Services for young people

Memorandum submitted by David Ricketts

1) Youth service provision in Oxfordshire.

a) Oxfordshire County Council Youth Service currently has 28 young people’s centres and 2 detached youth work teams. These centres and teams are based in urban and rural communities across the county and offer a range of activities and support interventions for young people mainly aged between 13-19 years old.

b) Oxfordshire County Council has put forward a proposal to close 21 centres and both the detached youth work teams. The reasons behind the proposal are due to financial pressures.

c) The new model that is being proposed in to create 7 HUBS across the county with a number of workers based in the HUBS. There is mention that some centres offer some provision, although at the time of writing this is unclear.

d) The reaction too these proposals have caused major concern in the communities where youth centres have been identified to be closed. Young people who access the detached teams have expressed their concerns over the loss of their provision.

2) What makes youth work effective with Young people?

a) Youth Work has unique method of engaging youth people, the relationship is voluntary. Young people seek engagement by attending youth centres that offer a range of activities and support with personal issues.

b) Activities ranging from, playing pool, dance sessions, music sessions, creative arts, gig nights, homework support to name a few, through to residential trips in the UK and abroad.

c) Support with personal issues offering Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG). Issues such as Housing, Benefits, Sexual Health, Mental Health, Legal Information, Drugs and Alcohol, Anger management, advocacy work to name a few.

d) In order to offer and deliver the services and interventions 2,a,b, the staff need to understand youth culture in all its many forms, trends and issues facing young people in their communities.

e) Therefore what makes Youth Work effective is having professionally JNC qualified Youth Workers employed to manage and deliver youth services. These Qualified Youth workers have the skills required not only to manage youth centre resources but support the part-time paid staff/volunteers that work within the centres and teams. The investment and support in part-time and voluntary staff by qualified Youth workers enable these workers to be effective in delivering youth work. Many qualified youth workers started their career as volunteers and progress mainly due to the support of qualified Youth workers. Without this structure there is a significant risk that those adults in communities would not feel confident to enter into a youth work profession.

3) Youth work funding in Oxfordshire.

a) Oxfordshire County Council youth service funding has consistently remained in the bottom 10 local authorities in England & Wales.

b) In 2007/08 Oxfordshire county council spent £59 per head on 13-19 year olds, while the average spend in England was at the time £84. (National Youth Agency). The county was ranked 104th out of 118 local authorities for net expenditure on youth provision.

c) OfSTED (2004) rated the Youth Service as Very Good however it warned that this was not sustainable without additional funding. The previous government proposed that there should be a ratio of 1 youth worker for 400 13-19 young people DfES (2002) Resourcing Excellent youth Services. Oxfordshire managed 1 youth worker for 760 young people well below the ratio target.

d) The new government is suggesting that volunteers, via The Big Society policy can now begin to operate and manage Youth centres. Youth workers have for decades been operating within the Big Society. Nearly all professionally qualified JNC Youth workers started their careers as a volunteer in a youth work setting. Without professionally qualified youth workers who is going to manage and supervise these volunteers? Many just want to contribute a few hours a week and want the freedom to choose when they volunteer. What happens when volunteers feel they can no longer cope with the work and cease to volunteer?

e) The amount of time contributed by volunteers and students in youth centres and detached team is significant. Anecdotal calculations on data provided suggest a figure in the region of £170,000 of voluntary work time input into youth work provision. For example in 2010 450 hours of student time has contributed to the provision of detached youth work in Oxford city detached team alone. The medium hourly rate is about £10, hence from the above example this amounts to £4500 of voluntary time being contributed. Youth workers have been operating the Big Society programme for decades; it is nothing new to the Youth service.

4) Youth work training in Oxfordshire

a) Professional JNC recognised Youth work training in Oxfordshire is currently delivered by Ruskin College. From September 2010 all students starting to train as Youth workers must complete a BA Hons. Degree. This is to ensure quality of high standards within the profession and to give Youth workers parity status with social workers and other professionals working within the educational social welfare professions.

b) I have Ruskin students on placement within the Detached Youth work team. They feel extremely concerned at the current developments in Oxfordshire and within numerous other local authorities across England where the JNC Terms and conditions are under threat. The loss of JNC Terms and Conditions will strike a heavy blow on these students as they now beginning to question, ‘is it worth continuing on the degree course’? If there is no Youth Work what are their options? Many are mature students returning to education having under achieved at school, for some this is their last chance. I should know as I graduated aged 39 years old.

c) If in Oxfordshire the new service structure of 7 HUBS comes into operation and if Youth workers are no longer employed on JNC Term and Conditions this will have serious consequences regarding the future training of Ruskin students on the Youth work course. If Youth work posts are removed who will be left to supervise, manage and train student youth workers in the field as it is a requirement that they are supervised by qualified Youth workers?

5) Detached Youth work methodology

a) We engage young people on their territory and in their time led by their agenda. Our relationship with them is purely voluntary. It involves building relationships to put us in a position to help empower them to make decisions that are beneficial for their lives and subsequently those of the wider society.

b) The relationship building process is based on trust, honesty and respect. It understands where the young people are at and that they ultimately have an element of control over their lives. It nurtures the relationship to allow appropriate challenging, planning, resourcing and social learning. We try to start at the point they are at in their journey and create an arena where young people can experience the steps forward in a safer manner that allows them to learn their own answers to their issues and problems. Often they are the experts in their own lives.

c) The skills used to facilitate this are resilience, resourcefulness, listening, reflection, problem solving. Being consistent, open and accessible to young people also allows the relationship to develop.

d) The voluntary aspect of the work is absolutely crucial as it allows the young person to engage on a level where they are taken seriously and for many it is the first time in their lives they have encountered such a relationship with adults. This can be inspiring for them as well as opening up areas of thought that would otherwise have lain dormant to the adult world and only to be shared amongst peers. Being able to relate appropriately to adults is the key to being able to relate to the world around them and the youth work relationship facilitates this expansion of thoughts, ideas and enables an element of experimental ‘training’ in engaging with wider society. A safe and trusting social arena allows learning and the testing out of ideas. It facilitates critical thinking by the young person and the youth worker to create solutions.

e) One of the things missing in society for young people is a passage of rights. This leaves a blurred line between childhood and adulthood. Being treated and respected as an adult can be empowering for young people and often brings with it wider benefits such as better social interactions with other adults.

f) When we work with more ‘damaged’ young people what often unravels is a tapestry of neglect, abuse and a past history devoid of any sense of ‘normality’ as society would see it. In order for these young people to become productive members of society they need to be able to recognise and understand what has happened to them and the roles played out in that. They need to reconstruct themselves free from the negative influences of their past but to learn how to use their experiences as a means of resolve. These young people need the social space and time to work through their experiences in a manner that is free from judgement. In essence, a place and person that they feel safe to express themselves to so as to attend to their issues and work out strategies to overcome them and to move forward.

g) Our work also involves some very practical aspects such as crisis intervention e.g. attempted suicide, physical injury, drug abuse, self harming etc. We can also offer the provision of resources such as a computer, phone, stationary and the workers knowledge. We also have strong skills in signposting when appropriate and are well versed in accessing benefits, housing, mental health services, sexual health services, employment etc. We are a resource for information, advice and guidance around a wide variety of subjects and issues.

h) The style of our work can often be in stark contrast to other agencies that engage with young people on a statutory basis as the relationship is fundamentally different. Presently there are no other agencies or voluntary groups that can step in to cover the work we do if we cease to exist as a project. We often work with the very hard to engage young people and those that have fallen through all the nets and sometimes quite literally fall at our feet. We have insights and access to the most vulnerable and hard to reach young people and to take that safety net away from them can be catastrophic.

To surmise: The voluntary relationship with young people by highly skilled and trained youth workers is undoubtedly beneficial to the young people that come into contact with them. It paves the way for social learning for those that otherwise would not have the resource to access unless in a negative manner. What we do has long term benefits both socially and financially.

December 2010