Services for young people

Memorandum submitted by Voscur

Executive Summary

The main points to highlight are the need for close working arrangements between the different sectors, in particular, the voluntary and community sector and the statutory sector, as well as the issue of insufficient funding and concerns about the impact of lack of funds for services. This applies to both universal and targeted services

Voscur is a council for Voluntary Service and a Development Agency for the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Sector in Bristol. The following, received from Voscur member organisations, provides evidence for the inquiry into the provision of services beyond the school/college day for young people:

i) Youth provision for 13-19 year olds in central/east Bristol. The project is staffed by 3 qualified youth workers and they deliver 2 centre based evening sessions per week, an outreach session and a Youth Forum. The project delivers curriculum based activities, a 4yp/ccard initiative, a Youth Forum and offers training, residential and opportunities for young people to personally and socially develop. The project is funded by Bristol City Council, investment funding and they are currently going through the decommissioning/business case for change process. They are awaiting a decision around Christmas regarding whether the project will receive roll over funding pending the commissioning model.

ii) The project makes referrals and liaises with social services and other statutory services relevant to young people. The Youth Forum debates and discusses issues relevant to young people and feeds into wider decision making bodies.  They have adult and young people volunteering working alongside qualified staff to deliver the sessions and they are offered training and support to develop their skills within the youth sector. 80% of the users of the project are from BME communities, mainly African Caribbean and White British /African Caribbean dual heritage. There are about 70:30 male/female attendees.

iii) The young people are consulted regularly about the activities and services that are provided at the centre. They actively seek funding opportunities with the support of paid staff and develop projects to meet the needs and issues affecting them at the time. They are a voluntary sector organisation but work closely with partners across the EC 3 area and also feed into the city wide youth strategy, attending meetings, consultations and working with officers from Bristol City Council. They attend the Neighbourhood Forums, part of the Neighbourhood Partnership and respond to issues affecting young people coming out of the meetings.

iv) Bristol City Council is currently assessing the work force training needs across the sector. Staff and volunteers access any training that is available to them and relevant to their work; the majority of this is public sector training and is often free. This is important as there is very little funding to attend training although it is acknowledged that training is essential to ensure that staff is 'current' in their practice.

v) This service is already under funded and is being subsidised. If the funding is withdrawn the service will disappear. This will potentially leave 268 vulnerable young people (2009-10 figs) without access to youth provision in the inner city.  Payment by results is not desirable unless a cost per head / full cost recovery model is used. Resources are currently being maximised and the service is under funded. Local government structures require quarterly and annual returns against pre agreed measurable targets using the new RAG rating system.

vi) The value and effectiveness of the current service can be measured through consultation/feedback from young people using the service, local communities and other agencies to measure the wider impacts eg Numbers of teenage pregnancies in the area, % of ASB, GCSE results, school attendance, numbers of NEET young people in the area, etc.

vii) The interface of local government and statutory structures. Provision of play for the children whilst on a visit to the prison seems to have taken a long time to arrange as the children’s services and the prison have both tried to get the other to pay. Both recognise that they have an obligation to do something about it, but neither has the budgetary space to pick up the cost. As a result it has taken a good year for the provision to be raised from one day to three. The situation was also delayed by a recruitment freeze which was instituted just as the money was identified within the prison service.  This does seem to be something that could be resolved simply by greater clarity from the centre.

December 2010