Services for young people

Memorandum submitted by the Integrated Youth Support Service VCFS forum, Leeds

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

Should be a continuous loop of support for the young person. We need both and there need to be clear and systematic links between ALL services for young people.

There needs to be a positive relationship between the two (all the services that support young people) with young people not feeling torn or confused as to who does what.

More quality universal services should lead to less need for targeted.

Specialist services are needed for marginalised and excluded groups as these will not access or not be adequately served by universal services. Universal services need to know about the targeted services available.

Feedback from young people.

§ "...I had six different workers from leaving Wetherby [YOI] to finishing my licence and it didn’t help me at all ...I think having one worker supporting me who can get all the information I need would be great"

§ "It’s really important that I can choose my key worker"

§ "We [the young people] should be able to access activities and support offered by different organisations but not have separate key workers for each"

§ More communication between different agencies who were helping us

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

Needs to be sustainability within the sector. If there are not the infrastructure of organisations then no where for young volunteers to go. Services for young people can provide volunteering opportunities that fit in with the Big Society agenda but need management support for the volunteers. Volunteers need to be supported whilst volunteering and in finding progressions and therefore the agencies need supporting, including in the delivery of NCS.

Opportunities need to be provided for young people to volunteer.

Volunteering should not be seen as a cheap option to run services.

VCFS well placed, has strong history of volunteering.

Services need to be able to engage vulnerable and socially excluded young people in volunteering. It is a good platform into employment, education or training. Provides skill building, confidence raising etc,

Needs to be recognition of volunteering, progressions, outcomes. It can be an important route for progressions into FE, employment etc.

Need to build on successes of previous programmes and not throw out effective provision that is already in place.

Look at in kind contributions where it is feasible – NCS is a low cost model. We have yet to see if this works.

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

Young people are key; they should be visible and heard at all stages. They want to shape their provision, inputting locally and city wide into service design and feeling ownership of the services.

If services are young person centred and exist to advocate for and advance the interests of their users, they will be shaped by the young people using them

Young people who access our (targeted) services are generally those who have tried and been failed by universal services.

Young people access provision in their neighbourhoods, but at times they may want or need to access provision out of their area, especially specialist services. They need choice. All young people have different needs at different times and may need access to services.

Young people still want somewhere to go, something to do and to be able to talk to someone with proficient youth work skills. They want to feel respected and have young people friendly provision.

The provision needs to be of good quality, and not about number crunching.

We need organisations that teach me many things about life society how to overcome my fears succeed in my future plans opened my mind to a lot of general information which has helped me thrive in the adult world taki ng away services will make me fail so please don't let our society fail! because it ’ s our youngsters who are going to make the rest of all our futures. we depend on it! Peyman Mohammidi ( young person)

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

Who ever can deliver the best services for young people, but be there for the long term, not just popping up as resources are available, and then moving on as funding goes.

Private sector are motivated by profit and so tend to "cream off" easiest customers. Statutory sector have duties and responsibilities (often vital) to people and organisations other than their customers and so cannot always be customer centred. Voluntary and Community providers are best placed to provide individualised, independent, customer-focused solutions to young people’s problems.

Sustainable funding

Learning from existing services ‘best practice’.

Regular meaningful evening and weekend opportunities.

Volunteering opportunities for young people

Innovation from VCFS and putting young people first

Innovation and cash from private sector but profit motives

Flexibility and young people led opportunities.

Potentially positive outcomes from cross sector partnerships but important that there is understanding of different cultures which are often VERY different.

Need for equal and meaningful partnerships with good communications.

5 The training and workforce development needs of the sector;  

It is a professional service and should be recognised as such

Ongoing, free training in safe-guarding is vital, particularly where volunteers are involved in delivery of services

Workers need knowledge and understanding of all elements which could affect a young persons life e. g relationships, education, housing

Good quality training needs to be available – including refreshers.

Avenues for professional development and progression for workers, from apprenticeships to trainees to part time workers to professionally qualified staff.

Clear roles for specialist workers.

Free quality training (or training allowances) for volunteers , especially in youth work.

6 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;

Can be difficult for small orgs that have little reserves to use to cover up front costs. Payment by results has negative implications for those VCFS organisations that have little or no reserves. A good cash flow is needed to keep sustainability and quality.

Commissioning arrangements can also place smaller organisations under threat.

Good to make organisations more accountable.

Danger of becoming totally driven by targets in order to gain funding.

Could lose the voluntary engagement of young people.

Move to larger contracts threatens smaller providers, many of whom have their roots in the communities they serve. Role for umbrella orgs in brokering consortium bids.

Results for whom? VCFS is motivated by providing results for customers but LA focus is on central government statistics. There are dangers in this as well as benefits in terms of accountability.

What are the results ? Not always easy to measure and may take years. Will soft outcomes be included ?

Need to have effective communication, including to support positive exit strategies.

Why does everything have to depend on results ?

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

Can be bureaucratic and inflexible.

Focus on structures and systems rather than outcomes for young people.

The time it can take to go through procurement, even just to get onto a framework, can to be too costly for some organisations as it means time will be taken away from service delivery.

Very expensive!

Planned economy model promotes service monopolies and acts against interest of consumers.

Need to recognise importance and value of VCS input and contributions to provision of services and the value of the local knowledge of workers.

It can stifle the creativity and flexibility of services.

The LA frameworks can be imposed on VCFS - we need to retain what makes us different - i.e. more approachable to young people.

If too target driven then can become meaningless.

Needs to be VCFS involvement in decision making processes and appreciation of the value and importance of VCFS in the delivery of services across Leeds.

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

Measurement of outcomes, including soft and hard outcomes, distance travelled etc. and against clear goals. This needs to be a consistent approach.

Feedback from young people.; service user involvement, including young people’s involvement in assessment and use of mystery shopping.

Self assessment that is scrutinised by young people.

The target setters need to understand the needs and lives of young people.

Progression; of young people and organisations.

Impact on local communities.

Measuring value added.

December 2010