Services for young people

Memorandum submitted by The Challenge Network

1.0 The Challenge Network (TCN) was established to connect and inspire people across Britain to strengthen their communities. It responds to the fact that:

• UK has lowest levels of trust and belonging in Europe1

• UK trust levels have halved over the past 50 years2

• UK has lowest levels of childhood well-being in the developed world3

• People can live in the same neighbourhood but lead parallel lives

• Young people in the UK have some of the highest rates of addiction, obesity and teenage pregnancy in the developed world4

1.1 The Challenge is the lead provider of the Government’s new National Citizen Service programme. It is a Civic Service programme delivered over the summer months and supported by key partners across the youth sector, at local community level, by private companies, philanthropists, trusts and foundations as well as HNW individuals.

1.2 The new Civic Service programme for 16 year olds exists to ‘inspire and enable a generation to lead social change’. We help young people to

· Transition to adulthood: We build self-awareness and responsibility key attitudes of adulthood.

· Connect across boundaries: We mix young people across social backgrounds and help them to build trust and work together.

· Mobilise change in their community: We challenge young people to strengthen their local community.

1.3 Young people take part in the two month programme and undertake three key challenges

· The Personal Challenge: Young people are bonded into socially mixed teams through a week of outdoor adventure activities.

· The Team Challenge: Teams are challenged to serve their community for a week using skills they are passionate about.

· The Real Challenge: Teams design and deliver a social action project that will strengthen their local community.

1.4 TCN partners with by The Outward Bound Trust, Scouts, Youth Hostelling Association and Brathay and a host of community organisations at a local and national level.

2.0 The relationship between universal and targeted services for young people;

2.1 The Challenge Network would be in favour of universal services which can also be used in a targeted way to benefit all young people.

2.2 There is significant benefit for young people and society in mixing young people with different social, economic and ethnic backgrounds. TCN strongly believes that when young people undertake activities and engage with their wider community in teams with others from a different background, there are added benefits to the personal development process. These are in building trust and relationships between different groups in society; breaking down community barriers; and greater social change can be expected.

2.3 Targeted services when focused solely on hard to reach groups will further ghettoise young people. It is our experience, and one for the main reasons for establishing the National Citizen Service, that many young people feel isolated and excluded. Services are needed that engage all young people, which enable, encourage and inspire them to participate in society and make a meaningful impact on their communities.

2.4 This said, there is a very clear need for specialist services for those young people facing difficulties.

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

3.1 It is our experience that whilst many youth services have provided solid personal development programmes for young people for decades and in recent years have ensured young people achieve accredited outcomes; it is also the case that this has been at the expense of engagement with local communities and integration. TCN would be supportive of those organisations that inspire and equip young people to build trust, understanding and empathy with others, that help them in the sometimes difficult transition to adulthood; and that contribute in a real way to the aims of Big Society. This will mean that for some services, particularly those provided by Local Authorities that there focus and methods of working will need to shift. We would welcome and support this.

3.2 As the leading provider of the National Citizen Service, TCN is working with a range of third sector providers to provide opportunities for young people at a national and level including Outward Bound, The Princes Trust, Young Enterprise, v, Streetgames, Scouts, Guides, 21cc, ITV Fixers and Envision. It is our experience that those organisations that have high aspirations for young people and their potential to build a better society are able to competently meet the Government’s priorities for volunteering especially those of NCS.

3.3 Case Study: Working a local organisation to increase volunteering. TCN’s programme brings young people from different backgrounds together and gives them a passion for their local community – then linking them into further volunteering opportunities. A good example of this is a team of 12 young people from different backgrounds in Southwark, London brought together by TCN. Through our residential and community programme, the young people were inspired to establish a social enterprise selling T-shirts which promoted positive images of young people. After their time with TCN, they were linked with a local charity – Envision – which continued to provide them with mentoring support to ensure their ongoing volunteering was a success. See more details here: http://www.the-challenge.org/about-us/case-study/

4.0 Which young people access services, what they want from those services and their role in shaping provision;

4.1 It is the experience of TCN that the majority of young people, at some stage in their transition to adulthood, need and seek access to services. It is the case that these are not always available – for their need, because of their own background or the availability of services in their geographical location. TCN has most experience of young people at and aground the age of 16 and see this as a particularly key transition point for young people.

4.2 Young people do want places to go and things to do but they want more than this – to feel part of something; to trust and be trusted; to have relationships that are wider than their immediate friendship group; to know and be inspired by other trusted adults; to have experiences that really challenge them; the ability to take risks; to have space to reflect and develop; and most significantly, they want to make a difference.

4.3 TCN strongly believes that young people should be part of the planning, development and evaluation of provision. Empowering and equipping young people to engage in this in a meaningful way is crucial and organisations such as NCVYS have developed sound methodology.

4.4 TCN is an example of good practice in the way that young people own and design their own social action projects. TCN also involves young people in its governance process through having two young trustees. Young people are involved in focus groups to evaluate each stage of the programme and in the testing of new ideas and areas of development and redesign in the programme. Young people also engage in sharing their experiences with others after the programme – with peers, those thinking about doing the programme, with supports, donors and policy makers. It is a key value of TCN that the voice and experience of young people lies at the heart of all that is done in the development and scaling of the National Citizen Service.

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

5.1 TCN strongly sees the need for a combined approach to providing services for young people. Our positive experiences have been in working in partnership with the voluntary, community and private sectors. These would include:

5.2 Case study: voluntary sector partnership. TCN has built a strong partnership with the Outward Bound Trust. TCN’s programme uses outdoor activities to bond together young people from diverse backgrounds. These young people then return to their local community, where TCN links them with local community volunteering opportunities. OBT have provided operational expertise and capacity to deliver these challenging outdoor activities enabling TCN to focus on their core competency of building local community.

5.3 Case Study: community sector partnership. TCN has built a number of local community sector partnerships to enable young people to understand and take responsibility in their local community. For example, in Birmingham, TCN has built a strong partnership with local HIV/AIDS drop-in centre AB+. We have brought young people to visit the centre – making a film about their work – and then going on to fundraise for the centre. This has enabled young people to gain understanding and empathy for a key public health issue and also make a difference locally.

5.4 Case Study: private sector partnership. Goldman Sachs provided skills workshops for young people who had undertaken The Challenge programme. This introduced them to the world of work, raised aspirations and enabled them to view their achievements with TCN in terms of employability and further education. For Goldman Sachs, it gave an opportunity to engage in a local community project, contributed to their CSR agenda and gave opportunities for employee volunteering.

5.5 To date, TCN has had mixed experiences in working with local authority providers of youth services.

5.6 Overall TCN would believe that all sectors have a responsibility and roles to play in providing services with and for young people. We would see the most significant impacts in those organisations which are values based, operate in a business like way, at a local and national level, collaboratively an in partnerships, that are scalable, offer value for money and that bring different groups of society together to make a lasting and real difference.

6.0 The training and workforce development needs of the sector;  

6.1 TCN would argue for a flexible approach to training and workforce development in the sector. We would agree that standards of training and development in the sector are varied. We are a significant employer in the sector and in the summer of 2011 will employ over 900 staff. Any compulsory requirements will have a serious impact on the ability of NCS to scale. We would welcome the opportunity to give oral evidence on this matter and to have further discussions with you in the development of this area.

7.0 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;

7.1 In general terms, TCN would be in favour of payment by results but as a voluntary organisation we would find this difficult in practical terms. From a cash flow perspective, such a policy would disadvantage small and medium sized charities who are unlikely to have reserves or access to the working capital required for initial investment and set up costs. If these challenges could be overcome then we do see payment by results as achievable and desirable in terms of driving up standards and achievements in the sector.

8.0 How local government structures and statutory frameworks impact on service provision; and

8.1 It has not been the experience of TCN that government structures and statutory frameworks other than that of the CRB/Vetting and Barring scheme have had a negative impact on the successful delivery of The Challenge programme (now part of National Citizen Service).

8.2 With a large summer workforce (over 1,000) we have serious concerns about the impact of the changes to CRB/Vetting and Barring which whilst we are aware do not fall under this brief, affect our ability to recruit and place efficiently and effectively. Again, we would welcome the opportunity to be part of reform discussion.

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

9.1 TCN would strongly urge an impact assessment approach. We would not be in favour of the sole use of quantitative measures and would request methods be considered to track longitudinal impact.

9.2 There is a clear case for a national quality framework for working with youth people. However, the diversity of young people and the organisations that work with them means that such a framework must be light touch and should include a universal set of themes that organisations working with young people seek to improve in.

December 2010