Written evidence submitted by Karen Morgan
EDUCATION SELECT
COMMITTEE REPORT
INTO YOUTH
WORK DECEMBER
2010
Below is a collection of records, thoughts and feelings
captured by full and part time staff in regard to this inquiry.
This input comes from a borough wide Detached Team in an Outer
London borough.
The relationship between universal and targeted
services for young people
1. It would be a mistake to treat these
two themes as being exclusive. The two themes, for any professional
youth worker should be treated as a process. The process of youth
work often begins with a young person's entry through a universal
service and their developmental journey may enter a targeted phase
and return back to a universal one. Once a young person enters
a universal service the youth worker can begin to develop a relationship
with them and, on the basis of this voluntary relationship of
trust, the young person's needs can be fully established and then
the relevant services provided. The role of the youth worker is
to support this young person through their journey to adulthood,
whether it is through targeted services and back to universal,
or simply through universal.
2. By way of illustration; "a young
white male aged 13 attended a small youth club we ran after school
hours, he came every week to see our team and to take part in
small activities such as cooking, pool, sport and art. Over a
period of months we built a strong relationship with him and he
began to open up and talk to staff about how he was feeling angry
and sometimes felt he 'lost control'. He clearly felt comfortable
in talking to us and valued coming to the club and taking part
in things with his peers. His mother approached us and said that
she had noticed the benefit that he was getting from attending
our club and that although she grounded him for some bad behavior
on occasion she would always let him attend our group as she saw
it had real benefits for him in terms of his happiness and confidence.
It became clear to youth workers that this young person needed
some extra support from targeted services so one of the youth
workers undertook a CAF and presented it at the local YES (Youth
Early Support) panel. From this, the young person and his parents
were offered counselling, Positive Activities (PAYP), and a school
support worker. Throughout his time with these services he was
able to attend our club and reflect upon the benefits of the support
he and his family were receiving. He carried on being a member
of our local youth club after his targeted support programme had
ended. His development was not slow and steady, and there were
times when this young person needed extra support again."
3. The journey of a young person into adulthood
is rarely steady and there will be different times in their lives
when they will need support more than others. The relationship
between universal and targeted services is, therefore, interdependent
and should always be in any example of good practice in youth
work.
How services for young people can meet the Government's
priorities for volunteering, including the role of National Citizen
Service
4. "When K started to come to the meeting
area assigned for the youth workers to meet with the young people
to promote integration, he was very timid and shy. K would only
talk to one or two other people and was always quick to return
home. As part of a team, I worked in accordance with the National
Youth Agency (NYA) policy of valuing youth work—develop
him from boyhood to adulthood, socially, mentally and educationally
whilst interacting with other people. It was paramount for me
to put into practice the government's five every child matters
outcomes whilst working with him:
— be
healthy;
— stay
safe;
— enjoy
and achieve;
— make
a positive contribution; and
— achieve
economic well-being.
I would ask him about his day each time he came to
the youth gathering just to encourage communication. I and my
colleagues knew that putting forwards positive activities will
help to improve the outcomes achieved by young people by setting
out the characteristics of good quality provision. In so doing,
the YOF bid was embarked upon and some money was given to us to
help move the young people forward socially and educationally.
Trips to Spain and Northern Ireland were planned and facilitated
by the young people. K got involved and also went on the trips…in
doing so; he embarked to become a volunteer Youth worker.
Volunteering simply means giving up your own time
(as little or as much as you like) to help others (individuals,
groups, communities), without getting paid (apart from expenses).
He feeds back that he has no regrets and really proud of himself
as has been so worried that he will never find work due to many
rejections by the workforce, even for a temporary holiday job.
The most fantastic aspect of seeing K develop is that he was accepted
to study NVQ L1 in Youth work by our borough."
Which young people access services, what they
want from those services and their role in shaping provision
5. "I think that during my time as
a youth worker I would hope I have made a positive impact on young
people. A story I would like to share with you is that during
the summer of 2010 the Detached team put on a project in local
parks in the borough. We thoroughly canvassed the area and advertised
this project. During this project we went to a particular park
and we meet a group of about four young girls and one young boy
who took part in activities such as customizing shoes, bags and
hats and playing on the inflatable, we also got to know these
young people and began to develop a relationship with them. This
group ended up visiting another one the parks we were working
in for this project. The park was in another area the group were
unfamiliar with and completely out of their travel zone, taking
them two buses to get to the park. This was really positive as
it proved to the team the activities we provided for the young
people were engaging and beneficial as the young people kept saying
there was nothing to do in the area.
This group attended another project that the Detached
team ran during black history month. At the end of October 2010
the team ran a day of activities to celebrate black history month.
The young people could learn African drumming, make jewellery,
play games and learn to cook dishes from around the world. The
group came to this event and engaged in cooking curry with me.
The team also cooked Jerk Chicken with Rice and Peas with another
group, the group from the summer project asked if they cook make
dumplings and initiated a cooking lesson where they actually taught
me how to make dumplings.
I think this work proves that the Detached team run
projects to make contacts with young people and then follow up
with these young people when we run future projects. And also
are a recognized presence on the streets of and a point of contact
for young people to engage with us and for them to receive help
and guidance and for the young people to use the detached workers
as a means to get their voices heard for example talking to the
parks commissioner to put in lighting in certain parks."
6. "When I began working with the detached
team at R. Road I found it difficult to engage with one of the
young people, DN (Black British Male—age 15). He was comfortable
speaking with the lead worker, who had been working with him for
several years but seemed reluctant to open up to other members
of staff including myself. DN had serious anger management issues
and would often fly off the handle—the smallest of confrontations
would lead to an outburst. At times DN would show aggression or
violence towards other young people. One evening when DN started
to become aggressive towards other young people and another member
of staff I intervened, took him to the side and spoke to him about
why he felt the need to act in this way. He began opening up to
me about his personal situation and over the next few weeks I
managed to break down some barriers which had prevented me from
building relationships with this young person.
Although it took over a year of ground work before
I was finally able to get through to DN, since then he has always
been mature, composed and co-operative when working alongside
me. As a group we have talked about different ways to manage our
emotions and express ourselves appropriately to both staff and
peers.
DN was the victim of a vicious knife attack, being
stabbed multiple times in the chest, stomach, arms and legs. Since
then we have continued to work with him, encouraging and supporting
him and his family through his recovery, challenging his negative
attitudes and helping him to grow in confidence and maturity.
However, without constant support is still very vulnerable. As
a detached team we have worked closely with DN and have seen noticeable,
positive outcomes, both with him, his younger brothers and his
group of friends. None of this would have been achieved were it
not for the ongoing support of the Detached Team."
THE RELATIVE
ROLES OF
THE VOLUNTARY,
COMMUNITY, STATUTORY
AND PRIVATE
SECTORS IN
PROVIDING SERVICES
FOR YOUNG
PEOPLE
7. If the "Big Society" agenda
is to work we must have something to offer the voluntary sector
in supporting them to set up new projects/clubs and provision.
Traditionally youth workers working for Local Authorities have
been seen as the experts in youth work with voluntary groups look
to their local Council for support. This is not to say that other
groups cannot deliver youth work; of course they can, but the
standards maintained in terms of qualifications, health and safety,
and resources are what make us the experts in the field still
today. We must argue for Local Authority funded youth work if
we value our young people. They deserve to be worked with by high
quality, well resourced, well trained and standardised, local
authority workers. We must invest in this work now. The government
has a current workforce that is already engaged and working with
some of the most vulnerable young people in the country and are
stopping other young people from reaching that same point through
its universal provision. Why stop this when it has such far reaching
implications in terms of the future successes of young people?
How the value and effectiveness of services should
be assessed
8. "I have been a detached youth worker
for over two years and whilst out and about on the roads and communities
I have engaged with youths from various backgrounds and pasts.
There is one boy whom I would like to discuss because of the impact
I feel we have made in his life. When walking around the area
we became familiar with this young person who would always be
with a group of friends. His character was distant but I observed
that he had a strong use of bad language when communicating with
friends. His friends felt free to discuss their lack of school
attendance, alcohol consumption and large amounts of cigarette
smoking but he never choose to be part of these discussions. However
due to our regular meetings this young man began to feel more
comfortable with us and chose to open up and share his personal
life; discussing members of his family and things he would do
with or without his friends and we would listen.
These discussions gave me the opportunity as a detached
youth worker to attempt to build trust and develop a relationship
that would hopefully support him whilst also reminding him of
the importance of his education and finishing school. This young
person also vocalised his desire to become a motor engineer, which
could see was a passionate ambition that if nurtured could be
achieved with encouragement. Thereafter when we would meet this
young man he could continue to discuss his desire to go to college,
which created opportunities to attempt to steer him in the right
direction for him and introduced him to the adult education centre
and connexions workers. Consequently he decided to work with the
connexions worker and create a CV that would support his chosen
career. I am very pleased to say that our regular meetings and
discussion supported his confidence building and lead him to part
time employment after he finished school and he is now enrolled
at college doing motor engineering. We still see him and keep
up to date with his progress.
This is not only rewarding to me to see and be part
of helping a young person grow and achieve their aims. I believe
these young people need to know there are people in their communities
that care about them and it gives them an outlet and not only
build lives but change damaged ones—demonstrating that this
role should be maintained!"
9. "When I started working for the
detached team I was working in R. Road. There I met a young boy
who was easily led by others kept getting in to a lot of trouble
by the police and could be quite cheeky at times also had various
family issues. I soon built a relationship with this young person
and started to do various activities, the young people put a YOF
bid in to go Northern Ireland this was to see the how gun, knife,
gang crime affected the community and also their culture. When
we took the group of young people they all enjoyed themselves
and learnt a lot, but in this particular young person we started
to see a change in him as while on the trip his confidence grew.
While being at a restaurant he didn't know how to order from a
menu or even how to use a knife and fork so I sat next to him
and showed him what to do. When we returned home a couple months
later his sister came to us and said that the trip we had taken
him on helped a lot because he's a changed person going back to
school, not hanging around or getting into trouble by police.
She said that his confidence is so much better and the work that
I had done with him while being on the trip really helped and
she thanked us."
December 2010
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