AGENDA ITEM 8

Borough of Poole

Learning Overview Group

16th March 2003

Report by The Head of Youth Service on the

Youth Service Business Plan

1.0Decision Required

That the Portfolio Holder for Learning sign the Youth Service Business Plan

(attached) for 2004 – 2005 prior to submission to Government Office South West and the Department for Education and Skills.

2.0Background

2.1In 2002 the Department for Education and Skills issued all Local Authority

Youth Services with a Common Planning Framework requiring all Local Authorities to produce a comprehensive three year development plan for Youth Service covering the period 2003 – 2006.

2.2In December 2003 Youth Service were issued with further Planning Guidance for 2004 – 2005. This Guidance builds on the Common Planning Framework and encourages all Youth Service to continue the good practice of having an up to date plan that follows this guidance.

3.0The Plan

3.1The plan is part of the Borough’s Youth Services Business Planning Process and has been influenced by staff, partners, young people and a number of external and internal reviews undertaken over the past 12 months. It builds on the three year development plan that was produced last year.

Contact:

Peter Read

Head of Youth Service

Poole Youth Service

Dolphin Centre

Poole

Dorset

BH15 1SA

Tel: 01202 262281

Email:

Borough of Poole

Youth Service Plan

2004 - 2005

Contents

oIntroduction

Page 3

oStrategic Objectives

Page 5

  • Partnerships

Page 8

oResources – Financial

Page 10

oResources – Staffing

Page 11

oInvolving young people

Page 12

oEquality and Diversity

Page 14

oQuality

Page 16

  • Delivery Plan - Strategic Objectives

oAppendices (1-6)

  1. Feedback from De Montfort Review
  2. Report of Participation Project review
  3. Analysis of young peoples questionnaires
  4. Summary of 2003-2006 Youth Service Development plan
  5. Finance
  6. Youth Service budget
  7. NYA Audit
  8. Staffing
  9. Analysis of People Matters Survey (Undertaken by Borough of Poole’s Personnel Department)
  10. Summary of staffing
  11. Youth Service Organisational chart
  12. Youth Service Training programme 04/05

Introduction:

Local Strategic Context:

Within Poole ‘The Youth Service’ is one of 23 service units and is part of the Learning and Skills portfolio. The Head of Service is accountable to a Policy Director[1] who has a mixed portfolio and is directly responsible to the Chief Executive.

Notable changes to the council since last year are:

  • The change of administration from Liberal Democrat to Conservative following the elections in May 2003.
  • Ward boundary changes increased the number of elected members from 39 – 42.

The Council’s “Poole Vision” is:

  • “A beautiful place to live, learn, work and play that we take pride in passing onto future generations”

The Council’s Mission is:

  • “To work in partnership with the community, business and other organisations to deliver the vision for Poole”

In September 2003 the council adopted 5 priority areas:

  • To give young people the best start in life
  • A strong mixed economy
  • Helping local communities flourish
  • Health
  • Pride in Poole

These priorities are based within an over-riding commitment to efficiency and sound financial management.

Alongside continuous monitoring and evaluation the following have informed this year’s plan:

  • In September 2003 the Youth Service was involved with a national evaluation on the “Impact of Youth Work”. De Montfort University Youth Affairs Unit was commissioned by the DFES to review is local authority Youth Services. The Head of Service and Policy Director were given verbal feedback on their findings.[2]
  • In November 2003 The Regional Youth Work Advisor from Learning South West carried out a review of the Participation Project.[3]
  • In January 2004 the Peer Listeners carried out a survey with young people. 250 filled in a questionnaire[4] seeking young peoples views on Youth Service delivery.

The new priorities for the council, the findings of two reviews, the results of the survey completed by young people and the work with strategic partners highlights gaps that the service will be addressing during the next twelve months. These are in addition to the priorities outlined for 04/05 in the business development plan 2003 – 2006[5].

The main areas for development identified are:

  • Policy and curriculum documents need updating
  • Development of work with schools on school improvement and social inclusion
  • Consideration needs to be given to targeting priority groups of young people
  • A mechanism needs to be established to ensure that issues raised by young people are taken forward and acted upon.

Strategic Objectives

As mentioned within the introduction the following objectives are in addition to those outlined in last year’s plan for 04/05.[6] We will be benchmarking all our targets against the new government targets set out in the new operational planning guidance using the definitions provided.

The new objectives are:

  • Complete and implement a curriculum for young people.

In response to the success of the Healthy Youth Centre Project, Ruth Angel[7] was asked by the Head of Youth Service to work alongside Youth Service staff to develop a curriculum for young people. By working in partnership with Ruth the curriculum will be firmly based in the philosophy of healthy lifestyles and will therefore link closely with Poole Council’s ‘Health’ priority. We feel that it is important to create a ‘Curriculum for young people’ rather than a youth work curriculum as it reflects the diversity of our provision and our commitment to working for young people.

To date the team have met and discussed what type of curriculum would best reflect the needs of young people in Poole and our Service, we have also explored other services’ curriculum. Consultations are planned and the curriculum will be ready for piloting by June 04.

  • Devise a strategy for implementing the suggestions made in an external review[8] of the Participation project to ensure that young people impact on the local council and community to a greater degree.

Areas for developments include:

  • Through the Youth Forum and other bodies, develop a ‘Young People’s Manifesto for Poole’
  • Establish a mechanism to ensure that the issues raised at the annual Youth Conference are taken forward and acted upon
  • Develop and pilot means to test proposed policies against young people’s expressed needs
  • Ensure that the demands for young people’s participation do not pull individual young people in too many different directions
  • Ensure that youth participation initiatives are effectively co-ordinated within the borough and partner agencies.
  • Work with ‘Schools Advice and Support Service’ to develop the input into the citizenship curriculum in secondary schools across the Borough.
  • Increase the capacity in the voluntary sector for supported work with young people.

Areas identified as key targets for 04/05:

  • Creation of a steering group
  • Continue to support existing projects
  • Development of new projects
  • Establish detached and outreach work
  • Set in place joint projects with the voluntary sector, youth service and Connexions.
  • Training and supervision
  • To develop the Youth Services work with young people with additional needs

Areas identified as priorities for development during 04/05[9]:

  • Senior Worker given responsibility for overseeing this objective.
  • Expand opportunities for young people to be involved in the Integration project.
  • A summer scheme in July – August.
  • Pilot a new accreditation scheme linked with Millennium Volunteers.
  • Establish links with similar projects in the area.
  • Develop an integration forum
  • Run a residential for young people with additional needs
  • Work in partnership with Dorset Advocacy (JUST SAY)
  • To develop and implement systems that enables us to improve our Quality Assurance.

The following are the priorities for 04/05:

  • The introduction of Youthbase to all centres/projects.
  • The development of a system that allows us to work with the voluntary organisations in gathering the statistical information required by the vol. Orgs and ourselves.
  • The development of a peer inspection procedure incorporating the peer listeners as the inspectors.
  • Ongoing development of the planning and evaluation format
  • Pilot new Ofsted self-assessment framework
  • Work in partnership to implement Identification, referral and tracking within the Borough of Poole.

Individual units outlined their specific objectives in the Development plan 2003 – 2006[10]. These objectives are expanded upon in their individual unit plans produced and evaluated on a 6monthly basis[11].

Partnerships:

Working Together (Partnerships)

Connexions is the only written formal partnership agreement that the youth service in Poole has in place.

However the external review team from De Montfort University researching the Impact of Youth Work stated in their verbal feedback:

“The Service operates to high and challenging standards and is ‘punching above its weight’. It is an outstanding service in relation to its absolute commitment to young people and the impact it has had on other services, getting them to think about how young people will benefit from their service intervention. The Youth Service is involved in almost all inter-agency initiatives in the Borough”.

We are full members of the

Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership

Connexions Local Management Group

Children and Young Peoples Strategic Partnership

Drug Action Team

We work in partnership with the following groups and organisations:

74 Voluntary Youth groups across
the Borough / Offering help, advice and assistance
Dorset Police / Targeting “hotspots”
Children & Families Services / Looked after Children, Children’s fund, Children at Risk
Teenage Pregnancy / Advice, Information & Sexual Health Clinic
Pupil & Parent Support / Behaviour Support Unit
School Advice & Support / Citizenship & PHSE in schools
Local Secondary Schools / Citizenship & PHSE in schools
Cultural Services / Book Stock and Young People access to libraries
Democratic Services / UKYP Elections and Youth involvement in Democratic process
Strategic Planning / Poole Partnership
Quay Foyer / Accommodation, Advice & Training
Poole PCT / Healthy Youth Centre Projects, curriculum, issues young peoples views
Marketing Services / Poole News, Young Peoples Voice
Youth Offending Team / Support to young people
Housing and Community Service / Community Safety, ASBOs
Racist & Homophobic Incident group / Supporting victims, raising profile of reporting process
SNAG / Special needs action group
Dorset Music Service / DJ Project
Town Twinning / Foreign Exchanges

Review of the Children and Young Peoples Services in Poole.

In response to the Green paper ‘Every Child Matters’ the Borough of Poole, Poole Primary Care Trust and the Connexions Service for Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole, have agreed to conduct a full and joint review of services provided for children and young people – the aim of the review is to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families.

The officers group is:

  • Policy director (leading the review)
  • Policy director (Education)
  • Policy director (Social Services)
  • Head of Children and Families
  • Head of Schools Advice and Support
  • Head of Pupil and Parent Support
  • Head of Youth Services
  • Poole Primary Care Trust
  • Connexions Service

Identification, Referral and Tracking Project.

The Borough of Poole submitted its progress check required by the end of September 2003. The IRT progress review feedback from the DfES stated that we were making “excellent progress”.

Consultation is still taking place with all agencies and all services within these agencies, both statutory and voluntary.

Youth Services have taken part in the consultations, the various audits and are actively involved in enabling consultation with and involvement of young people of Poole, via the Youth Forum and working groups from that Forum. These groups are currently working on information leaflets for children, young people and their parents.

Resources – Financial:

A breakdown of spending is summarised in Appendix 5 – Finance. The NYA audit proforma is also in Appendix 5; this provides a detailed outline of spending.

Resources – staff:

Appendix 6 ‘Staffing’ provides an analysis of the Borough of Poole’s People Matters Survey, a summary of Youth Service staff and includes the Youth Service organisational chart.

The Youth Service achieved the ‘Investors in People Standard’ in October 2000. The Borough’s Personnel and Training Services introduced a ‘People Strategy’ in October 2002, which the Youth Service welcomed and is committed to.

We have a wide range of training opportunities on offer for 2004/2005 to continue to assist our staff in their professional development[12]. This will ensure that staff are equipped with the necessary skills to deliver the work outlined in the plan, we will also continue with the staff team training days that were instigated last year to ensure all the senior and keyworkers have the opportunity to input into the plan and its implementation. In response to these meetings last year we have moved our Employment development Interviews (EDI’s) to November from July to ensure that the training plan for the following year runs to the same cycle to this plan.

In 2004/2005 we will continue to support

  • One employee and two members of staff in the voluntary sector through the YMCA George Williams College BH/Hons/Dip HE in Youth and Community Studies.
  • One employee through the Brunel Postgraduate Certificate in Youth and Community studies.
  • One employee and two members of staff in the voluntary sector on the Certificate in youth work VRQ level 2[13].
  • One employee from our administration team through a BA in Business and Management at Bournemouth University
  • One employee from our administration team through the European Computer driving license course

We will offer the opportunity for:

  • One member of staff to start a course to gain a national youth work qualification from September 04
  • Staff to gain the Youth Work VRQ level 2
  • Connexions PA diploma
  • Understanding Connexions
  • Introduction to Connexions

Over the last few years we have worked hard as a service to implement an effective staff development policy and training programme and therefore we currently do not experience a problem with staff turnover. In some areas of the Borough we still have some staff recruitment difficulties. The picture overall is positive as reflected in the People Matters Survey (Appendix 6).

Involving young people:

Within our 2003/04 plan we chose not to include a separate section titled ‘Involving young people’, this was due to the fact that we believed our plan demonstrated our commitment at placing young people at the centre of our service on every page.

We still believe this and the De Montfort reviewers also highlighted it[14]

“Poole Youth Service represents a rare example of responsibility and duty to understand young people and to help the disadvantaged. Putting young people at the heart of the borough”.

However, upon reflection we feel that within this year’s plan it is essential to include a separate “involving young peoples” section. There are several reasons for this, both practical and strategic; this year’s plan needs to be considerably shorter and therefore much of the information on individual centres and projects was not required, also this year one of the Service’s main objectives is to explore with the Borough as a whole, and other partners, the concept of participation in greater depth and devise a strategy that enables young people to not only participate but impact at a higher level.

As already mentioned “young people are at the heart of our service” and this is demonstrated by our two high profile projects committed to increasing the participation of young people in Poole – the Peer Listeners project and the Participation project.

In September 2002 8 young people aged from 15-19 were employed by the Youth Service on a 4hr a week basis for a 10month period as ‘peer listeners’ with money from the Transforming Youth Work budget. It was an original piece of work, the main aim being:

  • ‘To be led by young people to broaden young peoples participation through a number of consultation events across the Borough using the peer listeners to facilitate the consultation process’.

Due to it’s success the Service decided to run the project for a second year and in September employed 6 young people on similar contracts to last year. In 04/05 their brief has changed in response to evaluation with the first group of peer listeners, however their overall aim remains the same. The priorities of work in the forthcoming year are:

  • To research the possibility of a youth council in partnership with the Head of Youth Services and the Head of Democratic Services.
  • To explore the possibility of peer listeners working as peer inspectors to support the quality assurance scheme.

The participation project aims to ensure that the voice of all local young people is heard and that they are involved in the decision-making processes that affect their lives.

The role of the project is:

  • To provide a youth forum that is open and accessible to all young people in Poole.
  • To provide opportunities for other service units to work in partnership with young people in all forms of consultation.
  • To introduce the concept of democracy to young people and the impact they can have thorough participating in the process.
  • To debate the meaning of participation and disseminate good practice.
  • Co-ordinate the UKYP elections and support the MYP and deputy.[15]
  • Support a representative from Poole Youth Forum to attend Connexions Local Management Group.

We do this in partnership with key adults and units who are involved in the local democratic system. This process is crucial for continued development of a socially inclusive forum.

We have clearly outlined our commitment to involving young people in our objective to develop the Participation project to ensure that young peoples voice is having the greatest impact possible. This is in light of continuous evaluation with young people and the project review in 03/04.[16]

As in last years plan young peoples input into the planning of services is of extreme importance to us and therefore the peer listeners and keyworkers have carried out a survey to consult with young people on their needs for service provision.[17]