Services for young people

Memorandum submitted by West Midlands Regional Youth Work Unit

Executive summary

If young people are to enter adult society ‘fit for purpose’ (to make a constructive contribution without burden) they need a range of ‘hard and soft’ skills (vocational/social) to complement the learning in mainstream learning as well as occasional specialist support to help ‘keep the wheels on’.

Universal provision is needed not only to service young peoples ‘right’ to appropriate learning and development beyond the classroom, but to also provide the ‘catch-all’ assessment, signposting and safety net for effective and efficient specialist early intervention and subsequent social context to complement specialist intervention programmes.

There is a fundamental need to ensure consistent services reach all young people, providing nationally consistent experiences and outcomes with local input to match and monitor performance. Implicit in the ‘reach of services’ is the need to ensure there are no holes or gaps for young people to fall through.

Mutual collaboration between sectors and specialisms and across physical boundaries can offer responsive structural flexibility to ensure, the right person, in the right place at the right time to support and develop young adults.

Brief introduction to the West Midlands Regional Youth Work Unit

The West Midlands Regional Youth Work Unit is an independent membership organisation (currently based at GOWM) that works with the 14 local authorities in the West Midlands and the voluntary and community sector in the region on the development and delivery of high quality youth work opportunities for young people in the context of services for young people.

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

1.1 Strong universal services provide the bedrock for high quality targeted services, for example schools that teach all of their pupils to high standard are also more likely to have effective measures in place to help those with special educational needs. The same can be said for ‘out of school day’ provision, where services providing high standard learning opportunities for all their young people are also more likely to have effective measures in place to support those with greater need/s.

1.2 For young peoples’ services, high quality universal provision is the base upon which more progressive services are built. The offer of general health promotion in youth clubs and other youth settings underpins more targeted services aimed to prevent teenage pregnancy or adolescent obesity, as just one example.

1.3 Targeted services should be able to direct young people back into mainstream provisions. The aim should always be to enable young people to take advantage of universal provision as this allows them to mix with peers; have opportunities to volunteer in the community; and achieve accredited outcomes for any area of informal or formal study they enter into.

1.4 There should be easily accessible referral mechanisms for young people to be directed to more targeted services as required. This may include the use of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF); or other mechanisms to support young people’s access to more specialist provision as and when they need it

1.5 Early intervention schemes are only effective when a strong universal youth provision exists. As staff in universal settings are in contact with ‘all’ young people, they are therefore best placed to identify ‘early warning signs’ or issues facing young people in order that person focussed early interventions can be made and referral mechanisms triggered where necessary. Also, where services are working more collaboratively, a greater degree of synergy leads to greater efficiency and effectiveness of the combined provisions.

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

2.1 Volunteering opportunities for young people come in many varieties, from the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, to helping out in the local Girl Guides or Scouts.

2.2 The role of voluntary youth groups in volunteering is important, as not only do voluntary groups provide internal opportunities for young people to volunteer, they often have their own links to their local communities and can accredit young volunteers within their own recognition frameworks, such as the volunteering badge in the Scouts.

2.3 Many local authorities have a contract with a local Council of Voluntary Youth Services (an umbrella organisation) that focuses upon the volunteering offer for young people. Local authorities supporting the voluntary sector in this way encourages the promotion of local volunteering by giving local partners a financial incentive and a focus on volunteering reinforced within a contract specification.

2.4Volunteering opportunities should be widely available to young people from a variety of providers, but this shouldn’t be seen as a ‘cheap’ alternative to paid employment. Quality volunteering should support young people’s growth and development, provide access to quality training opportunities and support young people’s ability to ‘move on’ into paid employment

2.5The National Citizen Service will thrive and add value where it builds on local volunteering opportunities that are already available and partnerships with the voluntary sector are well established, as well as developing new opportunities for young people where there are clearly identified ‘gaps in the market’

3. Which young people access services, what do they want from these services and their role in shaping provision?

3.1A broad range of young people access many different youth provisions across the country. It is important to ensure there remains a focus upon services for the older age range (14-19) as this group is often missed out on, and in particular those young people that are from disadvantaged backgrounds. Primarily, young people want and need places to go and things to do. Where those activities have additional benefits such as supporting young people’s personal and social development or the gaining of accredited outcomes there are clearly real benefits both for young people and the communities in which they live. Young people like to do worthwhile things as well as having fun and experiencing exciting activities.

3.2Young people’s involvement in helping shape provision is vital as through this partnership with commissioners and providers young people are able to help ensure delivery is going to meet both their expressed needs and the needs of others in a format that is appealing and attractive. Much of the private sector recognises that investing in ‘market research’ brings real benefits when developing services and products, to recognise and build on this should be an integral part of developing provision for young people.

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

4.1 Through an examination of the current market place for services for young people it is clear there is a plethora of provision that encompasses all the above sectors. A mixed economy of provision is beneficial to the needs of young people as well as to the ‘economy’ of the market place. By recognising the mutual benefits of having a mixed economy, providers should be able to collaborate in support of developing and delivering services for young people.

4.2There are also benefits in recognising the unique role of the statutory sector to be able to support capacity building across all sectors, as well as ensuring; range, quality, choice and access are available for all young people in their local authority area. The role of the statutory sector should be to provide overview, scrutiny, regulation, support and have the capacity to be able to deliver as well as commission private, voluntary and community sector providers where they offer value and quality, and will contribute to the overall offer to young people

5. The training and workforce development needs of the sector

5.1Nationally accredited training is vital for all individuals that work with young people. The ability to ensure all ‘staff’ have a common knowledge foundation that recognises the unique characteristics of adolescence as a period of change and transition helps ensure young people are supported by those that understand their developmental needs as well as their expressed wants, and helps ensure a consistency of service across a range of providers.

5.2 Access to a broad range of training and development opportunities is also vital to ensure ‘staff’ stay up to date with current developments, can expand their knowledge/skill base in order that they can continue to provide safe, relevant and exciting opportunities for young people

6. The impact of public sector spending cuts on funding and commissioning of services, including how available resources can be maximised, and whether payments by results is desirable and achievable

6.1There does not appear to be any consistency across the country in the way spending cuts are affecting services for young people. In some areas the cuts have devastated services, whereas in others services still appear to be strong. The way cuts have been implemented differs from council to council resulting in a post code lottery of services for young people. With no overall national minimum standard there is no way of ensuring young people have equality of access to services for them. For example in some local authorities, IAG services have taken the brunt of the cuts, where as in other areas, youth clubs have been closed instead.

6.2 Collaborative approaches that enable services to work more closely together offer the best solutions with respect to maximising resources. The sharing of buildings, training, finance and management offer economies of scale, as well as promoting working together in ways that have proven most effective.

6.3 Payment by results can be an effective way of ensuring outcomes based services. It is however of vital importance to ensure the ‘right’ mix of results that are to be measured. Payment by results needs to recognise that a variety of outcomes need to be in place that acknowledge the different pathways young people follow to ensure vulnerable/disadvantaged young people aren’t disproportionately affected because ‘payments by results’ are not seen as sufficiently attractive to market providers (given the complexity of needs some young people have)

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

7.1 Local government structures need to remain flexible and responsive to the needs of young people in their communities. Structures need to reflect local community needs and provide support for developing service provision not hindering it.

7.2 Statutory frameworks serve to ensure service standards do not differ from provider to provider. They recognise minimum standards and legal requirements that ensure safety and protection for young people. They also make it possible to manage for compliance, particularly around delivery areas such as Child Protection, Health and Safety and Quality standards

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

8.1 Performance against given criteria is extremely beneficial. Young people’s opinions should also be included as part of the setting and assessing of service value and effectiveness, along with service providers and other key stakeholders.

8.2 Developing a system that offers a range of impact measures provides flexibility and adaptability for value and effectiveness to be assessed in the context of young people’s lives and the communities in which they live.

8.3 Achievement should be demonstrable, and linked to local circumstance which could include for example participation rates linked to geographical areas weighted by deprivation indices, linked to outcomes.

8.4 It is important to ensure that outcomes for young people include both quantitative as well as qualitative measures to ensure ‘soft outcomes’ are appropriately weighted when calculating value and effectiveness of services e.g improving confidence, self esteem, motivation, communication skills alongside numbers of young people supported and accreditations/‘qualifications’ achieved. The improvements in confidence and motivation can impact greatly on improving young people’s employability as well as contributing to greater community cohesion and should therefore be included in any assessments of value and effectiveness.

December 2010