Services for young people
Memorandum submitted by Paul McHugh
Chapter 1
Youth Work in Bradford & The Benefits and Scope of the Work
Youth services in Bradford have a long tradition of inter agency work between Statutory and Voluntary Sector. Indeed most of our universal provision takes place in Voluntary Sector Buildings, a real partnership that together delivers local good quality youth work in our neighbourhoods, opening their doors to anyone who wants it in their own localities. Offering a vast array of interests and activities from sports and recreation, outdoor pursuits to music making, DJing and rapping, film making and photography to healthy eating and residential opportunities. Young people are introduced to social skill development through discussions around ground rules, sanctions and rewards policies, committees, teamwork, curriculum and project development, fundraising activities and volunteering. The provisions are mostly led by a JNC qualified and trained youth worker, supported by locally trained youth support staff and local volunteers. This is essential in delivering high quality, relevant and appropriate sessions and services to young people who are consulted regularly about their needs and interests. Where there is no Youth Club we endeavor to provide detached youth workers who regularly visit areas where young people ‘hang out’ and engage with them through regular contact and providing what the young people ask for.
In all areas workers are supported through a management structure that develops and maintains local, district and national partnerships with agencies that can support the work or take referrals for more health or social care interventions, for the minority of young people that need a more structured support.
We also have specialist teams in accreditation, health and equality, voice and influence and arts and innovation. They support the work in the neighbourhoods through direct delivery in the clubs as wall as providing access to young people at specialist events and gatherings in the city centre through to international residential opportunities
We have a team based within the Youth Offending Support team who take referrals of young people at risk of engaging in crime or anti social behaviour.
There is a good link between universal and targeted youth work with referrals going both ways. Youth Inclusion Programme and Intensive Personal Advisors, working with Tier 1 NEET young people, will take referrals of young people at risk and will introduce youth referrals back into universal provisions at the conclusion of their interventions, ensuring a longer term support mechanism for the young people.
Chapter 2
Targetted versus Universal
As previously outlined the relationship between Targeted and Universal is very important. You can’t have one without the other. Specialist workers taking referrals of young people at risk of offending or NEET can work with those individuals for a period of time, but then, as more referrals come their way, they have to pass them on to another universal, generic provision that can provide the light touch support these young people often need to keep them engaged in useful activity, on the training or educational course they are on or to just keep them out of trouble. The number one reason cited by young people and communities for anti social behaviour in an area is ‘There is nothing for young people to do’. Cutting the funding for youth work will lead to far greater problems in the future. From anti social behaviour, lack of educational attainment, involvement in crime and lack of hope and despair for young people. Who are already suffering the lack of employment and training opportunities this current recession is exacerbating for them.
Universal local authority youth work is a very effective preventative service. Developing relationships with young people ‘on the margins of society’ in the often more deprived areas of our cities. Enabling workers to identify problems young people are having with a whole range of issues from school, training, peers, family breakdown, sexual health or emotional issues. Once identified a skilled worker can offer direct help and support and refer on if more specialist, targetted interventions are required.
This early warning system is very effective and prevents a lot of expensive; in monetary, personal, family and societal terms, later interventions that could have been avoided if problems were identified and dealt with early on.
Chapter 3
Training and Support
Working with young people on the margins is very taxing and can take its toll in workers morale and enthusiasm. It means we need high caliber workers with the opportunities to refresh their skills, knowledge and motivation to keep on working in the face of so much despair and poverty. JNC endorsed qualifications give a good grounding in fund raising, partnership work, recruiting, training and supporting volunteers, essential skills to be able to offer the maximum opportunities to young people living on the margins of our society and able to reconnect them with wider society. Life Long Learning UK Workforce Manifesto offers a full workforce development programme essential to keeping and sharpening these skills.
Youth work struggles to measure and quantify its effectiveness purely because our interventions with young people are seen to be ‘soft skill development’. Helping young people take a step back and evaluate for themselves the affects of their actions on others, how the way they behave is perceived by others, getting them to value their own contribution, offering them opportunities to test out things, to be ‘in their corner’. The effects of this often long term relationship only materialize much later in the life choices our young people take as young adults. We are often the only other significant adult in many young people’s lives and, to some, the only ones they perceive to be ‘on their side’. This is a powerful and priviledged place to be, but requires very skillful and painstaking development. Treading cautiously forward, testing the boundaries and resilience of our young people along the way.
The best form of measurement for this type of work would be longitudinal studies of effectiveness. Giving a true picture over the longer period this work deserves.
Chapter 4
Volunteers
The ‘Big Society’ depends on people who have the right skills, relationships and experience of working with young people. Who have experience in developing effective and purposeful relationships? Skilled in developing relevant and appropriate activities and experience of risk assessments and the likely pitfalls and dangers of such enterprises as taking groups of young people out of their comfort zones, often into very unfamiliar territories, relationships and localities.
Being located within localities means we are uniquely placed to recruit, train and support volunteers. The vast majority being young people themselves. Indeed, most youth workers started their careers as volunteers. Nationally we support some half a million volunteers. Every pound spent on youth workers results in eight pounds worth of volunteers, providing very good value for money.
Chapter 5
Value for money
In my experience a universal youth service saves money. As in most things money spent on prevention is cheaper than cure. As cited earlier for every £1 spent on youth work we generate £8 in volunteering. Early intervention with young people saves thousands in later, more specialist interventions. Be that in crime, health or educational and vocational training or anti social behavior.
It can be effective in many settings, both formal and informal. Is tried and tested with a vast skilled, committed professional workforce who have already made large contributions to the development and maturity of many young adults in the UK.
Every study commissioned to measure and report on the efficacy and effectiveness of the youth work model cite its effectiveness and value for money. But perhaps the most telling tribute comes from the thousands of young people who have been helped by it.
December 2010
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