Services for young people

Memorandum submitted by REEMAP

BACKGROUND

This paper is a response f r o m REEMAP to the above consultation document . The paper tells you about REEMAP and then goes on to make comments on various elements of the consultation document - including the points on which you have specifically requested feedback . Our comments focus mainly on educational underachievement and young people ; particularly from the Black and Minority Ethnic Communities in West Yorkshire , a geographical area that gives us the knowledge and basis for our comments .

REEMAP is a registered educational charity based in Leeds and works across West Yorkshire . The organisation was established in 2002 with the aim of providing good quality out-of and after -school educational support to children and young people. We provide support to parents and carers with the aim of raising aspirations and educational achievement of young people – particularly up to the age of 19 – so that the performance of young people from minority ethnic communities within the sub region at a minimum matches the best of any sub - region in the UK. REEMAP works across all BME communities.

Our current programmes include work with young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) funded by Connexions /Leeds City Council’s Integrated Youth Support Services ; out - of and after- school educational support ("Making the Difference") to young school pupils in partnership with a number of voluntary and mainstream bodies. We deliver the largest Windsor Fellowship Junior Programme in the country in partnership with Leeds Metropolitan University , Education Leeds, and the Windsor Fellowship ( London ) . All these programmes are aimed at raising aspirations and i mprov ing education al achievement across all BME communities in the sub region.

RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS

The relationship between universal and targeted services for young
people:

Over the years there has been a pattern of under-achievement of young people from most BME communities. The achievement of some groups such as Chinese, and Indian (Sikhs), are better than the average but for young people from communities such as African Caribbean , Bangladeshi, Pakistani etc., they have been at a level well below the average within the sub region and nationally. REEMAP believes that achievement at the age of 16 is the key to the ability of young people to have options for their future lives whether in training or lifelong learning. Improving achievement at the age of 16 is therefore the key to improving the life chances of people from BME communities.

Universal and targeted services for young people are designed to be seamless in responding to and/or meeting the needs of young people as well as addressing local priorities. However, in reality the practice is different.

The reasons for this could be traced to factors such as professional snobbery in the sense that many universal services operate under the misguided notion that they alone can address the issues.

For instance, there is evidence that complementary out-of and after-school supplementary education services contribute to raising attainment and aspirations but many mainstream schools believe that the work undertaken in school is enough to achieve the educational outcomes expected. While this may be true for some children, the opposite is the case for the majority as the methods of schooling, teaching and engaging with all stakeholders often alienate many children and parents.

Over the past eight years, REEMAP has demonstrated that an alternative and innovative approach to engaging young people, parents and communities can work. Our Key Stage 3 and 4 programmes have produced impressive results and significant outcomes for all young people participating in these programmes.

REEMAP has made significant investments in its resources underpinned by effective and efficient monitoring and evaluation processes across the organisation. Our programmes are designed to ensure inclusion, engagement and sustainable outcomes for participants and stakeholders. We aim to provide personalised interventions that impact on the wider society.

In fact, the Fischer Family Trust evaluation for Education Leeds in 2009/10 revealed that the contextual value added by our programme of intervention and support enabled each young person to achieve five additional grades across five GCSE subjects.

The fact that one of our programmes is now accredited by ASDAN also enhances the quality of the provision. However, we remain astounded at the reluctance of school heads and the local authority to embark on an effective partnership to ensure the programme is available to a wider group of young people who undoubtedly will benefit; thus helping increase the numbers of young people getting 5A*-C grades at GCSE, progressing to Post-16 education and improving overall outcomes for disadvantaged groups.

Many targeted services are poorly resourced particularly in financial terms with expectations for outstanding results within a 10 - 12 month timescale.

Tackling persistent problems like low aspirations and underachievement cannot be done through 1 year programmes. Our experience demonstrates that in order to make an impact in this area, it is necessary to start the educational support from an early age. It will take many years of consistent and focussed support to enable some young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds to develop the motivation, persistence and stamina to follow a focussed programme of work.

The insistence on starting at age 14 is much too late to make a real difference for a large proportion of young people with the ability to go on to Higher Education.  Many young people from our communities - and it is probably the same for young W hite children - are turned off education by the age of 12 and just ‘coast’ through school for the next 4 years.  If we are going to make a real difference w e need to intervene much earlier over a sustained timescale and raise their aspirations and give them the confidence to achieve.

Educational performance is particularly affected by low aspirations and low expectations by schools and pupils. Peer pressure is also an important issue to note in raising or setting high enough aspirations. We believe that there is also a need for raising the profile of education among most of the BME communities and to celebrate high achievement among young people. REEMAP works closely with parents to provide support and information that helps them to understand how the education system works and assist them to get the best out of the education system. For young people REEMAP provides good quality out-of and after-school educational support to young people. We aim to organise high profile annual events serving the sub region that acknowledge good educational performance and promote the value of educational achievement in the transformation of communities and people.

How services for young people can meet the Government's priorities for volunteering, including the role of National Citizen Service:

In understanding how services for young people can meet the Government's priorities for volunteering, including the role of National Citizen Service, it is important to get a grasp of the history and trend in volunteering.

Volunteering has been part of societal activity since time immemorial but in its structured form can be traced back to the Second World War and the years immediately after. People felt and believed in the need for self-help ; a resolve embedded in the economic challenges of those early years.

As the UK’s economy improved, so did the pressure to earn more and this created an environment in which many volunteers were more of the older generation and youth volunteering took on a form of issue-based and adrenaline fuelled activities. Fewer young people wanted to engage in what was considered the mundane backroom activities. The glamorous volunteer activities were more attractive and garnered more support.

Volunteering and coordinating volunteering is not always easy, particularly in light of the fact that the reality for many young people who volunteer is one of deprivation, low aspiration, limited opportunities, poor housing and poor role models. These young people often need a lot of support to retain , motivate and help them progress into fu rther education, employment or training.

There needs to be a recognition of volunteering as a reasonable route to progression into FE, employment etc.

At REEMAP, we work with many young people 64% of whom come from the 10% most deprived areas. On completion of our programme, young people are encouraged and offered the opportunity to contribute to their local community or the wider district through volunteering opportunities.

However, this approach is plagued with challenges. First is the pressure to secure employment to help meet family financial commitments. Second is the lack of organisational resources to support and maintain their interest through a Volunteer Coordinator.

We believe that we are well placed to help meet the Government's priorities for volunteering, including the role of National Citizen Service as we have over 300 young people willing to volunteer but lacking the guidance and support to commit.

We can provide young adults who can provide support to young people in after-school classes. We have young adults who can provide support in the form of a mentor. We have seen many y oung people, respond positively if they have a mentor who has similar social and economic backgrounds; who cares about them and gives them the right advice.

Our Youth Voice Forum and the NEET Steering Group are both coordinated by young people but we struggle to maintain the momentum because of a lack of funds.

It is our view that for the needs of a young person to be fully met, there should be a continuous loop of information, advice and support for the young person between targeted and universal services and service providers.

There should be more positive relationship between universal and targeted services regardless of the sector from which they originate. Universal and targeted services need to pool their communication tools to enable young people and their families understand the links/loop in the service delivery and stop them feeling torn or confused as to who does what.

Specialist services will always be needed for marginalised and excluded groups as these groups will not access or not be adequately served by universal services. However, universal services need to know about the targeted services available. More quality early and preventative interventions backed by effective universal services would lead to less need for targeted in the long run.

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

There is no shortage of marketing communication tools deployed to attract and encourage young people to access services. Unfortunately, many, particularly mainstream services , due to size and capacity, attract greater proportions of available contracts and pay far too much attention to meeting targets that they fail to identify and meet the profound needs of young people.

The result is a situation where a large number of young people; particularly those from poor economic and ethnic minority backgrounds, bounce around the mainstream service providers.

At REEMAP, with our Personal Adviser service, we often work with young people who are disheartened about services and despondent about their life chances having spent three years going from one mainstream provider to another. The same can be said for many students still in school requiring remedial and/or supplementary academic support .

From our monitoring, it is evident that for many young people, they need to be seen as individuals and their particular circumstances taken into account to help them gain the qualifications, skills and confidence to continue in post-16 education or secure appropriate employment.

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

Access to young people is about the easiest aspect of our work in the voluntary and community sector. However, maintaining their interest and helping them make the necessary transition remains the greatest challenge.

This challenge is steeped in the difficulties experienced when trying to engage the private sector; particularly in creating work placement and employment opportunities.

The UK has failed to create a balance in the levels of remuneration and profit margins, which has forced many employers into exploiting globalisation opportunities to create employment opportunities in markets with vast human resource and low pay schemes and structures .

The UK ’s socio-economic future is dependent on each sector (Public, Private and Voluntary) ensuring a collaborative approach to encouraging, developing and supporting a high-quality workforce whether as university graduates or vocational, equipped with the skills required by the country including business.

The importance of this cannot be overstated if Britain hopes to secure its long-term prosperity and to ensure an indigenous workforce equipped to compete with an immigrant workforce.

It is pertinent to note that this is not a baseless criticism of all organisation operating in the statutory and private sector s per se; after all, they (the private sector in particular) are profit motivated and not necessarily about charity .

Over the years, we have successfully developed effective collaborative partnerships with organisations such as the Roy al Air Force Base at Linton on Ouse, British Gas, the Bradford Fire Service.

In October 2008, the Confederation of British Industry ( CBI ) published a report " Towards a NEET solution : tackling underachievement in young people" . The CBI pointed out that, " Britain’s failure to get young people off the streets and into work leaves them vulnerable to becoming involved in crime, to ill health and a life at the margins of society as the people that prosperity forgot. " It also went on to state that it ( The CBI ) " believes it is unacceptable that Britain ranks 23rd out of 28 in the OECD's league table of young people not in education, employment or training – so-called 'NEETs' – often despite far lower unemployment rates overall " .

According to Mike Stevenson (Design Links), "When budgets are tight, working with young people is a fantastic staff development opportunity. The training cost saving has been remarkable. We have found that through utilising the talents of young people we have had the opportunity to try new things which has helped us branch into new areas of the market - directly impacting our business. "

In addition, there is a need for the statutory and private sectors to embrace the multicultural and diverse composition of the country. This is a reality and many young people from the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities feel marginalised in terms of recruitment processes.

While REEMAP will not necessarily advocate for positive discrimination/action , it is important to draw attention to the inherent racism in the approach. Many young people from these communities are offered employment opportunities that hold no career prospects or even willingness by the employer to embrace their individuality and cultural difference.

The training and workforce development needs of the sector:

Between 2004 and March 2010, the now defunct Learning & Skills Council and soon to be dissolved CapacityBuilders , made significant investments to meet training and workforce development needs of the sector. A considerable proportion went towards enabling the Black and Minority (BME) Sector/providers prepare the foundations for embedding training and workforce development.

REEMAP spearheaded the establishment of the BME Learning Network in West Yorkshire ( www.bmelearning.co.uk ) . The Network is a consortium of 110 organisations delivering frontline learning and skills services to the BME communities. Through its work, the Network members embarked on a pathway to delivering good quality learning and skills services underpinned by the knowledge, understanding and qualifications for meeting the learning and skills needs of their respective constituents.

Training and Development of future providers in the sector:

There are m any young people with extra-ordinary abilities but we fail to see that and fail them in the process because organisations have not developed effective strategies for inclusion and development in line with mutual aspirations.

At REEMAP, we encourage young people who participate in our programmes to engage through volunteering for a minimum of one year and seek to retain their commitment through a remuneration package for their continued involvement beyond that paid to volunteers.

During this period, a training and development package to enable them gain skills and qualifications necessary for future employment or career paths is put into place. This is evident in the work we are currently doing in partnership with Together4Peace, a local partner delivering the British Council’s Active Citizen’s Programme in Leeds .

The continued need and challenges:

There is still an immense level and a significant skills gap yet to be achieved in order to bridge the gap but the foundations are in place, which the current interregnum in funding is slowly undermining.

It is unfortunate that over the past 20 years, the sector was encouraged to adopt more professional and result-oriented outlook to its work and just as it begins to achieve that and demonstrate its willingness and ability to deliver and/or compete for the delivery of public services, it is clobbered with the Big Society policy.

Providers in the sector will continue to need encouragement and support to help identify their workforce training and development needs; particularly as we proceed on this journey of Localism and the "Big Society" but the will has to be supported by belief and trust on the part of Commissioning bodies and the willingness to allow time and space for the providers to prove their mettle before pulling the plug on a project or contract .

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:

It has been common knowledge that the voluntary and community sector will be radically different in light of the general election this year but undoubtedly, no one quite knew or anticipated the level of upheaval the sector is experiencing today.

The current Government has made it clear that the sector’s role will be two-fold. One, under the "Big Society" agenda and second Social Enterprises . The latter is evidently the route through which the sector is expected to engage in the delivery of paid-for public services while the former will remain the platform for the Big Society engagement.

Overall, the public sector spending cuts spells doom for many small frontline providers who already struggle with the capacity to meet the demands of commissioning structures while providing vital support to marginalised and often unknown groups within particular wards in any given city of England .

At a local level, the drive to improve performance in education (an area of particular interest to REEMAP) and cut costs in the public sector youth provision are evidenced in the assimilation of Education Leeds into the wider Children’s Service structure and the decision to commission single providers.

REEMAP has over the past eight years, struggled to meet its objectives due to limited capacity, poor funding models and expectations of its stakeholders. Regardless, over this period, REEMAP has had some significant achievements.

REEMAP is in the same position as many small and medium charities; but in a far more unique position because its area of work and beneficiaries remain a priority.

Through a focused and dedicated but realistic plan, REEMAP can continue to work to raise attainment and aspirations albeit through a social enterprise . As stated above, the coalition government sees the voluntary and community sectors playing a significant role in reforming services for children, young people and families and is therefore, opening up public services to enable the voluntary sector to become better involved in delivering key services. This should give hope and confidence for the future.

The public sector spending cuts have had a significantly negative impact on REEMAP. For instance, in 2008, Leeds City Council Integrated Youth Support Service (IYSS) assumed responsibility for the Connexions service and we have had a rolling contract for the delivery of a specialist Personal Adviser service. The current contract run s from 01/04/2010 to 31/03/2011 and the in-year reductions and public spending cuts will result in a significant deficit.

While on the surface a 12.5% reduction in the value of a contract and the potential deficit may not appear to be of significance, for a charity, it can cause major upheaval in terms of the management and administrative costs.

The implications of this deficit are:

1. A significant costs on overheads particularly, in terms of rent on current office space;

2. Administrative costs – photocopying, telecoms and communications, stationery, etc.

3. M anagement, supervision and other professional services (HR, Finance/Audit)

4. Other non-financially quantifiable impact includes the cost of lost morale in light of imminent loss of the contract and ultimately employment for the Personal Advisers, which will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the level and quality of delivery.

How local government structures and statutory frameworks impact on
service provision:

The focus of all sectors is the efficient delivery of services that improve the life chances of residents or citizens. However, the challenge has and continues to be how best to focus on meeting needs as opposed to defending, maintaining and protecting little fiefdoms .

Many organisations/providers in the voluntary sector have become rather large; or dependent on grants; a cycle of finger-pointing and protective of their own little empires. In the public sector, the sheer size and capacity of the local government structure is intimidating and unequal in any discussions or negotiations. Other statutory frameworks often end up being self-serving and similar to their local government counterparts.

Any available resources create a frenzy of ravenous portion-grab . We have observed local government structures reconfigured with such speed to take advantage of new funding streams; creating internal markets/provider teams that compete with external bidders.

In terms of seeking long term solutions, many public/statutory structures re-align themselves in light of prevailing needs to the detriment of universal and inclusive delivery. Thus, over a three-year cycle, the needs of the ignored , take precedence and a new cycle of bidding, internal market establishment and maintenance of new fiefdoms is embarked upon .

What this means is that many voluntary sector providers are kept out as their interest to see and achieve long term and marked difference for their beneficiaries are not aligned to those of the local government and/or statutory agencies.

How the value and effectiveness of services should be assessed:

Before proceeding to proffer a response, it is important to make certain points.

First, for some time in the voluntary sector and particularly since the last general elections in May 2010, there have been concern that, in the current climate, the dual pressure of the government efficiency drive and the recession is favouring measures of efficiency over measures of quality.

Second, the previous Prime Minister, while Chancellor, pushed the sector through the Comprehensive Spending Review, to achieve short term efficiency savings which invariably proved to distract delivery stakeholders from the benefits of longer term investment and savings.

The voluntary sector has over the past 10 years been impressed upon to ensure value for money in the delivery of their services. In reality, this was more about delivering more for less; while expected to go throw a diverse range of hoops to please commissioners.

The discussions about full cost recovery have largely been ignored or found to be too difficult for statutory partners to comprehend.

The difficulties inherent in undertaking cost effectiveness, value for money or cost benefit exercises lead to uncomfortable discussions about the role and effectiveness of the voluntary sector in meeting the needs of local communities/residents.

The impact of services can be assessed through feedback from young people and parents; service user involvement, including young people’s involvement in assessment and evaluation of services.

Many providers need encouragement and support to develop the confidence to undertake self assessments that are independently scrutinised particularly by young people.

The target setters at Central and Local Government need to understand the needs and lives of young people and endeavour to ensure that targets are designed to take a holistic approach to meeting the needs of young people and not necessarily to meet political policies and agendas.

It is universally acknowledged that preventative and early intervention initiatives and/or services are more cost effective in the long term considering that they help avoid a plethora of social problems later on.

The long term impact of particular services can prove to be the most effective approach in assessing the value and efficacy of that service. However, the policy, strategy and funding approaches mean that both Central and Local Governments expect quick fixes and immediate results emanating from short term investments.

The academic under-achievement of BME young people and economically-disadvantaged indigenous White communities is historical. But many Local and Central Government initiatives expect that through a 3-year-funded project, achievement levels can be raised and young people will have the skills and qualifications to compete effectively.

The overall long term impact of a particular intervention must be assessed in those terms and not on the basis of a 3-year life cycle. This will allow providers like REEMAP deliver value and efficiencies through an approach that focuses on the Personalisation of services and budgetary resources.

Another method for assessing value and effectiveness is undoubtedly through the engagement of the key influencers in the life of a young person – their parent/s.

Effective Out-of and after-school Support and Contribution of Parents/Carers:

In raising aspirations, we think there should be programmes that include individual advice and support to parents and young people that set out specific requirements in order to achieve clearly agreed goals. There should be specific programmes that target parents and young people to record and monitor their progress in achieving their aspirations and help them to work out successful strategies that reverse the lack of achievement in some families over successive generations.

REEMAP believes that for all communities, the performance of young people is profoundly affected by the quality of out of school support. In households where there is a tradition of educational achievement, and parents understand how the education system works, and are aware of how to provide effective support to their young people, the children from those families invariably perform well and achieve their potential. In most BME families however, there is no tradition of educational achievement, parents often have negative experiences of education, and are unable to provide effective role models and support to their children. REEMAP aims to provide services that fill that gap and by doing so improve the achievement of those young people and thereby improving their life chances.

GCSE performance is the key to improving life chances. Young people who perform to their optimum level at the age of 16, are better placed to take up employment with good training prospects, and are more likely to make use of those opportunities. Young males from these communities perform particularly poorly. We believe that the guidelines should pay particular attention to the situation of young males – but not at the expense of young females.

We have successfully demonstrated these beliefs over the past 8 years through our engagement and involvement/inclusion of parents/carers. More recently, through our Parents’ Forum, we are consistently ensuring the continued involvement of parents/carers in encourage, motivating and supporting young people in focusing on their education, achieving appropriate grades and aspiring for greater heights.

December 2010