Services for young people

Memorandum submitted by Frontier Youth Trust

I. We are of the opinion that young people are the most important ‘voice’ in this discussion and we have collected some of their opinions in some of the projects that we work with . Please see Appendix 1 . FYT has written extensively about the value of youth work (e.g. ‘Youth Work After Christendom’ by Jo and Nigel Pimlott , ‘Stories from the Edge’ by Dave Wiles, ‘Meet Them Where they are At’ by Richard Passmore etc) and I would commend these publications to you as more in-depth evidence of the value of youth work (universal and targeted).

II. First and foremost we want to raise serious concern about the decimation of services to young people that is occurring as a result of public service cuts at this time . We are fearful of the outc omes of what we perceive to be a draconian erosion of both universal and targeted services in the youth work sector – especially in Local A uthorities services . Morale is at the lowest we have ever seen, youth work has become a ‘depressed profession’ and we are losing committed and dedicated support for young people across the whole sector. We assert that safe voluntary relationships between adults and young people within the framework of the youth work discipline (voluntary and statutory services) is crucial to the young people of this nation and should be protected at all costs in these times .

III. We perceive a systematic dismantling of youth work and are most concerned given that we believe it is a valuable, important and crucial aspect of community life to young people . It is especially important to those young people w ho are already disadvantaged and marginalised with respect to their place in society and the way that they are treated. Our own research into adult attitudes towards young people (see : http://www.fyt.org.uk/showdetails,pdf,64.htm ) shows that young people are labelled and stigmatised in our society extensively and that this is creating a negative ‘dominant narrative’ that has a damaging and spiralling impact across generations. Add to the intergenerational tension that is already in existence the current cuts in police and other community services and we are seriously concerned about the impact this will have across the UK .

IV. We believe that any erosion of young work services (LA and/or voluntary , targeted and/ or universal ) to be detrimental and short sighted in terms of the drastic impact it will have on young people. This impact will also be felt in society as a whole and upon local communities in particular. We believe that there is a distinct lack of awareness about the value of universal youth work provision that will be sharply felt if it disappears.

V. Nor is this the time to create tension between ‘voluntary’ provisions of service and LA provision by establishing contracted services or ‘ competitive tendering ’ . Both ‘voluntary’ provisions of service and LA provision are crucial and complementary services to young people. Nor in my own experience of a similar change in culture to the way that social work is provided (e.g. to contracted services) is this in the best interest of those that receive services, the experience from social work suggests:

· It leads to unhealthy competition between voluntary groups .

· Large scale providers ‘come to the surface’ and monopolise service provision by merit of their ability to ‘speak professional language’ and often excluded the ‘green shoots’ of localised voices and action .

· Complex and time consuming systems of monitoring and evaluation are developed that eclipse direct provision to service users and ‘face to face’ services suffer.

VI. We would prefer a system of resourcing localised action ( e.g. in the voluntary sense and not replacing existing LA provision ) . Resourced local action should be based upon the work of community development workers who are able to form, sustain and develop local relationships and mutually developed actions with local people (note this applies to youth work as much as to other forms of community action).

VII. FYT has been conducting longitudinal research that we would like to suggest should inform this type of developme nt (local community action). T his research is to be published in early 2011, however, we offer the following draft findings to you as strong proposals for action when developing local community action based partnerships. The research studies the development of a local community association that emerged when an LA youth cen tre was closed as a result of political cuts. The community association is still relatively young, the group is seeking to build the community by drawing people from the church, the local authority and the local community together. The research considers the relationship between the church and state in particular, looking for strengths, weaknes ses and areas for improvement. Draft k ey findings are:

a. This type of partnership can achieve major and significant change in local communities. These changes need to be recognised, identified and celebrated as a key way of building on success, encouraging local people and generalising learning for future activity

b. The phenomenon of ‘personalising events’ (for example, attributing blame to individuals within systems who are communicating decisions about financial cuts) has been identified and requires conscious consideration and ‘debunking’ to enhance partnership development .

c. Active listening is essential if partnership is to be successful and requires the following if it is to be a characteristic of partnership

· Sensitive process management

· Summarised and reflective behaviours

· Written and open agreements

· Mutual respect

d. Partnership with local bodies needs to be paced correctly. For example the degree of responsibility that local partnership groups can take (e.g. management of buildings) needs to be paced so that learning from ‘winnable actions’ can be generalised and applied to future activity

e. Awareness about the needs of the whole community needs active consideration to ensure that ‘active minorities’ do not take over this type of development

f. Open, accessible and clear communication is central to healthy partnership development and community activity

g. Investment in the development of local leadership and democratic process is essential and the use of a ‘neutral’ community worker/facilitator is a valid approach. To some extent the ‘action research process’ (led by FYT) running in tandem to the local development has helped with this function

h. The history and investment of existing community groups that come together in partnership may need careful consideration. The self interest of existing groups needs consideration by a new partnership to ensure that mutual benefits are made through the ‘forming partnership’

i. Training, mentoring and supporting local activists is crucial to the potential success of partnerships in localities (e.g. in issues like conflict management, trust development, communication skills, policy formation, task management/completion etc)

j. Specific interventions need to be planned and implemented to include the views of young people effectively. It cannot be assumed that they will engage in adult forms of decision making and development.

k. The Christian tradition has a wide range of theological stances and behaviours in relation to notions of partnerships. In developing partnerships it is helpful to take account of these as a key aspect of the ‘self interest’ and ‘stakes’ that individuals and groups bring to the partnership process.

VIII. With regard to the specific questions that are raised for this inquiry we would like to add the following comments:

IX. Relationship between universal and targeted services:

· We see the need for both, they are complementary approaches and not competitive.

· The resources and time required to monitor targeted services is of concern to us in that it is often a complex area that takes practitioners away from face to face contact with young people and creates serious stress amongst practitioners .

· The voluntary sector is already providing a massive amount of universal services in o u r communities which are often used and referred to by more targeted services. We believe that not enough funding is di rected towards the mobilisation, s upport, training, development and encouragement of existing voluntary universal services .

· Bishop Roger felt particularly strongly about this issue and said, "… Regarding the relationship between Universal and Targeted Services I agree we need both, they are complementary approaches and not competitive. I saw the importance of this in working with young people in danger of becoming young offenders when I was a youth worker in Liverpool in the 1960's and 70's - many are now active and respectable  members of their communities . If the Government wants to cut crime and reduce the numbers in prison - invest in good youth work.  Now as an active member of the management committee in Portishead Youth Centre I have seen the importance of this sort of youth work with young people who have been excluded from school - this has been warmly welcomed by the Head teacher of the local comprehensive school".

X. Government priorities for volunteering and active citizenship :

· I would refer you to the work of our own StreetSpace project (see http://www.fyt.org.uk/showdetails,project,3.htm ) which is actively engaging thousands of young people, many of whom are becoming local activists and exercising their rights and responsibilit ies in their own neighbourhoods.

XI. Which young people access services and what they want :

· This question requires serious consultation with young people. As mentioned we will provide you with some of the views that we have collected in the near future

XIII. The relative roles of differing providers :

· It will be apparent from this contribution to the inquiry that we believe that each has an important role in provision to young people and that these need to be complementary .

· We do not believe that businesses have played a significant role in the provision of youth services and we hope that this will change

XIV . Training and work force development :

· An agency such as FYT provides quality training to thousands of volunteer youth workers a year and with further resources would be able to respond to a greater number of requests – we are currently ‘just keeping our head above water’ in terms of responding to requests for support and training. Our experience is that we are able to raise funding for project work however; infrastructure funding to research, mentor, train, develop and inform youth work is very sparse.

· We support and contribute to a plethora of faith based professional qualifications for youth work, however current dismantling of services leaves us concerned that we are professionalizing a work force that may not be required in the future

XV. The impact of public service cuts etc… :

· You are referred to the comments made earlier in this response, we are very anxious about the impact of the cuts, especially for young people and those who are most at risk.

XVI. How local government structures and statutory frameworks impact on service provision:

· We believe that the further ‘down’ the chain that resources and responsibilities can be allocated for service provision the better it will be. Some of our current experience in this area leads us to believe that small grants are made to voluntary groups to bolster the ‘targeted’ requirements of centralised monitoring structures. There is a risk that funding is ‘buying numbers’ from voluntary groups rather than genuine partnerships being developed with and in the interest of young people and local activists.

XVII. How the value and effectiveness of services should be assessed:

· We believe that monitoring is best developed and conducted with those that are the activists and recipients of any local action (including youth work)

· We believe that monitoring is most effective when conducted in the context of on going relationships rather than in terms of empirical ‘number crunching’ type activity

· We believe that reflection and learning are the most important outcomes of monitoring but that undue emphasis is placed upon control and domination.

· Our experience suggests that reams of monitoring has gone into ‘a vacuum’, never to have been read or used, and that new paradigms are required

December 2010

Appendix 1 – Young people comments:

Consultation report into the inquiry launched by

the Education committee for evidence into services for young people.

StreetSpace Youth Project is an innovative detached youth work project working primarily with young people not engaged with conventional youth provision such as youth centres, but where they hang out in the local community, on the streets and in the parks.

The project works through regular contact and informal activities with the young people to enhance their personal, social, and spiritual development. Part of this work is running M&Ms (Meals and Meetings) during the winter months to continue contact with the young people during the darker evenings. During M&Ms the young people are involved in various consultation processes on issues such as town planning, which is then fed back to the local authorities. This allows the young people to actively participate in consultation processes on a range of issues.

M&Ms was therefore engaged as a means to consult with young people on the youth service and volunteering using the following vehicles:

1. Firstly the young people were asked to look at relevant web pages relating to their local youth service (in this case www.somersetyouth.gov.uk). They were then given bingo style cards with various options which are typically run by youth services (see relevant results). We also left some blank spaces if they wished to add their own ideas. They then marked with bingo dabbers the services that they would like the youth service to provide.

2. Then each young person was given a token and asked the question ‘should the youth service target specific groups of young people’? They could then choose to put these tokens in a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ box. If they opted for ‘yes’ they were asked to write down any groups that they thought should be targeted. They were not given them examples so as not to affect their decisions.

3. Lastly they were asked to write down anything that was stopping them from volunteering. We then asked them to look at what they had written and to think of, and write down; any solutions that could help them overcome these obstacles.

Below you will find the results of this consultation and photographic evidence of this process. Overall 18 young people were involved in the consultation process. They were all young males aged 14 - 16 years, all young people who use the local skate park for skating, BMXing and Scootering.

Youth Service Bingo

The young people were given the youth service bingo sheet shown below for the first part of the consultation. They were asked to stamp the services they would like from their local youth service and were given the option to add their own ideas should they wish to, 14 young people participated in this activity.

Targeted Young People

All the young people said that the youth service should be for everyone.

Volunteering

The following things were written on the wall expressing what was stopping the young people from getting involved in volunteering:

Reoccurring themes included: school/college, time, having time to do their BMX, skating, scooter riding, not getting paid.

Other issues raised:

Exams. Free time. BMX. People who are out of work could do it for a small amount of money or for experience. Boring. Pets. No incentive. Cold. Not interesting. Get the mic taken out of you.

We then asked them to come up with any solutions to these issues and the following were their observations:

‘Make it fun and get paid for it.’

‘Get something out of it.’

‘Supply warm clothes if it involves working outside.’

‘More practical job.’

‘Make it so that it involves stuff you like and something you enjoy.’

‘Free food and drink.’

‘Meet other people.’

‘Getting paid.’

‘Certificates.’

‘Work experience, getting certificates would look good on your CV.’

‘Gives us something to do.’

‘If we get paid.’

‘If it was work linked to the career I want to do.’

Following the closure of a Local Authority youth club young people at the 180 Skate Project said of their experience of youth work:

· We have nothing to do any more we just hang about the streets

· I really miss Nicole my youth worker

· We miss something to do and a chance to catch up with our friends

· It’s somewhere safe to go and to keep us off the street and out of trouble with the police

· I want to be a youth worker or social worker when I am older

· We were going to decorate our club but it got shut down

· Crime will go up because the clubs are closing