.

6.0 The impact of public sector spending cuts on funding and commissioning of services, including how available resources can best be maximised, and whether payment by results is desirable and achievable.

6.1 There is clearly a very high risk that a reduction in universal services will lead to greater numbers of young people requiring targeted and specialist intervention, inevitably at greater cost.

6.2 Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital Funds have provided an excellent opportunity for young people from statutory and voluntary projects to improve their programmes and facilities.

6.3 The lack of statutory status for local authority youth work continues to put pressures on the reduction of these budgets and a wide inconsistency in the level of service received by young people across the country.

6.4 Funding by results can be productive if it is an incentive to improve outcomes for young people. Care needs to be taken to ensure any system is not over bureaucratic and is clear and transparent.

6.5 Good partnership and joint working between voluntary and statutory providers of work with young people is productive, avoids duplication, promotes the offer to young people, builds capacity and maximises resources. Competing for the same resources wastes time and resources and fosters mistrust.

7.0 How local government structures and statutory frameworks impact on service provision

7.1 Local authorities can provide clear leadership, strategic management, the provision of qualified professional staff and local democratic accountability through elected members.

7.2 The establishment of an integrated youth support service in Hertfordshire nearly three years ago has led to the delivery of an increasingly high quality and value for money youth work / positive activities offer to local communities. Strategically managed this work is increasingly planned, promoted and delivered in partnership with the voluntary sector and district / borough councils. Evidence of the increasing volume and quality of work has already been described in this submission.

7.3 Following on from the successful establishment of the integrated youth support service in 2008, Hertfordshire will launch its new "Services for young people" in January incorporating a wider offer of services to 13 -19 year olds (up to 25 for young people who are LDD). This new service will enable an even greater integrated approach delivering universal and targeted support that is differentiated based on the needs of young people and their families.

8.0 How the value and effectiveness of services should be assessed.

8.1 The number of individual and repeat users of the service plus the outcomes achieved by young people should be measured against the spend per head of the 13-19 population.

8.2 Through a rigorous common quality assurance framework for all providers that goes beneath the headline figures and assesses the quality of the programmes on offer, the quality of intervention by paid and volunteer staff and the outcomes for young people, particularly those who are hard to reach and from vulnerable groups. Young people themselves particularly from the above groups must be given the opportunity and training to be integral to this process.

8.3 Through existing local democratic structures such as scrutiny committees and local forums all providers should be held accountable to the same benchmarks.

December 2010