Charnwood Borough Council, Leicestershire County Youth Service and Integrated Youth Support Services
Practice background: How does the County Youth Service operate?
The Leicestershire Youth Service is managed centrally through area teams and delivered locally by youth work practitioners based across the county. The Youth Service is focused on building voluntary relationships and engaging young people in learning, i.e. around sexual health. Youth Workers operate through youth centers, youth projects, schools, alternative curriculum programmes, free standing centers and detached youth work – detached work is the area that has most overlap with other initiatives because it tends to involve ASB initiatives etc.
The government is keen for the Youth Service to promote Positive Activity (any organised activity available to young people). The Youth Service tends to use Positive Activities such as football to build relationships with young people, rather than organising these clubs.
Policy background: Why is the County Youth Service changing?
Youth Matters and Youth Matters: Next Steps described the Government’s expectations of Children’s Trusts to deliver Integrated Youth Support Services to deliver a core local youth offer based around the needs of all young people. This includes local authorities reconfiguring and integrating their targeted support services for vulnerable young people and fulfilling their legal duty to secure young people’s access to positive leisure time activities.
Other strands of the local youth offer include high quality impartial information advice and guidance and the opportunity to make a positive contribution to local communities.
The Youth Matters reforms provide the foundation for the implementation of Aiming High for Young People: A Ten Year Strategy for Positive Activities, which focuses on increasing the quantity and quality of positive activities and places to go for all young people, but with a focus on securing the participation of the substantial minority, around 25% nationally, currently not participating.
Increasing the proportion of young people participating in positive activities will be measured from April 2008, through the new Youth PSA (PSA 14) Increase the number of Children and Young People on the Path to Success, which marries with the NI 110 Young People’s Participation in Positive Activities.
It is important to ensure implementation of Integrated Youth Support Services is aligned with and complements the wider package of measures intended to increase opportunities for young people, in particular:
ü the Common Assessment Framework
ü the roll-out of extended schools
ü the local implementation of the PE and Sports Strategy
ü the delivery of more volunteering opportunities for young people
ü a commitment to offer allchildren and young peopleaccess to a wide range of cultural opportunities in and out of school
ü the implementation of 14-19 reforms
ü wider capital investment programmes
What does this mean in practice for Charnwood Borough?
Integrated Youth Support Services is part of a larger agenda of integrated working. The aim is not to create a new service called IYSS. Partner agencies should improve how we currently operate as a network, using local knowledge and data to plan, commission and deliver services at a local level. Within the youth offer there should be planned emphasis towards vulnerable young people.
The Leicestershire Youth Service is managed centrally through area teams and delivered locally by youth work practitioners based across the county. Recently, Leicestershire’s delivery model has changed to reflect the ‘district’ boundaries rather than the previous youth work ‘areas’, as recommended by IYSS guidelines.
Andy Hitchcock is the Area Youth Officer responsible for Charnwood and Hinckley and Bosworth. Andy’s role is to ensure that Youth Work for 13-19 year olds (or up to 21 or 25 with additional needs) is delivered operationally and strategically across these areas. Andrew Lake will become Charnwood’s Area Co-ordinator and will line manage the 4 full time Youth Workers.
In Charnwood the Youth Service and Connexions are the lead agencies for establishing Integrated Youth Support Services, with Charnwood Borough Council, other Positive Activity Providers, specialist services catering for targeted needs and agencies offering voluntary opportunities being the key partners. This reflects the 4 strands contained within IYSS:
ü Targeted Youth Support
ü Positive Activities
ü Information, Advice and Guidance
ü Community and volunteering, opportunities to have a real voice and influence service provision
Voice of Young People work will run through each of these strands.
Leicestershire established two three month pilot programmes, the outcomes of which will influence the shape of IYSS in Charnwood. It seems likely that we will incorporate co-location of workers and multi-agency service providers’ hubs and outreach provision to establish clear routes for young people.
IYSS and Charnwood Borough Council’s Corporate Plan both emphasise the importance of closer integration of planning, commissioning and delivery across the public, private and voluntary sector. This will be key in increasing children and young people’s consultation and involvement in the planning, management and delivery of services.
Leicestershire County Council has agreed to devolve commissioning budgets for Positive Activities for Young People to District/Borough Councils to spend on agreed locality priorities that fit in with the Government’s Performance Management Framework for improved outcomes for young people. In Charnwood the identification local areas of unmet need and recommendations for how to commission services to increase the capacity to provide Targeted Youth Support in the locality will happen via the 5-19’s sub group of the Local Strategic Partnership. (The PAYP funding was previously administered through Connexions).
Diverse funding streams may be aligned, and in some instances pooled to ensure effective co-ordination of planned activities and the avoidance of duplicate funding. These resources could include: PAYP funds from Area Based Grant; Youth Service provision e.g. Holiday Youth Activity funds; Sport Unlimited; Extended Schools; additional external funding from RIEP; Find Your Talent project and other District resources.
In Leicestershire the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership has identified increasing access to positive activities as one of several joint priorities shared across 3 local area LAAs. Charnwood and the other districts were each to receive £6,268 per year until March 2011, though this is now likely to be cut. Again, the spend is to be determined by each local partnership subject to reaching targets to increasing uptake of positive activities by children and young people as measured by NI 110 and meeting LAA targets for increased uptake of positive activities, with a focus on crime prevention and reducing anti-social behaviour. Outcomes of services commissioned through RIEP should also contribute to other broader performance targets for children and young people as described in PSA 14
ü Reducing first time entrants to the Youth Justice System
ü Reducing the under 18 conception rate
ü Reducing substance misuse by young people
ü Reducing number of 16-18 year olds who are NEET
There is also additional funding for ‘Find Your Talent’ in priority neighbourhoods across Leicestershire of approximately £23,516 per full year until March 2011.
How will Charnwood Borough Council, the Youth Service and Connexions (the IYSS partners) work together to develop Integrated Youth Support Services?
Charnwood Borough Council, the County Youth Service, Connexions and other partners will all input into the 5-19’s subgroup of the Local Strategic Partnership. This group will map existing services for children and young people and contribute to providing a clear statement on the range of support services available. The group will also identify, commission and evaluate services to address un-met needs and may also investigate steering service delivery towards multi-agency hubs as well as increasing outreach work for young people.
The IYSS will adopt the co-location approach, the Children and Young People’s Strategic Co-ordinator, Area Youth Officer and Connexions Area Manager will share office space for part of each week. The offer of desk space at Connexions can be extended to other key officers.
Charnwood Borough Council is in the process of developing a Compact Agreement with the Youth Service and Charnwood Youth Council to ensure well organised, consistent routes for consultation. CBC provides financial and resource support for the YC and the Children and Young People’s Strategic Co-ordinator will act as the interface between the Borough Council for the Youth Council and the Youth Service. The Youth Service is the lead agency for supporting the County Youth Council (CYCLe). The Pyramid of Participation (developed by CYCLe) is the preferred system of involving young people.
Charnwood Borough Council will progress the Hear by Right Standards, in line with the Hear by Right Action Plan. We need to increase young people’s involvement in identifying and addressing needs, volunteering and community work, consultation, delivery and evaluation of services, peer education and mentoring and management and/or delivery of provision. The CYPSC will update the Corporate Consultation Database and develop a policy for the safeguarding of children during their involvement in decision making.
CBC will continue to develop and strengthen the Children and Young People’s Officer’s Group in order to ensure that our internal services comply with Section 10 & 11 of the 2004 Children’s Act.
Charnwood Borough Council is investigating how we can increase our contribution to the main focus of Connexions Personal Advisors, getting more young people into education, training and work and focusing on apprenticeships as the Governments preferred route for young people to follow.
It is important to note that the Youth Service is under pressure to save money so we may experience a reduction in the size of the service.
Charnwood Borough Council October 2009