Services for young people

Memorandum submitted by John Paxton, Head of Integrated Youth Support Service, Leeds City Council

1.0 Executive Summary

1.1 A vital part of the vision for what is now described as the Big Society has long existed in the shape of the Youth Service, which employs half a million volunteers. According to the Audit Commission, every £1 invested in youth work generates £8 worth of voluntary activity. Youth work also achieves many broader positive citizenship outcomes. This work needs to be encouraged and supported by trained staff in order to continue empowering young people and adults alike in their communities.

1.2 Where good youth work exists there is a significant increase in positive outcomes for young people. This success is achieved through relationships that young people freely and voluntarily establish with youth workers. This idea of the voluntary relationship sits at the very heart of what young people can be empowered to achieve through youth work.

1.3 Every pound spent in youth services represents a many-fold saving in targeted services. Every pound cut from youth services will require a many-fold increase in the future cost of targeted services. Cuts to local authority youth services would risk harming the voluntary sector.

1.4 Youth services are extremely well placed to lead the National Citizen Service, but this should be as well as, not instead of, youth work. The National Citizen Service cannot replace youth work and youth services, which provide meaningful informal social education and personal development opportunities with and for young people all year round.

1.5 Successful youth work can only be grounded in the core principles of youth work, and cannot succeed when reduced to markets.

1.6 The JNC and related National Occupational Standards are vital to the continuing health of the voluntary sector.

1.7 The value of youth services would best be assessed through Ofsted inspection processes.

2.0 The relationship between universal and targeted organisations

2.1 There is often a lack of clarity within the field about the definition of ‘universal’ and ‘targeted’ services, or where universality ends and targeting begins. Youth work might be viewed as a universal service targeting those young people with the fewest opportunities. By its nature youth work is not explicitly about being a preventative service, but where good youth work exists there is a significant increase in positive outcomes for young people.

2.2 Effective youth work achieves success through relationships that young people freely and voluntarily establish with youth workers. This idea of the voluntary relationship sits at the very heart of what young people can be empowered to achieve through youth work.

2.3 Item 6.4.iii of the DfE Business Plan concerns developing proposals to support vulnerable young people by refocusing youth services on early intervention. However, any attempt to be prescriptive with young people during their free association risks destroying the potential for youth work. The content, context, methodology and assessment of youth work should be responsive to young people’s needs, rather than be instructional about what they should know, learn, feel, think, or how they should behave.

2.4 Nevertheless, the value that Youth work can bring to broader services must be recognised as effective youth workers frequently straddle the spectrum of universality and targeting in the delivery of good outcomes with young people. That is to say that youth work skills can be effective in preventative or targeted services but only where the youth work relationship can prosper. It thus already achieves some intentions of the DfE Business Plan - where youth work principles prevail.

2.5 The informal social education of youth work therefore achieves many outcomes of preventative interventions rather than offering prescriptive, instructional or social work type interventions. These informal and educational aspects of youth work are vital. They enable young people to recognise the value of learning, to understand how learning can enhance their life chances, to develop social skills, and enhance their social capital, in particular among young people from socially deprived backgrounds and those who are socially excluded.

2.6 Universal services like the youth service help to minimise the impact on targeted services. Youth work empowers young people for positive outcomes in life but where young people have greater needs it assists with facilitating access to services in a timely manner. This minimises the potential for problems escalating before targeted services are required, which in turn minimises the cost to targeted services.

2.7 Every pound spent in youth services represents a many-fold saving to targeted services. Maintaining the integrity of youth work would ensure that young people continue to achieve good outcomes, for the benefit of society as a whole.

3.0 How services meet Gov priorities for volunteering including the National Citizen Service

3.1 Youth work has a long tradition of voluntary contribution by adults and of empowering young people for volunteering. Some half a million people are involved in volunteering in youth services. Many professional youth workers enter the profession following voluntary involvement in youth work. The work therefore continually maintains a throughput of voluntary contribution.

3.2 Youth services are therefore extremely well placed to lead the National Citizen Service, but this should be as well as, not instead of, youth work. The National Citizen Service cannot replace youth work and youth services, which provide meaningful informal social education and personal development opportunities with and for young people all year round.

3.3 The National Citizen Service would be well placed within youth services but not separate from, or instead of them.

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

4.1 It has been estimated that for £350 per head of the 13-19 population every young person could benefit from youth services. However, spending was, prior to the CSR, £100 per head. Inevitably youth services have always cut their cloth to suit, prioritising those young people with the fewest opportunities and most to gain, typically in inner cities and areas of deprivation.

4.2 Young people participate because they choose to do so in the context of the voluntary relationship. They want to meet friends, relax and have fun. They want to be respected, valued and to be part of the community. They want to be involved in making decisions about the programmes open to them. Youth work promotes inclusion and equality of opportunity, and the voluntary relationship allows access to hard-to-reach groups, enabling them to participate in shaping the services they benefit from.

4.3 Young people also participate to enjoy opportunities for free association and fun, empowerment and critical thinking. Youth work offers a blend of fun and learning delivered in ways that are personalised according to the group or individual. The work enlightens young people and enables them to reflect upon their ideas, their thoughts and their values. It challenges destructive thinking & negative attitudes and encourages & affirms positive attitudes and values, in the process raising self esteem and aspiration. Young people enjoy these things and want to participate as the learning is related to the world around them. The youth work relationship facilitates this and young people engage positively in programmes that might sometimes be described as learning by stealth. Additionally, for hundreds of thousands of young people youth workers are the main trusted adult in their lives outside of their families, for many they are the only trusted adult. Youth workers enjoy the utmost respect and support.

4.4 The Education and Inspections Act 2006 placed a statutory duty on local authorities to secure access to sufficient positive activities for young people, including seeking and taking account of their views about provision. Youth work’s unique expertise in providing informal social education put it ahead of the game. A 2004 survey of children and young people’s involvement in public decision-making in England found that voluntary and statutory youth services reported high levels of participation work. Youth workers have long played a central role in assisting the development of participative and democratic models for young people including the design, delivery and governance of services. (The Benefits of Youth Work, LLUK and Unite)

4.5 Youth work also provides a focus for engaging young people in decisions in their local communities, often through structures such as youth councils or forums, and Ofsted inspection reports consistently highlight this. Its 2006-07 annual report described youth workers’ role in developing an effective voice for young people in local areas as ‘a very strong feature’. More recently, attention has focused on involving young people in decisions about spending on youth provision. The Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital Funds, introduced in 2006, provide budgets for young people – particularly the most disadvantaged - to decide how money should be spent on positive activities and youth facilities in their area. (The Benefits of Youth Work, LLUK and Unite)

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

5.1 Statutory sector providers offer leadership in partnership with and for voluntary youth services nationally across a vibrant voluntary, community and faith sector. In Leeds this is exemplified in the Youth Work Partnership, established in 2005.

5.2 This leadership partnership is long established in JNC terms & Conditions and related National Occupational Standards. They provide a benchmark for professional practice across the young people’s workforce, with many employees in the voluntary sector completing JNC recognised qualifications. The JNC and National Occupational Standards are vital to the continuing health of the voluntary sector, and support priorities in the DfE Business Plan, item 6.4, to improve opportunities for and support available to young people, and item 6.4i, to support a wider range providers to offer services to young people.

5.3 Incursions into youth services by private sector providers must be similarly underpinned and be under the leadership of the statutory sector. Should this not happen there would be no coherent structure or framework for youth services and work would be reduced to an ad hoc patchwork of provision in which the voluntary relationship – one of the vital cornerstones of youth work’s potential for success – would be lost.

5.4 Different organisations work in different ways but youth work works because of the informal education processes involved. Voluntary, Community and Statutory services should be complementary, and are most successful when provided through cooperation rather than competition. Successful youth work should be grounded in the core principles of youth work, and would struggle to succeed when reduced to markets.

6.0 The training & WFD needs of the sector

6.1 It is noted in the DfE Business Plan 2011-2015 that one of the six coalition priorities is to train and develop the professionals who work with children. It is hoped that this commitment extends to youth workers, through retaining and continually reviewing the National Occupational Standards.

6.2 The JNC endorsed Standards equip staff to engage young people effectively in the voluntary relationship. They facilitate participation, empowerment, education and equality of opportunity. Current JNC endorsed training also provides an initial professional qualification for the workforce as individuals make progress in their careers on the way to becoming fully qualified professionals. This is an important component in enabling the journey from volunteer to professional, offering an existing contribution to what is now called the big society.

6.3 Youth work already works across the spectrum of universal services and its potential could be strengthened with additional training linked to the provision of off-site learning in an educational context for young people who struggle to adjust to formal schooling opportunities.

6.4 Item 6.4.iv of the DfE Business Plan concerns establishing an independent review to advise on how to address the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood. Youth work offers an excellent context taking this forward.

6.5 The benefit of youth work extends to many broader positive social outcomes and could continue to be strengthened with enhanced training linked to supporting:

1. Community cohesion

2. Safeguarding

3. Outdoor activities

4. Volunteer action

5. Volunteer training

6. Inter-agency working

7. Curriculum training

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

7.1 Cuts to statutory sector youth services are resulting in sharp cuts to the voluntary sector. In Leeds calculations for the local authority youth services are being worked up, but have already resulted in 12.5% - 24% cuts across voluntary sector funding streams. This runs counter to item 6.4i in the DfE Business Plan for 2011 – 2015, which aims to support a wider range of providers to offer services to young people. A continuation in the commitment to statutory sector youth services would represent an investment in the voluntary and community sector’s capacity to empower young people for positive and constructive citizenship.

7.2 Given that money spent on youth services represents an investment in the context of subsequent savings for targeted services, the Big Society would be well served by increasing this investment. Continuing to invest appropriately in universal youth services will prevent stocking up problems for the future and ensure that young people continue to make a successful transition to adulthood.

7.3 The role of the local authority is crucial to determining the funding and commissioning of work, and if spending cuts threaten the stability this brings it risks harming outcomes for young people. Partnerships across the voluntary and community sectors deliver work of the highest quality, and achieve the best results, where local authority services provide leadership in supporting local responses to local need.

7.4 The benefits of youth work are well researched and described, but are notoriously difficult to quantify. Payment by results risks a reduction in the quality of outcomes for young people as a consequence of commissioning that which is most easily measured. This in turn risks a focus on payments rather than youth work outcomes.

7.5 Resources would best be maximised if they facilitate realistic partnerships across the voluntary sector, education, preventative and universal & targeted services in general.

7.6 Youth work crucially positions young people to shape and direct their own futures. Any attempt to place a unit cost on youth work provision would necessarily need to quantify youth work outcomes. Leeds Youth Service has concerns about the principle of payment by results for youth work but could demonstrate its value through the introduction of any effective evaluation system. It is confident that any effective method for articulating and putting a unit cost on youth work processes & outcomes would show youth work to be the most cost effective of all services to young people.

8.0 How local Gov structures and frameworks impact on service provision

8.1 As highlighted earlier, statutory sector providers offer leadership in partnership with and for voluntary youth services nationally across a vibrant voluntary, community and faith sector. Local government structures safeguard and provide services where other providers cherry pick or simply do not have the skills to deliver. This is underpinned by JNC endorsed National Occupational Standards and pay & conditions.

8.2 Internally however, statutory frameworks by their very nature affect the ability of youth work to find its voice. Those in the strongest positions with vested interests, in a climate where less money is available, are likely to shore up the services closest to them at the expense of small but valuable professions like youth work, which supports young people, the voluntary sector and, consequently, the vision for a big society.

9.0 How the value and effectiveness of services should be assessed

9.1 Elements of target setting have some value but they need to be fluid in recognising local needs.

9.2 Young people themselves provide powerful testimony of the benefits of youth work and should be involved in continuous assessment & evaluation via a young person friendly tool. Assessment should consider young people’s needs and interests, demographic data, accessibility of programmes and progression routes based around fun, activities and learning.

9.3 Any assessment of youth services must seek to make tangible that which is difficult to measure. This may be achieved by the introduction of an effective QA system founded in the principles and practice of youth work. This would possibly call for continuing research and case studies assessing the short, medium and long term outcomes of youth work, including through the participation of young people. The ‘intangibles’ would necessarily need to be articulated and incorporated into any ideas for payment by results.

9.4 Common components underpin good youth work whatever the setting. The Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 identified seven factors which need to be in place to improve outcomes for young people. These are:

1. Providing opportunities for young people to gain skills that build their well being;

2. Developing young people’s personal effectiveness through building their ability to arrive at their own choices and solutions to problems;

3. Making links between the different aspects of young people’s lives;

4. Setting and demonstrating appropriate standards of behaviour;

5. Keeping young people safe from physical and mental harm;

6. Putting proper supervision in place, through which adults provide clear, appropriate and consistent rules and expectations; and

7. Sustaining young people’s involvement over time.

(The Benefits of Youth Work, LLUK and Unite)

9.5 These components would necessarily need to be incorporated into any assessment processes for youth work, and again should be incorporated into any arrangements for payments by results.

9.6 Previous Ofsted processes for assessing youth work have been effective in identifying best practice and demonstrating youth work’s value for money. This is a mechanism that Leeds Youth Service would welcome being re-introduced.

December 2010