Executive summary - Department for Education [PDF]

R ESEARCH

An Evaluation of the Impact of Youth Work in England Bryan Merton et al; Youth Affairs Unit De Montfort University

Research Report RR606

Research Report No 606

An Evaluation of the Impact of Youth Work in England Bryan Merton et al; Youth Affairs Unit De Montfort University

The views expressed in this report are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for Education and Skills. © De Montfort Expertise Ltd 2004 ISBN 1 84478 376 6

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Contents Page Executive summary........................................................................................................5 Purpose.......................................................................................................................5 The design of the study (1.2.1. – 1.2.2.) ....................................................................5 Findings......................................................................................................................6 (a) Plans and policies (2.8.1. – 2.8.6.)...................................................................6 (b) Outcomes and impact (3.3.1. – 3.4.6.)............................................................6 (c) Factors contributing to positive impact (3.5.1. – 3.5.34.)................................8 (d) Factors limiting impact (3.6.1. – 3.6.12.) ........................................................9 (e) The influence of variability and stability in youth service funding on impact (4.2.1. – 4.2.6. and 4.3.1. – 4.3.7.)..........................................................10 (f) Staffing capacity (4.5.1. – 4.5.4.) ..................................................................11 (g) The use of resources: patterns of provision (5.1.1. – 5.3.6.) .........................11 (h) Active involvement of young people ............................................................12 (i) Leadership and management of services .......................................................13 (j) Partnerships ....................................................................................................13 (k) Recurring themes ...........................................................................................14 Conclusions..............................................................................................................15 Acknowledgements......................................................................................................17 Section 1: Introduction.................................................................................................18 1.1 Purpose ...................................................................................................18 1.2 The design of the study...........................................................................18 1.3 Seeking to establish the difference youth work makes...........................19 (a) Young people as beneficiaries of youth work ................................................19 (b) Others as beneficiaries of youth work............................................................20 1.4 Youth work outcomes and impact ..........................................................20 1.5 The constraints of the study....................................................................21 Section 2: Youth policy and the distinctive contributions made by youth work .........23 2.1 Youth transitions.....................................................................................23 2.2 The UK policy context ...........................................................................24 2.3 European youth policy............................................................................27 2.4 The purposes and functions of youth work ............................................29 2.5 The distinctive characteristics of youth work.........................................31 (a) Voluntary engagement...................................................................................31 (b) Active involvement........................................................................................32 (c) Informal education.........................................................................................32 (d) Flexibility and capacity to respond................................................................33 2.6 Policy contributions of youth work ........................................................34 2.7 Policies and plans of local youth services in England............................37 2.8 Summary.................................................................................................39 Section 3: Outcomes and impact..................................................................................40 3.1 The role of the youth worker ..................................................................40 3.2 The youth work relationship...................................................................42 3.3 Outcomes and impact achieved for young people..................................46 3.4 Outcomes and impact for other services.................................................51 3.5 Factors contributing to outcomes and impact.........................................52 (a) Youth work being embedded in the community............................................53 (b) Having choice and control .............................................................................58 (c) Taking a holistic approach.............................................................................59 2

(d) Mediating in the interests of young people....................................................61 (e) Staying in contact ...........................................................................................63 3.6 Factors limiting impact ...........................................................................66 (a) Social, community and institutional factors ...................................................66 (b) Skills, development and support of staff .......................................................68 (c) Effects of funding regimes on retaining and training staff ............................69 3.7. Summary.................................................................................................69 Section 4: Resources for youth work ...........................................................................71 4.1 The Funding of Local Authority Youth Services ...................................71 4.2 Variability of funding .............................................................................73 (a) Proportion of SSA spent on Youth Service....................................................73 (b) Per capita Expenditure on Young People.......................................................74 4.3 Stability of funding.................................................................................75 4.4 Additional funding..................................................................................77 4.5 Staffing Capacity ....................................................................................77 4.6 Factors influencing capacity ...................................................................79 (a) Local authority employed youth workers.......................................................79 (b) The voluntary contribution ............................................................................79 (c) Local authority support for the voluntary sector ...........................................81 4.7 Summary.................................................................................................82 Section 5: How resources are used ..............................................................................84 5.1 Types and range of provision .................................................................84 5.2 The reach of youth work.........................................................................86 5.3 Priorities in allocation of resources ........................................................87 5.4 Transforming Youth Work Development Fund .....................................89 5.5 Summary.................................................................................................91 Section 6: Active involvement of young people..........................................................93 6.1 Why active involvement? .......................................................................93 6.2. The extent of active involvement ...........................................................93 6.3 Representative structures ........................................................................94 6.4. Young people as leaders, mentors and mediators...................................95 6.5. Young people’s involvement in service and policy development ..........95 6.6. Influencing policy development in other services ..................................96 6.7 Securing appropriate representation .......................................................97 6.8. Benefits for young people.......................................................................98 6.9 Summary.................................................................................................98 Section 7: Leadership and management ......................................................................99 7.1 Leading and managing local youth services...........................................99 7.2 Influencing and responding to political and professional pressures.......99 7.3 Providing clear strategic direction ........................................................101 7.4. Managing for quality ............................................................................102 7.5 Managing staff performance.................................................................103 7.6 Training for leadership and management .............................................104 7.7 Summary...............................................................................................105 Section 8: Partnerships...............................................................................................107 8.1 Reasons for partnership ........................................................................107 8.2 Connexions ...........................................................................................108 8.3 The voluntary and community sector ...................................................110 8.4 Education ..............................................................................................111 8.5 Police, Youth Offending and Community Safety.................................112

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8.6 Health and Social Work........................................................................113 8.7. Multi-agency working ..........................................................................115 8.8. Summary...............................................................................................115 Section 9: Emerging issues ........................................................................................117 9.1. Universal (open access) and targeted youth work ...............................117 9.2. Identifying needs and directing resources ............................................121 9.3 Schools and Youth Work......................................................................123 9.4 The voluntary engagement of young people ........................................126 Section 10: Conclusions.............................................................................................129 10.1 The distinctive purpose of youth work and youth services ..................129 (a) Building social capital .................................................................................129 (b) Building human capital................................................................................130 (c) Building social capital and human capital together.....................................130 (d) Starting with the young person’s world; rooted in their communities ........130 (e) A redrawn purpose for youth work..............................................................131 10.2 The contribution of youth work to social policy ..................................131 10.3 The challenges facing youth work and the youth service.....................132 Annexe 1 – Youth services and projects included in this study ................................134 List of local youth services included in survey..........................................................134 Projects visited for Case Studies............................................................................135 Annexe 2 - Evaluating the Impact of Youth Work: Analysis Of Survey Samples...136 Characteristics of sample .......................................................................................136 Use of provision by age and gender.......................................................................137 Annexe 3 - Bibliography............................................................................................138 Annexe 4 - Additional evidence about outcomes ......................................................143 1 Service-wide Surveys of Youth Services .............................................143 2. Other evidence focussed more directly on outcomes and impact ........152 3. Youth work involvement in wider programmes...................................154 4. Conclusions ..........................................................................................156 Annexe 5 - Literature Search on the Outcomes and Impact of Youth Work.............157 Annexe 6 - The effect of stable funding on service provision and impact (The experience of local authority adult learning) .............................................................167 Annexe 7 ....................................................................................................................170

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Executive summary Purpose The primary purpose of this evaluation has been to identify and explain the impact of youth work provided and secured by local youth services in England. The main focus is on the impact the work has on young people, but we also address the impact of youth work on communities and other services for young people. The design of the study (1.2.1. – 1.2.2.) The findings summarised below have been derived from evidence from five main strands: A documentary review of fifty local services (one third of services in England) which has produced important evidence about the policies, purposes and priorities of youth services and how they fit into the wider fabric of local provision. An analysis of available numerical data about youth services based primarily on the annual audit conducted by the National Youth Agency, yielding evidence about the funding and resource patterns of local youth services. Reviews of fifteen selected local services that have explored aspects of provision and impact, including the ways in which they are influenced by the leadership and management of local services. These reviews have drawn on the testimony of young people, youth workers, youth service managers and partners derived from semi-structured interviews and group discussions. Through the review processes a total of 880 people were interviewed, either individually or within groups. Thirty case studies of practice, each located in one of the fifteen services selected for review. These case studies were chosen to reflect some of the current themes in youth work that apply to both the personal and social development of young people and their social inclusion. They have provided more detailed evidence of impact on young people and others, and the factors which influence how that impact is achieved. A self-administered survey conducted among 630 young people who use local youth services in the review areas concerning the impact they believe youth work has on them. (This was a limited survey designed to augment our understanding of impact. It was not based upon random sampling and results cannot be claimed to be representative of a wider population of young people.) Defining the purposes, functions and characteristics of youth work (2.4 2.5) There is widespread consensus that youth work’s core purpose is the personal and social development of young people, provided through informal education. Linked to this, its purpose is increasingly framed in terms of its contribution to social inclusion. This study also highlights the role of youth work in contributing to the development of social capital. The distinctive characteristics of youth work include the voluntary engagement of young people; young people’s active involvement in different features of local youth

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provision; the use of informal education as the primary method of youth work; and a flexible approach to provision which is responsive to their preferences. Flowing from this analysis, and in particular, reflecting a growing recognition of the contribution of youth work to social inclusion, we offer a model which summarises the relationship between the core purpose of youth work - personal and social development – and the range of social policy objectives to which it responds. This derives both from a wider reading of recent research and literature on youth work, and the empirical analysis that follows later in this report. Depending upon the social situation of the individual young person, youth work variously contributes to their re-integration, their diversion and engagement in preventative activity, their protection and enablement, their levels of aspiration and achievement, and their active citizenship. Examining the difference these interventions make is a central concern of subsequent sections in this report. Findings (a)

Plans and policies (2.7.1. – 2.7.6.)

Local youth services are responding to broad policy developments in the UK, reflecting those found in European policy developments, in the pursuit of social cohesion, active citizenship, and the enhancement of learning and development opportunities for young people in different settings. The plans of local youth services acknowledge the importance of providing strategic leadership while retaining the distinctive characteristics of youth work. Plans and policies demonstrate that youth services are widely engaged in partnerships with the voluntary and community sector and others both inside and outside the local authority, particularly with the education service, Connexions, youth offending and health services. Youth work's contribution to young people's active engagement in service delivery and wider local democratic structures is a significant feature of more than four out of five plans reviewed. (b)

Outcomes and impact (3.3.1. – 3.4.6.)

Youth workers engage with young people by building relationships of trust and mutual respect. Their principal roles are those of social educator, guide and mentor. They offer learning, support and challenge to young people, and encourage them to make informed decisions. At the same time, they advocate on young people's behalf when necessary with other services, groups and agencies. In this way youth workers can perform complementary roles to many Personal Advisers in the Connexions Service. However, youth workers have a distinctive educational purpose and work with young people as members of groups and communities. Through our empirical analysis, we explore in detail the characteristics of the youth work role in fostering young people's personal and social development and, through this, its contribution to building social capital. Two thirds of young people in our survey (recognising its methodological limits) reported that youth work had made a considerable difference to their lives including, 6

for example, increased confidence, making new friends, learning new skills, making decisions for themselves and feeling more able to ask for help and information when needed. This coincides with qualitative evidence from the case studies of youth work practice: “the experience of being here in this environment is enormously important to me. Last year I came for the first time – a teacher said I was a shy person and recommended it to me. I came last year and felt more confident and this is my second year and it’s a regular thing…..next year I want to see if I can run one of these sessions.” (Young Person, summer university, London) “ X is accessible and reliable and treats me like an adult. She lets me do it / helps me do it (social workers always did it for me), makes me feel good in myself because I’ve done things – gives me moral support and practical support, for example with landlord explaining how the Housing Benefit letter should have been renewed.” (Young Person, After Care Service, North West) “[my son] has raised his aspirations through contact with others in the group. We’ve noticed a dramatic improvement in confidence, posture, self esteem….[he is]serious about the work and takes an unofficial register…… his enthusiasm motivates him to keep a diary and dates”. (Parent of young person) “I’m finding out things from people who are good at things. I have made new friends, I’m more confident, can do new things”. (Young Person, Youth Arts Project, Yorkshire and the Humber) Almost three out of five young people reported that youth work had helped them understand better people who are different from themselves, and more than two out of five said they thought their prospects of finding a job had also been improved through their engagement in youth work activities. “All the other people around me say that I have completely changed. I really enjoyed myself and learned to have a bit more self-confidence and social skills. Also, working with the Princes Trust I have decided to enrol[in college] in September and I will keep in contact with the project as I have made some great new friends and relationships.” (Young Person, Positive Activities for Young People (PAYP), North West) The interviews and case studies provided qualitative evidence of tangible outcomes which young people and workers attributed to youth work, including for example, reengaging with education or reducing drug use. This concurs with other recent research findings e.g. the National Foundation for Educational Research on the Neighbourhood Support Fund, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation study on streetbased youth work.

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“If I come here, I’m good and stay in and don’t get into trouble. If I hang out I smoke weed, go jacking phones, start a fight, pick on shop- keepers… If I come here I stay calm.” (Young Person, Summer University, London) “It’s been everything to me as it’s helped me find a way to get a career. College is my main focus and the After Care Service has helped me with that” (Young Person, After Care Service, North West). The reviews and case studies also show wider impact. By working with young people in schools or hospitals for example, youth workers are able to help young people to make better use of those services; and in some cases, enable the services themselves to become more responsive, and hence more effective, in meeting young people's needs and aspirations. There is also evidence of consequential impact upon communities. There are examples of youth work widening the social and recreational opportunities available to young people; mediating between different groups of young people, and between young people and local adults, leading to impact on social cohesion; or enabling young people to influence and improve civic life. (c)

Factors contributing to positive impact (3.5.1. – 3.5.33.)

Evidence from case studies suggests that when they are closely connected to local communities and services, youth workers can act as a bridge between young people and their families, and the services that are established to provide for and support them – for example, schools, health, social work, youth justice. Young people consistently testified to the ability of youth workers to establish relationships of trust and mutual respect which they have found lacking in their relationships with other adults in their lives. “the workers are down to earth, more on your level… they don’t look down on you, it’s more eye to eye…..they understand what you want from life….they give you a second chance….they want to help you and want you to move on….” (Young Person, E2E programme) A second factor contributing to impact is youth work's capacity to enable young people to make their own choices and to find their own solutions to problems, rather than acting simply to provide information or ready-made solutions. Youth work engages young people in influencing and taking decisions in projects, clubs and centres. Young people and workers reported how this builds confidence and can lead to a ‘virtuous cycle’ of achievement. Elsewhere however, their voluntary engagement is not always a central concern for services that work with young people, and youth workers can find themselves required to work with young people when it is absent. The case studies offer a number of examples of effective youth workers able to convert a sense of young people ‘having to’ to ‘wanting to’ by negotiating with them ground rules and relevant programmes of activities and support.

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“I’ve changed because they faced me with it. I used to ring up and shout down the phone. I can’t expect everyone else to do it. I now take time and wait. They said you’re old enough to do it yourself" (Young Person, After Care Service) Third, effective youth workers avoid compartmentalising young people’s needs. The approach is to look at young people in the round, helping them to develop more generic skills, knowledge and understanding, not simply those related to the presenting issue. The wider benefits that accrue to young people - for example to their health or social development - are reported by staff of other services which have recognised the value of this approach. “I can see the transition of the young people. They are healthier; they are taking responsibility for themselves; they are empowered; they are able to vocalise their views – you can see that in the way they engage with professionals”. (Hospital Member of Staff) Fourth, youth work's mediating role is an important factor. Examples are offered of youth workers advocating on behalf of, and mediating in the interests of young people, resulting in the strengthening of damaged and damaging relations between the young and their local communities. “I know I can talk to these guys (youth workers) and together we can do something. They have the ability to access young people - in ways we can’t because our uniforms act as a barrier - and translate what they say into adult words acceptable to bureaucrats” (Police Officer) We suggest that this offers evidence that these approaches build social capital and contribute to public policy goals, such as community cohesion and neighbourhood renewal. Finally, sustained contact is a further feature that contributes to impact. Where contact is infrequent, short term or intermittent, qualitative evidence suggests that short term gains can be difficult for young people to maintain in the face of other influences. Sustaining contact over time can be a vital stabilising element, especially for young people whose lives are fluid or fractured, such as those who have recently left the care system. “You press the self destruct button because although you think it’ll be loads of fun when you get your own flat at 16, that’s a load of crap. When the door shuts and you’re on your own, it’s the loneliest feeling ever. You start going down a path and you can’t see a way out” (Young Person, After Care Service) (d)

Factors limiting impact (3.6.1. – 3.6.12.)

Youth workers, managers and partners consistently cite a range of factors which serve to constrain the impact of the work. Some of these youth work has limited control over including for example, the sometimes negative influence of family, friends and communities. Youth workers and managers acknowledge the difficulty of overcoming the expectations and behaviour patterns which can result, and the need to work

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directly with these wider social factors where possible in order to support young people's growth and development. The ways in which some mainstream services are provided for young people can also limit youth work's impact. This is illustrated by the relationship between youth services and schools. There is widespread evidence across the study of youth work's contribution - for example to alternative curriculum projects, health education and personal development programmes. “It benefits us greatly that they are not the same old classroom team. They are young and dynamic and closer to the experience of the real world. They can be on the same level as the kids and they don’t preach” (Deputy Head Teacher) Despite this, workers report that sometimes schools appear unwilling or unable to accommodate or maximise its potential. As a result, youth work programmes may be limited; or their effects on young people undermined by these institutional constraints. A third factor concerns the management, support and development of youth workers. Where these are effective, youth workers report the positive difference it can make to their work. But there were instances of a lack of guidance and support, resulting in impact being weakened. Impact is also impaired by the widespread lack of investment in training and ongoing professional development. As a result some youth workers lack the skills and knowledge needed for effective social education with challenging young people. Finally, the short-term nature of funding for some youth work can also serve to inhibit its impact by undermining stability and sustainability. This last point links to broader questions about the resourcing of the Youth Service. (e)

The influence of variability and stability in youth service funding on impact (4.2.1. – 4.2.6. and 4.3.1. – 4.3.6.)

Analysis of National Youth Agency (NYA) audit data from 2001-2 and beyond indicates that there is considerable diversity in how local youth services are funded. . Local authorities devote variable proportions of the resources potentially made available to them through central and other local sources to fund their youth services. Such variation is at least partly the outcome of local decisions about priorities and occurs despite some central weighting of potential resource to reflect relative levels of need and population. This in turn implies a differential capacity to deliver youth services. We also draw attention to the variability in per capita expenditure on youth work which we would suggest is remarkably high for a publicly funded service. There are also widespread examples of considerable year-on-year variations in the funding of youth work. Notwithstanding arguments about how efficiently resources are used, we argue that such evidence of variability and instability of funding is likely to contribute to 10

significant variations in the level and quality of provision, and to lead to difficulties in sustaining the impact of the work. (f)

Staffing capacity (4.5.1. – 4.5.4.)

Nearly all the local authorities included in our sample reported serious difficulties in recruiting and deploying enough staff with sufficient skills, qualifications and experience where they are needed to have impact on young people, services, policies and communities. Capacity problems are influenced partly by the pull of other services now attracting youth workers because they are able to offer better conditions of service; and partly by under-investment in training and development. Analysis of NYA audit data shows that there is a mean ratio of one (full time equivalent) youth worker to 680 young people (13 - 19) across England. There is considerable regional variation with a range from 493 to 860. This falls short of the NYA service standard of 1:400 published in Resourcing Excellent Youth Services (REYS). Spending on in-service education and training (INSET) also varies considerably by region and local authority. The most recent standard suggested by the NYA in Resourcing Excellent Youth Services is between two and five per cent of youth service budgets. Many authorities spend less than two per cent of their budgets on INSET, and only about six per cent reach the upper range of the standard. Both the reviews and the service plans showed that many local services are creating more substantive part-time youth work posts. This is intended to increase impact by ensuring greater continuity of engagement and the development of more effective arrangements for their management and training. There is some evidence drawn both from NYA audit data and from our review data, that the traditional ‘unpaid contribution’ of volunteer youth workers appears to be variable and becoming more difficult to sustain. (g)

The use of resources: patterns of provision (5.1.1. – 5.3.5.)

Although local youth services have certain features in common, there are variations in the way in which they allocate resources and this, in turn, influences the range, quality and pattern of provision made. Although there is evidence of services responding to emergent needs, their allocation of resources on the basis of a rigorous and systematic assessment of local needs remains largely under-developed. Youth service plans, supported by the evidence from our reviews, suggest that open access provision through clubs and centres - what is often referred to as universal provision - remains a priority for local services. Balancing open access and targeted forms of youth work presents a continuing dilemma: “We do not yet provide a balance between universal and targeted provision…..(we have) rather left universal behind” (Head of Youth Service) Reflecting this, evidence also points to an apparent under-investment in the built infrastructure - a factor which other research suggests is important in determining its 11

attractiveness to young people. At the same time more than four out of every five youth service plans highlight increased resources being devoted to both street-based youth work and more targeted project work with marginalised young people and those at risk. These forms of youth work are often more easily able to demonstrate impact, particularly where discretionary funding is linked to the collection of monitoring data. However, there is also evidence that such work is often not sustained over time. Although its reliability in relation to contact with young people is problematic, NYA audit data suggest that only a little over half of local authorities achieved the standard of 25% ‘reach’ suggested in Resourcing Excellent Youth Services. Variation in reach and range is inevitably linked to levels of accessibility for different groups of young people. Local determination of priorities leads to diversity both across local youth services and within them, and these are evident from our review data. As a result, some vulnerable groups of young people may be catered for in one local authority, or in some areas within a local authority, but not in others. The rationale for particular patterns of provision is not always clear since these often reflect local (sometimes historical) political pressures rather than the identified (contemporary) needs of young people. There is widespread evidence from youth service plans that resources are also being redirected to the national priorities emanating from Transforming Youth Work and Resourcing Excellent Youth Services. This trend has been reinforced by the injection of additional resources from different funding streams, including the Transforming Youth Work Development Fund. (5.4.1. – 5.4.14.) (h)

Active involvement of young people

Local youth services have established a variety of measures that encourage and support the active involvement of young people in influencing youth work and other services for young people. In most youth services studied young people’s participation in the running of their facilities is central to practice. (6.2.1. – 6.2.3.) Active involvement is secured at a number of levels and nearly three quarters of plans indicate that youth workers are engaged in developing further structures to secure participation in, for example, youth councils and forums, in the development and sometimes the governance of bodies such as Connexions, schools, police and health services, and through the UK Youth Parliament. These processes and representative structures, such as committees that replicate those of the adult world of decisionmaking, bring benefits to those young people who become directly involved. They learn the transferable skills of research, teamwork, problem-solving, negotiation and communication which they can apply in different contexts. They learn about citizenship by practising it. (6.3.1. – 6.3.3.) Overall, however, formal structures and processes meet with mixed success because young people are not always attracted to them and the turnover of those who do get involved tends to be high and rapid. In order to widen the opportunities for participation, some services are developing creative approaches to engaging young people. These include peer mentoring and mediation schemes, peer-led research, and 12

the use of new technologies or the arts to encourage discussion, consultation and influence. (i) Leadership and management of services Evidence from our reviews suggests that many local services are struggling to combine the strategic and operational functions of leadership and management. This is particularly evident where management capacity is stretched. There is also considerable variation among services in the degree to which effective performance management - robust planning and review procedures, quality assurance and internal monitoring - is taking place. The use of management information to inform plans, policy and provision remains limited. (7.4.5.) We suggest that leadership and management of a modern youth service requires managers to be prepared for change, complexity and uncertainty. The evaluation of the Transforming Youth Work Management programme, which is the subject of an accompanying report, demonstrates that managers who have taken part now feel better equipped for facing this challenge. (7.3.1. and 7.6.1. – 7.6.5.) (j) Partnerships Local youth services are engaged in strategic partnerships to plan, provide and review services for the young. There is considerable variation in the quality of partnerships being formed between local youth services and Connexions. Where they are close and confident, youth work is adding value. (8.2.1. – 8.2.6.) Our research revealed some further trends in the developing relationship between Connexions and the youth service • the sharing of skills, experience and techniques • youth work outlets being commonly ‘badged’ by Connexions. • youth workers, who have developed expertise in the active involvement of young people, being called upon to work directly with them to enhance consultation and active involvement. During the reviews and case studies we encountered some well-established partnerships between the local authorities and the voluntary sector. There are also examples where long-held mutual suspicion still resides. It is hard to generalise about the state of partnerships between the two sectors, principally because the voluntary sector is highly differentiated and its organisations have varying levels of resource, infrastructure and political support at local level. (8.3.1. – 8.3.4.) Three quarters of youth service plans show that youth workers have partnerships with the police or youth offending service – indicating a marked change in relationships between the services over the last decade. The reviews, too, indicated a willingness to make the most of opportunities for more joint working. (8.5.1. – 8.5.4.) More than eighty percent of youth services have existing partnerships with health services – particularly working on the teenage pregnancy strategy and involvement in Drugs and Alcohol Advisory Teams. Young people, supported by youth workers, 13

sometimes work alongside sexual health education professionals in giving their peers information and advice on sex, contraception and relationships. (8.6.1. – 8.6.3.) Some youth services also work in partnership with social services in offering continuing support to young people leaving the care of the local authority, though these appear to remain the least developed of the relationships identified. (8.6.4. – 8.6.5.) (k)

Recurring themes

Four recurring themes emerged as key issues facing local youth services: the balance between universal or open access and targeted work; (9.1.) processes for identifying need and directing resources; (9.2.) the relationship between youth work and schools; (9.3.) retaining the voluntary engagement of young people. (9.4.) Universal and targeted work Open access work through clubs and centres continues to fulfil important functions in providing a range of opportunities for young people's personal and social development, particularly in areas where there is little other provision. Targeted work with at-risk young people has attracted greater proportions of youth service resources. There is evidence that local authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a balance between open access and targeted work within finite resources. We argue that these different forms of provision are mutually supportive and that there are clear dangers in allowing open access work to decline. Identifying need and directing resources There is little evidence of local youth services undertaking systematic assessments of need within a broader framework of local authority and other services for young people. Resource allocation is driven by a range of complex factors; priorities are often in tension with one another. There is a need for more work by youth services in establishing reliable and transparent procedures by which needs are assessed and resources allocated in response. Youth work and schools Although there is a long history of collaboration between schools and youth work, the relationship has not always been comfortable. There is evidence of current successful youth work in schools, primarily focusing upon alternative curricula for those young people who do not benefit from school; and youth workers mediating between young people, schools, families and other services. Our research indicates a need for greater clarity about the purpose of this work and its relationship to mainstream schooling; and, a more strategic approach in order to underpin what are frequently loose and uncoordinated arrangements. Voluntary engagement by young people Voluntary engagement in youth work by young people remains one of its defining features, central to the building of trust, respect and self-esteem. As some forms of youth work become more targeted, and young people are referred to youth services from other programmes and agencies, youth workers are increasingly required to

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negotiate young people's involvement in order to retain their voluntary involvement. There is evidence of success but we suggest that there is a need for further clarification by youth services and partner agencies so that expectations of youth work practice are clearly understood and agreed. Each of these is posing difficult questions for local youth services and their partners as they seek to adapt provision to meet the changing needs and expectations of young people, policy makers and other stakeholders in the context of the Children Bill and the forthcoming Youth Green Paper. Conclusions This research has shown that youth work is well positioned to make a sustained impact through the simultaneous development of relationships that connect young people with their communities so they can strengthen them (social capital) and the development of their own personal and social skills (human capital). The vital skills of building relationships, communication and self-awareness are being learned, extended and acquired most fittingly within the area of informal education where youth work makes its biggest contribution. Those who manage and practise youth work have to find ways of arguing persuasively for the creation of social capital as its legitimate purpose by demonstrating how youth work produces the outcomes that add to its stock. (10.1.2. – 10.1.8.) Local youth services are combining in various ways with other service providers to take a more holistic approach to the needs and aspirations of young people in their communities. In doing so, they are helping them meet their targets and policy objectives, and bringing benefits to young people themselves. (10.2.1. – 10.3.2.) Youth services are showing how they make a contribution to the aspirations underlying the Children Bill. In the process, perceptions are changing about young people, about what youth work is and what youth workers can do. Nevertheless, our work has shown that important issues remain for the Youth Service. An emphasis on targeted work threatens to undermine the reach and range of universal provision, while the absence of systematic assessments of local need by youth services undermines the potential to present an alternative case for redressing the balance or arguing for greater resource. We have also observed considerable variation in the resourcing of local youth services which leads to variation in their potential capacity to respond. Linked to this, a significant minority of funding is derived from discretionary sources which can serve to undermine continuity of delivery. Other issues that need to be more systematically tackled include: the development of an inclusive curriculum and accreditation opportunities the support, training and development of the workforce, in particular parttime youth workers including volunteers the collection, interpretation and use of management information

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the application of quality assurance procedures that work at all levels of the service the planning for impact, by specifying outcomes to be achieved and methods for identifying, recording and demonstrating them the development of a range of reliable tools for measuring the benefits of what youth work achieves, for tracking young people’s development and yielding valuable management information. The service could usefully involve young people in devising some of these measures the clarification of what local youth services and partner agencies can offer each other by working together and pooling resources and thereby creating more strategic alliances and sustainable interventions. sustaining a balanced offer of youth work provision. The risk is that the more that project work can demonstrate convincingly the outcomes of interventions, the more it feeds the decline of the work that cannot. Some kind of development project is needed that helps youth workers in open access centres and clubs better demonstrate the value and benefits of what they do.

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Acknowledgements This report has been written for the Department for Education and Skills. Its focus is the impact of youth work and the factors that influence it. We seek to explore and explain what impact youth work has on young people, their communities and the services and policies that affect them. The findings are derived from evidence collected principally from four sources: reviews of fifteen local youth services, case studies of thirty projects, a documentary review and a self-completion survey among young people. The research began in January 2003 and the fieldwork was completed by the end of March 2004. The report has been written principally by Bryan Merton with significant contributions from Malcolm Payne and Doug Smith. This has essentially been a team effort, or more accurately it is the result of the efforts of three teams. The first is the project management team from the Youth Affairs Unit at De Montfort University: Elizabeth Barner and Alison Skinner who were responsible for the documentary review, Hilary Comfort who co-ordinated the case studies and the survey, Mary Tyler who led on the evaluation of the Transforming Youth Work Management programme which is the subject of a separate report, Kevin Ford who has been project consultant, Doug Smith and Malcolm Payne. There has also been a team of youth workers who have helped with the case studies: Jo Aubrey, Adrian Clifford, Sam Evans, Andy Hitchcock, Jane McCormick, Tony Williams and Jason Wood; and young people who have helped to pilot some of the research tools: Joe Cooper, William Davies, Laura Hampson, Jonathan Jagoe, Thomas Kedie, Daniel Plummer, Oliver Terrett and Jamie Theobald. We drew on a network of colleagues and consultants to undertake the local youth service reviews in the summer of 2003 and we would like to acknowledge the wisdom and hard work of: Paul Allen, Tim Caley, Anne Clarke, Bernard Davies, Linda Deazle, Glynis Francis, Paddy Hall, Sarah Hargreaves, Liz Hoggarth, Sue Houlton, Rob Hunter, Claire Johnson, Mary Marken, Jane Owens, Bob Payne, Kerry Young. For all kinds of skills and patience with the production of this report we would like to thank Jo Cheney and Bronwen Hunter. We could not have done this study without the co-operation of the field, in particular the principal youth officers and their colleagues and partners who welcomed us into their services to find out about the work and engage in some stimulating discussions about impact. The young people we met brought youth work to life and gave compelling testimony about the difference it has made to them. This evidence from the field has been enormously helpful to us in coming to judgements.

Youth Affairs Unit De Montfort University August 2004

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Section 1: Introduction 1.1

Purpose

1.1.1 The primary purpose of this evaluation has been to explain the impact of youth work provided and secured by local youth services in England identifying: what is distinctive about youth work and the different methods and approaches used to engage young people how youth work contributes in different ways to the personal and social development of young people and their communities; to other services and policies for young people; and to the achievement of wider policy objectives: in particular, that of social inclusion the different factors that mediate this contribution. 1.1.2 By local youth services we mean the complex web of providers of youth work, comprising the local authority, voluntary and community organisations, and other partners. 1.1.3. The report sets out the findings in two parts: The first part explores the social policy background for contemporary youth work, as well as its nature and purpose (Section 2) before moving on to describe the outcomes and impact of youth work identified by this study (Section 3). The second part identifies and explains the significant factors that influence impact: resources and the ways they are used (Sections 4 and 5), the active involvement of young people (Section 6), the ways services are led and managed (Section 7), and the partnerships in which youth work operates, to secure the objectives of youth policy (Section 8). In Section 9, we pull out four key themes that run through this study and pose some questions for policy makers, service managers and youth workers to consider, as part of the ensuing discussion we hope this report will foster. 1.2

The design of the study

1.2.1 The study was designed to generate evidence through five main strands of research: A document review of fifty local services (one third of services in England) has produced a wide and comprehensive picture of aspects of local youth services. This offers important evidence about the policies, purposes and priorities of youth services and how they fit into the wider fabric of local provision. The review has also included a search of other studies on the impact of youth work. An analysis of available numerical data about youth services based on the annual audit conducted by the National Youth Agency. This has provided important evidence about funding and resource patterns in the short term, as well as evidence about aspects of youth services in England, such as support for the voluntary sector and staff training.

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Reviews of fifteen selected local services. These reviews have explored aspects of provision and impact, including the ways in which they are influenced by the leadership and management of local services. The reviews complement the wider picture created by the document analysis and the audit data, allowing insights to be developed about how services are working and the challenges they are facing. The principal source of evidence used in these reviews has been the testimony of young people, youth workers, youth service managers and partners, derived from semi-structured interviews and meetings. Through the review processes a total of 880 people were interviewed, either individually or within groups. Thirty case studies of practice, each located in one of the fifteen services selected for the review. They were carefully chosen to reflect some of the current themes in youth work that pertain both to the personal and social development of young people and their social inclusion. The case studies have provided more detailed evidence of impact on young people and others, and the factors that help shape and influence how that impact is achieved. Annexe 1 provides a list of the authorities and projects that took part in this research. A small self-completion survey of young people who are engaged with youth work. This survey focused on young people’s views on the difference youth work made to them. Survey responses were not randomly generated and cannot claim to be representative of the users of youth work. They derive from questionnaires administered through the local authority youth work providers who had taken part in the service reviews and case studies of practice – a total of 630 responses. While clearly limited, the survey does provide a supplementary avenue through which to explore the impact of youth work on young people alongside the more substantive qualitative work. The characteristics of this sample are summarised in Annexe 2. 1.2.2. There is not an extensive literature review on youth work in this report, but we have read and reflected on key texts on youth work and the impact of youth work. In Annexe 3 there is a bibliography of the texts we have drawn on, some of which are listed also as footnotes in the main body of the report. We also conducted a search of studies and reports limited to those that had something significant to say about impact and we have included, in Annexe 5, a summary of the main themes that emerged from the most useful of those texts. 1.3

Seeking to establish the difference youth work makes

(a) Young people as beneficiaries of youth work 1.3.1. There are two main categories of change that youth work aims to achieve: primary changes – changes in attitudes, feelings and behaviour. For example, an outdoor adventure activity might challenge a group of young people to develop new skills, and the confidence this engenders might easily be transferred to their lives back in school and the local community; or an intervention or activity that has really engaged a group of young people may lead them to review their attitudes towards further education, training and employment on leaving school; they may even change their behaviour and set about looking for opportunities rather than staying disengaged.

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consequential changes – changes to a young person’s situation that are conditional on those primary changes: for example, if the group of young people just mentioned find a job or a training scheme or re-engage with school, then there has been a change in their situation or condition. 1.3.2. A primary change while of value in itself does not necessarily lead to a consequential one. Other contextual factors, such as local labour market conditions, will also have a bearing on the nature of consequent impact. (b) Others as beneficiaries of youth work 1.3.3. The benefits of youth work intervention may extend beyond the young people directly involved in it and for whom it has been principally designed. For example: Anti-racist work in a youth centre may lead young people to change their attitudes towards young people with different ethnic backgrounds from their own. This may lead to reduced tension and increased community cohesion. Teachers may be able to achieve better results in schools if some of the more challenging pupils learn in a different setting, following an alternative curriculum devised and delivered by youth workers. 1.3.4. The primary focus of youth work should be the young people who are the intended beneficiaries. However, this is not always straightforward. For example, a local authority may require youth workers to ‘do something with young people to stop them being a nuisance to local people’. With this as the main purpose of the intervention, the intended beneficiaries are the local residents. But if young people are on the streets because there is nowhere else to go, and if the youth work intervention brings new resources and creates new opportunities, then young people also benefit. 1.3.5. Youth work also has a role in influencing other services that work with young people (including, for example, schools and colleges, health and social services, police and youth offending teams). If these agencies then work differently with young people, making their own services for young people more effective, this secures further benefits for them. 1.4

Youth work outcomes and impact

1.4.1. The terms outcomes and impact are often used interchangeably to describe the changes brought about by an intervention. In this study, we are using them in the way they tend to be accepted by the youth service, drawing on a guide published by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (Wainwright, undated).1 1.4.2. In this model: Outcomes refers to the benefits to the intended beneficiaries. In the youth work situation, these are usually focused on development in young people. However, as mentioned in 1.3 (b), they may also benefit the communities in which young people live and other services working with

1

Wainwright, S. (undated) Measuring Impact, A guide to resources, National Council for Voluntary Organisations

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them. Outcomes are usually planned for and set out in an organisation’s purpose and objectives. Impact encompasses all the changes resulting from an organisation’s activities or projects. It includes effects that are: • intended as well as unintended • negative as well as positive • long-term as well as short-term In the youth work context, it may include changes that were not included in the programme objectives (for example, increases in confidence as well as planned for achievements; benefits for groups additional to intended beneficiaries). 1.4.3 Impact, as defined in this way, embraces outcomes. The main distinction is whether or not they are contained within the objectives of the programme or project. Where the detailed objectives of a piece of youth work are not set out – and this is often the case in more open-access forms of youth work - it can be difficult to distinguish outcomes from impact. Sometimes, then, it is necessary, to refer to outcomes and impact together in documenting the total difference that youth work makes. 1.5

The constraints of the study

1.5.1 The analysis presented in this report is drawn principally from qualitative sources: the testimony from the reviews, case studies and service documents listed in 1.2. 1.5.2. There are two main methodological constraints in undertaking a quantitative evaluation of youth work impact: Establishing measures of impact – especially those concerned with personal change. Although in recent years various approaches have been developed, they all have conceptual and methodological difficulties, and all are small scale. They have been focused more on assessing the development of individuals, to inform practice, than on large scale evaluations. To bring such approaches to measurement into an evaluation, in ways which would allow causation to be established, would involve very complex research designs, would need to run over a long period of time, and would be very resource intensive. Quantifying impact . Even if measures of impact were agreed and models of causation were straightforward: • there are no systems in place for collecting reliable data across any significant populations of young people; • the boundaries of youth work and the youth service are difficult to define, and the rapid growth of partnership work increases the difficulty of linking change to any one particular type of intervention; • the relationship of young people to youth work is complex and everchanging. 1.5.3 Wherever possible, this evaluation does draw upon existing research and data about outcomes and impact, and these are documented in the text. The work done in this evaluation has focused on establishing the connections between youth work practice and the difference it makes for young people. However, the extent to which

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this can be done is limited by the resources available to the evaluation, and the lack of existing information. 1.5.4 It follows that we are unable to provide statistical measures of the overall impact of youth work across England, or of the numbers and types of young people involved, the effect of youth work on populations and sub-populations, or cost-benefit measures. Where such data are available and offer insight into the difference made by youth work, or the factors influencing it, we have referred to them; with qualifications where we feel these are needed. 1.5.5. Given these methodological constraints, this study has not sought to: identify the net impact of youth work or youth policy (the particular contribution that the youth service is making, when controlling for all other interventions in the lives of young people) use financial and other kinds of management information to identify the kinds of outcomes that can reasonably be expected from the investment of different types and levels of resources in youth work. Rather, in using largely qualitative methods, if offers a detailed exploration of the range of impacts of youth work on young people and the communities in which the youth service operates. 1.5.6. The study offers a different kind of insight into the difference made by youth work from that provided by OFSTED inspection reports. OFSTED reviews provide valuable health checks on the strengths and areas for development of particular services and organisations. In contrast, this study offers an evaluative overview of the youth service in England.

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Section 2: Youth policy and the distinctive contributions made by youth work This section first sets out the context within which local youth services operate – looking at the social changes which make the process of transition more difficult for young people; at the way in which the UK Government’s plans for young people are part of its broader social policy; and at common themes in European youth policy. Because so many organisations now claim to be doing ‘youth work’, it is important to be clear about exactly what youth work is and in 2.3. we set out its key purposes, functions and distinctive characteristics. We then offer a model, which indicates the way in which youth work contributes to the social policy agenda and the questions that this raises for strategic and operational planners in the youth service. Finally, we look at the ways in which the youth service plans that we examined as part of this study reflect the Government’s plans for the youth service, as expressed in Transforming Youth Work and Resourcing Excellent Youth Services. This framework is offered prior to the analysis of outcomes and impact because we think it helps to strengthen and illuminate understanding of the difference youth work makes. 2.1

Youth transitions

2.1.1 In the years since the key government reports on the youth service – Albemarle2 (1960), Milson-Fairbairn3 (1970) and Thompson4 (1982) – there have been significant changes in the life circumstances of the young, and in the ways in which services designed to support their development are provided, as demonstrated by the recent research findings of the ESRC programme on Youth, Citizenship and Social Change5 For many there have been significant improvements – materially, educationally and culturally – opportunities have been extended and made more accessible For fewer, but for still too many, disadvantage remains – as acknowledged in Bridging the Gap6 (Social Exclusion Unit, 1999) For all, the transition from youth to adult status is less straightforward than it used to be - longer, more complex and more hazardous. Young people 2

Ministry of education (1960) The Youth Service in England and Wales (The Albemarle Report) HMSO 3 Department of Education and Science (1969) Youth and Community Work in the ‘70s (The FairbairnMilson Report), HMSO 4 Department of Education and Science (1982) Experience and Participation, Review Group on the Youth Service in England (The Thompson Report) HMSO 5 There are 12 individual research briefings available on the ESRC website www.tsa.uk.com/ycsc/ 6 Social Exclusion Unit (1999) Bridging the Gap: New Opportunities for 16-18 year-olds not in education, employment or training, The Stationery Office

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are expected to negotiate individual pathways through education and training into a far more flexible labour market. They have to work out how to move from the family home to independent living, often on modest resources. They have many more choices to make about their health, personal relationships and lifestyle. Prospects are far less certain in many respects and one step forwards can often be followed by another step back. Such uncertainties are compounded by inequalities springing from gender, race, class, disability and locality. For example, sharp variations in educational achievement can be identified by gender and by different ethnic groups; offending rates are high among young males; and in the most deprived communities it is common for disadvantage to be passed on through the generations. 2.1.2 Our research suggests that youth workers are often felt to occupy a special place in the world of young people – particularly those who are troubled by family conflict, school failure and community decline. Many of these young people acquire a damaging and dangerous combination of social problems that can impede their road to independence. In the process they need help and guidance. The youth worker is often the only adult in their lives who is able to offer a reliable, consistent point of reference and support. 2.1.3. Youth workers also provide for the wider population of young people who still need and value opportunities to extend their experience and relationships and develop ‘in the round’ as young adults. They nurture and respect the aspirations of the young and provide them with informal education through which they can: learn about themselves and their place in the world; adopt new roles and acquire new skills; and deepen and broaden their knowledge, understanding and experience through negotiated or freely-chosen activities. 2.1.4. This learning takes place within the context of a range of social factors and structures that affect the young people and those who work with them. These may include, for example, discriminatory attitudes and behaviour, both conscious and unwitting, of institutions and services provided for young people, as well as in the wider community. 2.2

The UK policy context

2.2.1. Keeping all young people in or close to learning and participating in citizenship have become priorities in recent government policies. Various initiatives have been introduced, to provide learning, support and development opportunities for those judged to be most at risk; breaking persistent patterns of exclusion. These include, for example, New Start (1997), the Learning Gateway (1998; later replaced by Entry to Employment or E2E) and, following the publication of the report Bridging the Gap the Connexions service. 2.2.2 Alongside developments in education policy, there have been at least three other major drivers for change: changes in other services and systems aimed at young people, including, among others, youth justice, health and social care. The recent Children Bill (2004), for example, outlined a vision for services for children and young

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people with five main outcomes, based on their expressed primary needs. In addition to the need to enjoy and achieve, and to make a positive contribution to community and society, young people want to be healthy, to stay safe, and to achieve economic well-being. changes designed to modernise local government including: • increasing public involvement, participation and commitment • using inspection and regulatory regimes to raise standards and give the public more reliable information about the quality of services an emphasis on ‘joined-up government’ which, at local level, has led to the creation of strategic and operational partnerships between local services, working in a more co-ordinated fashion to tackle some of the cross-cutting issues they face together. In addition to improving services, partnership is also intended to be part of the democratic renewal process – recasting the relationship between the individual, organisations and the state. 2.2.3. These broad policy developments have brought with them far-reaching implications for local youth services in England. There are now two main sets of policy objectives which inform their work. The first – social inclusion – currently has the higher political profile. It is reflected mainly in education based policy objectives, such as those mentioned above, especially those concerned with young peoples’ relationship with schooling, their achievement in school, and progress to further education, training or employment. One challenge to youth services has been then the extent to which they explicitly recognise and respond to social inclusion – in particular, through supporting the goals of more formal education, as a major part of youth service strategy. 2.2.4. The second set of policy objectives informing the work of local youth services in the UK arise from a wider range of concerns that can be seen in policies that as well as promoting skills and lifelong learning extend to human rights and active citizenship. These reflect the need for people in a more rapidly changing and increasingly complex world to be equipped to work in ‘more flexible’ labour markets; able to exercise their rights and participate and thrive in changing social and political structures; and confident to play a part in shaping the world rather than just responding to it. This forms part of the concern with public involvement and participation in the local government reforms for example, and more broadly can be understood as building social capital: the need for active, involved (young) people, confident, assertive and independent, able to take care of themselves and others and, critically, influencing the major values and processes which bind societies together rather than break them apart. 2.2.5. Much of the personal and social development promoted through youth work can be seen as part of this wide-ranging policy agenda. It, too, assumes that young people need to be positively equipped to take an active part in a fast-changing world. These overarching policy concerns in Britain underlie much of the current thinking that informs the strategic direction of services for young people among which local youth services have been required to adjust their focus, not just at the strategic level but also in their operations.

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2.2.6. In translating youth work strategy into operational interventions with young people, there are three main questions: Which young people the youth service should be working with? What it is trying to achieve with those with whom it works? What difference does it make? What outcomes and impact does it achieve? 2.2.7. The youth service is both a universal and targeted service7. However, it has limited resources, which means provision has to be rationed: while universal means available to all, resources are not made available to provide for all. Priorities have to be established and these tend to be a combination of those established by national government and those set by the local authority, in consultation with its partners and stakeholders. The focus of youth work operations has become characterised by the countervailing pressures associated with making provision that is both universal and targeted. 2.2.8. These pressures are not new to the youth service. As Davies (1999)8 points out, in his authoritative history of the youth service, they parallel similar tensions in a service that has traditionally sought to rescue young people from conditions of poverty and neglect and, at the same time, recognise their potentiality and help them realise it, through programmes of liberal and social education. We will return to a further discussion on balancing provision in the light of these pressures in Section 9 when we consider emerging themes and issues. 2.2.9. Another key element of the wider policy context, set out above, identified local services as moving, increasingly, towards joined-up working and development of wider local strategies. Its impact on strategic and operational refocusing by local services concern: the structures and processes through which the strategy is pursued; the ways in which participation in partnerships is making a difference to youth service strategy and, conversely, the extent to which youth services are influential in helping shape wider local strategies for working with young people. We discuss in Section 8 the range of partnerships in which local youth services are currently engaged.

7

Public services can usually be distinguished in two ways: •

universal services – such as transport, health, police and education – which are available as an entitlement to all

•

targeted services – aimed at those with specific needs (for example, many welfare benefits, hostels for the homeless). Some – and the youth service is one of these – are both universal and targeted. The dilemma facing such a service is how to be flexible, responsive and focused on what the user wants and needs without unduly raising expectations and stimulating demands that cannot be met The term ‘universal’ can be confusing. We take it to mean available for all, not providing for all. The youth service has never been resourced to provide for all nor was it ever intended that it should. The REYS target recognises this by proposing that local youth services should be in contact with one in four 13-19 year-olds. 8 ibid.

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2.2.10. Evidence of the strategic and operational refocusing of local youth services prompted by changes in the policy environment in the UK has been found in the polices and plans we have examined as part of this study and which we consider below (2.7). 2.2.11. As far as developments more directly related to youth work are concerned, in 2001 the government launched its Transforming Youth Work policy as the spearhead for youth service reform. It was followed, late in 2002, by the publication of Resourcing Excellent Youth Services9. This specified, more precisely than ever before, what the government expected of local youth services and how they might contribute to policy objectives. Before identifying how local youth services in England are taking this policy agenda forward, we outline below the main features of the broader youth policy now evolving in Europe, which also forms part of the larger context. 2.3

European youth policy

2.3.1. In 2000 the European Council set itself the ambitious 10-year goal of making the European Union the most dynamic, competitive, sustainable, knowledge-based economy in the world. Since then, all initiatives in education and training established by the Council have underlined the increasing role of lifelong learning in pursuit of this objective. The Council’s policies emphasise that all initiatives must encompass the whole spectrum of formal, non-formal and informal10 learning for promoting personal fulfilment, active citizenship, social inclusion and employability. 2.3.2. The White Paper A New Impetus for European Youth (European Commission, 2001)11 identified four main themes: encouraging greater understanding and knowledge of youth needs and issues among policy makers enhancing the information addressed to young people and existing information services for young people young people’s participation in the exercise of active citizenship 9

Department for Education and Skills (2002) Transforming Youth Work – Resourcing Excellent Youth Services 10

Formal learning: in specific cases the youth sector/youth work acts as a substitute, alternative education and training provider (e.g. in second chance schools and similar projects), mainly for school drop-outs, early school leavers, disaffected young people or other young people at risk. The learning process is structured in terms of learning objectives, learning time, learning support and it is intentional; the participants often get certificates and/or diplomas. Non-formal learning: learning outside institutional contexts (out-of-school) is the key activity, but also key competence of the youth field. Non-formal learning in youth activities is structured, based on learning objectives, learning time and specific learning support and it is intentional. For that reason one could also speak of non-formal education. It does not always lead to certification, but does so in an increasing number of cases. Informal learning: learning in daily life activities, in work, family, leisure is mainly learning by doing; it is typically not structured and not intentional and does not lead to certification. In the youth sector informal learning takes place in youth and leisure initiatives, in peer group and voluntary activities, etc. It provides specific learning opportunities, in particular of social, cultural and personal ‘soft’ skills. 11 European Commission (2001) A new impetus for European youth White Paper com (2001) 681, November 21, EC

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promoting voluntary activities among young people. The last two of these themes correspond exactly to two of the long-standing aspects of youth service policy in England. 2.3.3. Within the White Paper two important sub-themes are tucked away. The first concerns autonomy or, more precisely, consideration of the conditions needed for young people to live independently – including, for example, provision of housing, social care, education and employment. The second concerns non-formal and informal education – in particular, the initiative being taken by the EU and the Council of Europe to validate the learning that takes place outside the formal educational field. 2.3.4. These resonate loudly and clearly with current UK youth service policy. In the case of autonomy, the youth service’s holistic approach to the needs and aspirations of young people includes encouraging the co-ordination of services designed to promote their learning, development and achievement. The purpose is not just to safeguard and protect the interests of young people but to make sure they are enabled to operate independently in the world. On the second count, youth work is one of the principal forms of informal education aimed at extending young people’s skills and achievements. Validation or accreditation of this learning has been signalled as one of the key features of the new Transforming Youth Work policy and local youth services have been given a performance indicator in Resourcing Excellent Youth Services by which success in this area can be measured. 2.3.5. A working paper12 produced recently by the Council of Europe and the European Commission makes it clear that: non-formal education needs more recognition – ‘for its own sake and for civil society purposes’, rather than being undervalued for not being ‘real learning’ and / or seen as a sub-category of education and training. The paper indicates the need to strengthen the awareness of key persons in society, business and politics of its contribution - hence the need for pathways towards validation and formal recognition the youth sector plays a crucial role in the implementation of key priorities and actions in the field of non-formal and informal education.. It also underlines the need for the formation of an adequate cadre of professional staff – youth workers – able to help young people and communities with these forms of learning. 2.3.6. Our own study has found evidence that youth work in England has much to show European partners about ways of validating the learning and achievement of young people through youth work and other forms of informal education, and in the training of youth workers. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, for example, is a wellestablished scheme, widely used in both the local authority and voluntary youth sectors. It has recently been supplemented by newer opportunities such as the Youth Achievement Awards, The Young Adult Learners Partnership’s Getting Connected, and ASDAN Youth Awards, and the various schemes recognised by local Open College Networks. At the same time, the youth service in Britain might also learn 12

European Commission and Council of Europe (2004) Pathways towards Validation and Recognition of Education, Training and Learning in the Youth Field

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how other countries tackle some of the issues it finds more problematic – for example, promoting the autonomy of the young, an area where further development is perhaps warranted. 2.3.7. This brief look at UK and EU policy helps set the stage for a discussion of the ways in which youth work in England contributes to social policy. Before we can do that we consider firstly the purpose and functions of youth work and secondly its distinctive characteristics. 2.4

The purposes and functions of youth work

Youth work purposes 2.4.1. Like all public services, youth work does not take place in a politically or socially neutral context. Its purposes and principal forms of practice will differ, as that context changes. Its purposes, therefore, are always likely to be contested. However, there is broad consensus that it has two inter-related purposes: the personal and social development of young people their social inclusion. In this study we recognise a core emphasis on personal and social development and more recently a growing emphasis on social inclusion, coinciding with increasing formal recognition of the contribution of youth work to a wider range of social policy objectives. Notwithstanding this development, we would also acknowledge that what people understand by the personal and social development and the social inclusion of young people may vary according to the social function that youth work is seen to fulfil. 2.4.2. Youth work has come to mean a combination of methods or interventions (such as educational group work), marked out by distinctive characteristics (such as voluntary engagement, active involvement, informal education and professional flexibility) and underpinned by a shared set of values (see Annex 1 in Resourcing Excellent Youth Services). It promotes the voice and influence of young people. Fundamentally, youth work with individuals and groups stems from negotiation and mutual agreement. It serves as a springboard for social learning – in its broadest sense – that young people can use to express and achieve their aspirations. 2.4.3. There are many agencies working with young people: in the local authority and voluntary youth service; in other services for young people (such as Connexions and schools); and in services that are provided for everyone including young people (such as arts and leisure). All these services work with young people, but only some do youth work. Youth work functions 2.4.4. These functions can be summarised as integrative, reflexive and redistributive. When youth work is seen as integrative, it introduces young people into social norms, expectations, roles and institutions as preparation for the adult world. Seen in this way, social institutions remain broadly the same and it is the task of the young people, and those working with them, to fit into what is expected of them. In this more normative sense, youth work is concerned with the socialisation of the young. 29

2.4.5 In its more radical form, youth work can be seen as reflexive, recognising that social structures and systems may serve to exclude and disadvantage certain groups and individuals, and that one of the purposes of youth work is to ensure that the perspectives of young people are better accommodated within these institutions so they begin to influence the services provided, and so reduce disadvantage, exclusion or discrimination. Well conducted, youth work reflects back to social institutions the experience and perceptions of young people so they – the institutions - might adapt and evolve in response. In this sense it can lead to local, incremental and small (although for the young people directly concerned highly significant) instances of social change. 2.4.6 Youth work can also be seen as redistributive – in the sense that it counters disadvantage by raising the sights of young people and directs resources to those least likely to receive them. It can introduce young people into new experiences and opportunities and link them into a wider network of contacts and facilities. It can extend their repertoire of skills, achievements and relationships. It can also enable young people to gain the confidence to challenge discrimination when it occurs. In this sense, youth work is concerned with social justice and also the creation of social capital (a concept explored further below). 2.4.7. By setting out the functions of youth work in this way, we are seeking to demonstrate differences of emphasis. These perspectives can overlap and should not be regarded as mutually exclusive; fulfilling any one function does not exclude the possibility that youth work might at the same time address others. The contribution of youth work to social capital 2.4.8. Social capital is a concept much used in the health promotion profession, particularly in Australia, and, over the last few years, explored, tested and popularised by American academics such as Putman (1993)13. By social capital we mean “the norms and networks of civil society that enable groups of individuals to co-operate for mutual benefit (and perhaps for broader social benefit) and may allow social institutions to perform more productively. Social capital is embodied in such forms as civic and religious groups, bonds of family, informal community networks, kinship and friendship, and norms of reciprocity, volunteerism, altruism and trust” 2.4.9

Social capital can be built for two purposes – bonding and bridging14: Bonding capital forges stronger links between people of similar or like attitudes, dispositions, norms and values. This can create a sense of social solidarity, sometimes against a perceived common threat. However it can be used for good or ill; can promote inclusion or exclusion (or promote inclusion as a means of enforcing exclusion): communities can be built on a sense of identity – formed from specific cultural norms and expectations – which

13

Putman, R. (1993) Making Democracy Work Princeton University Press NJ The terms bridging capital and bonding capital were originally conceived by Ross Gitell and Avis Vidal in Community Organising: Building Social Capital as a Development Strategy, Thousand Oaks, California, (1998) and are fully explained in Bowling Alone, Putman, R. Simon and Schuster, 2000

14

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excludes others who do not share them (for example black and minority ethnic groups, refugees, asylum-seekers, the mentally ill). Bridging capital forges links between people of different attitudes, dispositions, norms and values. This can create a broader sense of community and in a modern, pluralist, diverse society is generally regarded as contributing to the common good. It widens the network of association, affinity and mutual responsibilities to which people are willing to subscribe and attach themselves. The building of social capital is seen to create a greater sense of trust, mutual responsibility and attachment within the primary social institution – the family – and, beyond it, to the neighbourhood, and wider still to institutions and the civic arena. 2.4.10. Evidence collected through this study shows that the building of bridging social capital and bonding social capital in its more positive aspects is something that youth work is often good at and can legitimately be regarded as its distinctive social and moral purpose. It encourages the development of active, involved (young) people, confident, assertive and independent, able to take care of themselves and others, and critically influencing the major values and processes that bind societies together rather then break them apart. This is a theme that has been well explained and argued by Smith (2001)15 and will echo through this report, where we describe examples of young people becoming involved in activities and projects that have enhanced their interpersonal skills, social relationships and place in their local communities. 2.5

The distinctive characteristics of youth work

(a)

Voluntary engagement

2.5.1 The consent of young people - their choice as to whether to be involved in youth work – is, perhaps more than any other principle, held by youth workers as central to their practice. Davies16 describes this as the defining feature of youth work throughout its history; and goes on to suggest that, while not unique, this combination of non-compulsory and state-supported provision for young people is unusual. 2.5.2 This is not intended to imply that the message to young people is 'take it or leave it', for workers may spend many weeks gaining their consent. But it does imply that the relationship between youth worker and young person is one which is freely chosen; not one which comes about as a result of coercion. There is evidence of a trend towards this core principle of voluntary engagement being challenged. In various case studies, we encountered examples of young people being referred to youth work projects or programmes because staff working in other agencies believed – rightly as it turned out – that the young people would benefit from them. 2.5.3. This move towards non-voluntary engagement is a common theme in this report and it is discussed further in Section 9 – Emerging Issues

15

Smith Mark K, Young people, informal education and association, Paper compiled for Young People and Informal Education Conference, University of Strathclyde, 2001 16 Davies, B (1999) From Thatcherism to New Labour A History of the Youth Service in England: Volume 2:. Leicester, Youth Work Press

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(b)

Active involvement

2.5.4 Effective youth work encourages the active involvement of young people in the governance, development, delivery and evaluation of their local youth provision and / or the youth service. Not all will want to do so, but the reviews and case studies produced considerable evidence of young people influencing decisions in their projects, clubs and centres, and more widely – for example in: youth councils forums and parliaments other public sector agencies wanting young people’s opinions on tailoring services to meet their needs neighbourhood negotiations to ensure their needs and interests are represented The extent and type of active involvement is discussed in more depth in Section 6. (c)

Informal education17

2.5.5. Youth work's adherence to being an essentially educative activity remains paramount, at least in its own professional literature. In their seminal work Davies and Gibson (1967)18 develop the idea of ‘maturity for their own society’. What is important is to be exposed to different social experiences and, through these, to have the opportunity to develop a wide repertoire of social skills. The aim is to “help the young acquire the social skills of co-operation, of membership, of contribution to common effort, of sociability….” 19 2.5.6. The significant factor in helping to grow these skills is not so much the activity itself as the development of relationships through the activity. For example, in a group task, it is not always the playing of the role that is most difficult, but identifying which role it is appropriate to play. Moreover, it is not just making decisions and choices but also taking responsibility for their consequences that is important. This learning about relationships is directed towards the affective dimension as much as the cognitive, though the two are closely inter-related; learning about relationships as they are felt, and about what is entailed in forming, sustaining and ending them. 2.5.7. Youth work is a way to engage young people in 'sense making' as a 'process of continuous self discovery and re-creation.' (Young, 1999 p1 20). This process of social education entails young people becoming engaged in relationships of mutual regard, where genuine dialogue can take place. (The nature of this youth work relationship is discussed in more detail in Section 3.2.) 2.5.8. Informal education takes place outside the more formal learning environment and the prescribed curricula of school and college:

17

Informal education in this report is a combination of what the European Council refers to as nonformal and informal learning – see footnote 8 earlier 18 Davies, B and Gibson, A (1967) The Social Education of the Adolescent, University of London Press 19 ibid 20 Young, K (1999) The Art of Youth Work, Lyme Regis, Russell House Publishing

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It tends to take place in the context of a more familiar setting of a community venue, more relaxed relationships with youth workers, smaller group sizes It may not conform to the prescribed curriculum, but this does not mean that there is no shape or structure to the learning that takes place. The learning evolves from the interests and concerns that the young people themselves bring, and in ways and at a pace that engages them. The curriculum emerges from a dialogue between young people and youth workers. It is for this reason that many schools are turning to the youth service to help re-engage with learning those who have been excluded or have excluded themselves. “we use an empowering and holistic approach that allows young people to engage with the project and with education at their own pace and at a level they feel comfortable with…we are not judgemental; learning takes place at their own pace…we’re working at their level…we work informally, leading young people into things…it’s a back door approach. Our main focus is the young people…we look at small steps…we build their self-esteem”. (youth worker, alternative education project, East Midlands) (d)

Flexibility and capacity to respond

2.5.9. The broad and textured canvas that youth work covers brings advantages to local youth services – giving them a relatively high degree of discretion and autonomy in selecting priorities. Since youth workers are not legally required to implement particular aspects of social policy, they do not have to carry any of the statutory responsibilities that might impede their ability to make relationships with young people based on voluntary engagement. 2.5.10. The loose defining of the role also brings advantages for youth workers – in the scope and freedom they are allowed to carry out their role. However, there are also risks that the youth service is less fully incorporated and integrated into local government than other services; that, as a service, it is overlooked and lacks the level of resources needed to meet expectations. However, our research indicates that, increasingly, youth services are being called upon to play a prominent part in helping to provide more holistic services for young people. 2.5.11. Other public sector services increasingly recognise that youth work can operate in areas and with a degree of flexibility that they find difficult. So that, for example, on a large housing estate characterised by poverty, broken families and youth crime, youth workers can: develop relationships of trust with the young and their families and help to resolve conflict act as a bridge between the families and the services that are established to provide for and support them – schools, health, social work. As we will see later, other professionals, most of whose time and resources are directed towards meeting their statutory obligations, look to the youth service to help them communicate and stay in contact with their clients. In this sense youth workers are interpreting the broad statutory duty they have by providing a youth and community service.

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2.5.12. Transforming Youth Work policy and Resourcing Excellent Youth Services have spelled out more explicitly how youth services can prioritise and deploy their resources, principally their youth workers. Within the service, some worry about this development and others welcome it, the former fearing that it encroaches on their capacity to be flexible in response to the needs of young people. There are concerns that this will impinge on the discretion that they consider to be key to the practice of building and developing open, trusting relationships with young people, in the same way that probation officers expressed concerns about jeopardising their relationships with clients under the pressure to conform to the What Works policy21. 2.5.13. The relative autonomy of youth workers also presents a problem for the service, since it tends to render obscure what is often referred to as ‘the youth work process’. Because this process is not always evident or transparent, it can lead professionals in other services to regard youth workers as ‘precious’ about their skills and interventions. They may become at best unclear and at worst sceptical about what youth workers do and how young people benefit from the services they provide. It is important, therefore, that a clear picture is given about the purposes and functions of youth work and some of the key principles that underpin its practice. The need to be clear about, and the ability to articulate, the vision and purpose of youth work is a theme to which we return in Section 7. 2.6

Policy contributions of youth work

2.6.1. Earlier we outlined some important themes in social policy and in this section we explore how core youth work practice contributes to five of these, in addition to, and through fulfilling its central purpose of providing opportunities for personal and social development. Diagram 1 illustrates how the core purpose and function of youth work (running through the centre of the diagram) is used with young people at different levels of engagement in society (the spectrum from social exclusion through to critical engagement that runs along the bottom of the diagram) to achieve the five key policy goals (the spectrum that runs along the top of the diagram). By 'critical engagement we mean the capacity to engage with social institutions and services while critically evaluating and influencing them. While the core purpose of youth work remains unchanged – the personal and social development of young people – it is formally recognised as contributing to a widening social policy and inclusion agenda. 2.6.2. Looking at the overall contribution of youth work, the five policy dimensions to which it aims to make a difference are: 1. Active citizenship refers to the policy goal of young people making a contribution to the networks, associations and communities to which they belong; of not only taking part but seeking to influence them and ensure they have a stake in the development of their local neighbourhoods and interest groups. This may entail getting involved in peer mentoring programmes, youth forums or councils or taking part in a local community group, project or event.

21

Newman, J and Nutley, S (2003) Transforming the Probation Service: ‘What Works’: organisational change and professional identity The Policy Press

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2.

Aspiration and achievement refers to the policy goal of young people identifying their individual and collective goals and taking steps to develop the attitudes, skills and understanding they will need to help them achieve them. This may be through a range of different activities, such as youth arts or outdoor adventure whereby they are stretched and challenged to acquire new insights and a clearer sense of their own potential and capacities.

3.

The enabling/protective function of youth work as a policy goal, or protection as an outcome for young people, is largely concerned with equipping young people with the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to find their way safely through the world, and enabling them to engage actively with it, and develop and progress. Protection enables them to assess risk and be aware of the consequences of their actions. It is protective also in that their actions are then less likely to lead to exclusionary outcomes for them. Young people in this position would generally have little immediate risk of exclusion, but they do derive developmental benefits as they move along the road to active citizenship.

4.

The preventive function of youth work as a policy goal or prevention as an outcome, would begin to operate slightly further back along the road to autonomy. In this case the young people are not seen as significantly at risk of exclusion, but they may have been informally identified by youth workers as needing some particular attention or support, over a particular period, in order to ensure that they do not slip towards a position of being significantly at risk. Both the protective and the preventive functions form part of the day-to-day work of youth workers in all forms of provision. Diversion is concerned with young people more formally or significantly seen as being at risk of exclusion, through particular activities they engage in, or which they show significant signs of moving towards. Examples of this might include the early signs of offending, drugs misuse, school refusal, or other behaviours which could lead towards exclusion. If prevention involves ‘soft’ targeting (see 2.7.3. below) then diversion involves ‘harder’ targeting identifying specific young people or groups with specific issues for more intensive work, often organised into projects or special provision.

5.

Re-integration is concerned with working with young people furthest away from autonomy and active citizenship. In their case they are already significantly excluded and their existing life styles appear likely to consolidate them in that position in the future. A typical example might be a young person permanently excluded from school, or never attending, or who is not in education, employment or training (and given the acronym of NEET), and who might have a significant involvement in offending, or drugs misuse or similar activities. This also involves hard targeting, intensive work, and is often project based.

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Diagram 1 – Youth work contributions to policy objectives

Re-Integration

Prevention/Diversion Enabling/Protection Aspiration/Achievement Active Citizenship

YOUTH WORK Personal and social development through informal education

Social Exclusion

Formal Risk

Informal Risk

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Social Inclusion

Critical Engagement

2.6.3. There is a loose linkage between the different types of policy contribution and two types of youth work provision. The active citizenship, aspiration and achievement and the more enabling/protective functions often associated with universal or open access youth work are typically provided through youth clubs and centres. Prevention / diversion and re-integration tend to be more specialised, often organised as project work, and targeted on very specific groups of young people identified in relation to their need for diversion or re-integration. However, it also needs to be recognised that forms of ‘soft targeting’ take place within open access centres, by which we mean youth workers identifying and working closely with individuals and groups who they feel would benefit from more intensive forms of support at different times. 2.6.4 Conceptualised in this way, the particular contributions of youth work to evolving social policy for young people can be explained. In the next section, based upon our empirical work, we discuss how its purposes and functions have been translated into plans and policies at local level, influenced by recent national policy. 2.7

Policies and plans of local youth services in England

In combination, Transforming Youth Work, the common planning framework that followed it, and Resourcing Excellent Youth Services have provided local youth services with a rudder with which to steer their course. Until the circulation of these policy papers the aspirations of central government for the youth service had been muted and unclear so that even clarification of the primary target age-range as 13-19 year-olds in Transforming Youth Work was seen as something of an advance. In the document good youth work was defined as: offering quality support to young people with a clear focus on those aged 13 to 19 years which helps young people achieve and progress enabling the voice of young people to be heard, including helping them to influence decision making at various levels providing a rich diversity of personal and social development opportunities and choices to young people, including voluntary action, peer support and mentoring promoting ‘intervention and prevention’ to address the individual, institutional and policy causes of disaffection and exclusion. 2.7.1.

Youth services were encouraged to: contribute strategic leadership ensure the active involvement of young people in their services consider joined-up working with other local departments and agencies charged with the care, welfare and development of the young (health, education, crime prevention) contribute to the development of new, relevant initiatives such as Connexions and the Children and Young People’s strategic partnerships. 2.7.2 All the fifty youth service plans that we analysed formally recognise the service’s responsibility to provide strategic leadership, contribute to local preventive strategies, secure coherent partnership arrangements and provide high quality youth work. One third of the plans we reviewed contain versions of the pledge formulated

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by the National Youth Agency and published in Resourcing Excellent Youth Services as a model entitlement of the kind of service that any 13-19 year-old might expect to receive in their locality; most of the remainder indicate their intention to do so. 2.7.3. The aims and priorities of youth services have always highlighted the importance of active involvement and the role of young people as active citizens – making a contribution to the development of the communities where they live22. Youth work programmes and skills have been utilised to give young people confidence, skills and experience in becoming involved in structures and processes of self-governance. Government policy has given this work greater profile and emphasis, and this is reflected in the sharper definition given to it in youth service plans and policies. Variants of “giving young people an influential voice” are prioritised in all service plans. In more than 80 per cent of the plans we analysed, local services also intend to create structures and processes for young people to find and express their voice; some, for example, in shaping neighbourhood renewal programmes so that they reflect the needs, aspirations and interests of the young. We describe some trends and examples of this kind of work in Section 6. 2.7.4 Joined up working also featured heavily in the service plans in our sample. Partnership is the focus of Section 8 of this report but: All the service plans make it clear, to a greater or lesser extent, that youth work has an important contribution to make to the policies of the education service – in particular, those concerned with raising standards of participation and achievement, improving attendance, attitude and behaviour, and keeping close to learning those young people who are excluded, who stay away from school and who are at risk of disengaging. More than two thirds of services signal the voluntary sector as key partners and there are trends towards these partnerships becoming more strategic 75 per cent of youth service plans indicate partnerships with the police or youth offending services – in marked contrast to even ten years ago More than 80 per cent of services have existing partnership with health services and well over half of the services are partners in Drug and Alcohol Action Teams Services are also encouraging life styles and activities designed to “keep young people in good shape” physically and mentally. Some have policies that are aligned closely to those of leisure and community development departments to develop sports, outdoor pursuits, and youth arts programmes to attract the young. 2.7.5. Youth service policies and programmes also recognise that they have a part to play in new initiatives such as Connexions. Connexions, the cross-cutting youth support service providing information, advice, guidance and development opportunities for all 13-19 year-olds who need them, contains many features that parallel youth work and youth services are finding, in the young people at risk with whom they work, a common cause on which to unite with them. This is reflected in the policies and priorities of all service plans. Making the partnerships work, 22

For example, 'active participation in community affairs' as it was referred to in the Thompson Report (1982) p44

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strategically and operationally, is more challenging and, in this respect, the picture is more mixed – a theme to which we return in Section 8. 2.7.6. Local youth service plans and policy papers make it clear that they welcome the direction, shape and focus given to youth work by Transforming Youth Work, the common planning framework, Resourcing Excellent Youth Services and Connexions and the ways in which they are helping to join up different policy priorities. At the same time they are seeking to retain a governing principle of good youth work which is to place young people at the centre of provision, work on their agenda and import their perspective into service planning and delivery. In the process they try to engage the young person’s perception of the ‘problem’ or issue, not necessarily accepting it in its stated (adult) form. Some service plans express this view with greater confidence than others. 2.8

Summary The wider youth policy context in the UK and Europe is both influencing and reflecting youth work in local youth services. The emerging policy climate presents both opportunities and challenges for the distinctive characteristics of youth work – voluntary engagement, active involvement, informal education and professional flexibility but, by and large, these are being retained and reaffirmed. Following sections will identify recent trends in relation to some of these. While the core purpose and function of youth work remain constant, youth work is increasingly recognised as contributing to a broader social policy agenda: • promoting active citizenship; • raising aspirations and achievement; • enabling and protecting young people so they can become more autonomous; • preventing and diverting young people from risk; • re-integrating those who are marginalised from institutions, services and communities. These policy drivers have significant implications for strategic and operational planning in local youth services. The youth service plans examined as part of this study reflect this strategic and operational refocusing and the guidelines provided by the Transforming Youth Work policy.

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Section 3: Outcomes and impact This section is concerned with the outcomes and impact of youth work on young people, their communities and other services directed at young people. To do this we draw on three types of evidence: qualitative data from the testimony of young people, youth workers and others whom we interviewed and met, either as part of the fifteen local youth service reviews, or as one of the thirty case study projects. quantitative data, acquired partly through surveys of young people that we conducted as part of this study and partly through the few other studies that have sought to assess the impact of youth work interventions. a small selection of the case studies themselves, chosen because they represent and illustrate some of the enduring themes and ambiguities with which youth work is engaged, and because they illuminate the different ways in which youth work has impact on social policy objectives. Generally, there is little data on youth work outcomes and impact in the professional literature, but Annexe 4 provides additional evidence drawn from relevant previous studies. They tend to corroborate the findings from the current study. Before moving into the discussion of outcomes and impact, however, we take a closer look at the role of the youth worker and the qualities of the youth work relationship – the links between policy, young people and youth work recently discussed in conjunction with Diagram 1 of Section 2. 3.1

The role of the youth worker

3.1.1. Section 2 began with a look at the way in which the transition process for young people has become more difficult in recent years, with many young people finding their road to independence blocked with obstacles. Youth workers are often the only adults in their lives who are able to offer a reliable, consistent point of reference and support. 3.1.2. The position of youth workers, like that of many others employed in local authority and voluntary sector helping professions, is sometimes uncomfortable – presenting the need to find an accommodation between: social policy priorities and their professional independence what the state (local and central) expects and the expressed needs and interests of young people, their families and the communities in which they live the integrative, reflexive and redistributive functions of youth work (see 2.4) – developing practice which strengthens the capacity of young people to: - make choices and decisions about friendships, futures and life-styles - recognise how their choices and decisions are influenced by the social conditions and structures in which they live and operate – and encourage them to find their voice and take action.

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3.1.3. Youth workers tend to take on multiple roles when they work with young people; for example, friend, teacher, counsellor, coach, advocate and mentor. The most effective youth workers adopt or adapt roles according to the demands and needs of the young people they are working with and the requirements of the moment. They not only work with the young people on their terms but they also work for or on behalf of them, sometimes in their presence and sometimes not – for example when mediating in difficult situations at home or at school. These adjustments of role are part of the process of being both proactive and responsive. Having said that, there appear to be two principal roles that youth workers are called upon to discharge in promoting young people’s personal and social development and social inclusion. 3.1.4. The first is that of social educator. If the overall aim of youth work remains to ‘enhance the ability of young people to identify and develop their capacities, to understand and exercise their [rights and] responsibilities, and evaluate the context in which they live’23, then youth workers have to provide them with opportunities in which to do so; to plan activities and interventions with learning in mind and to encourage reflection so that the learning (and achievement) can be recognised and recorded. 3.1.5 Partners in other services testify to the ability of youth workers to get alongside young people and win their confidence. Youth workers are consequently seen to have an important part to play in pursuit of policy objectives, particularly those related to social inclusion. The role of mentor is becoming more widespread and taken up by different services, as they recognise its potential for connecting with and securing the compliance of young people - in particular, those deemed to be vulnerable in the so-called ‘risk society’. In this role, youth workers are seen as a source of support and guidance for young people, in much the same way that personal advisers are in the Connexions service. The role of mentor also incorporates the role of advocate – mediating on behalf of young people if and when institutions and services are not responsive to their needs and conditions. 3.1.6 However, youth workers do not just recognise and work with young people at risk as individuals, in what is sometimes referred to as casework or welfare mode. They also recognise and work with young people as members of groups and communities. This is significant because: it allows the youth worker and the young people to identify and realise the scope for collective decision-making and action young people’s sense of identity, self-worth and potential may be altered, even transformed, when it is bound up with and influenced by being part of a larger social unit – opening them up to new possibilities. groups involve members in relationships of trust and reciprocity, helping to create a sense of belonging and solidarity and build communities of belief, interest and locality. 3.1.7 The role of the youth worker, therefore, can be ambiguous and complex, requiring adjustment to the circumstances of individuals, groups and communities as they evolve and to the conflicting demands outlined in 3.1.2. 23

Effective Youth Work, HMSO, 1987

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3.2

The youth work relationship

3.2.1. Diagram 2 illustrates the key components of the youth work relationship and how they inter-relate: At the centre, or bull, of the ‘target’ are the outcomes – the changes in attitudes, skills and understanding that youth work seeks to bring about (the focus of 3.3 – 3.5) The outer ring lists the elements of the process of youth work (the main focus for the rest of 3.2). The intermediate circles illustrate examples of the themes used in youth work activities – for example, ‘community’ might include building skills relevant to resolving inter-racial conflict. But youth workers also try to ensure that, along with the personal development that takes place, the activities have other benefits – that they allow young people to have fun, make choices and make friends as well as learn new skills, and use their voice and influence. Diagram 2 – The components of youth work

3.2.2. On the outer circle of Diagram 2 the youth worker is building relationships of trust and respect; giving young people the recognition that is often missing in their lives – recognition for their achievements but also simply as themselves – thus building their confidence and motivation to engage. (Points 3.2.3. to 3.2.11 give examples of these qualities in action.) 3.2.3 In the reviews and case study visits, young people continually testified to the ability of the youth workers to establish relationships of mutual regard. Some of the young people we met had rarely encountered adults who understood them and treated them with ‘respect’ – a quality that young people valued above all. Many of the young people had histories of difficult and challenging behaviour and their previous 42

relationships with adults had been characterised by conflict and distance; hostility and suspicion. “the workers are down to earth, more on your level…they don’t look down on you, it’s more eye to eye…..they understand what you want from life….they give you a second chance….they want to help you and want you to move on….” (Young Person, E2E Programme, North East) “Staff are helpful and kind…..they don’t shout at you. They reason with you. They are not sitting down and doing nowt. They are involved with us” (Young Person, PAYP, North West) “They know us, other people don’t even talk to us. You can put your trust in them to help you and it’s easier to talk to them than ordinary (sic) adults. You know they want to talk to you” (Young Person, PAYP, North West). “….she doesn’t treat you like some kid she works with – she treats you like a person” (Young Person, After Care Service, North West) 3.2.4. Trust follows such respect. Young people tend to respond quickly and positively to not being judged and stereotyped… “they don’t judge you and they understand that everybody’s different” “you can put your trust in them to help you and it’s easier to talk with them than ordinary adults. You know they won’t talk about you” (Young People, After Care Service, North West) … and to youth workers’ reliability: doing what they say they will – or explaining why, if it is not feasible. “There’s always someone there to help me. When I ring, she never says I’m busy. She’ll always ring back and explain when she can come. She’s a really big help.” “They try and help, they come through with it” (Young People, After Care Service, North West) 3.2.5. Demonstrating trust and confidence in young people is one of the drivers behind the youth workers’ emphasis on encouraging young people to make their own decisions, based on the information and advice available, rather than suggesting the ‘right’ thing to do. This is particularly important when working alongside other professionals, who may have a more directive or prescriptive approach to the needs, aspirations and problems of the young. In a project in a northern city where the youth service worked alongside health promotion in providing support on sexual health, a health professional observed: “Youth workers are seen more positively than the authority figure of the school nurse, young people perceive them to be less threatening and less likely to judge. My job would be very difficult without them – fewer young people would get involved and youth workers are also able to draw new interest. We learn from each other.” The youth worker reported

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“We have different perspectives. I think what we try to do is get young people to make their own informed choices. Nurses are obviously concerned about health but they do tend to medicalise things and at first didn’t trust me because I didn’t push young people. I’ve had to prove myself – to prove that I was very knowledgeable about sexual health. Now I’ve proved it and they understand what my role is, it’s a great partnership”. Their approach is holistic: in the words of this youth worker, “we are youth workers first and sexual health workers second”. The youth worker seeks to avoid putting the young people’s needs into particular boxes or compartments, but tries to look at the young people in the round and help them to develop more generic skills, knowledge and understanding, not simply those related to the presenting issue. 3.2.6 Similarly, the most effective youth workers involve young people in resolving problems, rather than imposing solutions upon them. It is important for the young people to take some responsibility for what happens and for youth workers to treat young people as intelligent and responsible. Youth workers in the after care service bring their professional expertise to the task of ensuring that Pathway plans provide scope for choices to be taken by the young people when they leave the care of the local authority. This is fundamentally an enabling approach, with the attendant risk that sometimes the young person may not make the choice or take the decision that the worker may consider to be in their best interests “ X is accessible and reliable and treats me like an adult. She lets me do it/helps me do it (social workers always did it for me), makes me feel good in myself because I’ve done things – gives me moral support and practical support, for example with landlord explaining how the Housing Benefit letter should have been renewed.” “They talk more on your level as they are not there to teach you but to support you. You tell them what you need rather than vice versa. I don’t ever feel patronised like I did before. They do more to help than social workers. If it needs doing they do it. They don’t talk over you and they definitely work at your pace.” (Young People, After Care Service, North West) 3.2.7. The growth of confidence recurred frequently in interviews with young people – referring both to confidence in the youth worker … “I feel confident in telling them anything” … and confidence in themselves “helping me get my confidence back” (Young People, Youth Inclusion Project, North East) “the experience of being here in this environment is enormously important to me. Last year I came for the first time – a teacher said I was a shy person and recommended it to me. I came last year and felt more confident and this is my

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second year and it’s a regular thing…..next year I want to see if I can run one of these sessions.” (Young Person, summer university, London) 3.2.8. Young people who had underachieved at school, appreciated the pleasure the youth workers showed in their achievements, however modest, and commented that this provided the motivation to try harder. In a summer university project a youth worker and a tutor jointly organised informal education activities of different kinds and a young man reported “that he was excited by what I had done really boosted me up”. Another young person on an alternative education scheme for those excluded from school said, “the worker is always telling us we’re doing well”. For people who are accustomed to achievement this may not seem to amount to a great deal; for these young people it meant a lot. 3.2.9. Enjoying the youth workers attention – being recognised as somebody in their own right – is another powerful motivator. “They are not always watching what you’re doing or checking up on you. They treat you like an adult. When you say you can’t do it, they say you can. They make you feel better about yourself. I feel human. In the children’s home I was treated as a child. They treated everyone the same. It made me feel nobody cared. No one loved you. Everyone needs something different in a kids’ home. After care workers treat you like a friend not a stranger. They speak to you like they know you. They don’t tell you to do things – they help.” (Young Person, After Care Service, North West) 3.2.10. Sometimes it is small details that may appear insignificant, and do not cost much, that can mean a lot. At the summer university, personalised letters were sent out to prospective students rather than a standardised sheet promoting the scheme. Young people were invited to declare their individual preferences for activities and this person-centred approach was carried through the whole project in all communications and in its day-to-day administration. The young people and staff become familiar to each other as individuals, using first names as an indicator of recognition and informality. This increased the young people’s sense of being valued for who they were. 3.2.11. Flexibility is another valued element of the youth workers’ person-centred, approach. Youth workers often operate at times and on terms that make them more approachable than many other professionals in their lives – providing more motivation to engage. This particularly applied to street-based youth work and different forms of project work. “they are there to do a job but they don’t work 9-5…you can meet them when you want…” (Young Person, street-based youth work project, London) A hospital youth work team in a Midlands city is accessed on a 24/7 basis every day of the year. A youth worker in the after care service explains the

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benefits of working flexible hours and in places where the young people feel comfortable “we can meet at 5.30pm in McDonalds for a brew. We can discuss their Pathway plan there or in their house. It’s not a big meeting with officials. We also dress more casually than officialdom.” 3.2.12 Group work skills are regarded by youth workers as an essential tool of their trade: helping young people to function in a group, learning how to deal with differences and build stronger friendship. In a project set up to promote the active involvement of young people in democratic processes, one youth worker reported: “in the early days many were extremely challenging. They wouldn’t work together and spent most of their time arguing and pulling in opposite directions. Individuals battled for power and influence in the group and were unable to consider the opinions of others. Over time we worked through the issues and eventually the young people began to work positively together and are now more patient and tolerant of each other”. (Youth Worker, Active Involvement Project, North East) 3.2.13 An important part of the youth work process is the negotiation of ground rules and boundaries. For many young people, boundaries had previously been conspicuous by their absence; or, alternatively, they have been arbitrarily imposed by authority. This is another element in the process of developing respect (showing the link between the different rings in the diagram) “Youth workers set boundaries, especially when we go on trips….since getting involved with the project I’ve learned about boundaries and now I can be bothered to turn up for things like youth club or the trips out. Before I didn’t turn up and I had no respect for the leaders” “They’re honest, they explain boundaries, for example over confidentiality…and I’m empowered to make decisions by that…no one ever did that before” (Young People on Street-based Youth Project, London) 3.3

Outcomes and impact achieved for young people

3.3.1. In 3.2.7. – 3.2.10, we mentioned the building of confidence in young people as part of the youth work relationship. These growth spurts in confidence – a product of the relationships young people form with youth workers – are a source of the motivation, achievement and the recognition that ensues. This in itself reinforces the confidence and completes the ‘virtuous circle’ of achievement. 3.3.2. In this respect, confidence can be seen as a ‘soft outcome’ as well as part of the youth work process and, in our survey (acknowledging its limitations), 72 per cent of young people reported that they felt quite a lot or very much more confident as a result of their engagement with youth work. This proportion was even higher (87 per cent) among a total of 909 young people surveyed by two of the managing agents as part of the research of the Neighbourhood Support Fund (NSF) programme

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undertaken by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) (Golden et al, 2004)24. This growth in confidence spurred several of the young people to develop new skills and gain some form of certification for their achievements. “Z has helped me get my confidence back, has helped me with my problems – all of them!…she has helped me stand on my own two feet, not rely on others and be so demanding…..they give you ideas, a way forward……they back you up and egg you on…they help you know you can do this.” (Young Person, After Care Service, North West) 3.3.3. The building of confidence featured in nearly all the projects visited as part of the case study strand of this research. For example: A youth theatre group in the north west is aimed at – and now largely run by – young people with disabilities. Members of this project illustrate the confidence they have acquired as a consequence of their involvement. At the beginning of the project the members were extremely nervous and had to wear masks during the initial performance; not for dramatic effect but because of their shyness. As they grew in confidence the masks were dispensed with. Two of the members demonstrated a high level of self-assurance by giving unscripted speeches during the closing stages of a performance at a local arts centre. One parent described how being part of the group raised his son’s self esteem. He says his son, “has raised his aspirations through contact with others in the group. We’ve noticed a dramatic improvement in confidence, posture, self esteem….[he is]serious about the work and takes an unofficial register…… his enthusiasm motivates him to keep a diary and dates”. 3.3.4 These gains are examples of ‘distance travelled’ – a concept often used in youth work and other forms of informal education, but rarely defined with any precision and one with few reliable methods of measurement. It is used to denote progress by individuals in a range of ‘soft’ skills – or personal and social development – including, for example, interpersonal skills, positive attitudes, the ability to organise oneself (time, money), solve problems and generic skills required for the world of work, such as reliability, initiative and building relationships. 3.3.5 The testimony of the young people in the reviews, along with the data from the survey conducted as part of this study suggest improvements in a range of personal and social development outcomes as a result of their involvement in youth work activities and processes. Figure 1 shows responses made by young people to a question that asked them what difference their engagement with youth work had made with regard to eight different personal and social development outcomes. Between 60 per cent and 70 per cent answered that there had been considerable difference made to key interpersonal skills, such as making friends, having a say in what goes on, asking for help and information. Similar numbers reported that a considerable difference had been made to their self-confidence, their ability to make decisions for themselves, and think about the consequences “I’m finding out things from people who are good at things. I have made new friends, I’m more confident, can do new things”. 24

Golden S, Spielhofer T, Sims D, O’Donnell L (2004) Supporting the Hardest-to-Help Young People: The Contribution of the Neighbourhood Support Fund, NFER

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(Young Person, Youth Arts Project, Yorkshire and the Humber) “I’ve definitely achieved something. You don’t need to offend for people to notice you. There are other ways like building confidence, meeting the mayor, team work and getting certificates” (Young person, PAYP, North West) Figure 1 – Impact on different aspects of personal and social development

3.3.6. Helping young people to make use of networks that provide support and development, and to think about getting a job can help them feel, and be, part of the mainstream of services and opportunities: “All the other people around me say that I have completely changed. I really enjoyed myself and learned to have a bit more self-confidence and social skills. Also, working with the Princes Trust I have decided to enrol[in college] in September and I will keep in contact with the project as I have made some great new friends and relationships.” (Young Person, Positive Activities for Young People (PAYP), North West) 3.3.7 These personal and social development outcomes can, in turn, lead to the achievement of what are sometimes referred to as ‘hard’ outcomes – ones that are more measurable – for example, staying on at school, reducing anti-social or offending behaviour, getting a job, making purposeful use of public facilities and services. A Youth Inclusion Project in an inner London borough illustrates the point: Negotiations with the young people and their parents took place over two months and they eventually agreed to take part in a series of activities at one

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of the local youth clubs – learning how to mix music, soccer coaching and so on. In return, the young people agreed to improve their school attendance and behaviour and have their progress closely monitored. A group of fifteen started the programme and, after four months, thirteen remained. The work led to positive outcomes and had impact: improved performance in school and reduction in offending behaviour. The young people were able to identify connections between the two sets of experiences; for example one reported “the disco mixing course is making us learn to concentrate and work hard to achieve success and as a result we find that we are able to concentrate more in our lessons in school” And from other projects… “I have really enjoyed myself…it has been an experience of a lifetime. I wish we did not have to end it so early. I understand the seriousness of the crimes I committed and will not be offending again. Being on the project has made me a better person and I am more confident than I ever have been. I liked working with the other three people; and I have opened up to everyone. Maybe that is what I wanted just to sort myself out. I hope we can keep in contact” (Young Person, PAYP, North West) “If I come here, I’m good and stay in and don’t get into trouble. If I hang out I smoke weed, go jacking phones, start a fight, pick on shop- keepers… If I come here I stay calm.” (Young Person, Summer University, London) 3.3.8. Survey results (again recognising the limitations of the data) for these (often) ‘harder’ social inclusion outcomes (See Figure 2) tended to be slightly less positive than those for outcomes related to personal and social development. This is likely to be, in part, because a number of the young people who took part in the survey did not see some of these ‘exclusion/inclusion’ questions as relating to their experience. They would not see themselves as at risk of drug-use, truancy and school exclusion, offending behaviour or committing crime – however petty. Encouragingly though, from 34 per cent to 48 per cent reported that youth work had made a considerable difference and a relatively high proportion of young people (58 per cent) did record that youth work had enabled them better to understand people who are different from themselves. In so far as building bridging social capital is regarded a key purpose of youth work, this is encouraging.

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Figure 2 – Impact on different aspects of social inclusion

3.3.9. These findings were reinforced by a small longitudinal study of the one-week Fairbridge foundation course conducted by the Charities Evaluation Service (Astbury and Knight, 2003)25 - a rare piece of evidence showing how young people have achieved greater confidence and interpersonal skills through youth work. Over a year, 30 young people were interviewed on three occasions: before the course, a few weeks after its completion, and a year after the first interview. As well as interviewing the young people, researchers also met with staff who worked with them. The findings showed that: immediately following the course, personal and social skills increased dramatically and that this proved a reasonably reliable predictor of behavioural improvements – two out of three went on to return to education, training or employment, sort out any housing problems they had and maintain positive attitudes towards themselves and other people. However, the research also highlighted the ways in which some positive short term changes could be lost over time (and which references issues of continuity discussed elsewhere in this report). 3.3.10 In Section 1 of this report, we mentioned the difficulty of attributing these ‘consequential changes’ to youth work interventions alone, because of the many other factors at work. However, in our research, we found examples where young people as a consequence of youth work - were reported to have: made use of information, advice and counselling either face-to-face or on-line 25

Astbury, R and Knight B (2003) Fairbridge Research Project Final Report, Charities Evaluation Services

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For example, youth workers doing ‘unofficial’ case work supporting users of an interactive advice service through crises and chaotic episodes. Telephone texting and e-mail are used to give young people timely information and a wider range of choices to make. given up or seriously reduced using drugs “I used to smoke loads of cannabis and now I don’t. I offloaded lots of issues and started doing a diary. My general self is better and I’m healthier” (Young Person, Sexual Health Education Project, North) got themselves on to a college course or a training programme. “It’s been everything to me as it’s helped me find a way to get a career. College is my main focus and the After Care Service has helped me with that” (Young Person, After Care Service, North West). Almost half of those in the survey said they thought that, through their engagement with youth work, their prospects of getting work had been enhanced. Over a third said they had been helped to settle better at school or keep out of trouble with the law. (Figure 2). 3.3.11. These findings are endorsed by those of the NFER who drew on extensive databases and several sources to arrive at findings for their evaluation of the Neighbourhood Support Fund (NSF). They reported on the destinations of more than 38,500 young people who left the NSF projects over the three-year period. Two-thirds of these proceeded to positive destinations in education, employment or training. Importantly, of those who achieved this, two out of every three were in the same destination six months later. Of the remainder, 75 per cent switched to another destination and 10 per cent dropped out altogether. 3.3.12. The evaluation of street-based youth work undertaken jointly by the University of Durham and the University of Luton on behalf of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (Crimmens et al, 2004)26 provides evidence of similar outcomes, following youth work interventions. See also Annexe 5 which offers commentary on studies recently undertaken to explore the range of outcomes achieved through youth work. 3.4

Outcomes and impact for other services

3.4.1 The reviews and case studies yielded a considerable number of examples of the ways in which youth work either supplemented and added value to the service provided by another institution or actually changed the policy or practice of that institution. 3.4.2. Alternative curricula and programmes for young people, in particular in Years 10 and 11 in secondary schools, were frequently cited. In a shire county, the youth service has developed an alternative curriculum project which is aimed at those not achieving in school. It is currently working with over 90 young people in six geographical areas in the county. The 26

Crimmens D. Factor F, Jeffs T, Pitts J, Pugh C, Spence J, Turner P (2004) Reaching Socially Excluded Young People: a national study of street-based youth work Youth Work Press

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programme runs for three days each week and includes formal basic skills training with informal work by youth workers. The staffing ratio is high. The environment is less formal and more geared to the targets of the young people than school. Assessments are made of behaviour, course work, relationships with tutors and confidence levels. The young people commented that the key factor for them had been the youth workers’ approach of dealing with them as adults and on an individual basis. 3.4.3 Similar initiatives were evident in the different services visited and reviewed. It was clear that young people valued the style of learning, the choice and control they were able to exert, the secure boundaries that were established, the consistent way they were treated by staff, and the more purposeful activities through which they were able to develop both soft and harder skills. 3.4.4 Informal education of this kind has primary impact on the young people involved since they are engaged in processes that they find more conducive to learning than those experienced in school. It has consequential impact for the schools and colleges from which these young people come – since it enables the teachers and pupils who remain to proceed with less disruption to the learning process. 3.4.5. Youth workers have also been called on to help services adjust their working practices so they can make better provision for young people – another form of consequential impact In a northern city, the youth service has developed a close working relationship with the local primary care trust and jointly they provide school and community-based sexual health education to young people in areas of greatest deprivation where need is said to be most acute. Most of the work in schools is carried out with pupils in years 9, 10 and 11 and community organisations, as well as schools, are involved in the C-card scheme of condom distribution. Two nurses explained how joint work with the youth service’s sexual health team has enabled them to access young people in ways they would otherwise find difficult. One of them emphasised the benefit of joint work in reducing the isolation of the lone practitioner and she believed that her practice has been enhanced as a consequence. Since the youth worker and nurse have together been running an after-school club, referrals and takeup of the service have steadily increased, “they [the school] are just really glad that we deal with these things and they don’t have to…” 3.4.6 Local youth services are combining in various ways with other service providers to take a more holistic approach to the needs and aspirations of young people in their communities. In doing so, they are helping them meet their targets and policy objectives; and perceptions are changing about what youth work is and what youth workers can do. They are seen as valuable resources, playing a major part because their distinctive skills and insights enable them to have impact with young people where other services struggle (see also case study 3 below). 3.5

Factors contributing to outcomes and impact

3.5.1. Five main factors stood out in this research as important contributors to impact:

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youth work being embedded in the community young people having choice and control holistic approaches to working with young people youth workers mediating in the interests of young people staying in contact We are going to look at each of these in turn. Under each heading there will be discussion of a case study – drawing out the youth work approaches and themes, and indicating the links between youth work and the wider policy objectives discussed in Section 2.6 of this report. While we are using these to illustrate the contributions made by these examples to specific social policy objectives, the projects also bring more general benefits in the form of the young people’s personal and social development. (a)

Youth work being embedded in the community

3.5.2 The credibility of youth workers in young people’s eyes very often derives from being close to the community (whether defined by interest, ethnicity or locality, for example) and having insight and understanding of the young people who they work with. This insight tends to stem from either of the following: their own experience – which may have been similar in many respects to that of the young people they work with an imaginative empathy – the ability to know about the other’s situation by putting oneself in their shoes. 3.5.3 Many of the youth workers we met provided inspiring role models for the young people they worked with because they had earlier in their lives been in the same kind of high-risk situation as the young people. They had come through and eventually turned their lives around, often through starting out as a voluntary youth worker because they had been helped by the youth service and wanted ‘to give something back’. In a Positive Activities for Young People programme in the North West, the strong relationships established between the young people and staff were crucial to the success of one of the projects. It was evident that the two key workers (one was paid and the other a volunteer) had established themselves well with group members, and made positive use of their own life experiences to inform and develop their practice. During interview, the volunteer worker revealed that he openly discussed his past criminality, history of drug use and recent rehabilitation, and that such a personal perspective had informed and contributed to on-going work with group members. The worker concerned was evidently held in high regard by the young people present, and they turned readily to him for advice and guidance “I can talk to him about everything, he’s grown out of his offending behaviour. I think he’s done it and it gives me hope.” The paid worker, likewise, was honest about his past and challenged the participants in a way that was welcomed by them. In the North East, some of the youth workers who work with young people at risk of offending on a Youth Inclusion Project share their language and experience. This affords them instant credibility and a way of communicating

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openly that are essential if relationships are to be built and developed. Many are local residents familiar with the people and problems on the estates. Some worked closely with some of the young people in a project designed to build better understanding between the young people and older residents. This intergenerational conflict was fuelled by alleged demonisation of the young by some branches of the local media and fear of crime on the part of the older residents partly brought about as a consequence. Youth workers worked with a video-making unit from the local university to help both sides voice their opinions about life on the estate and in particular about crime and anti-social behaviour. There were two parts to the video – the young people’s story and the older people’s story. These groups were then brought together for discussion. As a result each formed a better understanding of the other’s perspective. This has proved a highly successful example of building social capital in its bridging form. 3.5.4 Sharing the same background as the young people can also prove crucial in areas where there is inter-racial tension. The ethnic origins of the youth workers and the links they have with the local communities also contribute to projects achieving a positive effect on the young people they are targeting. As one of the young people who had been involved in the project below expressed it “workers need to be streetwise…grown up the same way as we have and know how to speak…not a do-gooder….an average geyser who has done youth work and knows the score…”

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Case Study #1 Following the racial disturbances in Northern cities in 2001, tensions between different racial groups were also evident in other towns and cities. In one, a white teenager was assaulted and killed by four Asian young men. The youth work team, located in the city centre, set out to develop a programme designed to generate greater understanding and mutual respect between young people from different areas and from different racial backgrounds. A specific aim was to reduce the number of 'racial incidents' (fights, assaults, gang violence and so on which have racial origins). Police data indicated that 70 per cent of racial incidents occurred in the four areas which also experienced the highest levels of deprivation. To begin with, the programme responded to a request from a school in the area to help them to tackle a racially-derived gang dispute. This became known as Project Unity. Subsequently it has been extended to include the Unity Youth Crew and, in 2003, the Unity Football Club. Project Unity supports schools to resolve conflict between individuals and groups from different racial backgrounds, using conflict resolution approaches. A programme is devised in each school, using youth workers and selected teachers. Individual and group work is undertaken away from the school, and negotiated with participants. Unity Youth Crew recruits and trains young people so that they can support local youth projects and other work across the city. If they want to be recruited, young people have to apply and be interviewed. Workers encourage 'street youngsters- the movers and shakers in different areas' to be involved. 25 young people were selected. They are offered an accredited training programme, work placements and individual support by youth workers as they develop their role as 'apprentice' youth workers. Alongside its school work and Youth Crew, the project also undertakes other initiatives that engage and challenge the young people - outdoor activities, residential experiences and sports. They are all designed to promote positive racial messages to young people, in particular the view that what young people have in common is more significant than their differences

3.5.5 The threads of social cohesion within communities are easily tangled or broken. Young people from different ethnic backgrounds can begin to live the separate or 'parallel' lives that the Cantle (2003)27 report identified. With little informal social interaction, often exacerbated by localised poverty which leads to few outlets for entertainment, groups formed around perceived cultural identity can easily come to feel antagonistic towards one another – an example of bonding social capital with negative results. If one adds in the 'testosterone factor' amongst young males (as it was referred to by one of the youth workers) the potential for violent confrontation is present. This was the situation confronting one of the schools in this case study area, where serious fighting occurred between large groups of boys and young men. 'This was a feud which got out of hand' was how one young man described it. 3.5.6

The youth work response included two main dimensions: Workers of similar ethnic backgrounds to the young people went into the school, to resolve conflicts between individuals and groups.

27

Community Cohesion Unit (2003) The Report of the Independent Review Team chaired by Ted Cantle, Home Office

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The young people who had been involved were, with their agreement, taken out of the school for two days. Through mediation and conflict resolution, 'contracts' were agreed which allowed them to return to school; averting the threat of being excluded. There were outcomes at the individual level – resolving the immediate racial conflict problem. For example, one young man said: “You can see past the colours now. It's not a problem no more. Girls and boys got to know one another”. There was also more far-reaching impact. As the school's deputy head teacher observed: “It's increasing mutual tolerance and respect. The children of today are the parents of tomorrow”, thereby recognising the building of social capital as an investment in the future. It also had an impact on the perceptions of the youth service by the school. The head teacher commented, “youth workers operate in a way and use a language form that teachers would baulk at. They can do this without compromising their professionalism” She commended their intervention The second approach was to build interaction between different groups outside of the schools. Youth Crew actively involves young people in this work so that its effects become more widespread, as well as being rooted in their different backgrounds. Small multiracial teams of young people were recruited and trained, with each team supported by a worker. They help in local clubs, organise activities, make contact with other young people, and help shape the future of the overall project. Youth Crew has contributed to a much wider range of action: a football club, activities weeks, residentials and workshops. These serve to increase the recreational and social opportunities available to young people. In addition to meeting policy goals around active involvement of young people, therefore, this practice contributes to community cohesion by building bridging social capital. 3.5.7

Analysis of the project highlights a number of themes: individualisation of risk (Jeffs and Smith, 2002)28 versus social dynamics. The problem confronting schools was not seen by youth workers as one which could be approached simply through casework. Whilst each young person who was involved brought with them their own background, motivations and history, the social dynamic was seen as the key issue to work on. Individual pathology was rejected, in favour of an approach that recognised the importance of social learning and community development. The problem was seen to reside not in the young people themselves, as individuals, but in the ways in which they and their peers were susceptible to being influenced by wider social and economic forces. Youth work could begin to change the social dynamics by building the social capital of young people: creating new relationships and networks; offering activity which extends choices; and enabling young people to find ways to become involved in their communities in new ways the use of peers as youth workers – this had a number of useful outputs and outcomes: • increasing the numbers of those involved

28

Jeffs, T and Smith, M (2002) Individualisation and Youth Work, Youth and Policy, No. 76, pp 3965

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•

embedding the work within the young people's groups with which the young people identified and felt a strong attachment • legitimising the work in young people's eyes • real opportunities for substantial personal development, for those who were directly involved as peer workers a proactive approach to developing young people's voice and influence. Young people are often asked to become involved in councils or forums which mirror ‘adult’ ways of doing things and are better suited to those who are confident in formalised settings. In contrast in this project, the representative voice of young people is embedded in the design: they are involved in discussing and defining the nature of the 'problem' confronting them and in devising solutions which directly impinge upon them.. In turn, young people more generally and the wider community also benefit. For the young people, there is clear evidence of changed relationships, perceptions and behaviours as illustrated in their statements: 'I didn't mix that much with different people. They’re not that bad. I want to do more”. “We went bowling the other night and I went up to some white people and got chatting. I would never have done that before.” There is an impact on their friends, too: We tell them, it's not worth fighting” … and on their parents: “Before, (my dad) didn't want to listen. After I got involved in Unity I think he takes my views a bit more seriously” As for impact in the arena of community cohesion - the invisible social and cultural threads that connect people, here evidence is more difficult to assess. That would require a record, over time, of indicators of absence or a marked reduction in social tension - for example, racial incidents, crime perpetrated by and against young people, or school exclusions arising from racial conflict. 3.5.8. This case study illustrates the contribution of youth work to at least four of the policy outcomes discussed in Section 2: active citizenship – by encouraging young people to contribute to conflict resolution in their school and neighbourhood; thereby contributing, too to community cohesion raising the aspiration and achievements of the young people in a relatively disadvantaged part of the city; by working at different levels – the individual, the group, the institution and the community enabling/protecting – by encouraging the young people involved to think about their attitudes, behaviour and relationships, becoming more aware of risks and the consequences of their actions and thereby making it less likely they would be excluded from mainstream services and provision preventive – in so far as some of the young people were identified as being in danger or at risk and were supported through these interventions.

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(b)

Having choice and control

3.5.9 For those young people whose alienation and often a sense of failure have become deeply ingrained, rebuilding their confidence and trust is a first and critical step to any progress. Motivation is only mobilised effectively when people want to change, know what they have to do in order to change, and feel they have the means at their disposal to make the change. For young people in this situation, their will to change is contingent upon them seeing the benefits that will ensue. Case Study #2 This project forms part of provision in a local youth centre on a housing estate in a North Midlands city. Its origins lie in the attempt by the centre's youth worker to respond to the needs of local school age young people whom she found 'out and about' on the streets and around the supermarket during the school day. This was a very needy group of young people, all excluded from school, for whom formal education provision had not worked. She offered them a once a week drop-in session where they could come and cook food for themselves. A dozen or more young people began to attend, got involved in the cooking and, subsequently, the wider activities available at the centre and beyond. The success of the project in attracting and holding onto a group of young people who had either been excluded from school, or who had excluded themselves, led to recognition of its value by the local authority support service for young people with special education needs. Funding was provided to expand the project to five mornings a week. In return, the service refers to it young people aged 11 to 16 for whom it has responsibility. Young people from across the city also began to hear about the project from their friends, and began to attend. On some days as many as 35 young people are present although it formally caters for only eleven. The project is staffed by a full-time youth worker and two part-time workers. They have drawn their own friends in as volunteers. All are local to the area. In addition, as the project gained recognition, teachers have been appointed to work alongside the youth workers.

3.5.10 The history of the project has had a strong influence on its approach. Its origins lie in the initiative of a youth worker who drew local young people, gradually, into something new and as yet unformed. It was the young people’s choice to be involved. Perhaps just as critical to begin with was that this was small-scale and informal: not threatening to the young people; not 'smelling of school', not coercion. The young people could also feel a sense of their own control over the process - not in the sense of having absolute power to do whatever they liked, but free to leave, and also to influence what went on. Project workers talk of building trust and young people's involvement over time, describing the project's practice model thus: “… we recognise that when a young person first joins the project, education is probably the last thing on their mind and that attending the project is entirely voluntary. We use an empowering and holistic approach that allows young people to engage with the project and education at their own pace and at a level they feel comfortable with” 3.5.11 The local dimension was also a feature of this project. The project was situated in the neighbourhood that young people knew and from which staff and volunteers were drawn. Later, young people were drawn from a wider area, but into 58

something already known and located by their peers. Young people and subsequently their parents and carers became part of a network of social support. This was not a project which was being imposed upon them, but one which they were involved in devising. And each new step involved negotiation – for example, bringing tutors in to work with the young people. One youth worker said: “We talk and discuss. Everything is discussed. There's a lot of responsibility on the young people. If there's a fight it's resolved before we leave the building. Not tomorrow, but sorted now.” Another said that the project: “… does not fit young people into the system but helps fit the system to them.” 3.5.12 Young people who we spoke to were able to explain the range of benefits the project had brought to them: ‘It stopped me getting in to trouble … got me off the streets, made me a better person and stopped me go out pinching.' ' I'm not so violent any more ... get on better with people, don’t steal any more …' '… made me more friendly I’m staying out of trouble, less violent, don’t cause trouble any more.’ Some emphasised the benefit of ‘people helping (me) with my problems… being able to talk to the youth workers about anything. Several valued the activities and contact with others ‘I was bored when everyone else was in school and this place has helped me make new friends.’ Others identify the benefits to their education ‘I’m learning a lot better. The teachers are very kind and helpful - funny and fair - and I feel I can do the work. They help me; I enjoy the work set.' 'I can do the work. I feel better here.’ 3.5.13 At the time of our visit, the project was about to become a formal part of education provision for young people excluded from school. This development raised two important questions: Will formal education provision, which works with a very different ethos, accommodate the project's way of working? Would it be possible to retain that sense of young people, youth workers, the community and the local authority working together and of negotiating the way ahead? Youth workers were nervous about the future, apprehensive about the possibility of the voluntary principle being eroded and losing “a way [of working with young people] that the young people feel comfortable with”. 3.5.14 The youth work described in this case study makes a contribution to three of the policy objectives discussed in Section 2: raising the aspirations and achievements of young people by persuading them of the benefits of learning, particularly in the context of informal education. re-integrating them into services and systems intended for their benefit, from which they had walked away active citizenship – by bringing into the project local people with particular skills and experience to offer, thus increasing the local stock of social capital. (c)

Taking a holistic approach

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3.5.15 The next case study demonstrates youth workers operating in reflexive mode (as defined in 2.4.5.) – helping institutions to see how young people view the services and policies established for them, and using their skills in mediation and advocacy to bring about change in policy and practice.

Case Study 3 Research undertaken in a city hospital showed that many young people arrived at Accident and Emergency with symptoms of self-harm or overdose but, after the admissions procedure, did not wait to be treated. This was seen as a 'cry for help' which was going unheard. Feedback from young people was that they were being treated as 'cases' rather than as individuals. The report argued for a young person's advocate to provide them with information and support during clinical encounters so that they were able to take responsibility for their health. Discussion led to the recognition that the hospital was too heavily focussed on medical intervention, failing to take account of the other issues in young people's lives: their family situation, housing, emotional stability - and therefore, their ability or readiness to engage with medical professionals. Three youth workers now form the Hospital Youth Work Team and, after initial cynicism about what was an untried approach, this has now become an integral part of the hospital's service to young people. All young patients aged 11 upwards are contacted by youth workers. They offer support, information and activities, including taking young people out for a break, to the shops, or for a game of pool. Frequently they are involved intensively with young people who are distressed and fearful. Alongside such casework support, a central concern is to be advocates on behalf of young people, to 'de-mystify' medical language so that they can understand and be more actively involved in their own health care. The team runs training sessions with medical staff about communicating with young people, and about young people's issues and perspectives. Youth workers have made a significant difference within the hospital. “I can see the transition of the young people. They are healthier; they are taking responsibility for themselves; they are empowered; they are able to vocalise their views; elements of contentment/satisfaction in their lives – you can see that in the way they engage with professionals”. (Member of Hospital Staff)

3.5.16 This is an example of health service and youth work objectives combining well. A key issue for the hospital is the young person's health, and their compliance with their treatment, with medical staff becoming concerned, and in some instances impatient, with the young people’s reluctance to comply. It is in this context that the young people talked about being 'treated as children'. Youth workers reported that they begin from a different place: they do not pre-judge but give validity to and allows young people's distinctive voices to be heard. Critically, these are young people first, not patients or clients. Conversation with, liking for and a concern for their well-being as rounded individuals people are the youth worker's starting points. Once these are attended to and the young people feel more secure and confident, their medical needs can begin to be met. 3.5.17 The way in which the young person leaves hospital had not been explored before. Their medical needs would be accounted for – they knew when to come back

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for their next appointment and / or what to do with their medication. But the social needs were not considered (for example, the environment to which s/he was returning); nor did the nurses have, or make, time to consider the holistic needs of the young person. 3.5.18 Relations between medical staff and young patients had tended to be hostile to dialogue and reciprocity. The young people’s age and lack of knowledge and experience reinforced their relatively powerless position. In the hospital environment, patients can be isolated from any support networks in their lives outside. Yet these young people did not leave at the door of the casualty department any of the social issues which may have contributed to their situation. Expecting young people to 'take responsibility for their own health' was unrealistic when their identity and their position as part of social networks were barely recognised. Little attention tended to be paid to who they were - beyond a set of medical symptoms. 3.5.19 Youth workers have bridged the gap between young people and medical staff by both: helping the young people to understand their medical condition; consider and negotiate their treatment options; and manage their illnesses, both when they are in the hospital, and subsequently. All of these are seen in the context of their social and family circumstances trying to moderate the behaviour and processes of the institution by encouraging medical staff to become more aware of the personal and social factors that lie behind the medical condition. Clinical staff are beginning to make use of some of the methods of working with young people modelled by the youth workers: in particular, enabling young people to learn at their own pace, and treating the young person as a young adult and not as a child. Medical staff reported that the practice was “moving from telling the young person towards enabling the young person” 3.5.20. Often, when asked what their relationship with youth workers meant to them, young people said to us: “They don't tell you what to do, they listen and respect you”. As a result, they said, they feel that they are somebody with an opinion worth hearing, with experience to be valued, and with needs, interests and aspirations to be taken seriously. Such young people begin to 'take responsibility' for themselves, because they can now make informed choices. They can therefore begin to take greater responsibility for their own health. 3.5.21. The youth work here contributes to the social policy objectives outlined in Section 2 and wider health policy by protecting young people from further harm and enabling them to take greater responsibility and control over their treatment. preventing these young people from further risks re-integrating those who have been excluded from services and networks. (d)

Mediating in the interests of young people

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3.5.22 The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 saw a major refocusing of youth justice away from 'keeping young people out of care and custody’ to ‘community safety'. (Jordan, 2000)29 This approach emphasises: localised planning co-ordination of tough measures such as curfews for children under 10 in 'hotspots' where there is a high incidence of what is referred to as anti-social behaviour localised negotiation and mediation to reduce tension and conflict. 3.5.23 The next case study shows what happened when a local authority sought to protect a public space in the interests of the adult population, at the expense of the young people who had made the space their own. Case Study 4 Councillors in a Midlands city passed a new bylaw prohibiting skating around the civic centre, a favourite place for young people with skateboards and skates. Young people's activities were unpopular with local adults who preferred to use the piazza as a sitting area. From their point of view, they were a danger and a nuisance. The police were keen not to enforce the bylaw without an alternative place for young people to go. After discussion between different council departments, detached youth workers were asked to engage with skateboarders in an attempt to divert them towards the skateboard areas then being designed and built around the city. Over time, workers built relationships with a group of skateboarders who were encouraged to make their views known to the council. This seemed to transform the problem in the eyes of council members and officials so that, rather than simply being seen as diverting young people away from street activity, it became seen as a project to consult them and enable the council to respond more sensitively and effectively. As a result the council understood that 'herding' young people into skate parks would not work: they would simply stay away since they felt that street skating was more interesting. Skate park designs, which young people began to feel that they now 'owned', were changed alongside the council's own perceptions. As a result of this intervention, a database of some 500 young people across the city has been created, so that they can be contacted and consulted through a website. Of more importance perhaps, youth workers recognised that many of the young people skateboarding in the city centre were quite vulnerable - particularly in respect of their health, education, and crime. For example, it was recognised how many young people were becoming involved in crime through very minor offences which could then lead onto more serious ones. These could be avoided through sensitive intervention. Workers have also responded by setting up peer education projects, health events, DJ initiatives; and by working with local projects to which young people could be referred. They report that young people themselves now feel that they can have an influence over local services.

3.5.24. This example illustrates the conflicting positions of young people and the local adult population. The bye-law was introduced by a council concerned about community safety but it could not be reinforced without a measure of consent or some 29

Jordan, B (2000) Social Work and the Third Way: tough love as social policy, London, Sage

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viable alternative provision being made. Youth workers were called upon to try and resolve the impasse. 3.5.25 Before the intervention, young people were seen as a cause of nuisance by adults - who took it upon themselves, on behalf of local citizens, to regulate their behaviour, and provide an alternative outlet which they (adults) believed to be 'suitable'. This kind of action by adults was experienced by young people as authoritarian because it was taken without due consultation among those directly affected. However, there was an opportunity, within this action-reaction equation, which could be exploited. Young people were offered the chance to gain a collective voice where previously, if they were heard at all, it was likely to be as children. In gaining a voice, they learn not only how to influence adult-led institutions, but that there is benefit for them in doing so. And, at the same time, those institutions also begin to learn about young people's perspectives - and that it is worthwhile to hear them. 3.5.26. For youth workers to work effectively in this situation, they had to adopt a young person’s perspective on the problem, rather than accept an adult-led account of it. Instead, youth workers gained young people's trust by listening, being concerned for and valuing their world so that young people could feel that their opinions counted. The original plans for the skate parks had too much ‘vert’ (a technical term that refers to the height of ramps for users of BMX bikes) and too few features that attracted skateboarders. The youth workers had canvassed young people’s views and with them made representation to the planners. Now a youth shelter is being planned and the architects are involving the young people in its design. The youth workers combined authority with street credibility, challenge with empathy. That enabled young people to gain power and influence over a situation which, previously, disallowed any legitimate means of influence. In describing what youth workers did in advocating for young people and mediating between them and adult institutions, one police officer said: “I know I can talk to these guys and together we can do something. They have the ability to access young people (in ways we can't because our uniforms act as a barrier) and translate what they say into adult words acceptable to bureaucrats.” 3.5.27. The original prompt for this youth work was a concern for community safety and potential crime and disorder. However (relating the work to the social policy objectives discussed in Section 2 again) as the youth workers got to know the young people it became clear that: the project was making an important contribution to their protection; it was also preventing / diverting them from becoming at even greater risk of marginalisation it helped to strengthen active citizenship among the young by giving young people a voice that influenced the provision of facilities for other young people in the city. (e) Staying in contact

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3.5.28. During the visits to local youth services and case study projects we were told by youth workers and by young people that sustained and intensive contact with young people was likely to contribute significantly to the impact of youth work. 3.5.29. One of the projects where the young people testified most persuasively to the impact of continuing contact youth workers was an after care service in the northwest. While this is an unusual example because of the long-term and intensive relationship between youth workers and young people (some young people had been involved in the project for as much as four years), it affords an insight into the ways in which the youth work relationship evolves and the importance not only of the frequency /intensity and length of contact, but also the capacity of youth work to adapt to changing needs over time. Case study #5 The provision derives from a new policy, heralded by the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 which places a new responsibility on local authorities to support young people leaving care until they are 21 (or 24 if in education). In this particular county this duty is secured through the provision of a service, jointly funded by the social services and youth and community service, which assigns each of the 269 eligible young people to a personal adviser who helps in the creation, implementation and review of each Pathway Plan. The after care workers are youth workers and deployed in teams to work with a caseload, each worker having about 20 to support. Contact is frequent, weekly or every fortnight over two, three or four years. As far as the young people are concerned, the youth workers are characterised by approachability and accessibility. The youth work here clearly mirrors the field of social welfare interventions and the Connexions Personal Adviser (PA) role. Workers visit the young people in their homes or meet at a place chosen by the young person. There is no sense of this being a 9-5 service and no matter is off-limits. The workers provide practical support – dealing with landlords, utilities providers, colleges, with budgeting and finance. The service also includes social activities and residential programmes so the young people can have social contact with each other in an informal setting, share experiences and provide mutual support. Youth workers explain that what is important is what they do in the relationships they form with the young people. What they referred to as the ‘youth work tool bag’ is important: the skills involved in building and sustaining relationships predicated on liking young people and being prepared to challenge and support them; having networks to plug the young people into – colleges, Connexions, housing associations and so on. And the success of the interventions is confirmed by the kind of outcomes for young people that public policy is seeking, such as participation and achievement in education and training. “It’s been everything to me as it’s helped me find a way to get a career. College is my main focus and the ACS has helped me with that. The computer, the money for trips and clothes and bags, the driving lessons – I don’t feel stressed anymore because I’ve got the resources and books at home. I was going to quit last year as I didn’t have the facilities. I had to stay behind to 9pm to use the computers. Now I‘ve got a student award for my motivation! Friends at college say I’m more relaxed and happier. Tutors are thrilled and say I’m a different person like I’ve turned my life round. I’ve tried harder, I’m motivated and I’ve got an incentive”.

3.5.30. One of the interesting aspects of this project is the nature of the relationship between the young people and the youth workers is not entirely voluntary. Unusually 64

for youth workers, the staff are carrying out a statutory responsibility and are required to ensure that each young person has and follows an individual Pathway plan. About 5 per cent of the young people are unwilling to get involved. Despite this sense of obligation, it is clear that the young people value the support and challenge they receive. The purpose is clearly to help vulnerable young adults cope with life as independently as they can, after years of being looked after in homes where they have had to do little for themselves. This is a highly intensive programme in learning life skills – for real. The youth workers articulate clearly the principles of core youth work “the approach and starting point is one of empowering young people – of starting where the young person is and moving forward from there…….” “of working alongside young people and helping them identify their own agenda, their own needs and their way forward” 3.5.31. In practice, this means a fundamentally enabling approach in which the youth worker asks the young person what they want to do and how best they think they can achieve it, marking out the practical help and moral support they might need on the way. In the process, the intention is that the young person will begin to recognise the blocks to their progress: some put in place by the services intended to provide for them, and some by the young people themselves. The youth workers try to help the young people deepen their insight and understanding of themselves by building into the relationship opportunities for reflection. The young people seem to recognise this. “I’ve changed because they [After Care Workers] faced me with it. I used to ring up and shout down the phone. I can’t expect everyone else to do it. I now take time and wait. They said you’re old enough to do it yourself. They said they were going to put the phone down and for me to ring back when I’d calmed down. I’ve stopped taking drugs – I’ve been clean for two years. I really messed up. You press the self-destruct button because although you think it’ll be loads of fun when you get your own flat at 16, that’s a load of crap. When the door shuts and you’re on your own, it’s the loneliest feeling ever. You start going down a path you can’t see a way out. I had big phases of drugs and drinking and I wouldn’t be able to tell you my own name. I did overdoses too…she [the worker] gives supportive help to get back on my feet. She finds a way to help. She does it by spending time with you talking about things that matter and things that don’t matter. They help you feel better about yourself.” 3.5.32. One manager reflected that a different approach to outcomes is needed for young people who have fractured and fluid lives. What may appear to be good news one week may fall apart the next. Achievements such as retaining a tenancy, holding on to a college place and securing a qualification, keeping a job, staying in a relationship tend to be transitory. They can still be noted but change from day to day and week to week. More significant may be more subtle indicators of achievement and success such as: keeping an appointment, sorting out housing benefit, dealing with letters from officials rather than throwing them away. These may be important outcomes for these young people and a pointer to developing maturity and independence. 'I've been making up for lost time - doing all the activities and stuff I weren't doing when I was younger … and the talking! It's brought me out of my shell, talking to others. It's helped me grow up a lot.' 65

'The ACW got me into college - I first went to Hair and Beauty with a friend but there was too much writing. The ACW pointed me in a different direction … it's helped a lot. 'I'm talking in groups … I've made friends (and they say) I've come out of my shell and got a lot more confidence in myself.' To return to an earlier discussion, these are outcomes of enormous importance to the young people but often difficult for them to achieve. They are necessary precursors of some of those outcomes that can be expressed in terms of numbers and are easier to measure: the outcomes that tend to be favoured by funders and policy-makers, because they can be counted and compared. 3.5.33. This project works with some of the most vulnerable young people who are prone to underachieve, become involved in abusive relationships, homelessness, drug abuse and other forms of risky behaviour. Its value lies in the long-term contact and support that the youth workers offer the young people who typically take years to become confident and independent. One of the striking features of the project is the ability of the youth workers to adopt different roles as the circumstances and needs of each individual, changing over time, dictate (see 3.1.3). 3.5.34. The project makes a significant contribution to social policy objectives in Section 2 through prevention and diversion from further risk; helping the young people re-integrate into education, housing and other personal social services designed to encourage autonomy and achievement. the networking and mutual support they give each other also suggests they are adding to the social capital of the community and playing their part as active citizens. 3.6

Factors limiting impact

3.6.1. The impact of youth work is influenced by some factors over which it has no control and others over which it has more. These factors fall into three main groups: Social, community and institutional factors Skills, development and support of staff Funding regimes. (a) Social, community and institutional factors 3.6.2. This group of factors falls into the category of those beyond the control of youth work and the youth service, but which effective youth workers attempt to address when they are seeking to bring about wider changes in young people’s lives. 3.6.3. When youth workers and their managers were asked what they thought most impaired the outcomes and impact they seek to achieve, a common response was the influences of home and community. We were told that many of those young people at risk of exclusion or living on the margins of mainstream society and services may: live in dysfunctional families. For example, one detached youth worker reported that, on one of the estates where he worked, there was a culture of families drinking heavily at week-ends and not supporting their children’s 66

attendance at school in the week. In another youth work project youth workers reported that parents continued to treat their children (with disabilities and learning difficulties) as highly dependent, even though their experience in the project had equipped them with a confidence and autonomy they had been unaccustomed to. The young people had taken on responsibilities and begun to express themselves on a whole range of matters – including their sexuality – that some parents found hard to come to terms with have been in some form of care provision that does not work for them – for example, many young people spoke of foster arrangements breaking down, or of the poor relationships they had experienced in residential care provision find that the peer culture of the street can chip away at any determination a young person has made to keep out of trouble when they return after a programme, project or residential away. The evaluation of the Fairbridge residential programmes confirmed that young people do not sustain indefinitely the development of the interpersonal skills they had built up while away on the programme. Effective youth work projects, therefore, recognise the importance of working alongside families and communities to support change and development in young people. 3.6.4. Schools are arguably the most important institution in young people’s lives. There were a number of cases in which schools inadvertently lessened the impact that youth work could have had. Some of this is to do with the institutional culture and some to do with their missing of opportunities to optimise the youth work contribution 3.6.5. It is clear that difficulty in conforming to the routines and regimes of school life is something shared by many of the young people who had been assigned to alternative curriculum projects led by youth workers. If the aim of these projects is to help young people re-integrate into formal education, then some of the institutional procedures and systems within schools may need to be adjusted to take account of their needs. Many young people on these schemes reported that they did not like school – either because they were regularly shouted at by teachers or because they found the bullying and playground culture they had experienced hard to deal with. Wherever the balance of responsibility, it seems probable that sustained re-integration is more likely when some ‘institutional accommodation’ takes place. The focus on the interests of the majority means that it is perhaps difficult for schools to adapt mainstream procedures to meet the needs of young people at risk. This is a tension to which we return in Section 9. 3.6.6. At the same time, opportunities are sometimes missed and the potential for impact sometimes not realised. It is not unusual for a number of good initiatives to remain as a single session within a school timetable or one-off interventions at partnership level. In one school, for example, youth workers were called in to provide information and advice about drugs as part of the personal, social and health education curriculum. The sessions were clearly valued, as indicated in this comment from the deputy head teacher,

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“It benefits us greatly that they are not the same old classroom team. They are young and dynamic and closer to the experience of the real world. They can be on the same level as the kids and they don’t preach. They have good resources. Their information is punchy and they move quickly. They mix humour and information skilfully and our pupils respond eagerly and ask for more.” However, they were unable to take further advantage of the youth service’s carefully constructed programme because they only had time for one slot on the timetable for a whole year group. 3.6.7. On other occasions we came across initiatives that remained at the level of bilateral agreements between a particular school and a particular youth centre or project; where painstaking groundwork was undertaken by a single youth worker and perhaps one or two teachers in a particular school which, while making a demonstrable difference to the young people who took part, was not taken further. There would have been more value in seeing such partnerships as a prototype, carefully evaluating the impact, adapting the model to be more effective, then scaling up the service and replicating it across schools so that impact could be more pervasive. We would suggest that such instances point to inadequate strategic planning and management between schools and youth services despite the development of some operational partnerships between them. (b)

Skills, development and support of staff

3.6.8. Reluctance on the part of youth workers to describe and explain how they can convert activities into learning for young people can be a serious constraint on the impact of their work. Impact is also impaired when youth workers do not seize opportunities to undertake group work based on sound theoretical foundations on how people can learn through group processes. We frequently encountered youth workers with groups of young people but rarely did we find them using the group as a means of social learning30. There were exceptions. For example, In a project in inner London, aimed at gay and lesbian young people, the young men were confident about exploring their sexuality – helped by the group work skills of the youth worker and the approach or accepted conventions of the project which include: carefully planned structured time voluntary attendance for the structured but acceptance of the ground rules if they choose to participate beginning the structured part of the programme with a twenty minute session, sitting in a circle, in which young people and the workers talk about a topic (chosen by one of the young people) for two or three minutes each, always starting with their name, age and star sign. This strongly encouraged participation, making sure everyone is heard and really focusing the next part of the programme, whatever it happens to be. 3.6.9. For youth work to have maximum impact, youth workers have to be well managed and supported. They need to: 30

Learning about oneself and one’s relationships with other people and the wider world.

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be clear about what they are aiming to achieve be able to plan how to get there and monitor progress towards objectives develop the skills to achieve it – through professional support, training and development opportunities; through discussion with more experienced, qualified staff about the experiences and challenges they are facing and how these can be most effectively handled. 3.6.10. We address the adequacy of training and management support more in Section 7. For now it is sufficient simply to highlight that the potential impact of youth work can be seriously weakened when front line staff are inadequately supervised and trained. (c)

Effects of funding regimes on retaining and training staff

3.6.11. Outcomes and impact are most easily achieved when provision is resourced sufficiently for the staff to feel the work is sustainable. In six of the projects we visited, managers and workers reported concerns about levels and stability of external funding. The insecurity associated with short-term funding puts pressure on staff. In any project it takes from six to twelve months to get a measure of what the job requires. If funding is limited to two or three years, project staff have to begin looking for renewed sources of funds well before the end. This gives them at most a year to operate with a reasonable level of confidence and security. 3.6.12. The research and report on street-based youth work supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (Crimmens et al, 2004) points out similar flaws with short-term project funding and reports that small voluntary organisations protect themselves against cash flow problems by keeping staff on short-term, temporary contracts. These are not good conditions for building stable relationships with young people and sustainable futures for the work. It is to the vagaries of funding youth work that we now turn, in Section 4. 3.7.

Summary Through a focus on personal and social development, the roles and relationships youth workers develop help to foster young people’s inclusion and to create social capital in communities. In so doing, youth work contributes to the broad range of social policy objectives outlined in Section 2. The testimony of the young people and the series of case studies highlight the range of impacts of youth work on young people, their communities and other services. Impact is enhanced when • youth work is embedded in local communities • choice and control are vested in young people • an integrated approach is taken that considers young people and their potential in the round rather than as a collection of symptoms requiring different and often uncoordinated service responses • youth workers mediate between young people and their families on the one hand and various institutions and services on the other 69

•

interventions, relationships and support are sustained over a reasonable time period. Impact is constrained when: • mitigated by social, community and institutional factors over which youth work has little control • youth workers lack the skills, confidence, support and opportunities to help them develop professional insights and skills; build theories about what works and testing these out, in a well-planned way, in practice; share ideas and experiences to develop the professional base • resources are limited and short term

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Section 4: Resources for youth work In this section we explain how local youth services are funded and indicate how the funding is characterised by variability – between different regions and between different types of authority. We suggest that this indicates a weakness at local level in directing resources towards need. We point out the problem of staffing capacity in many youth services and how they are responding. Finally, we seek to identify the volume and value of the voluntary contribution in local youth work. In doing so, we draw on the most recent data made available at the time of this research (collected for the financial year 2001-2) through the national audit of funding and resources of local youth services undertaken annually by The National Youth Agency 4.1 The Funding of Local Authority Youth Services 4.1.1. Local authority youth services have been funded principally through two routes: the Standard Spending Assessment (SSA) and its replacement, the Education Formula Spending (EFS). 4.1.2. SSA: Until 2002-03, central government made resources potentially available to local authorities for youth services as part of the Standard Spending Assessment (SSA). These resources were within a block entitled Other Education Services, which also included items such as student awards, transport for pupils with special educational needs and others. The block did not contain a ‘hypothecated’ (ringfenced) amount for youth services. This was a notional allocation that some local authorities used in setting the budget for their youth services, hence the reference to resources being ‘potentially’ available 4.1.3. EFS: For 2003-04 onwards, the SSA has been replaced by the Education Formula Spending (EFS). The EFS contains a Youth and Community sub-block, which in 2003/4 represented £513 million of potential resource (combining central and local government funding). The Youth Service is just one of several services and programmes supported through the Youth and Community sub-block, and as with the SSA arrangements, none of the funding blocks are hypothecated 4.1.4. Both the SSA and the EFS are calculated on the basis of a combination of demographic factors and weightings for additional needs and deprivation factors in each local authority 4.1.5. There are two main sources of data for assessing the resources available to youth services: The Section 52 (S52) budget data compiled by the DfES The National Youth Agency (NYA) audit data Section 52 (S52) has been developed by officials in the Department for Education and Skills to support financial reporting of planned expenditure (budget) and actual expenditure (outturn) on the local authority youth service. The S52 budget data for 2003-04 identified that local authorities planned to spend £343 million on youth services using potential resources from the EFS, that is 65 per cent of the potential resources available through the sub-block. In so far as one part of S52 data are a

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record of the actual outturn expenditure they also provide a record of the total cost of providing local youth services and: include what are sometimes referred to as ‘Town Hall costs’ – costs and charges allocated to youth service budgets for central or support charges (as deemed to be incurred by the youth service infrastructure); may also include other local authority provision for young people, which is not part of the youth service budget. The position is further complicated because local authorities observe different practices in calculating and allocating Town Hall costs. This makes it difficult to use the S52 data as a basis for making comparisons between different local authority youth services. 4.1.6. The NYA audit data are collected annually by the National Youth Agency and are a measure of what principal youth officers have available to them and which they spend on delivering youth work. The audit data: • are a measure of the operational budget available to provide youth work for young people • exclude the Town Hall costs • exclude other local authority provision made for young people which is not part of the youth service budget. Many of the issues of comparability associated with the S52 also apply to the NYA audit data, although they may be of a different kind – for example, local authorities may determine which activities are contained within youth services in different ways. 4.1.7. The NYA data offer a closer indication of the cost of delivering youth work through the youth service to young people, whilst the S52 data are closer to a measure of the overall costs to central and local government of supporting local authority youth work in England. Given that the S52 data only became available to us in the last stages of drafting this report, we draw largely on NYA audit data to explore the resourcing of youth services (outturn data from the NYA annual audit collected for the financial year 2001-2). 4.1.8. It is clearly difficult to derive detailed conclusions about resources for youth services and the ways they are used because of (a) data constraints – linked to the differences between local authorities in the way they calculate and report costs, define youth work, and lever in and account for additional resources (b) the potential for services to use resources with varying levels of efficiency and effectiveness. Nevertheless, with these qualifications in mind we set out below some broad patterns concerning resources and the likely implications for impact, based on the NYA audit data. These concern principally the: variability of funding stability of funding staffing capacity voluntary sector contribution.

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4.2

Variability of funding

4.2.1. Variability refers to the extent to which different authorities fund the youth service at different levels. The level of funding will be one determinant of the extent to which different authorities are able to achieve impact by responding to policy goals. 4.2.2. If each local youth service is to make the same contribution to policy we would expect the distribution of funds to youth services by local authorities in the same Ofsted statistical families (defined as similar to each other in terms of levels of need and risk) to be comparable. However, the evidence points to considerable variability in the resource allocation practices of local authorities (and in turn the potential for local youth services to deliver) even where they share broadly similar and comparable levels of need. We measure this in two ways by looking at: (a) actual youth service expenditure (using National Youth Agency 2001-02 audit data records) as a proportion of the resources potentially made available through the SSA (Other Education Services). (b) per capita youth service expenditure on young people aged 13-19 in local population, again making similar comparisons between local authorities. (a) Proportion of SSA spent on Youth Service 4.2.3. Across all local authorities, the proportion of SSA potentially made available for youth services in 2001-2 was 58.7 per cent of the total sum available under Other Education Services based on the NYA audit data for the period in question. That not all the Other Education Services SSA strand was spent on youth services is of course not surprising – as we noted above, this block covered a number of services and programmes. The point we are making concerns the variation in proportions of SSA (Other Education Services) spent by local authorities on youth services. Table 1 shows that youth service net expenditure in about one third of local authorities was between 25 and 50 per cent of the resources potentially made available through the SSA; a further 43 per cent allocated between 50 and 75 per cent and in nearly a quarter of authorities expenditure amounted to between 75 and 100 per cent. Table 1 Youth Service net expenditure as a proportion of SSA 2001-2002 Number and Percentage of Authorities in each range (n=143) 0 to 25% of SSA

25.1 to 50% of SSA 11 (33%)

50.1 to 75% of SSA 12 (37%)

75.1 to 100% of SSA 10 (30%)

100% + of SSA

8 (23%)

19 (56%)

6 (18%)

1 (3%)

10 (22%)

20 (43%)

15 (33%)

12 (63%)

7 (37%)

1 (9%)

4 (36%)

4 (36%)

2 (18%)

2 (1%)

45 (32%)

62 (43%)

33 (23%)

County Councils Metropolitan districts Unitary authorities Outer London Boroughs Inner London Boroughs England

1 (2%)

(Source: Annual Audit 2001-2, The National Youth Agency)

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1 (1%)

Given that SSA is weighted for need and deprivation factors, the proportion of SSA spent by local authority youth services is one important indicator of their capacity to provide such services - and, by implication, to contribute to youth policy priorities. Setting aside other factors, wide variation in that proportion, as indicated in these data, suggests differing capacities to make similar levels of provision available to young people. (b) Per capita Expenditure on Young People 4.2.4. Table 2 (and Tables 1 and 2 in Annexe 7) show that about a quarter of local authorities spent between £25 and £50 per young person, half the authorities spent between £50 and £75 and the remainder spent over £75 per head. There are conspicuous variations by type of authority and by region. The shire counties are clustered towards the lower spending levels, the remaining types of authority tended to be higher, especially those in inner London. The picture is reflected in the regional expenditures, with local youth services in London appearing to have high levels of per capita spending, and those in some regions, especially the Northern region, being significantly lower. Where the proportion of SSA directed towards youth work is low, this invariably gives rise to low per capita expenditure. Table 2 Youth Service per capita expenditure 2001-2002 (Type of Authority and Region) England

£62

Region

Type of authority

Northern Eastern Southern South West West Midlands

£48 £50 £53 £58 £59

East Midlands North West Yorkshire and Humber London

£64 £66 £70 £81

County Council Outer London Borough Metropolitan District Unitary Inner London Borough

£53 £59 £65 £66 £129

(Source: Annual Audit 2001-2, The National Youth Agency)

4.2.5. NYA audit data calculations show typical ratios of 2:1 or 3:1 between the highest and lowest per capita expenditures of different authorities within OFSTED statistical families. We recognise: (a) the limits of the comparison because of the doubtful accuracy of – and, therefore, the meaning that can be attached to – the data; and the lack of attention given to the efficient use of expenditure;

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(b) that the variability revealed is (justifiably) at least partly the product of local democratic processes. Nevertheless, we suggest that such broad level variability indicates that the resources made available to local youth services, through local authority budget allocation processes, are not consistently related to levels of need or risk in the local youth population. It follows that local services are unlikely to be able to respond to need or risk in their youth population to an equivalent extent and therefore will not be able to make an equivalent contribution to policy goals. 4.2.6. If efficiency is taken into account, for lower spenders to make an equivalent contribution to policy goals as the higher spending local authorities, they would need to be up to three times more efficient. It seems highly improbable that variations in efficiency would be of that order. 4.3

Stability of funding

4.3.1. Youth services need a reasonable degree of stability in their funding, if they are to plan for continuing and consistent provision that meets the needs of young people and allows for an effective, considered response to policy priorities. 4.3.2. The time period for which there is comparable data is only three years (because of the reorganisation of local authorities that went on until 1998). This is too short a period to create a reliable stability index or to relate stability and instability of funding to levels of expenditure. However, significant levels of change were found, in short time frames, indicating unstable funding. In some years, there were conspicuous divergences of funding patterns, within the service as a whole – with a significant proportion reducing their spend while others were increasing it. 4.3.3. Table 3 shows that in recent years about 60 per cent of local authorities have increased their real operational expenditure on the youth service and about 40 per cent have reduced it. At the extremes about 30 per cent have increased expenditure by more than 10 per cent, and nearly a quarter have reduced it by the same proportion. Evidence seen in longer term data supplied to DfES shows that historically there has been considerable instability in youth service expenditure over many years. Many local authorities have varied their expenditure relatively sharply up and down on an annual basis. Most recently, S52 data hints at increasing stability in funding year on year though there is a need to monitor this over time before drawing conclusions about longer term trends.

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Table 3 Stability: Percentage change in Youth Service net expenditure 1999-2001 (n=139)

41

Increased 5% to 0% to 9.9% 4.9% 16 25

0% to 4.9% 15

Decreased 5% to 10% + 9.9% 11 31

30

11

11

8

10% + Number of local authorities Proportion of local authorities %

18

22

(Source: Annual Audit 2001-2, The National Youth Agency)

4.3.4. Given the variability and instability in youth service funding over the time for which consistent data is available, it is likely that there will be significant variations in the level of provision and the extent to which services can contribute to policy goals. 4.3.5. We would suggest that the variability described above and apparent historical instability also outlined is probably best accounted for by the allocation decisions of local authorities, given the relative stability in SSA and youth populations. This contrasts with another service we examined for comparative purposes. Adult learning is also a local authority service with a weak statutory base. Until recently, nonaccredited adult and community learning was funded through the SSA in the same way as youth work, with decisions about the proportion allocated to the service being left to the local authority. However, since 2001, new arrangements have been put in place with the funds being passed on to the local Learning and Skills Councils and stabilised through a ‘funding guarantee’. The results of this survey are contained within a short report attached as Annexe 6 and are summarised below. 4.3.6. Telephone interviews with managers of ten local authority adult and community learning services highlighted some of positive implications for service delivery of a more stable funding environment, compared with previous experience under the SSA funding model. The managers reported that stable funding had: enabled them to review and deploy resources more strategically and encouraged risk-taking (for example, being prepared to invest resources in areas that required long-term commitment to achieve discernible outcomes); allowed the services to build more enduring partnerships, especially with the voluntary and community sector; brought improvements to infrastructure, such as new posts to strengthen management, longer-term contracts for part-time staff and enhanced quality assurance arrangements.

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4.4

Additional funding

4.4.1. Some youth work services are secured for young people in need, or at risk, when local authorities are successful in levering in additional resources from funding streams other than SSA/EFS and local taxation. Key sources include: the European Union (EU) the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) the Youth Justice Board (YJB) Connexions, for example the Positive Activities for Young People (PAYP) programme 4.4.2. Table 4 shows that metropolitan districts tend to derive a greater proportion of their youth work expenditure from these additional sources (30 per cent), which arguably reflects higher levels of deprivation and access to European and SRB funding streams. The low figure for inner London boroughs may arise because they do not attract European grants to the same extent as other metropolitan districts. The requirements of these funding sources dictate that a clear rationale/strategy be offered to secure funding which would incorporate some assessment of local need. Such programmes can represent a significant proportion of local youth service expenditure. Table 4 Youth service expenditure Proportion of expenditure additional to net expenditure 2001-2 England

County Councils

23%

21%

Metropolitan Districts 30%

Unitary Authorities

Outer London

Inner London

21%

20%

15%

(Source: Annual Audit 2001-2, The National Youth Agency)

4.5

Staffing Capacity

4.5.1 Staffing capacity refers to the total human resources available to youth services for the delivery of services to young people. In both the reviews and local youth service plans, problems of capacity were reported in many youth services, linked to insufficient resources (numbers of staff, recruitment of appropriately qualified youth workers, training and development opportunities to meet demands on the service). A commonly heard refrain during the review and case study visits was “We have a capacity issue here”. 4.5.2. While there is no commonly agreed standard against which to assess capacity, there are two useful indicators

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the NYA Youth Service Standard 15 in REYS of one full-time equivalent qualified youth worker per 400 of 13-19 youth population which youth services are expected to aspire to expenditure on in-service training (assuming a positive relationship between levels of staff training and capacity to offer youth work). 4.5.3. With regard to the REYS Standard 15, Table 5 shows that of the nine regions, only Yorkshire and the Humber comes close to this standard with a ratio of 493 young people to each full time equivalent delivery staff (although it is not known whether these are qualified or not). Across the nine regions, the range is from 493 to 860 (Eastern) with the mean being 680. Table 5 also shows that by type of local authority the inner London boroughs come closest to the NYA REYS standard with a ratio of 522 of the 13-19 population to one full-time equivalent qualified youth worker, reflecting perhaps the relatively high expenditure in those local services identified previously. Table 5 Number of young people aged 13-19 per FTE delivery staff: 2001-2 (England, Regions, and Types of Authority) England Region Yorkshire and Humber

680

Northern

593

North West Southern East Midlands

628 664 705

West Midlands South West London Eastern

717 722 746 860

Type of authority Inner London Borough Metropolitan District Unitary County Council Outer London Borough

493

522 601 669 719 864

(Source: Annual Audit 2001-2, The National Youth Agency)

4.5.4. The broad picture of expenditure on in-service training, even allowing for limitations in the data, is rather discouraging. The NYA REYS standard for in-service education and training (INSET) was originally 5 per cent of the youth service budget although this has since been modified to a range of between 2 per cent and 5 per cent of the staffing budget, including corporate funds spent on training. Taking the original standard of 5 per cent, the figures for 2001-2 (see Tables 3 and 4 in Annexe 7) show that only 6.3 per cent of shire counties and 2.3 per cent of unitary authorities spent 5 per cent or more on INSET. In inner London over half the boroughs spent less than 1 per cent on INSET as did a quarter of the outer London boroughs and metropolitan districts. More recent data supplied by the DfES from the S52 data for 2003-4 shows that of the fifteen local services which took part in the reviews the proportion of running costs spent on INSET range from 0.02 per cent to 2.1 per cent with 60 per cent of them spending less than 1 per cent. 78

4.6

Factors influencing capacity

(a) Local authority employed youth workers 4.6.1. At the time of the reviews, most local authorities were having serious difficulties recruiting and deploying enough staff with sufficient skills, qualifications and experience. There are two immediate reasons: the pull of other services such as Connexions, the Youth Offending Service and learning mentors in schools, which offer fresh opportunities for working intensively with young people and enhanced terms and conditions of service (for example, less unsocial hours) a perceived under-investment in the training and professional development of youth workers, also illustrated in the NYA audit data. 4.6.2 Recent additional funding through the Transforming Youth Work Development Fund (TYWDF) has improved the picture slightly (especially in relation to training part-time staff) while some local youth services have developed some innovative means of addressing recruitment, retention and development. For example: some have created apprenticeships or traineeships whereby young adults from within local communities are trained as youth workers ‘on the job’ An increasing number are reviewing the contracts given to part-time youth workers who often form the mainstay of front-line delivery of youth work. The trend is to aggregate the hours of some part-time staff into more substantial contracts – in other words, employing fewer staff, each working more hours – with two main benefits: • they can have more sustained contact with young people, enhancing the potential for impact • their work can be more effectively supervised, supported and managed – for example, training and development is more cost-effective There is a trend, in some services, towards recruiting part-time staff who are not youth work trained but who have specialist skills to offer (for example in different forms of music or digital arts). They help to mitigate the effects of under-capacity and also enhance the range and quality of opportunities available to service users. Some local authorities have raised the profile of youth work by organising special recruitment events and campaigns designed to encourage local people to get involved. These initiatives taken at local level may well be of interest to the strategies being developed by the Workforce Development Implementation Group31. (b)

The voluntary contribution

4.6.3. Within local authority youth services there is a long tradition of volunteering and also of voluntary organisations directly providing youth work. The following 31

The National Youth Agency (2003) Transforming Youth Work: ensuring a high quality workforce: report of the Workforce Development Implementation Group, Connexions, The National Youth Agency, Department for Education and Skills, available on The NYA website as uploaded file.

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discussion assesses the unpaid contribution made to youth work by volunteers in both the local authority and voluntary sectors. 4.6.4. Adults who want to make a contribution to the development of their communities are often drawn to working with the young as their means of doing so. Many youth organisations depend heavily on this resource. In order to quantify the volume and value of volunteering we have drawn on the NYA audit data for 2001-2 to consider the following; the proportion of part-time paid staff to volunteers expressed in numbers the proportion of part-time paid staff to volunteers expressed as full-time equivalents (fte). The average numbers of staff per local authority youth service by region and type of local authority falling into these main categories are displayed in Table 6 below. 4.6.5. This seems to be the most sensible way of trying to account for the unpaid contribution since it is the combination of part-time paid staff and voluntary workers that do much of the face-to-face work – particularly in the centre and club-based activity often referred to as ‘open-access’ youth work. We are aware that volunteers contribute in many other ways – for example in raising funds and in serving on management committees – but this kind of resource is hard to calculate in volume or cash terms. These findings should, therefore, be treated with caution, given the very real difficulties of estimating the voluntary contribution in these terms. 4.6.6. The data shows that the ratios of part-time paid youth workers to volunteers varies considerably by region from 0.5 in the East Midlands to 3.9 in Yorkshire and the Humber; and, when measured in terms of full-time equivalents, from 1.4 in the south to 10.2 in Yorkshire and the Humber. Similarly by type of local authority, the range is from 1.2 in unitary authorities to 5.6 in county councils; and, when measured in terms of full-time equivalents, the range extends from 1.2 in unitary authorities (again) to 5.4 in metropolitan districts. In other words, the evidence demonstrates that the relative contribution of volunteers is different from one area to another. The reasons behind such differences are difficult to explain. 4.6.7. The available evidence from the annual audit and the testimony collected during the reviews does not allow us to draw any firm conclusions about trends in volunteering although we did hear reports that drawing on the traditional voluntary component of youth work is becoming more difficult. Various factors may contribute to the reported decline in use of volunteers in the youth service including: increasing concerns about safety, risk and liability the need to obtain formal clearance for adults to work with young people for proper reasons of child protection changes in population structures and work patterns. Against this we note the interest in volunteering shown by young people through initiatives such as Millennium Volunteers, some of which use the youth service as the setting for the work. 4.6.8. The value of volunteering, using £20,000 as the cash value of one fte part-time youth worker with on-costs included and given the total number of fte voluntary youth workers at 849.21 within the local authority sector, gives a monetary value of 80

almost £17 million. This means that the unpaid contribution amounts to an additional 6 per cent to the total net expenditure on youth services made by local authorities. Table 6 Mean numbers of delivery staff per local authority, 2001-2 by region and type of authority; England Part-time paid youth workers (PT), Part time paid youth workers expressed as full time equivalents (PT FTE), Volunteer youth workers (Volunteers), and Volunteer youth workers expressed as full-time equivalents (Volunteer FTE ) PT

PT FTE

Volunteers

Volunteers FTE

Ratio of PT to volunteers

London

89.2

20.6

32.2

5.8

2.8

Ratio of PT FTE to volunteers FTE 3.6

Southern

153.3

31.1

98.9

21.7

1.6

1.4

South West

141.1

22.0

90.4

8.2

1.6

2.7

Eastern

185.4

32.5

48.2

4.7

3.8

6.9

East Midlands

236.0

47.1

429.9

29.1

0.5

1.6

West Midlands

157.7

25.7

114.8

6.0

1.4

4.3

Yorkshire & Humber

208.6

43.9

54.1

4.3

3.9

10.2

North West

123.5

28.1

35.4

5.2

3.5

5.4

Northern

150.0

21.9

144.5

5.8

1.0

3.8

County Councils

273.1

49.1

187.0

11.2

5.6

4.4

Metropolitan Districts

154.9

31.4

69.7

5.8

2.2

5.4

Unitary Authorities

90.1

17.4

75.5

14.4

1.2

1.2

Outer London

64.3

16.1

25.1

4.9

2.6

3.3

Inner London

136.6

29.3

49.0

8.9

2.8

3.3

England

148.1

28.8

97.5

10.1

1.5

2.9

(Source: Annual Audit 2001-2, The National Youth Agency) (c)

Local authority support for the voluntary sector

4.6.9. A factor influencing the capacity of a local youth service to have impact is the extent to which the voluntary youth sector makes a significant contribution to plans,

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provision and practice. Its ability to do so is determined, to a considerable extent, by the amount of support it receives from the local authority. 4.6.10 The most recent definition of the local youth service covers significant parts of the voluntary youth work sector – separate from the local authority but working alongside it. There are little reliable data on this sector. However, the audit data show that the amount of grant-aid given to the voluntary sector by local authorities varies considerably across England. Moreover, within local authorities the amounts given to particular organisations also vary widely – in one, for example, they range from £75 to £5000. 4.6.11. There are now three different types of financial information that can be used as an indicator of the strength (or otherwise) of partnerships with the voluntary and community sector. The traditional measure is the amount of grant aid but more recently the value of contractual arrangements between the local authority and voluntary organisations and in-kind services (training, transport) provided by the local authority have been factored in. 4.6.12. NYA audit data show that the total amount of assistance and support given to voluntary organisations in 2001-2 was £30,751,764. Of this, 61 per cent was in the form of grant-aid, 16 per cent was the value of contractual arrangements and 23 per cent was the value of in-kind services. 4.6.13. There are significant differences in levels of local authority support to the voluntary sector by type of authority and by region. The highest levels of grant-aid to the voluntary sector occur in the inner London boroughs with an average spend of nearly £288,000 which is more than twice the national average (£125,738). Of the different types of local authority, the unitary authorities have the lowest average spend in grant-aid (£58,068). However, in aggregating the three types of spend, the West Midlands is the region with the highest average spend (£350,198) and again the Eastern and Northern regions are the lowest (£85,979 and £88,369 respectively). 4.7

Summary The pattern of resourcing across local youth services appears to be subject to considerable variation, and within local authorities there is some evidence of historical instability in funding. Taken together, we would suggest this has implications for the capacity of the service to achieve sustained impact over time. Interviews with a small sample of managers of local authority nonaccredited adult learning, suggest that more stable funding would produce advantages in terms of the service delivered to young people. Local service reviews have highlighted difficulties relating to overall staffing capacity that includes the resources allocated to staff training and development. Analysis of NYA audit data has revealed uneven patterns of staffing within the local authority sector and more broadly within local youth services across England. Services are trying to address some of the problems concerning staffing capacity.

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Anecdotal evidence suggests that drawing on voluntary effort appears less viable than it once did. There are considerable variations in support for the voluntary sector by local authorities both by region and by type of authority.

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Section 5: How resources are used In this section we use evidence – primarily from the service plans and reviews – to describe and explain the diversity among youth services in: the types and range of provision the reach of their youth work the location of decision-making about use of resources the ways in which they prioritise their patterns of provision Finally, we summarise how local services have planned to use the additional resources made available to them through the Transforming Youth Work Development Fund and seek to determine what impact these are having. 5.1

Types and range of provision

5.1.1. For analytical purposes we distinguish between two types of provision: open access (or 'universal) and targeted youth work. By open access we mean provision that is available to all young people in the relevant age range in a given locality who wish to use it. Targeted youth work is usually of two kinds: It may be directed towards particular young people: either as individuals – such as in Positive Activities for Young People or Youth Inclusion Projects – or towards groups referred by other services such as schools, police, youth offending teams, health promotion units or primary care trusts. It may also be directed towards particular localities or issues, such as housing estates or shopping precincts where young people are perceived to present a problem; or in order to meet specific social objectives such as promoting social cohesion. Although analytically distinct, these two types of provision are often closely linked with overlap at the margins. This dual character is expressed through the three forms of youth work typically recognised: Centre or club-based youth work - open access provision with different programmes of activities on offer; there are variations in the degree to which young people are involved in shaping them. According to most plans, this type of provision remains a priority for local youth services – although there is some evidence from the local service reviews of a reduction in this provision in the face of competing demands for resources. For example, some youth workers are being taken out of buildings, so they can be deployed more flexibly. Street-based youth work – teams of detached or outreach youth workers (including mobile provision) targeting to various degrees specific places and young people. They may at times be attached to centres as part of a district team, providing support and activities for local young people. As young people use the streets and open spaces to claim their own ground in communities, this provision is increasingly important. However, it can be short-lived. About a quarter of the street-based schemes reviewed by recent Rowntree-funded research had expired by the time the research was completed (Crimmens, 2004).

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Project work – with a focus on specific issues or groups. This is often partially funded through sources originating outside the youth service. As a condition of receiving this funding, project workers are typically required to provide a detailed plan for expenditure based on some analysis of need and evidence to account for the resources invested. This leads to some benefits of this type of work: with specified objectives, outcomes and criteria for success – and with evaluation processes built in, rather than bolted on, OFSTED reports indicate that outcomes are more easily observed and accounted for and that the quality of youth work is generally higher. However, issues of sustainability remain – particularly where projects are initiated with additional, rather than mainstream funding. The NFER evaluation of the Neighbourhood Support Fund has observed for example that once the immediate programme objectives and targets have been achieved, resources tend to move elsewhere (Golden, 2004). There may be little or nothing left to sustain the change and impact that has occurred. 5.1.2. In practice there is overlap between these three forms of youth work; for example, street-based youth work may be an integral part of project work, and sometimes street-based youth workers may have a base in a particular centre or club. 5.1.3. Service plans show that: Most services are planning to expand their street-based youth work provision and reduce the use of premises Some services are proposing to sell or close unfit buildings and to upgrade others There are a few examples of new multi-purpose centres Some are refocusing the work of their open access centres although they do not say how The use of mobile provision is increasing Some are enhancing their outreach capacity by linking it up with Connexions Some services are proposing to reduce traditional school-based provision (generic youth work based in schools) in favour of more targeted work with disaffected young people. More specifically there are plans to direct resources to marginalized and vulnerable young people – disabled, gay and lesbian, and those from minority ethnic groups In a minority of plans there is a strong emphasis on youth arts. 5.1.4. It is hard to tell the balance of the three main types of provision (the ‘range’ of provision) from the review of service plans.32 Across the different local youth services that formed the sample for the reviews, the balance between the three main types of provision varied considerably. For example, In a shire county in the south-east, 44 per cent of resources are dedicated to open access centre-based work and 28 per cent each to targeted street-based and project work. 32

In this and subsequent paragraphs we use 'reach' to mean the extent to which a youth service is in contact with young people; by 'range' we mean the variety of youth work settings and activities available to young people in any particular locality.

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In an inner London borough 70 per cent of the youth work is provided through open-access facilities in eleven locations. 5.1.5. The reviews also identified diversity in the wide range of outlets that are used for youth work and in the quality of the sites being used. This has the potential to affect the impact of the service on young people as young people may be reluctant to attend poor quality venues (NFER 1996). Some local authorities have under-invested in the capital base; for example, one had not built any new youth facilities for over forty years. In some instances, better quality venues were sometimes rented from the voluntary and community sector and elsewhere. We also came across examples of refurbished or adapted buildings that attracted low numbers of young people. This may indicate a need for services to undertake a careful needs assessment before decisions are taken about location. 5.1.6. We also observed wide variations in opening hours of ‘open access’ sites. For example, in some areas provision is largely limited to school sites, so that youth work tends to be mostly available around school hours and in school terms; important facilities sometimes remain unused at week-ends and in school holidays when young people have most need of them. One local authority uses 147 buildings and over a quarter of these are open for less than five hours a week. In contrast, another service, which serves a densely populated urban area, has only eight centres – three of which open for more than thirty hours a week. 5.1.7. We conclude that the range of opportunities available to young people vary considerably from area to area within a particular local youth service, and also between different services. 5.2

The reach of youth work

5.2.1. Any statements to be made about the reach of local youth services have to be treated with caution. This is because the data used to calculate reach or contact is historically unreliable: there have long been definitional problems about what is meant by the terms. until recently there has been no agreed or standard method by which numbers are collected and calculated. the reliability of the different methods used differs considerably and leads to great variation in claimed reach and range. the number of variables used in collecting data related to contact is limited. For example, ethnicity and disability characteristics are rarely collected. 5.2.2. With these qualifications in mind, the NYA audit data for 2001-2 suggest that over half the 149 local authorities achieved ‘contact’ with 25 per cent of young people aged 13-19 years. Unitary authorities seem to perform better than others with more than a quarter of them claiming to reach more than 40 per cent of the age cohort. Overall, services vary widely in their claimed ability to reach young people in the target age-range and there is some distance to travel before they all achieve the performance indicator of 25 per cent as set out in REYS.

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5.2.3. There are a number of factors which influence the ‘reach’ characteristics described in the NYA audit data. These partly reference broader questions of how prioritisation of youth work resources takes place (see 5.3. below) but for example: The balance between what is commonly referred to as ‘universal’ (or openaccess) and ‘targeted’ provision in different services. High levels of targeted work, which is resource intensive, will increase contact and range within the target group but decrease it for the general population of young people. (Section 9 of this report identifies some of the trends and issues emerging for local services as they try to strike a balance between universal and targeted provision.) The extent of population dispersal and the availability of points of contact also play a part. Youth services making provision in rural areas, for example, may have more difficulty than those in urban areas in reaching young people. Services may vary in the efficiency and effectiveness with which they deploy the different types of resource available. The level of reliability of the data may be such that the pattern of contact revealed is misleading. 5.3 Priorities in allocation of resources: explaining variable patterns of reach and range. 5.3.1. Most local services we visited have met the Transforming Youth Work policy aspiration of directing four-fifths of their provision towards 13-19 year-olds, although this is proving a challenge for those services that have until recently sought to provide for a wider age-range: in particular, in attempts to undertake preventative work with younger children. For example: In one city the switch of emphasis, from a youth and community service to a youth service alone, has meant that the staff are no longer so involved in community development work. Some of the networks they developed with parents and community groups have been weakened and this is reported to have had a negative impact on some of their preventative work. 5.3.2. Beyond this, services are rarely in a position to give accurate information about the allocation of resources to particular priorities or groups. Targeted programmes financed by particular funding streams provide details of numbers, agerange and backgrounds of young people, the type and level of resources used and, crucially the outputs achieved. However, other forms of youth work, mostly financed through the SSA/EFS, do not always yield such readily accessible information and clarity around processes and priorities of resource allocation in these cases is often missing. 5.3.3. Broadly however, evidence from local youth service plans and the reviews of local services demonstrates convincingly that considerable resources are being directed towards the disadvantaged and socially excluded. Nevertheless, explicit models for systematically and efficiently allocating resources according to assessments of need tend to be rare and overall, there tends to be a lack of detailed needs analysis undertaken by local services, as OFSTED consistently reports. (This

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issue of allocating resources according to need is taken up in more detail in Section 9 of this report) 5.3.4. Analysis of qualitative data collected through the fifteen reviews reveals a range of approaches for allocating resources – including, for example: Resource allocation based on precedent. Resources go where they have always gone, leaving some scope for contingency in response to new developments. Resource allocation based on identification of ‘anti-social-behaviour hot spots’. Resources are directed towards the most deprived neighbourhoods because that is where the highest incidence of anti-social behaviour occurs, the curtailment of which happens to be the policy priority of the local authority Resource allocation linked to market demand. Provision is responsive to changes in take up, quality or perceived needs. For example: • stemming the flow of funds to particular centres or projects where there is low take-up or perceived poor quality; this leads to a tapering of provision so that the centre can eventually be closed with minimal disruption • supplementing a project or centre where additional needs or demands suddenly emerge by, for example, assigning a small team of detached youth workers or specialists in sports or youth arts to work alongside the existing team. • gradual adaptation of the type of local provision available (including hours of availability). • increasingly, services respond also to the views of the young people who are being encouraged to become actively involved in shaping the nature of provision. (In one shire county, when young people were canvassed for their opinions about what they wanted from the youth service, they said essentially more of the open access youth centres and clubs which already characterised the majority of provision in the county). Resource allocation based on local political pressures. For example, • Elected member commitment to buildings use, despite clear evidence that an alternative kind of (mobile) provision was warranted “The history of the service and the location of buildings makes it difficult to switch work to where needs exist…..there are strong community expectations…..in one area the building is not working and more mobile provision is needed but the switch is blocked by a powerful councillor….we have to maintain the status quo and try and be creative around that” (Head of Youth Service in the North West) • In one local authority, raising standards of educational attainment was a policy priority. It closed down much of its open access provision, to concentrate resources on work with schools: in particular, supporting pupils at risk of dropping out of education. Resource allocation linked to national priorities. Evidence from the service reviews and service plans showed that local services are redirecting resources to ensure that they are tackling some of the key priority issues identified in Transforming Youth Work and Resourcing Excellent Youth 88

Services - particularly, but not exclusively, around the recording and accreditation of outcomes. For example, they are: • appointing staff in teams to focus on accreditation • establishing innovative programmes and projects designed to raise the achievement levels of young people • increasingly adopting national schemes that accredit learning and achievement, some of which have been long established and some more recent In some cases this drive towards accreditation is putting a strain on services. For example, In one city, youth workers are engaged in professional debate about the focus the service is placing on ‘structured learning opportunities’ and the extent to which this is driving youth workers to attend to those likely to succeed, at the expense of relative under-achievers. 5.3.5. In short, local determination of priorities ensures there is considerable variation in where and how resources are directed. The principles outlined above combine in multiple ways to produce variations in local provision such that, for example, while specialist provision for gay and lesbians may be a priority in one place, support to travellers or care leavers may be a priority in another. At the same time however, we found little evidence that the needs of young people are systematically and transparently assessed to inform allocation priorities.. 5.4

Transforming Youth Work Development Fund

5.4.1 Services have also been helped to address national policy priorities by using additional resources that have been won for the youth service. Historically, central government has ensured that services for young people are influenced by its own priorities through securing a proportion of funding to help achieve them. Education Support Grants and the Standards Fund are examples of how this has been done in the past. 5.4.2. In 2002-3 the government introduced the Transforming Youth Work Development Fund (TYWDF) with the overall aim of raising the quality and quantity of youth work, to enable the youth service to effectively engage with the Connexions service and respond to young people’s needs. More specifically its objectives were to: support the implementation of local authority youth service plans build the capacity of the voluntary sector and strengthen partnerships between the statutory and voluntary sector develop and introduce innovative projects that would contribute to the achievement of policy objectives build the capacity of the youth service to engage effectively with Connexions. 5.4.3. In 2002-3 there were three strands to the fund, amounting to a total of £22 million. In 2003-4 the fund reverted to its original single allocation of £10 million Strand A was concerned principally with the production of youth service plans, the engagement of young people in local democratic processes,

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developing the capacity for partnerships, improving quality assurance procedures and systems, and staff development, including management training. Strand B was concerned with supporting project development in key policy areas such as community cohesion and reduction of youth crime, support for outreach and detached work, young people’s active involvement and the modernisation of the service through use of ICT. Strand C was concerned with training and staff development in relation to partnerships with Connexions and to build the capability of youth workers to implement the social inclusion agenda. 5.4.4. Drawing on an analysis of twenty local authority bids, follow up telephone calls with principal youth officers and analysis from Government Regional Offices we can now identify the planned contribution to date of this additional fund. Strand A 5.4.5. Three quarters of local authorities intended to use a little less than 20 per cent of their Strand A allocation for the development of youth service plans. In some cases, this involved the secondment or employment of somebody to write the plan, on behalf of the local authority. 5.4.6. Participation and the active involvement of young people in influencing youth work and democratic renewal has been given significant impetus by the fund. Eighty per cent of the local authorities received funding under this heading, and overall they spent an average of 40 per cent of their allocation for Strand A on it. The money was designated for full-time and part-time posts to stimulate innovative youth-led and peer education projects activity on this theme and create appropriate structures in both the local authority and voluntary sectors. While the fund has enhanced the levels and impact of young people’s active involvement, difficulties have also been reported. It has proved difficult to sustain youth councils in some cases, because of the turnover of members. In some cases young people have resisted having their opinions canvassed because of ‘consultation fatigue’. 5.4.7. Three quarters of local authorities in our sample applied to use 20 per cent of this strand for developing partnership work, in particular with Connexions and the voluntary sector. The funding was used mainly to employ staff and support steering groups, either to boost partnerships generally, or to support joint work with a particular partner. Most of the partnership work has been with the voluntary sector, building its capacity and improving co-ordination. Strand B 5.4.8. Detached and outreach youth work were given a significant boost by the fund. 65 per cent of the local authorities indicated they would extend this work and across these the average proportion of the Strand B allocation was 35 per cent. 5.4.9. Most of the detached and outreach youth work has been directed towards reducing crime and identifying hot spots. In some cases youth workers have been successful in bringing new young people into the service, extending its reach into new

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areas. As well as street-based youth work, much of the money was used for diversionary activities in the summer holidays and sports programmes. Much of this was done in partnership with other agencies, complementing the Positive Activities for Young People Programme supported by Connexions. 5.4.10. Community cohesion and social inclusion more generally has been promoted through multi-cultural exchanges and festivals, as well as specific outreach and detached work. 5.4.11. The funds for ICT were spent on the development of web sites that would attract young people as well as the upgrading of systems to provide internet access. Some services proposed to use this newly acquired interactivity in part to monitor the take-up of youth facilities Strand C 5.4.12. Strand C accounts for about 10 per cent of the fund. 60 per cent of the authorities proposed to take up or provide opportunities for training – including management, introductory and induction training and specific training to cover one of a wide range of interventions and techniques, such as counselling, outdoor education, youth volunteering, equal opportunities, relationships and sexual health, disabilities, challenging and aggressive behaviour, and excluded young people 5.4.13 Twenty per cent of the plans mentioned training that was specifically related to Connexions work. Staff from both the voluntary sector and the local authority were to be trained to work in areas concerned with social inclusion – teenage pregnancy, drugs awareness, support for schools. Views of service managers about TYWDF 5.4.14. Most principal youth officers have welcomed the fund because they have been able to direct it towards needs and provision that otherwise would not have been met through their core budgets. In combination with the policy papers, the fund has helped to raise the profile of youth work. In some of those services whose core budgets remained static this has been the only ‘new’ money. Officers generally recognise the value of the fund in pump-priming innovation and boosting key features of policy and provision. They also recognise the importance of ensuring that the momentum of pump-priming is sustained by other funds, although this is not always easy to achieve. They also report difficulties in recruiting staff to support the additional work associated with TYWDF which has in turn delayed project start dates. 5.5

Summary Local youth services differ in how they allocate resources and this in turn influences the differentiated range and pattern of provision made. Local determination of priorities means that there is diversity both across local youth services and within them. The rationale for these variations is not always clear and can sometimes be attributed to local political decision-making rather than the needs of young people.

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Local services have yet to devise reliable and systematic procedures for identifying needs and allocating resources accordingly. Despite this, there is widespread evidence that resources are being redirected to policy priorities that have been identified locally and nationally. This trend has been reinforced by the injection of additional resources from different funding streams, including the Transforming Youth Work Development Fund, and the policy messages attached to it.

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Section 6: Active involvement of young people Youth workers have always encouraged and supported young people to become active shapers of the services and programmes they provide; to be routinely involved in making decisions in clubs, centres and projects; and to express their views on the wide range of issues and problems they confront in their lives. In this section, we investigate the extent of active involvement, as identified in youth service plans and local reviews and move on to look at different types of involvement: In representative structures, such as councils and forums As leaders, mentors and mediators In youth service management and policy development Influencing policy development in other services We then move on to consider: The processes and difficulties of securing representation The impact that active involvement has on young people and their communities 6.1

Why active involvement?

6.1.1. Finding their voice and place in society is an important aspect of the journey young people make on their way to adulthood; it is an induction into their rights and responsibilities as citizens. As the Thompson report in 1982 expressed it “the primary purpose of participation in the Youth Service is to give the young individual a sense of belonging, a sense of identity, and the skills, confidence and assurance needed to participate not only in the club or organisation but also in society at large”. 6.1.2. This core principle and practice of youth work has been granted added significance with the prominence recently given to citizenship and democratic renewal in public policy. 6.2.

The extent of active involvement

6.2.1. The reviews of local youth services and the scrutiny of youth service plans show that local youth services have established a variety of measures that encourage and support the active involvement of young people in influencing not only the youth work provided but other services for young people in their communities. The resources released for this purpose by the Transforming Youth Work Development Fund have increased the pace and scale of this activity 6.2.2. 70 per cent of services whose plans we have analysed have measures in hand to develop further the active involvement of young people, either through formal representative structures such as youth councils and forums, or through the more routine governance of their units. Some are active on both fronts and more. 6.2.3. A few services are planning more strategic approaches to the active involvement of young people in developing the service more widely. For example:

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Some have encouraged young people to be involved in contributing to the service plan An increasing number of youth services are involving young people in the appointment of youth workers and one or two even in their supervision and appraisal. One in every eight services is exploring ways of involving young people in the quality assurance of youth work, beyond the usual user satisfaction surveys. Some are taking up the opportunity of engaging young people in Youth Bank projects, in which they decide on the disbursement of small grants which groups of young people have applied for 25 per cent of services already had youth participation officers at the time of writing their plans and this proportion is likely to increase to two-thirds with the help of the Transforming Youth Work Development Fund. Plans and local service reviews also point to an increasing emphasis on developing young people’s representative structures. 6.3

Representative structures

6.3.1. From our research it would appear that representative structures are in place for young people at most levels of government in England: There is a UK Youth Parliament to which every local authority sends members and which discusses key issues affecting young people. There are local authority-wide youth councils and forums and, in some shire counties at district council level too In youth centres, clubs and projects it is common to find a members’ committee or forum in which the unit’s programme and ground rules are discussed, planned and reviewed. Increasingly, young people have a say in how resources are used and which staff are appointed to work with them. 6.3.2. In the reviews, we encountered examples of local authorities that have set aside sizeable budgets to promote and develop such structures – seeing this as making a significant contribution to citizenship and the rejuvenation of local democracy. Examples include • One county council has invested £400,000 so that a youth council can be established and supported in every district • Another county council has allocated £100,000 for active citizenship and the appointment of a co-ordinator to lead on it. Innovative ideas have been devised, for example encouraging young people to shadow councillors to find out what they do and how they work. One of the outcomes has been the creation of a Young People’s Development Fund for groups of young people across the county to bid for small grants to develop projects that benefit young people. • In a local authority in the South East, 27,000 young people voted for a county youth council to sit alongside the county council. The youth council has the power to call officers before it and, at the time of writing, is likely to prioritise changes in transport policy. An annual away day for selected youth council members to meet with cabinet members from the county council has been agreed.

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6.3.3. A small number of local authorities are pledging themselves to adopt the Hear by Right standards developed by the National Youth Agency and the Local Government Association. These provide a framework for local authorities to assess their own progress in involving young people in influencing decisions and policies relevant to young people. Indeed, one county council is applying to the government for a Public Service Agreement for this work. 6.4.

Young people as leaders, mentors and mediators

6.4.1. Deployment of young people as junior leaders – organising activities and becoming mentors for their peers – was common in most of the local youth services we reviewed. This extends beyond the youth club, centre or project to which they belong. In a secondary school in a northern city 38 Year 10 pupils stay behind after school for two hours per week to attend an eight-hour training programme. Youth workers are working with learning mentors to help the pupils to develop the skills and understanding required to become ‘buddies’ to Year 7 pupils in the coming autumn term. At the end of the training programme, they attend a two-day residential programme where they are paired with pupils identified by 30 of the secondary school’s feeder primary schools as likely to need support during the early stages of their entry to the secondary school. 6.4.2. Some youth workers train young people in communication, counselling and conflict-resolution skills, so they can then be deployed as mediators in schools on anti-bullying projects and in other cases support sexual health work. Elsewhere: eight young people aged between 15 and 19 have been employed as ‘peer listeners’ for four hours a week to help broaden participation in the service. They work directly with youth groups and have developed ‘listening groups’ to discuss important issues (such as the voting age). They function rather like ‘MPs’ researchers’ to study and influence policy development in the service, consult on the youth service plan and reflect the views of their peers in the development of the curriculum. 6.4.3. In some cases, young people taking on these roles can gain accreditation through schemes such as Millennium Volunteers and Youth Achievement Awards. Some services are pursuing the possibility of developing a Modern Apprenticeship scheme for youth work. This further increases the potential for young people's involvement, whilst at the same time advancing the government’s policy for increasing the number of young people participating in education, training and employment. 6.5.

Young people’s involvement in service and policy development

6.5.1. Nearly all the local youth services in our sample have taken steps to involve young people in influencing provision and programmes. Some now regularly involve them in quality assurance processes. This extends beyond the conventional procedure of inviting users of the service to complete a satisfaction survey. In a few services young people undertake regular audits and are involved in area inspections. Some examples of this involvement include: 95

In an attempt to improve the quality of staff recruited, one local youth service encouraged young people to take part in interviews for youth workers. “We had to do equal opportunities training which was boring. But the interviews were great. It was good to see them walk into the room and see their reaction to young people on the panel. It got me mad when some didn’t look at us. We chose the right people”. (Young Person) One county youth service has established five district action groups comprising young people who represent their peers in assessing needs as well as discussing and influencing responsive policies and programmes. Some of the young people have been trained in the research skills required for conducting these needs analyses. 6.6.

Influencing policy development in other services

6.6.1. Young people use the skills and experience of advocacy and communication they have gained through youth work so that they can shape services and policies beyond the youth service – including education, health services, social services, police and Connexions. •

In schools, some young people are involved in development of alternative curriculum plans at Key Stage 4.

•

Social services departments find the local youth service a source of advice and support in setting up forums of looked after young people, to comment on and improve the quality of care in local authority provision.

•

Young people have helped health services develop their strategies for reducing teenage pregnancies and work alongside sexual health education professionals in giving their peers information and advice on contraception. o The origins of a gay and lesbian youth club in London lay in an attempt by the local health service to encourage safer sex in the local gay community, during the height of the HIV AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s. Members of the club are now consulted regularly by the local Primary Care Trust on a wider range of health policies and programmes affecting young people

•

Police services seek the youth service’s help in actively consulting young people on local crime and disorder plans and on community safety and neighbourhood renewal strategies. In one county, the local youth council undertook a questionnaire on crime and community safety and the findings were included in the city’s crime audit. Members of the youth council did presentations in front of their peers, representatives from the police and the local council. “It felt good, builds your confidence and I learn how much goes into it. It made me realise how real young people were feeling about the police…how big a problem it is”. (Youth Council Member)

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•

6.7

Connexions partnerships look to local youth services to provide young people to take an active part in their internal structures and processes. Securing appropriate representation

6.7.1. There is a risk those young people who come forward to represent their peers are only the articulate, gifted and confident. The voice of disadvantaged young people is sometimes muted or remains unexpressed. It is important that structures and processes are suited to the needs and interests of all the young people. This is not always the case. For example, In a northern city, the youth council does not represent typical youth service users and its structures and the issues it is addressing seem to mirror exactly those of the city council. Sub-committees have been established to consider learning and leisure, housing, health and social care, and transport. These matters clearly affect young people but the formality of the arrangements is not consistent with the objectives of the initiative. 6.7.2. Some authorities are taking action to widen the franchise and involve those not usually drawn to getting involved. For example, In one city, annual elections to the youth council have been extended beyond schools to include youth centres and projects with the hope of canvassing those who are harder to reach. 6.7.3 One of the problems in getting young people involved in local democratic structures is the preconceptions young people and local councillors typically hold about each other. One project decided to tackle this head on with a special event entitled ‘I’m a councillor, get me out of here’. Sixty young people attended the event at which they worked alongside councillors on shared tasks. The event fostered mutual understanding and provided an informal route through which the views of young people from a broad constituency could be heard. The young people were offered the opportunity of appointing a young person’s champion to represent their views in other council business. “The feedback from the young people today has been incredible. The idea of a Young People’s Champion is excellent and hopefully will ensure representation at a senior level. Youth council members should be congratulated on their hard work in planning and organising the event” (Part-time Youth Worker). 6.7.4. Nevertheless, the broader point remains that only a few young people are drawn to structures and procedures that replicate those of the adult world of decisionmaking, preferring as many adults do, to contribute to surveys and other less formal and time-consuming arrangements for getting involved. Attendances by young people at formal council and committee meetings tend to be low. The conventions and processes of such structures and processes do not have general appeal, particularly among those who are socially excluded. Approaches which draw on new technologies such as mobile phones, web-sites, message boards and electronic voting systems may 97

prove more effective. Other examples of active involvement involve the use of creative arts to explore themes and issues of immediate concern to young people, supported and facilitated by youth workers 6.8.

Benefits for young people

6.8.1. Those young people who are directly involved in structures and processes, which are well organised and supported: acquire and develop insight, understanding and skills that stand them in good stead as active citizens learn the transferable skills of research, teamwork, problem-solving, negotiation and communication which they can apply in different contexts learn about the constraints and opportunities of local decision-making, the kinds of competing pressures and demands made on those who command resources in communities: They learn about citizenship by practising it. “meeting county councillors, especially cabinet members for the youth service…..I want to represent the real views of young people, instead of just letting a load of old men decide what young people can and can’t have” “having our voice heard by adults, joining in meetings, discussing and influencing the district plan, helping to decide what goes on in every club, that makes me feel good” (Members of a Youth Council in the North West) 6.9

Summary The active involvement of young people in influencing youth work and local issues has always been one of the strengths of the youth service and at all levels new structures and processes are being established to embed it further. The young people and their communities are benefiting from these initiatives. More needs to be done to ensure that a greater number of young people from a wider range of backgrounds are being engaged This might entail redesigning existing or creating new representative structures, using new methods such as those afforded by the new technologies, and by involving more young people in the less glamorous, more routine business of shaping and improving services day by day. Where young people have participated in policy developments in local services across youth work, Connexions, education, health and others, there is evidence of positive personal development outcomes for the young people involved and, more generally, of a modified service approach built around greater mutual understanding between services, their representatives and the young people who use them. Perceptions of young people are starting to change in some cases. Some of those who previously may have seen young people as a problem are now regarding them as having something important and valuable to say. Young people in some areas are beginning to be seen as responsible members of their communities and as key stakeholders in their futures.

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Section 7: Leadership and management The ways in which local youth services are led and managed are key ‘upstream’ factors that help to explain the conditions for impact in youth work. In this section we set out the tasks of leadership and management and some of the tensions they give rise to, identifying where services are strong and those aspects where development is needed. We signal the importance of being able to position the service with elected members and with other local authority services and the need for effective quality management procedures to strengthen that positioning We draw on evidence from case studies and service reviews to offer some judgements on how effectively staff are managed and conclude by reporting on how the Transforming Youth Work management programme has helped leaders and managers face the challenges of modernising youth services and organisations. 7.1

Leading and managing local youth services

7.1.1. Local youth services have historically operated in a testing environment. Until recently, their status has tended to be low and some of the reasons have already been touched upon in this report: low and volatile levels of funding a fragile statutory base a weak professional identity and lack of confidence the needs of young people beyond the school gates have tended not to be a policy priority 7.1.2. There are four main functions of leadership and management in modern public services: clarifying the vision for the service – which is valuable in itself but is also crucial for influencing and responding to political and professional pressures provide clear strategic direction while not neglecting operational management managing for quality managing staff performance The following observations on each of the highlighted topics are based on evidence from meetings and interviews held with officers and youth workers while conducting the reviews. 7.2

Influencing and responding to political and professional pressures

7.2.1. The youth service is one of the few areas of education provision over which elected members still influence strategic direction. It is important to engage and keep 99

elected members informed of what the service is doing and be responsive to their interests and concerns; to advocate for the work and secure local political support. For example, One of the strengths of a county service we reviewed is the good reputation it enjoys among elected members with support across all political parties. The principal officer here spends time accompanying county councillors on visits to see provision. Moreover, each district has a youth and community advisory committee, and some of these have had their role extended, to advise on Connexions. These provide a good local base for political support for the service and mean that, in six months, half the county council’s cabinet had been involved in the youth service in one way or another. 7.2.2. This positive example contrasts with arrangements in another shire county: At the time of the review, there had been no post equivalent to a principal youth officer since the late 1980s and responsibilities for strategic development were split between the Director of Education and another senior education officer within the department. The development officer responsible for the youth service was one of ten officers so managed and the profile of the service was low in the council chamber. Consequently, there were low levels of advocacy for the youth service in the development of wider strategies, such as those for Children and Young People and for Connexions; and the service received little mention in the Education Development Plan. 7.2.3. A particular area of importance is the need to address a commonly held view among elected members that the function of youth workers is to occupy young people in leisure time activities at the risk of failing to recognise the broader developmental aims of youth work 7.2.4. Youth services also need to be able to explain their ‘vision’ for the service they offer and how it can contribute to the purposes of other local authority services for young people. Traditionally, youth services have not been good at this self advocacy: the low profile of the youth service in a local authority in the north is illustrated by a comment from an officer in the local social services department: “I don’t really know what the Youth Service has to offer, its profile is low in multi-agency groups. There is no strategic approach and I would welcome greater links – I think the service should take a lead role on youth participation and empowerment but it isn’t… Probably other agencies seek to replicate/duplicate youth work because they don’t approach or know about the youth service”. Both within this particular local authority and among partners there was a consensus that the low profile of the service hampered its ability to drive strategic partnerships and ‘market’ its contribution to youth policy. 7.2.5. However, the emergence of Connexions has required youth services to begin to assert their distinctiveness with greater confidence and there is evidence from the reviews that youth services have become more strategic, recently, as: more demands have been made on them to be so

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it has become clear that they can provide better resourced and more flexible services by forming alliances and partnerships with others. 7.2.6. There are some signs that the achievements and benefits of youth work are being recognised – both among the elected members and among other local authority services (see further in section 8). 7.2.7. Youth services appear to play a more significant role in corporate and other local policy development when clarity and confidence about purpose is combined with being securely and favourably positioned within the local authority. Indeed the location of the service within the local authority structure is a crucial factor. One of the local youth services reviewed was located within a Lifelong Learning and Leisure Division. A clear policy emphasis on attracting young people to low cost leisure facilities was reported to be to the detriment of youth work centres on education and development functions. In another case, the youth service had recently been moved to that part of the Education directorate responsible for school improvement and inclusion. This served to highlight the contribution that youth work could make to inclusion and educational achievement. We also found examples where the shifting location of the youth service within the local authority had contributed to professional uncertainty among youth workers. In one of the unitary authorities, the youth service has been located in five different departments over the last five years. However, the most recent move – to the Education department – has, youth workers and managers suggested, • reaffirmed the learning dimensions of youth work • brought about a closer realignment with the Connexions service and the local community plan. 7.3

Providing clear strategic direction

7.3.1 To manage a service which bears the distinctive features of youth work entails managing complexity, uncertainty and balancing interests within a strong framework of values (which, in the case of the youth service, includes putting young people at the centre of provision). In many cases, senior managers have become more adept at drawing up comprehensive youth service plans, demonstrating clearly how managers and youth workers across the service are combining with staff in other services to achieve policy objectives. Nevertheless, we concluded from our reviews and interviews that one of the primary difficulties that many youth service managers – like their counterparts in other agencies – struggle with is the balance between strategic and operational responsibilities. In one service, the shortage of staff with experience and skills in project management meant that the senior management team became very hands-on in running the service and, in this instance, operational concerns took precedence over strategic concerns. In another service, the principal youth officer is taken up with her strategic role, both within and outside the education department. This means that she has not been closely involved in operational management at a time when new officers have taken up their posts, some of whom are relatively inexperienced in managing staff. Some fieldworkers reported feeling: 101

• • • •

unsupported by their managers that practice was not scrutinised with processes of reflection evaluation was disregarded that they had to sidestep line managers in order to gain resources or permission to proceed In another arguably more favourable example, the principal youth officer balanced ‘hands-on’ youth work with more strategic concerns – for example, he runs the youth worker apprenticeship scheme himself. However, this is part of a strategic approach intended to create a ‘whole service team culture’ – encouraging, for example, development rather than control; and mutual regard, rather than the more familiar division between management and fieldwork staff. The service claims that this has brought about a high degree of motivation and trust among staff. Evidence from our reviews suggested that, overall, senior managers are finding it difficult to maintain the right balance between their strategic and operational functions. 7.4.

Managing for quality

7.4.1 Quality assurance procedures have improved under the influence of Best Value and OFSTED inspection regimes – for example, in one shire county, consultants, questionnaires and youth council feedback all yield valuable evidence about the quality of service provided and most local services are beginning to use the OFSTED self-assessment schedule to conduct internal reviews of their strengths and areas for development 7.4.2. However, quality assurance tends to be under-developed in several services and the self-assessment that informs quality reviews will remain underdeveloped while there is insufficient investment in the training of staff in the use of relevant techniques – for example, peer review and grading of work – supplemented by regular management visits to clubs, centres and projects. 7.4.3. Several services are struggling to install successfully the full range of features of a performance management system. There is considerable variation among services in the degree, for example, to which reliable planning and review, quality assurance and internal monitoring procedures are in place. 7.4.4. Whilst many senior managers (as we noted above) have become adept at drawing up comprehensive youth service plans, this is not always carried through at a more local level: In one shire county, district plans reflect and reinforce the county-wide service plan, detailing objectives, activities, outputs and outcomes, success criteria, milestones and people responsible for identified tasks. However, at unit level, planning may not extend beyond that needed for delivering a programme of activities for the next session. It is important that there is some convergence and coherence of planning and use of resources at all levels of the service if impact in pursuit of particular policy goals is to be maximised. 102

7.4.5. Limited use is made of management information to inform plans, policy and provision. This is partly because data is neither efficiently nor effectively collected and partly because, where it is gathered, it is not always used. This may be because managers do not trust its validity or are not sure how best to use it. Several services did however point to likely future improvements referring to the database currently being developed by The National Youth Agency. 7.4.6. It should be noted that the youth service is not unusual in this respect. Until recently, for example, most local health trusts could not adequately map their activity against healthcare needs. Local youth services may have further to go than most in using management information for this purpose, but other services are also still struggling. 7.4.7. The attitudes of youth workers towards monitoring and evaluation vary widely. In one service staff could see its benefits for accountability, making the case for funding, programme planning and improving practice. We found evidence in many of the reviews that front-line workers and their managers understood and supported the growing demands for such evaluation and measurement of outcomes and valued opportunities to develop such a professional critical analysis. Elsewhere youth workers believe that evaluation is a distraction from delivery and managers struggle to persuade staff of its value. 7.4.8. Reported obstacles to monitoring and evaluation included inadequacy of the tools that youth workers were expected to use and lack of time to reflect and discuss the work in this critical way, given the day-to-day demands of project management, partnerships and face-to-face work. 7.4.9. The youth work curriculum remains under-developed. In the wake of the failure of the service, in the 1990s, to agree what a curriculum is or what function it serves, this aspect of youth work tends to have been given less attention. It should be an important tool-kit for practitioners, in particular part-time workers, but it is rarely in evidence in a form that workers can readily use. Given its prominence under proposals for the new OFSTED inspection framework, this is an issue demanding more urgent attention. 7.5

Managing staff performance

7.5.1. As a consequence of seeking to become strategic, some operational aspects of a modern youth service are not always given the attention they need. For example more responsibility for performance management and the quality of service delivery falls on inexperienced staff – frequently part-time youth workers including volunteers who are least well resourced to cope. Few services have raised their standards to a level where quality is consistent across these staff. The investment needed to do this is substantial Few services have sufficient support staff in post, which means youth workers can be distracted from direct youth work in order to fulfil administrative tasks. There tends to be a shortage of structured staff development opportunities for learning from experience, especially for those youth workers based in clubs 103

and centres and part-time staff including volunteers who undertake most of the direct youth work. Staff meetings are usually attended by full-time workers and officers and tend to be concerned with the introduction of new policies and administrative arrangements or the implementation and review of existing ones. It is especially important to find time and opportunity to crossfertilise the learning from the practice of centre-based and project workers. 7.5.2. Professional supervision has long been a strength of the youth service. It is an important mechanism for: securing continuous service improvement and accounting for performance encouraging staff at all levels of the service to reflect upon their work with a view to improving it providing line managers with information about performance and the opportunity to enable and ensure improved performance 7.5.3. Evidence from the reviews and case studies suggests that supervision is, in many cases, frequently and effectively carried out. For example we witnessed positive examples of coaching and mentoring of less experienced staff by more qualified colleagues. Nevertheless, such activities were not always available, particularly to part-time staff including volunteers. In other cases, managers and youth workers report that other demands on their time, combined with staff shortages, mean that supervision is not conducted as frequently as previously. 7.5.4. From the reviews we identified examples of good practice in services where impact appears high, including methods for enhancing performance such as coaching by more experienced staff and mentoring of less experienced staff. 7.6

Training for leadership and management

7.6.1. Leadership and management of a modern, transformed youth service require the development of a wide range of skills, knowledge, experience and attributes. The youth service is attempting to meet this requirement by investing in two major development programmes – Transforming Youth Work Management (TYWM) and Investing in Youth Work Management. 7.6.2. The impact of the TYWM programme has been evaluated as part of this study and a separate report on its findings has been written which draws on the views of participants. The evaluation suggests that the programme has helped senior officers and managers to: think and act more strategically, ensuring youth service aims and purposes correspond to those of the local authority, for example in raising achievement in schools and in keeping communities safe. The evaluation also showed that the importance of managing both the strategic and operational loops has been influential on the thinking of participants. identify who the key strategic players are, within the local authority or voluntary organisations and gain the confidence to influence them use socio-demographic data more skilfully, to make the case for more resources and for more planning with local partners

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The evaluation suggests that the programme has also helped participating voluntary organisations to review decision-making processes and think more strategically and selectively about the partnerships they engage in and in turn, to devote more resources to these partnerships with a view to improving the effectiveness of their contribution. 7.6.3. The evidence from evaluation of the TYWM programme indicates that, as a result of the programme, officers and managers intend to: devise better planning and review arrangements and create a culture, throughout the service, to encourage this to take place do more to allocate resources to meet needs and to calculate the costs of services more accurately create organisation-wide posts to drive new curriculum initiatives; to establish quality assurance frameworks and improve performance management communicate more effectively with staff and make more productive use of team meetings so that staff become more aware of the policy and political context in which they are expected to work, and engage in the planning process introduce more scrutiny and review of practice encourage managers and officers to be more confident and determined in clarifying expectations of staff, and in motivating them to achieve the highest standards tighten up partnership work with service level agreements and compacts build the capacity of voluntary sector organisations and ensuring their stricter compliance with these agreements. The extent to which these aspirations are in fact achieved will require further review over time. 7.6.4. Officers and managers from both the local authority and voluntary and community sectors report they have benefited from the process of pausing, reflecting, thinking, learning and applying that has characterised the programme. They have viewed the whole initiative as positive because it has raised the profile of the youth service and their own self-esteem. It has helped to demystify performance management and has created among managers and leaders a shared experience, a common language and a set of tools and methods for the service to use and learn from. It has also helped to create the conditions for structural and cultural change towards a more purposeful, planned, responsive and accountable public service.

7.7

Summary Youth work impact is more likely to occur when leaders and managers of youth services accommodate national and local policies and articulate with confidence what the youth service can offer other services and the wider community. Some leaders and managers are seizing the opportunity to clarify the ways their service can contribute to the aims of other services, but the overall picture is mixed with evidence that some 105

youth services struggle at times to manage the balance between strategic direction setting and operational matters. The specific departmental location of the service within the local authority is important in determining the nature of impact (see also Section 5). Although there are indications of quality improvement within services, some services are struggling to find measures and procedures for assuring quality that front-line staff are content to use. Responsibility for service delivery is falling increasingly on part-time staff including volunteers, whose training and development needs warrant greater investment. The requirements of leading a modern public service are providing a major challenge to officers and managers of local authority youth services and of voluntary organisations, which the recently established Transforming Youth Work Management Programme has helped to address.

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Section 8: Partnerships In this section, we first set out the reasons for partnership and provide an illustration of how one youth service is linking up with its partners. We then set out the evidence for how well local youth services are measuring up, in their partnerships with: Connexions The voluntary and community sector Education Police, Youth Offending and Community Safety Health and Social Work 8.1

Reasons for partnership

8.1.1. Partnership runs like a seam through the government’s policy for improving public services. In social policy where problems tend to be inter-connected, public services are being directed to work more closely together because these problems demand more integrated solutions. This applies in particular to the young who are no respecters of departmental boundaries. No single agency can satisfactorily meet the complex needs and aspirations of young people growing up in a fast-changing society. Partnerships, carefully constructed and sensitively conducted, can avoid unnecessary duplication and provide opportunities for services to share skills, perspectives and resources. 8.1.2. In one of the services we reviewed we encountered an example of partnership where the complex needs of young people were being addressed through a form of one-stop shop provision. The local youth service had secured the co-operation of a number of partner agencies and services to provide information, advice, guidance and counselling on different matters. The centre is owned by a local housing association and given to the youth service on a peppercorn rent. It is open on six days a week when youth workers and staff from other services combine as follows: Connexions - to offer their full range of services at set times each week through the provision of both universal and individual support by personal advisers An accommodation and support scheme - to provide specialised housing advice, support and placement services to young people including those who are ‘street homeless’ The local authority housing department - to provide a direct access point for young people to the full range of the Borough’s housing services Millennium Volunteers - to enable and encourage young people to take an active role within their communities, and to gain recognition for their achievements The local healthcare trust - to provide a full, free and confidential health advisory/family planning service for young people up to 21 years, including a male only condom clinic The local further education college - to provide free and confidential counselling services for young people aged 18+

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A local branch of a national charity for children and young people - to provide free and confidential counselling services for young people aged 11 to 18 The local drugs and alcohol advisory service - to provide confidential information, advice and support to young people affected by addiction/substance abuse The local Foyer - to work collaboratively to best meet the needs of residents and clients of the advice centre The local Learndirect centre – to offer open access to online learning with a wide range of free basic skill courses Less formal collaborative working practices have been established with a range of other agencies including the Youth Offending Team, The Benefits Agency, Social Services, Schools, Pupil and Parent Support Services, the Police, and direct housing providers. 8.1.3 Such arrangements demonstrate that the Youth Service, acting jointly with others, can bring about a collaborative approach to meeting complex and interconnected needs in ways which best support young people's access to services and support. In this example, co-located services were able to provide integrated advice and guidance from a range of specialist agencies. 8.2

Connexions

8.2.1. Of those local youth services whose plans for 2003-6 we have analysed, over 80 per cent have indicated that they have prioritised Connexions as a key partner in providing services for young people. Even more indicate their intention to develop this partnership further. This is a reflection of how local youth services are increasingly becoming part of broader strategic partnerships providing services to young people at local level. Most youth services have clarified the offer they make to these broader partnerships through Service Level Agreements (SLAs), compacts or their equivalent. In some cases they have agreed common targets with Connexions partners – for example on the number of NEET young people whom they work with on specialist projects and are able to move on to positive destinations. 8.2.2. Where plans are specific, we can identify several examples of local youth services and Connexions establishing joint working. These include: shared use of buildings for youth information points, drop-in centres or shops where advice and counselling services are available youth services building links with personal advisers in schools where youth workers bring their specialist group work skills to bear youth workers helping to identify and support personal advisers in working with young people at risk the development of joint protocols for sharing information about the young people they work with and for assessment and referral purposes. 8.2.3. There are different ways in which local youth services are making their specialist youth work resources available to Connexions: A few youth services have made some of their youth workers available as personal advisers (in one case 13 full-time staff) 108

Some are creating new youth work posts dedicated to Connexions; or making a percentage of youth work time available to Connexions as an in-kind contribution Others have more experienced youth workers managing personal advisers. There is extensive evidence of joint training programmes between personal advisers and youth workers on themes of common interest as well as joint marketing of the services. Connexions has looked to the local youth service as a source of advice and expertise in how to actively involve young people in developing and delivering the Connexions service There is some good sharing of skills, experience and techniques in some local authorities where youth workers are being trained and deployed as personal advisers Youth work outlets are commonly ‘badged’ by Connexions and the two are combining to provide one-stop multi-agency shops 8.2.4. In other partnerships there are examples of youth workers and personal advisers working in a complementary way on particular projects A young woman who attends a youth club, reports that she: is getting on better with the youth worker – with whom she can talk informally about ‘boyfriends and sex’ also has a strong relationship with the personal adviser at the youth club – who helps her with college application forms and careers activities. It seems that, in this youth club, the youth worker and the PA have developed a good relationship and use it to handle particular young people in different ways. Thus the PA introduced herself to young people and explained how she might be able to help out in the future. In other cases, young people reported that they spoke both to the PA and youth worker informally. This seems a very positive example of a PA using youth work facilities to develop relations of trust with her future clients. The youth worker’s skills lie in gaining the trust of the young woman so she can talk about more private matters relating to her feelings and relationships. By attending to her ‘inner world’ in this way, the younger woman is in a stronger position to attend to ‘outer world’ issues such as further education and employment on which she can get support and advice from her personal adviser. 8.2.5. There are further instances of a pragmatic determination to find ways of working together at local level. In one of the shire counties, the youth service is being resourced by Connexions: to secure the active involvement of young people in shaping the new service in providing the front end of the Learning Gateway (now Entry to Employment) in deploying mobile provision to reach more isolated young people.

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8.2.6. Evidence from the reviews indicates that there is considerable variation in the qualities of partnerships being formed between local youth services and Connexions, ranging from the suspicious and hostile to the close and confident. Several are situated somewhere between these two poles. Where they are close and confident, youth work is adding value by engaging young people, who would otherwise remain elusive, in purposeful activities and programmes. Sometimes good relations at one level are not reflected at another; for example, they may be good locally but poor at strategic level. In a number of cases a combination of confusion, fudge and wariness remains. On balance, it is taking time for two services with different values and traditions to find a common approach, a comfortable accommodation of perspectives and the best way of combining resources. 8.3

The voluntary and community sector

8.3.1 More than two-thirds of youth service plans signal the voluntary sector as a key partner and most of these have created or are planning to create service level agreements (SLAs) or some local compact arrangements for formalising the partnership, setting out roles and terms. Other examples of partnership include: Several services have appointed development workers to support the voluntary sector, often with funding made available through the Transforming Youth Work Development Fund. Some services, where relations between the two sectors have been well established, have engaged the voluntary sector in joint strategic planning. Where the partnership between the sectors is less established, there are attempts to move them on a stage by, for example, developing a forum for the voluntary youth work sector. Some local services have plans to enhance the voluntary sector’s capacity to assure quality in their youth work by inviting them to take part in joint training and self-assessment activities with their own staff. 8.3.2. The reviews also demonstrated that the nature and form of the partnership between local authorities and voluntary youth organisations vary considerably. There are examples of partnerships becoming more strategic and of the voluntary sector being called upon to fill gaps in provision. In one shire county, the local authority is giving responsibility to a coordinating voluntary sector body for allocating grants and is looking to the voluntary sector to provide the recreational activities so its own providers can focus more on targeted work with an educational focus. In some wards in a Northern city, youth work is virtually contracted out to small voluntary organisations; one of these is seen as having expertise in youth arts work and funded by the local authority for providing it as part of summer holiday activity programmes. In another shire county where most youth work is secured by the local authority through its secondary schools the voluntary sector is being canvassed and challenged by Connexions to provide programmes and services for young people aged over 16. 8.3.3. The voluntary sector values the local authority youth services principally for the expertise and resources they provide. In the latter case, this goes far beyond grant-

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aid to include access to transport, training of staff, specialist skills and facilities, and valuable resource-rich networks. In one county, membership of the umbrella body for the voluntary and community sector has doubled since a grant from the Transforming Youth Work Development Fund enabled it to reach out to single activity groups. 8.3.4. It is hard to generalise about the state of partnership between local authorities and the voluntary sector. The voluntary sector itself is highly differentiated: It is made up of traditional, uniformed and non-uniformed organisations, national childcare charities that have regional and local units, faith-based groups and newly-emerging community organisations focused on particular neighbourhoods or interest and ethnic groups. These organisations have varying levels of resource, infrastructure and political support. Within any particular local authority area the voluntary sector may not speak with one voice and some local authority youth services may have separate partnerships with different organisations. With some organisations, the partnership may be strong and secure; with others more fragile. 8.3.5. In order to deliver a responsive, diversified service that meets the needs of highly diverse groups of young people, there has to be a clearer recognition of what each sector, and the different parts within each sector, can offer. Attitudes have to be mature and relationships sufficiently robust to agree more realistic expectations and overcome the misunderstandings that inevitably take place from time to time in any partnership. 8.4

Education

8.4.1. The presence of youth workers in schools is considerable. On the evidence of youth service plans, 90 per cent of local services have existing links with schools and 70 per cent have highlighted the continued development of this work as a priority over the next planning period. 8.4.2. Several service plans report the intention of local youth services to move to more formalised, systematic patterns of co-operation with schools from their current ad hoc and bilateral arrangements. In some cases, this is through a Service Level Agreement or its equivalent. In one example, a youth work team is dedicated to a school with a specified core service offer. 8.4.3. Nearly all service plans report a significant increase in work with schools over the last three years. There has been an expansion of youth work posts, especially supporting alternative curriculum initiatives with Year 10 and Year 11 pupils underachieving in school; and in making off site provision of less formal learning. A majority of service plans show that youth workers are also involved in running mentoring or peer education projects with pupils who are excluded or at risk. Youth workers continue to: support after-school activities such as study support and personal and social development programmes in one or two cases supported by the New Opportunities Fund

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provide support for PSHE (personal, social and health education) and life skills. In one authority, the youth officer responsible for life skills links, reported that the alternative curriculum developed through the service has helped to reduce exclusions, youth crime and to improve GCSE results support Connexions personal advisers who are based in formal education in running life skills and self-esteem programmes. in one service, more formal partnership arrangements with the local authority’s Behaviour Support Team have been agreed, based upon the contribution made by effective youth work. work with others in developing summer provision including, in one area, a summer university offer additional support with schools and colleges to young people with learning difficulties and disabilities 8.4.4. This is in marked contrast with what has happened in many services before. Although youth workers have always complemented and reinforced the broad purposes of the formal education system; now they are now being called upon to direct their skills far more emphatically towards the more specific targets of schools and colleges. For example, youth services typically include, in their development plans, proposals to help schools develop alternative curricula and forms of achievement for pupils at Key Stage 4; and securing the validation and accreditation of the learning and achievement of young people through programmes and projects. Some have used the Transforming Youth Work Development Fund to appoint staff to lead and co-ordinate this work across the service. 8.4.5 All but one of the service plans that were analysed as part of this survey showed that citizenship still features strongly as a policy area to which local youth services are strongly committed. Youth workers are being called upon by some schools to help in the development and implementation of the citizenship curriculum which has been a statutory requirement in secondary schools since 2002. 8.4.6. At the same time, a few youth services have forged links with further education and training providers: offering the life skills element of what was the Learning Gateway and is now called Entry to Employment (E2E). Several services have developed collaborative programmes with providers of more formal education with young people aged 16-18 who had not been in education, training or employment. 8.5

Police, Youth Offending and Community Safety

8.5.1. Three quarters of youth service plans show that youth workers have existing partnerships with the police or youth offending services. This is in marked contrast to even ten years ago when police and youth workers were accustomed to regard each other with mutual suspicion. Now some police services are investing heavily (£300,000 in one London borough) in detached youth work and other projects which they see as diverting young people from risky behaviours and crime. some youth services are actively helping devise and deliver strategies for reducing crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour . This places youth workers in a potentially difficult position since credibility with young people 112

may be put in jeopardy if youth workers are seen to be working closely with ‘the law’. 8.5.2. Examples of co-operation include: youth workers supporting those who have recently been released from youth offending institutions youth workers involved in helping a mobile police unit respond to violent incidents on estates by providing intervention and mediation services Splash and Splash Extra (now Positive Activities for Young People) in which young people are identified for diversionary activity programmes devised by youth workers after school and in the holidays. youth workers deploy their skills in Youth Inclusion Projects and after school projects managed by the local Youth Offending Service to again divert young people who have offended or are judged to be at risk of offending youth workers seconded to Youth Offending Teams 8.5.3. These examples demonstrate that youth workers and services are contributing significantly to an important social policy issue, but within the profession this continues to give cause for concern and debate. Some youth workers view this trend unfavourably arguing that it is moving them from an enabling role to one of enforcement, while others confidently asserted that they were able to sustain a clear, enabling youth work role. 8.5.4. The reviews also indicate a much more realistic appreciation, among both partners, of roles and constraints as well as a willingness to explore opportunities for more joint working. In one county, the police and youth workers joined forces in running an activities programme in the summer. 8.6

Health and Social Work

8.6.1. Youth service plans and local service reviews show that: Most have existing partnerships with health services, and well over half of youth services are actively involved in developing teenage pregnancy strategies locally – in a few cases being the lead service. Two out of every five highlight this work as a policy priority for youth work locally. Well over half the services are also key partners with the local Drugs and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT), mainly as part of a multi-agency initiative to reduce substance misuse and educate young people about drugs. 8.6.2. The majority of youth services are involved in some forms of sexual health education, although the spread and depth of this kind of intervention varies considerably. A few have helped take a strategic approach: In one northern city, the youth service is taking the lead in a wide range of informal education initiatives. There are strong links in a few services with the primary care trust in promoting health and youth health forums.

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There are isolated examples of innovative collaboration between youth workers and health professionals, such as with nurses and GPs in a health clinic or with medical staff in a local hospital. 8.6.3 The reviews also revealed much evidence of other collaboration between youth and health services. Teenage pregnancy strategies have been developed in close consultation with youth workers and primary care trusts are making good use of youth work skills and contacts to promote sexual health education among young people. One project for example, not only promotes sexual health, but supports a young parents’ group; as a result there is a much lower incidence of babies being taken into care. A case study of a health service – youth service partnership The project The local authority youth service in a Northern city provides support and informal education for young people and vulnerable adults who are involved in or at risk of sexual exploitation and abuse through prostitution. The project has benefited from high level support across a range of agencies and a flexible, informal way of learning. Why partnership? The issue was first identified by youth workers who saw young people falling through the net of existing provision as they became involved in the sex industry. Information was shared across agencies and serious incidents of abduction, rape and, in one case, murder came to light. Social services and the police acknowledged they were unable to engage effectively with these young people who were at serious risk of harm and a multi-agency approach was called for. Impact Three young women talked about their experience of the project. They were unanimous about the support they receive from the youth workers, many of whom have had similar life experiences to the girls. They valued the homely centre and access to good food and shower facilities; and rated the trips which they had chosen as a group because they had broadened their experience and helped them develop as a group. One young woman described how she had shifted from being a ‘right bitch’ to now having more tolerance of other people. Another said that she ‘would have been in prison by now’ and is now much more aware of what she is doing and its impact on other people. The third who described herself as ‘sexually abused and pregnant’ now feels safe and has been given options to consider about what to do with the baby. All attributed the change to their involvement with youth workers who understood them, did not judge them, were strict when necessary and were consistent. 8.6.4. Although we showed earlier (3.5.30 – 3.5.34) the impact that youth workers in one service have had on care-leavers, of all the major public sector services which impact on young people’s lives, social work appears to have least contact with youth work. This is likely to change as education and social services departments combine to provide a single local authority department to co-ordinate services for the care, welfare, learning and development of children and young people; and, outside these structural changes, as leaving care teams are turning to youth workers to help them

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prepare young people through informal education and personal support for independent living. 8.6.5. While several plans report youth workers developing support and activities for young carers and while there are also a few examples of integrated projects with social workers supporting each other in developing non-formal learning and social education for young people with special needs, these remain relatively few and far between. 8.7.

Multi-agency working

8.7.1. Evidence from the case studies and reviews set out above shows that youth services, particularly the approaches to engagement that they deploy, are increasingly in demand from a range of other services in part because they provide a means of accessing the young people they find hardest to reach. 8.7.2. Making a valued contribution to the delivery of other services brings opportunities and risks. Opportunities include extending the reach and range of provision and accessing additional resources. Nevertheless, there are risks that youth services could become overwhelmed by requests for support: what Davies (1999)33 describes as ‘an offer the service could not refuse’. The youth service is small by most criteria: statutory responsibility, size of budget and workforce, professional status, weight and reputation and the scope to respond to all agencies is clearly limited. 8.7.3. There is also a risk, and one frequently expressed to us by youth service managers, that youth services become subject to ‘mission drift’ – in other words having their purposes subverted or subordinated to those of other relatively more powerful and well resourced services. To avoid such a scenario requires strong strategic leadership and careful, continuing reflection on the needs of young people. 8.8.

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Summary Local youth services are combining in various ways with other service providers to take a more holistic approach to the needs and aspirations of young people in their communities. Clear patterns have emerged including evidence of extensive and developing relations with Connexions, a growing focus on partnerships with schools centred on alternative curriculum development with pupils who have been excluded or are at risk of becoming so, a developing set of relations with police and youth justice agencies which creates professional tensions for some youth workers, with health services on sensitive issues, and more limited partnership work with social services (though impending structural changes may herald further developments here). Partnerships are, not surprisingly, taking time to develop while services familiarise themselves with the different culture, skill sets and procedures of others. Inevitably there are teething problems, for example, relating to establishing protocols for the sharing and use of information. There is scope for the bilateral agreements between particular projects and institutions to be built on and converted into more strategic alliances and programmes

ibid

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Connexions, schools and other services are finding that youth services and organisations can help them meet their targets and policy objectives; consequently perceptions are beginning to change about what youth work is and what youth workers can do

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Section 9: Emerging issues In this section we raise and briefly discuss four enduring issues facing local youth services: Universal (open access) and targeted youth work Identifying need and directing resources Schools and youth work The voluntary engagement of young people They have surfaced consistently throughout this research and pose important questions as the principles and practice of youth work are applied in a fastmoving policy environment. They illustrate the complexity and contingency of decision-making at both strategic and operational levels which have impact on youth work and its future. We raise questions at the end of each sub-section to which there are no straightforward answers and are intended to encourage discussion among policy-makers, service managers and youth workers. 9.1.

Universal (open access) and targeted youth work “we are trying to respond to the national agenda……targeting young people at risk…..at the same time, elected members feel that we must provide for those at the base of the Connexions triangle…..the voluntary sector is expected to do that which the local authority would otherwise do……it’s impossible to provide a universal and a targeted service…..if we only target, community and member support would be lost” (Head of Youth Service in the South West)

9.1.1. Universal youth work, or what we refer to as ‘open access’ provision tends to take place in dedicated youth centres and clubs, offering a range of opportunities to young people within certain age ranges in a particular locality. These clubs and centres fulfil important functions of association and activity (friendship, fun and challenge) and contribute in particular to three of the key social policy objectives described in Section 2.6 of this report: active citizenship, aspiration and achievement, enabling and protection. They usually provide key magnet activities designed to bring young people into their own space and afford contact with their peers and with youth workers. 9.1.2. In our view, the evidence suggests that this kind of provision is important to maintain because: it identifies young people who need more intensive support through casework or project work and thereby contributes, although less directly, to policy objectives concerned with prevention, diversion and re-integration it provides young people who are engaged in special projects with a wider network of relationships, activities and opportunities of its intrinsic contribution described in paragraph 9.1.1 above. It is also justified on grounds of entitlement, especially in areas where there are few other similar opportunities for young people.

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9.1.3. Universal or open access provision is also open to criticism because: it is harder to demonstrate outcomes from it – for example, because of the fluid membership and attendance it tends to be relatively more expensive because of the costs associated with maintaining or upgrading premises (which are not present in other forms of provision) it may attract high numbers but not all will engage in the informal education process when it only attracts low numbers it cannot be said to provide value for money. 9.1.4. Youth workers also argue that open access provision provides important opportunities for preventative work with young people ‘softly targeted’ as at risk. Within the overall context of a busy, open session we witnessed youth workers in a small market town in the south west delivering targeted, issue-based youth work. The full-time worker, having identified a small group of young men at risk and on the periphery of the local drug culture, actively engaged them in a quiz focusing upon the dangers associated with drug and substance misuse. A small group of young women was also observed discussing with staff their involvement in a peer mediation or mentoring project, due to start the following week. This was clearly most important to them: “Without the youth centre and the activities on offer I wouldn’t really have the opportunity to go anywhere or do anything” (Young woman) However, at the same time the open door policy creates difficulties for the staff sometimes because of the large numbers that respond. “We don’t advertise activities anymore, we just couldn’t be able to respond and cope with a further influx of numbers. It’s frustrating sometimes, you feel like you are just supervising the centre, not fully responding to the needs of individuals as quickly as you would ideally like” (Part-time Youth Worker) While demonstrating the capacity of youth work to provide a link between ‘universal’ and ‘targeted’ work, this example also shows the difficult balance that has to be struck in allocating finite resources to serve these two aspects of youth work. Clearly a commitment to target particular young people in and through universal provision imposes constraints on the ‘universality’ of the provision since numbers have to be limited. If they are not, then the capacity to provide a more intensive, tailored service is compromised. 9.1.5. Nevertheless, the provision of open access centre-based provision is viewed as an essential foundation for effective youth work. “Young people can and do make contact there. The centres are also used a great deal as a venue for projects run by detached workers and by partnership projects. In reverse, when young people are leaving projects, especially shortterm ones, the centre-based projects are there for them if they choose.”. (Report of Review of a Local Youth Service in London)

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The example in 9.1.4 also suggests the compatibility and inter-relationship between open access and targeted youth work – they should not be seen as discrete alternatives. 9.1.6. The evidence from the reviews shows that there has been a partial shift in the balance of resources towards more targeted work, though open-access provision continues to remain a core element of provision for most local services. Current priorities for targeted work tend to be established as a consequence of a combination of national and local policies, in particular: reducing the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training preventing teenage pregnancies countering anti-social behaviour supporting young people who are in care or leaving care. 9.1.7. While targeted work presents crucial opportunities for young people at risk of social exclusion to engage in purposeful relationships to achieve improved outcomes , a focus on it should not be to the neglect of the inter-dependent relationship between universal provision and targeted work. Investment in universal provision is also, we would suggest, in the interests of targeted activity a) because of its preventative and diversionary potential (see sections 2 and 3) and b) because it provides a forum in which the social and emotional needs of young people can be observed and responded to over time. 9.1.8. In one county youth service there was a severe reduction in the number of open-access centres as part of the service’s policy to re-focus its efforts and resources in supporting school pupils who neither thrive nor achieve their potential. The possible dangers of this policy change are already evident: the lack of facilities in which to locate the project work, the loss of sustained contact with young people over time, and the reduction of first rung preventative work, and consequent loss of entitlement for young people. 9.1.9. Aside from the arguments in support of universal youth services, and the value of recognising the interrelationship between universal provision and targeted provision, it is also important to draw attention to the issues, both positive and negative, that relate specifically to targeted youth work: On a positive note it presents an opportunity: for young people whose usual contact with adults is with those applying sanctions, to build (intensive) relationships with those who do not pre-judge them; through multi-agency work, for professional staff to pick up different insights and skills from working alongside each other that they can apply in their ‘home’ settings and which may lead to innovative interventions; for young people to receive intensive attention and support and have their learning and achievements recognised and accredited, often for the first time. 9.1.10. Less positively, targeted youth work: 119

risks imposing conditions for contact and engagement that are not entirely voluntary from the perspective of the young person which in turn may have implications for the nature of the relationship between young person and youth worker (see 9.4. below); interventions may require specialist skills beyond those in the repertoire of the part-time youth worker; may lose its essentially non-formal, flexible character in response to a tightly specified service requirement. Indeed some targeted interventions may become so formal and non-negotiable (both in delivery and content) that they no longer qualify as youth work. 9.1.11. In short, we would suggest that there are likely to be adverse consequences for universal or open-access youth work and for local communities if the trend of directing resources principally towards those young people who are socially excluded continues unchecked. As one chief officer of a local authority reported: “[I would be] horrified by the amount of resource that would be required if the service is to work effectively with the most hard-to-reach young people – and the resources that would therefore be lost to other work” 9.1.12. This dilemma was evident in most of the services that took part in the reviews, as senior management teams struggled to strike a balance between open access and more targeted or project-focused work whilst retaining or indeed enhancing the flexibility with which they are able to respond to emergent social issues. Three examples drawn from the reviews serve to illustrate the associated difficulties: In one service, the lack of a clear policy on the balance between universal and open access provision and targeted work was exacerbated by the absence of robust statistical data and management information systems. This meant that the service was unable to provide evidence of take-up or measure its performance with regard to either form of provision. Therefore it was unable to make informed judgements about how best to use resources. In a second, the service was seen by other services as ‘beleaguered’ by the low levels of resourcing and unable to meet the range of young people’s needs in the borough and to respond to expectations that “it will have a 24/7 presence wherever youth problems crop up”. These severe constraints have been the main driver behind the move towards more targeted provision, leaving some youth workers concerned about the inequitable provision for ‘ordinary’ young people who do not ‘qualify’ for targeted provision. In a third, the service attached great importance to open-access provision but did not have sufficient resources to make it available in each part of the borough, at the same time as increasing support for particular target groups. A more productive strategic partnership with the voluntary sector would have helped but not all the voluntary organisations were prepared or able to make a more focused approach to their work. 9.1.13. Juggling resources between universal or open access and targeted provision is an ever-present challenge in managing local youth services. These pressures can be mitigated where services have a more consistent and stable resource base and can work with other partner services to ensure more comprehensive and responsive

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provision, founded on clear agreements about the particular role and contribution of each. Questions Is it possible to model different ways of balancing universal or open access and targeted provision, according to local socio-demographic factors? How can the service make better use of management information and performance data to inform judgements about how to resource balanced provision? What can be learned from examples of targeting programmes and activities in open-access provision? Is it possible to map the movement of young people between open-access and targeted youth provision in order to learn more about how each adds value to the other? 9.2.

Identifying needs and directing resources

9.2.1. As we have just seen, local youth services find it difficult to manage the countervailing pressures to target scarce resources to areas of greatest need on grounds of social justice, while seeking to ensure that the opportunities for personal and social development remain available to all who wish to take them. 9.2.2 In many local authorities we found examples of elected members and officers trying to devise more strategic policies for providing services for young people, based on need. However and notwithstanding a recent focus on development planning and evidence that local youth services are beginning to move closer to the corporate centre of local decision-making, we found little evidence of needs being identified on a systematic basis to identify gaps in provision and priorities among the local youth population. The use of demographic and other kinds of data , information and intelligence, including that from the local communities and organisations the youth service works with, was limited. Where such analysis is undertaken, the absence of micro-level (e.g. estate-based) data and analytical tools means that what is done tends to be relatively broad brush. 9.2.3. Only one of the services reviewed had created a formula for allocating resources, according to accepted criteria of need. “we want to keep with the Connexions vision of a universal service with targeted vision…..so 45% of youth work hours are allocated on the basis of the youth population per ward and 55% on deprivation factors, such as the number of households claiming benefits” (Head of Youth Service in Yorkshire and the Humber) Detached youth work across this same city is allocated on the same basis, and plays an important part in reaching young people who are on the margins of service provision. Core services are provided in centres, some provided with local partners. In addition there are several specialist projects which either operate across the city or may be targeted at specific priority areas or groups.

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9.2.4. While less precise, another service reported that it used ‘global data’ collected by the Connexions partnership to help provide strategic direction and priorities for youth work, which in turn, resulted in a broad-based youth service through which targeted work takes place. 9.2.5. We of course recognise that needs analysis cannot be reduced to a technical process of statistical analysis, and rightfully should also capture a range of stakeholder interests who have a part to play in interpreting that analysis, expressing their own views on needs and priorities and in turn, agreeing on (transparent) patterns of resource allocation. Key stakeholders to this process should include: The young people should be involved in identifying their own needs if the active involvement of young people is a key feature of youth work. This can happen at different levels of the service – unit, area and service-wide. Different methods are currently used to involve young people in identifying needs: representative structures, consultations, user surveys and peer research. Gaining the views of young people does however raise particular issues: • recognising that the needs, interests and wishes of young people are sometimes confused and conflated; • acknowledging that the educational purposes of youth work are not always the priority of the young; • ensuring the representation of different groups of young people who might benefit from the service in the process; • reconciling competing and conflicting needs. The local authority, which, as the key funder of youth work, establishes its own priorities. These may not be the same as those of the local communities or the young people. For example: • we have come across instances where local authorities retain facilities that may have outlived their usefulness and relevance, because closure is seen to be politically unacceptable; • there are also examples of a local authority making a radical policy change and switching resources from one form of provision to another in order to satisfy a different strategic priority. Here local authority priorities may seem to be at odds with the interests of the local community and young people. Central government has its priorities. For example, since the publication of Bridging the Gap in 1999 and the evolution of Connexions in its wake, there has been a major impetus behind reducing the numbers of 16 and 17 year-olds not in education, employment or training (NEET). This has sometimes been at the expense of other young people who have traditionally been users of youth services (Hoggarth et al, forthcoming). Similarly, government has encouraged services to work together at different levels to: • cut down the rate of teenage conceptions, sexually transmitted infections, anti-social behaviour, truancy and exclusion • improve standards in education

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engage young people in citizenship enhance the support of young people in or leaving the care of the local authority. Government agencies responsible for the care, learning, welfare and development of the young are increasingly undertaking assessments of the needs and risk conditions of the young people they have responsibility for, whether, for example, they are providing services under contract to Connexions partnerships, or youth offending teams working under the auspices of crime and disorder partnerships. Youth workers also have views about the needs of the young people they work with, based on their day-to-day contact and engagement with them. They have to convert fairly straightforward needs as expressed by the young people – such as keeping safe and healthy, making friends, escaping the stress of school and family life – into developmental tasks and programmes that attend to the holistic needs of the young and issues that they consider are priorities. 9.2.6. There are inevitably costs associated with undertaking more detailed analyses of needs. Resources spent on needs analysis have to be proportionate to resources remaining to be spent on delivery. A balance has to be struck between: research and development (including assessment of needs) planning making provision monitoring and evaluating its impact developing the service infrastructure to raise the standards of youth work and report on its outcomes and impact. 9.2.7. The identification of needs and directing of resources is complex and contentious in all public services. There are always deserving cases and it is hard to decide on priorities. Nevertheless, local youth services have some way to go before finding reliable and transparent procedures for doing so. Questions What is it possible to glean from existing practice about how needs can be identified systematically using different sources of data; and how resources might be allocated in response? What can be learned from examples of services consulting widely with different stakeholders in assessing needs? How should youth services identify needs and allocate resources independently of other services for young people? Is it possible to calculate the costs and benefits of using different procedures for assessing needs and targeting resources? 9.3

Schools and Youth Work “The major thing that the youth service is able to give us is that it helps the young people feel special. They are different people from a different place 123

interested in young people and offering things in a lively way. It’s not just the school saying it again. They come in from outside assuring young people they can do something and by spending time with the students to empower them, they skill them up…..and they do it” (Head of Individual Student Needs, secondary school in a northern city) 9.3.1. The relationship between schools and youth work has been a long one spanning sixty years. The idea that the two services should co-operate to develop and extend educational opportunities for young people first appeared in the McNair report of 1944 29 and was taken further in the Albemarle report (1960), Milson-Fairbairn (1970) and Thompson (1982). The arguments in favour of the relationship include: efficiency (dual use of premises) curriculum (personal, social and health education) pedagogy (different styles of learning and working with young people) welfare (extending the pastoral support of school to include advice and counselling) social (the school becoming a focus for community action and cohesion). 9.3.2. This relationship has not always been comfortable. An unpublished report by H M Inspectorate on school-based youth work in the south east of England in 1985 identified serious flaws: there was no coherent educational philosophy underpinning the work the location of youth wings in schools was based on opportunism rather than need or demand head teachers had limited understanding of youth work aims and methods the pattern of provision was essentially recreational and social there were confusing lines of management, accountability and reporting for youth workers both to head teachers and to youth officers. 9.3.3. There are benefits for schools. For example, schools have sometimes looked to youth workers to: handle situations they find difficult or where they find their teachers lack the requisite skills and experience, such as personal, social and health education (including drugs-related), counselling and crisis intervention, and alternative education programmes for those who are disaffected and underachieving help develop extra-curricular activities that add value to the work of the school; examples include residential programmes, outdoor activities, youth exchanges, community service, volunteering and citizenship. 9.3.4. Some schools appoint youth workers specifically to work with young people identified by teachers, education welfare officers, or special education needs coordinators as struggling with the conventional classroom. This is often to give the pupils and teachers a chance to distance themselves from each other, a kind of cooling-off period, in which it is hoped the young person might develop some of the social skills and coping strategies needed to function as part of a group. This may 29

Board of Education (1944) Teachers and Youth Leaders, Report of the Committee appointed by the President of the Board of Education to consider the supply, recruitment and training of teachers and youth leaders, HMSO

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entail specified activities such as an anger management programme, an art or drama workshop or an off-site motor vehicle project. These arrangements are usually temporary and short-term, sanctioned and monitored by a member of the school’s management or pastoral team. However, re-integration is rarely straightforward because while the young person may have changed their behaviour outside the classroom, a return to established routines, regulations and relationships (with teachers and peers) can lead to reversion to former patterns. If the pupil changes but the institution does not, there may be no significant change and the youth work may not appear to have had any impact. This can lead to scepticism on the part of teachers about the value of what some describe as ‘treats for naughty kids’. 9.3.5. For the full benefit of youth work activities to be felt in the school, strong links are needed so that the school is kept informed about changes and developments in the young people. For example, teachers had not been informed about the achievements of some of their pupils on a summer university programme on returning to school the following term. It is sometimes assumed that once a youth work programme or activity has been completed and a return to more formal education provision arranged, all will be well. Successful (re)integration is difficult to achieve without close liaison between the school and the youth service and continued support of the young person by both. 9.3.6. More generally, we have found evidence of a lack of clarity concerning the contribution that youth work makes to the goals of formal schooling. This in turn may be indicative of limited strategic thinking between head teachers, service managers and local authority officers and members. For example, youth services, schools and local authorities’ behaviour support teams report different interpretations of the purpose of youth work in schools. Some see it as an alternative to school, recognising that conventional school does not work for all young people. This potentially implies the need for a more sustained funding commitment over the longer term. a temporary, short-term expedient with a view to the pupils returning to the more formal school environment. This implies the need for effective transition arrangements which recognise the need for the school and the individual young person to adopt changed behaviour in relation to each other. 9.3.7. Despite these differences, we have found a growing number of initiatives where: schools and local authorities are seeking the involvement of youth workers in devising and delivering alternative curricula for young people who are not benefiting from school the youth service is acting as an intermediary between school, family and some other education provider, such as a local college, to ensure a more fitting educational offer for the young person. 9.3.8. Many of these arrangements have, until now, tended to be loose and uncoordinated, often the result of a bilateral agreement reached between a particular youth project and a single school. They rarely demonstrate the service-wide strategic thinking and planning that is likely to be needed if youth services are to seize the opportunities for a more systematic contribution to policy heralded by the Children Bill (2004). 125

9.3.9. Under these new proposals, schools are identified as key players for improving the co-ordination, impact and quality of services for children and young people. In this context, local youth services in partnerships with schools have a potentially important contribution to make to the personalised learning, care and support agenda of government. Youth services located within emerging directorates of education and children’s services are well placed to bridge formal education and broader welfare and support services. Nevertheless, practical achievements will depend on a clearer understanding and agreement about the contribution of youth work 9.3.10. It is by no means clear at this stage how youth work will play into these new arrangements and whether the rather loose affiliations that have tended to predominate hitherto will be tightened up and formalised. The proposals provide an opportunity for those youth services located within the emerging directorates of education and children’s services to provide clearer, more consistent, better resourced support and informal learning for those young people identified as at risk or in need. Questions What evidence can be found of the most effective ways for schools and youth services to work together to maximise young people’s learning and achievement? What are the best arrangements for accreditation that add value to the work of the youth service and retain the relationships of trust and reciprocity between youth workers and young people? What benefits can accrue to young people, in particular their inclusion, education and development by formalising relationships between schools and the local youth service? How can the youth service optimally position itself in local authorities and children’s trusts so best use can be made of its experience, skills and resources?

9.4

The voluntary engagement of young people “It’s going to be difficult working with agencies wanting us to help them achieve their targets……whose terms will we be working on?….young people are not going to want to come if they have been sent…..” (Youth Worker, northern city)

9.4.1 Earlier we mentioned that the voluntary nature of the youth work relationship is central to the successful building of trust; and that this, in turn, contributes to the respect and self-esteem that young people acquire and so greatly value. This is being challenged by a conspicuous trend, in services for young people, of referrals to youth projects – by schools, Connexions, youth offending services and other agencies – which contain an element of compulsion.

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9.4.2. Youth workers are particularly concerned that the discretion that has been a hallmark of their professional practice is put at risk when young people are sent to their centres and projects under circumstances where choice has been replaced by a sense of obligation. 9.4.3 It requires considerable skill on the part of youth workers to convert a sense of ‘having to’ into a preparedness to negotiate, so that ultimately the young people may want to become engaged. However, in most cases where young people were, at the first point of contact, required to attend – for example, Positive Activities for Young People, the Youth Inclusion Project, the After Care Service and many of the alternative curriculum projects we observed – youth workers had been able to secure their engagement in activities that gave them a sense of enjoyment and achievement. They used their skills of negotiation and persuasion, and – gently and gradually – gave the young people incremental choice and control. The young people observed on an intensive social surveillance programme (ISSP) run by a voluntary youth organisation were ‘persistent offenders with complex needs’. The majority of those interviewed spoke openly of their prior criminality and individually revealed and reflected upon complex personal circumstances. As part of the ISSP programme, staff had worked with them to develop activities designed to improve basic skills, self-esteem and overall social and self awareness. The degree to which staff had attempted to work in partnership with the young people and empowered them to accept ownership of the programme and activities was evident in a remark made by one young man: “We chose what to spend time on – we planned the six weeks between us. Before everyone else is in control, never us.” Members of the group spoke positively of their involvement in numerous activities, ranging from painting and decorating, to raising funds for local charities. Although some had earlier shown little interest, all benefited from structured sessions on racism and politics that engaged them successfully, enhancing their sense of self awareness and social responsibility. Separate directed activities to meet the needs of individuals were built in, as were group events such as go-karting and quad biking. Individually, the young people were able to reflect upon the progress they had made in raising confidence and aspirations, some talking positively about looking for work and moving on with their lives. 9.4.4. In those case study projects where the young people had been referred by another agency, and both the youth service and the referring organisation were partners in the work, one of the essential operating principles of effective youth work – enabling young people to make choices and decisions and take responsibility for the consequences – remained intact. Youth workers acknowledged challenging attitudes and behaviour but did not condone them. They made it clear what was and what was not acceptable within the project and negotiated ground rules. Because they had been party to this process, the young people respected what had been agreed.

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9.4.5. Nevertheless, youth workers are concerned that the discretion that has been a hallmark of their professional practice is being put at risk when young people are sent to youth centres and projects under a sense of obligation. However, our analysis suggests that the key to securing voluntary engagement is not necessarily the conditions under which the young people first come to the project but how they are received and treated when they arrive. If they are accorded respect and responsibility, and if they are given choices, their attitudes and behaviour can change. 9.4.6. It is important not to over simplify what is often a highly complex process. Along the way misjudgements can be made, expectations raised and dashed, misunderstandings occur. Relationships of trust and reciprocity are not built quickly. Agencies have to be patient for results. And young people often find it difficult to sustain their sense of responsibility when they return to their families and communities and when the support of the youth workers may no longer be so easily available. 9.4.7. Overall, the balance of evidence does not support the view sometimes expressed by managers and youth workers that the distinctive characteristics of youth work are being subordinated to the pressures of multi-agency working of which formal or compulsory referral between agencies is part. More frequently, we saw partnerships appearing to extend choice and opportunities to young people and, in the process, partner agencies of the youth service gained valuable insights into how to engage young people constructively. It is evident, nevertheless, that the challenges facing youth workers in these cases are different to those facing youth workers engaged with young people who have more freely chosen to attend in the fashion more typically associated with open-access provision. Questions 1. Is the training of youth workers equipping them sufficiently with the communication and negotiation skills required for effective youth work with young people who have been referred to them? 2. Can local youth services develop the means to identify and record accurately the process, outcomes and impact of effective youth work where young people have been directed to attend by another agency? 3. How are the risks and rewards of retaining the voluntary engagement of young people shared between local youth services and partners when working with young people who have been referred for youth work programmes and interventions. 4. Under the pressures of high policy expectations and constrained resources can youth services sustain the kind of intensive practice that ensures that the engagement of young people remains voluntary at all times?

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Section 10: Conclusions In this final section we bring together our conclusions from the research under three main headings: The distinctive purpose of youth work and youth services The contribution of youth work to social policy The challenges facing youth work and the youth service. 10.1

The distinctive purpose of youth work and youth services

10.1.1. Through this research we have found that youth work is essentially concerned with promoting personal and social development of young people through the building, maintenance and development of relationships: among and between young people between young people and their communities (including significant adults) between young people and youth workers. These relationships of trust, reciprocity and mutual regard lead to outcomes and impact which benefit the young people principally, and also their communities; and which contribute to the responsiveness of other services and to the achievement of policy objectives. (a)

Building social capital

10.1.2. Relationships thus characterised contribute towards social capital by building stronger, more sustainable communities where people feel safe, have a sense of belonging, do things for themselves and for each other, and participate as active citizens. Youth workers thereby also make an important contribution to social inclusion. Earlier we distinguished between two forms of social capital: bonding social capital, which brings people of similar attitudes and dispositions together, sometimes to the exclusion of others bridging social capital, which seeks to bring together people of outwardly different attitudes and dispositions, out of recognition that there will be mutual benefit and what they share may be more important than what differentiates them. 10.1.3. Bridging social capital in particular is important in the context of young people’s development, in particular those who come from disadvantaged communities. Young people’s potential can be limited by the narrowness of their immediate environment. Youth workers make these boundaries more elastic, can open up young people to contacts, networks and opportunities where their skills and qualities can be expressed and developed. In combination with other opportunities, youth work offers alternative routes to greater independence to those conventionally provided by education and the labour market.

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(b)

Building human capital

10.1.4. One of the main drivers of the government’s economic prosperity agenda is the development of human capital. A main strand of the government policy has been to invest in young people (and adults) by furnishing them with the skills and qualifications for the knowledge economy. Policies such as the skills strategy, increasing and widening participation in lifelong learning, and the reform of 14-19 education have been established for this purpose. 10.1.5. Whereas social capital is predicated on notions of mutually supportive relationships, shared aspirations and collective will and action; human capital is more usually acquired through individual pathways and action plans leading to selfdetermination, achievement and autonomy. These twin objectives chime with the pursuit of the goals of social inclusion and autonomy that lie at the heart of European youth policy. (c)

Building social capital and human capital together

10.1.6. This research project has found that the vital skills of building relationships, communications and self-awareness (social capital) can be learned and acquired, most fittingly within the non-formal learning arena of youth work. It is one of the few professional arenas where the building and development of social capital can be seen as its primary social and moral purpose. In doing so, youth work provides the means (rooted firmly in the local community) for other social policies directed more clearly towards social inclusion (for example 14-19 educational reform, welfare to work) to ‘work better’. At the same time it can and does contribute to the stock of human capital, since young people through the activities and association provided by youth work, develop the wider skills, knowledge and understanding that equip them well for the worlds of education, training and work. We have seen how these goals are achieved through all types of youth work, including the activities and relationships secured through open access provision. (d)

Starting with the young person’s world; rooted in their communities

10.1.7 Youth workers also take it as read that when they work with young people they seek to work with them holistically, and relate to them in the context of the broader environment of home, neighbourhood, peer group and social/cultural background. Key elements include: embedding youth work in local communities vesting choice and control in young people. The contrast with most other social policy professions is clear: the teacher who relates primarily to the young person within the narrower context of the school, or the medical practitioner who relates to the young person in the narrower setting of the hospital or clinic. We have found evidence of services increasingly recognising the benefits of youth work’s more young-person centred approach and through engagement of youth services adapting their policies and practices accordingly. The role of the youth worker as mediator between the lived experience of the young people and the aspirations of public services is crucial.

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(e)

A redrawn purpose for youth work

10.1.8. The challenge for the youth work profession is to argue persuasively for the creation of social capital as a legitimate purpose with those who command the resources at national and local levels; and to demonstrate convincingly to them that youth work can produce the kind of ‘soft’ outcomes that facilitate and lead on to the development of human capital which, in turn, results in further education and employment. This is a particular challenge given the difficulties of demonstrating reliably that such investment pays dividends. Despite these difficulties, the importance of the learning domain of ‘soft’ outcomes remains high, reflected in the salience given to recognising the wider achievements of young people in the proposed reforms to education for 14-19 year-olds in England, and the value attached to nonformal education in European youth policy. 10.1.9. The distinctive contribution of youth workers compared to others who work with young people (e.g. personal advisers in the Connexions service) is that they tend to work with young people as individuals and in groups. Other professionals tend to work with young people only as individuals taking what is sometimes referred to as a casework approach. At the same time the more open-ended character of the relationship between youth worker and young person enables the youth worker to use the group as a means for young people to learn about roles and relationships, thereby developing some of the wider social skills, such as teamwork. These are regarded as key to becoming effective as citizens in the community and as employees in the work place. 10.2

The contribution of youth work to social policy

10.2.1 We now summarise how youth work contributes to the five major social policy objectives described early in the report (2.8) which closely correspond to the five major outcomes set out as important for young people in the government’s next steps in implementing the Children Bill. Active citizenship: making a positive contribution to the community and to society . Although their routine involvement in the governance, management, delivery and review of youth work needs to be enhanced, young people’s engagement in more formal representative structures gives those who are involved the chance to rehearse the skills and roles associated with citizenship and community development. Aspiration and achievement: getting the most out of life and developing broad skills for adulthood The activities and programmes of most youth projects, clubs and centres extend opportunities for young people to achieve and derive enjoyment from doing so. The extension of opportunities for having such achievements accredited adds value. If these facilities were not successful in these respects young people would be unlikely to attend. Through the key skills of teamwork, decision-making, programme planning and project management young people, working alongside youth workers, acquire and develop many of the skills required for working and community life.

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Enabling and protecting: equipping young people with the relationships, skills, knowledge and understanding that help them steer a safe course in the world. Youth provision offers a safe haven for young people from risky situations at school, in the home or on the streets and an increasing number of projects are being introduced that afford protection, enabling young people to navigate their way through ‘the risk society’, and challenge anti-social behaviour by creating safer environments. Prevention and diversion: being protected from harm and neglect and growing up able to look after themselves; enjoying physical and mental health and living a healthy lifestyle. By working closely with health professionals in primary care trusts, health promotion teams and by dint of pioneering work in hospitals and clinics, youth workers are helping to keep young people healthy. Through street work, projects and open-access provision young people are given opportunities to divert themselves from risky behaviours, express themselves, make decisions and explore the consequences of their actions. Reintegration: helping those who are excluded stay close to and make use of services and communities. Largely through advocacy and mediation youth workers help to create a closer fit between the needs of young people and the expectations and demands of family, school and community. For those on the margins of provision, youth work can be a lifeline. At the same time youth work supports young people in representing their views and experiences so that public services and institutions can be more flexible and responsive. 10.3

The challenges facing youth work and the youth service

10.3.1 We have shown how resources for youth work, which vary considerably across the country, are being increasingly targeted towards priority groups, neighbourhoods and issues. In this climate, a balance between open-access and more targeted work has become more difficult to maintain. At the same time, there is little evidence to suggest that local priorities are drawn up systematically on the basis of reliable assessments of need, and resources directed accordingly on a service-wide basis. 10.3.2. We have observed variations in the form, content and delivery of local youth services which would seem to imply differential capacities to achieve positive impact on resident youth populations, communities and other services. We have suggested that the impact of youth work could be enhanced by more consistent and stable funding, continued development of leadership at local level, stronger and more mature partnerships, and enhanced effectiveness in managing local services. Other issues that need to be more systematically tackled include: the development of inclusive curriculum and accreditation opportunities 132

the support, training and development of the workforce, in particular parttime youth workers including volunteers the collection, interpretation and use of management information the application of quality assurance procedures that work at all levels of the service the planning for impact, by specifying outcomes to be achieved and methods for identifying, recording and demonstrating them the development of a range of reliable tools for measuring the benefits of what youth work achieves, for tracking young people’s development and yielding valuable management information. The service could usefully involve young people in devising some of these measures the clarification of what local youth services and partner agencies can offer each other by working together and pooling resources and thereby creating more strategic alliances and sustainable interventions. sustaining a balanced offer of youth work provision. The risk is that the more that project work can demonstrate convincingly the outcomes of interventions, the more it feeds the decline of the work that cannot. Some kind of development project is needed that helps youth workers in open access centres and clubs better demonstrate the value and benefits of what they do. 10.3.3. One of the successes of youth work has been its peer-led initiatives and the development of ways to involve and engage young people in decision-making. It is through these means that we can revitalise democracy and public services. These should be celebrated by showing how they lead to the development of both human and social capital. The service would be helped by more sustained investment in youth work in recognition of its value and greater championing by all stakeholders, including government, of its achievements and contribution to policy objectives.

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Annexe 1 – Youth services and projects included in this study List of local youth services included in survey 1. Barnet 2. Blackburn 3. Blackpool 4. Bournemouth 5. Bristol 6. Camden 7. Cheshire 8. Cornwall 9. Croydon 10. Derby 11. Dudley 12. Durham 13. Gateshead 14. Hackney 15. Hammersmith & Fulham 16. Hartlepool 17. Herefordshire 18. Kent 19. Kingston 20. Kirklees 21. Lancashire 22. Leeds 23. Leicester 24. Lincolnshire 25. Liverpool 26. Middlesbrough 27. Milton Keynes 28. Newham 29. Norfolk 30. North Lincolnshire 31. North Yorkshire 32. Northumberland 33. Nottinghamshire 34. Peterborough 35. Poole 36. Portsmouth 37. Reading 38. Salford 39. Sheffield 40. Somerset 41. Shropshire 42. Stockport 43. Suffolk 44. Thurrock 45. Tower Hamlets 46. Waltham Forest 47. West Sussex 48. Wolverhampton 49. Worcestershire

5 3 3 3 3 4 1 1 5 3 2 1 2 4 4 3 1 1 5 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 3 5 1 3 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 2 1 3 4 5 1 2 1

50. York

3

1 = County Council 2 = Metropolitan District 3 = Unitary 4 = Inner London 5 = Outer London

16 9 16 4 5

Total

50

Those in bold took part in the local service reviews

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Projects visited for Case Studies Derby City Council

Poole Borough Council

Sinfin Youth Centre and NoSch Club

Healthy Youth Clubs

Mandela Youth Centre

Quay Advice Centre

London Borough of Hammersmith &

Reading Borough Council

Fulham

‘Come & Get It’ Sexual Health Education

Out on Thursday

Programme

Kent County Council

Salford City Council

Key Training

Fairbridge (Greater Manchester)

Alternative Curriculum Project

Loud and Proud

Drugs education Lancashire County Council

Somerset County Council

After Care Service

New Generation Youth Centre, Chard

Leyland Drugs Project

South Somerset District Action Group

Positive Activities for Young People What Now? Information & Advice Services Leeds City Council

London Borough of Waltham Forest

Sexual Health (Health Education)

Detached Youth Work Project (DAAT

Buddies

funded)

West Yorkshire Youth Association –

Eastside Summer University

Youth Arts

Streetwise (Police funded)

Middlesbrough Borough Council

Wolverhampton City Council

Entry to Employment (E2E)

Penn Island Skate Park – Wolverhampton

V4YP

Hospital Youth Work Team -

Youth Inclusion Project

Wolverhampton

Peterborough City Council Unity Project XL Scheme

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Annexe 2 - Evaluating the Impact of Youth Work: Analysis Of Survey Samples This is not a representative sample or one based on random sampling principles. The overall sample consisted of 630 young people. It is divided into two sub-samples. The first sub-sample of 395 young people completed a questionnaire compiled by De Montfort University and administered by six of the local youth services that took part in the reviews – Kent, Leeds, Peterborough, Reading, Somerset and Wolverhampton. The services were asked to circulate the questionnaire among up to 100 young people using their provision on a single night. They were asked to contact young people using the three main types of provision: open-access centres or clubs, street-based youth work, and youth projects. The second sub-sample of 235 young people completed the questionnaires during the visits made to the case study projects and centres in both the local authority and voluntary sectors, drawn from some of the local youth services that took part in the reviews. Characteristics of sample 1. Gender Male 52% Female 48% 2. Age range 13 14 15 16 17 18

11% 18% 20% 16% 9% 5%

3. Ethnic origin White Asian Black/African Caribbean Dual Heritage Other No response

74% 2% 13% 6% 4% 1%

4. Type of youth work Open Access Street-based Project

37% 14% 49%

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Use of provision by age and gender 5. Age band and type of provision Open Access Street-based Project 6. Gender and type of provision Open Access Male Street-based Male Project Male

13-15 36% 17% 47% 40% 14% 46%

16-19 30% 12% 58% Female Female Female

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34% 14% 52%

Annexe 3 - Bibliography Astbury, R. and Knight, B. (2003) Fairbridge Research Project Final Report. London, Charities Evaluation Services. Beckham, D. (2001) “Managing Complexity”, Health Forum Journal, Nov/Dec 2001, pp 41-43 Bentley, T. (1998) Learning beyond the classroom: Education in a changing world. London, Routledge. Board of Education (1944) Teachers and Youth Leaders. Report of the Committee appointed by the President of the Board of Education to consider the supply, recruitment and training of teachers and youth leaders (The McNair Report). London, HMSO. Coles, B. England, J. and Rugg, J. (1999) “Playing its part in ‘joined –up’ solutions: youth work on social housing estates”. Youth and Policy, No 64, pp. 41-55. Community Cohesion Unit (2003) The Report of The Independent Review Team Chaired by Ted Cantle. Available: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/comrace/ Accessed 24 April 2004 Coopers and Lybrand (1994) Preventative Strategy for Young People in Trouble. Report. ITV Telethon/Prince’s Trust. Crimmens, D. Factor, F. Jeffs, T. Pitts, J. Pugh, C. Spencer, J. and Turner, P. (2004) Reaching socially excluded young people. A national study of street-based youth work. Leicester, Youth Work Press. Davies, B. and Gibson, A. (1967) Social Education of the Adolescent. London, University of London Press. Davies, B. (1999) From Voluntaryism to Welfare: A History of the Youth Service in England Volume I 1939-79. Leicester, Youth Work Press Davies, B. (1999) From Thatcherism to New Labour: A History of the Youth Service in England Volume II. Leicester, Youth Work Press. Department for Education and Skills/ Connexions (2002) Transforming Youth Work: Resourcing Excellent Youth Services. London, Department for Education and Skills/Connexions. Department for Education and Skills (2002) 14-19: extending opportunities, raising standards. Green Paper, Cm 5342. HMSO.

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Department for Education and Skills (2004) Every Child Matters: Next Steps. The Response: Towards a Shared Programme of Change. London, Department for Education and Skills. Department of Education and Science (1969) Youth and Community Work in the 70s (The Fairbairn-Milson Report). London, HMSO. Department of Education and Science (1987) Education Observed 6 Effective youth work. A report by HM Inspectors. London, Department of Education and Science. Economic and Social Research Council (2002) Youth Citizenship and Social Change Research Briefings 1-17. Available www.tsa.uk.com/YCSC/ Accessed 17 June 2004 European Commission (2001) A New Impetus for European Youth. White Paper Com (2001) 681, November 21. Strasbourg, European Commission. Evans, R. Clisby, S. Alsop, R. and Craig, G. (2002) Does Youth Action Pay? An Evaluation of Action Pays. Hull, University of Hull. Fabes, R. Payne, B. and Wood, J. (2003) Who says nothing ever happens around here? Innovation in working with young people in rural areas. Leicester, Youth Work Press. Fleming, J. (2004) Evaluation of YouthBank. Unpublished report. Leicester, Centre for Social Action, De Montfort University France, A. and Wiles, P. (1996) The Youth Action Scheme. A report of the national evaluation. London, Department for Education and Employment. Furlong, A. and Cartmel, F. (1970) Evaluating Youth Work with Vulnerable Young People. SCRE Research Report No.83, Edinburgh, Scottish Council for Research in Education. Golden, S. Spielhofer, T. Sims, D. O’Donnell, L. (2004) Supporting the Hardest to Help Young People: the contribution of the Neighbourhood Support Fund. Slough, National Foundation for Educational Research. Hendry, L. Craik, I. Love, J. and Mack, J. (1992) Measuring the benefits of youth work: a report to the Scottish Office Education Department. Edinburgh, SOED Hoggarth, L., Smith, D. et al (forthcoming) Understanding the impact of Connexions on young people at risk: a report by the Youth Affairs Unit, De Montfort University to DfES. Holman, B. (2000) Kids at the Door Revisited. Lyme Regis, Russell House Publishing. Humphrey, J.C. (2003) “New Labour and the regulatory reform of social care”, Critical Social Policy, Vol 23, No 1, pp.5-24.

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Institute for Volunteering Research (2002) UK-Wide Evaluation of the Millennium Volunteers Programmes. London, HMSO. Jeffs, T. and Smith, M. K. (2002) “Individualisation and Youth Work”, Youth and Policy, No.76, Summer, pp39-65. Jordan, B. (2000) Social Work and the Third Way: tough love as social policy, London, Sage. Levitas, R. (1998) The Inclusive Society? Social Exclusion and New Labour. Basingstoke, Palgrave. Madock, S. (2002) Making modernisation work: New narratives, change strategies and people management in the public sector, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol 15, No 1, Feb, pp13-43. Maychell, K., Pathak, S. and Cato,V. (1996) Providing for Young People. Local authority youth services in the 1990s. Slough, The National Foundation for Educational Research. Ministry of Education (1960) The Youth Service in England and Wales (The Albemarle Report). London, HMSO. Morgan Harris Burrows (2003) Evaluation of the Youth Inclusion Programme: end of phase one report. London, Youth Justice Board. Mori (1997) A Personal Development Programme for 16-25s. Follow-up survey of participants. London,The Prince’s Trust National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal (2000) Report of Policy Action Team 12: Young People. London, HMSO. National Youth Agency (2003) Transforming Youth Work: ensuring a high quality workforce: report of the Workforce Development Implementation Group, Connexions, The National Youth Agency, Department for Education and Skills. Available on The NYA website www.nya.org.uk as an uploaded file National Youth Agency (2004) Managing for better outcomes in youth work. Leicester, National Youth Agency Newman, J. and Nutley, S. (2003) Transforming the Probation Service: ‘what works’: Organisational change and professional identity. Bristol, The Policy Press. OFSTED (1993) The Youth Work Curriculum. London, HMSO. OFSTED (2003) National Voluntary Youth Organisation Grants: 1999-2002. London, OFSTED.

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Review Group on the Youth Service in England (1982) Experience and Participation. Report of the Review Group on the Youth Service in England (The Thompson Report) Cmnd 8686, London, HMSO. Smith, C.S. Farrant, M.R. and Marchant, H.J. (1972) The Wincroft Youth Project. A social work programme in a slum area. London, Tavistock. Smith, M. K. (2001) “Young people, informal education and association.” Paper compiled for Young People and Informal Education Conference, University of Strathclyde, September 2001. Available: www.infed.org/youthwork/ypandassoc.htm Accessed: 30 March 2004 Smith, M. K. (2002) “Transforming Youth Work – Resourcing Excellent Youth Services – a critique”. Available: www.infed.org/youth work/transforming_youth_work_2.htm Accessed: 30 March 2004 Smith, M. (1994) Local Education: community, conversation, praxis. Buckingham, Open University Press. Social Exclusion Unit (1999) Bridging the Gap: New Opportunities for 16-18 year olds not in education, employment or training. London, HMSO. SPLASH National Support Team (2003) SPLASH Final Report 23/05/03. London, Youth Justice Board. Wainwright S (undated) Measuring Impact: A guide to resources. London, National Council for Voluntary Organisations. Wales Youth Agency (2000) Attitude, Attendance and Achievement. Caerphilly, Wales Youth Agency. Wilkinson C. (1995) The Drop Out Society: young people on the margin. Leicester, Youth Work Press. Williamson, H. (1993) “Youth Policy in the UK and the Marginalisation of Young People”, Youth and Policy, No.40, Spring, pp33-48. Williamson, H. (1997) The needs of young people aged 15-19 and the youth service response. IN: Williamson, H. Youth and Policy: Contexts and Consequences. Young men, transition and social exclusion. Aldershot, Ashgate, pp.70-82. Williamson, H. (1997) Status Zer0 Youth and the underclass: some considerations. IN: MacDonald, R. (ed). Youth, the Underclass and Social Exclusion. London, Routledge, pp.70-78 Wilson, D. (2003) “Unravelling control freakery: redefining central-local government relations”, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Vol 5, No 3, August, pp317-346. Young, K. (1999) The Art of Youth Work. Lyme Regis, Russell House Publishing.

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Youth Council for Northern Ireland (1998) Benefits of the Youth Service. A study of the experiences of 14-18 year old members of registered youth groups in Northern Ireland. Belfast, Youth Council for Northern Ireland.

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Annexe 4 - Additional evidence about outcomes Because there is little in the way of rigorous research into youth work or reliable data about youth work outcomes, we are introducing the following examples of additional evidence. These are based on carefully constructed research designs within which reliable data have been collected and interpreted. Although some of this evidence is as much as twelve years old we believe it is still valid. It reinforces much of the testimony we have collected from the young people, youth workers and service managers we met during the reviews, conducted as part of this evaluation. 1

Service-wide Surveys of Youth Services

1.1 This first example is based on eight service-wide surveys of two different youth services conducted between 1991 and 1995. It also introduces some additional information from a more recent survey carried out in 2003. There were three main purposes in carrying out the eight surveys: to report accurately and comprehensively on the current performance and provision of the two services: including who the services were working with, the extent to which they were responding effectively to the needs of the young people; and the importance the young people attached to the service to provide accurate management information to inform the development of the services to enable each service to report with confidence to elected members about the achievements, and shortcomings, of the youth services for which they were responsible. Each of these purposes was satisfied. 1.2 Research design: The eight surveys were developed over time and differed in detail from one another. However, they followed a common format which allows them to be drawn upon as a single set of data, distinguishing between the two services when necessary. One service covered a large county in the South West. The other a more geographically concentrated urban authority in the West Midlands. The common format was the selection of a typical week which became known as the counting week. In this week, every unit of provision made a detailed count of the numbers of young people using the service and also recorded details of their age, gender and ethnicity. In addition, questionnaires were distributed to many young people using the service on one day of the counting week. The number of completed questionnaires varied between about 500 and 1000 according to the particular research design of each survey. Taken together, though, the survey designs generated a considerable amount of detailed information about the two services and their work with young people. However, although the surveys were carried out over successive years they are not strictly longitudinal - they were not designed to track the development of young people, but to monitor and report on the work of the services. For this reason they cannot report directly on some aspects of outcomes or impact. (a) Contact and Reach 1.3 The two services reported around 15,000 and 8,000 user-contacts respectively with young people during the one week. Adjusting for young people taking part more

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than once, which could be calculated from the questionnaire returns, the number of different young people was estimated to be around 8000 and 5000 respectively. In the county service the reach for the single week, the proportion of the youth population contacted by the service in that one week, was estimated at around 15 per cent of all 13 to 16 year olds, and around 6 per cent of those aged 17 to 19. For the urban service the comparable calculation was between about 13 and 15 per cent of all young people aged 14 to 20. Two additional points need to be made about these figures. 1.4 First, these figures are for a single week. The reach over a year would be much higher than this. Second, the reach within the youth population varied considerably for different age ranges. In the county service, much of which was linked to schools, participation fell off sharply at age 16. In contrast, the urban service had about 30 per cent of service users aged over 16 who had left school. In both cases, though, the peak years of use were around the ages of 13/14 to 15/16 - critical years in relation to schooling and education, propensity to offend for the first time, and the likelihood of first use of alcohol, tobacco, and other substances. 1.5 A valuable comparison for these figures is provided by the Thompson review of the youth service in 1981. Research for this review found that at any one time 29 per cent of young people aged 14 to 19 were currently attending a youth club, and 62 per cent had been users at some time. (b) Age, Minority Ethnic Groups and Employment Status 1.6 There are certain other points of particular importance which need to be identified from the characteristics of service users and the pattern of use. At the time of the surveys NEET had not entered the official vocabulary for describing the position of young people. However, in the urban service around half of the older users of the service identified themselves as unemployed and many of the remainder were in some form of training - usually short term and temporary at that time. In addition, although it is known that service use often falls off sharply at age 16, or did so through the 1980’s and early 1990’s, the pattern for minority ethnic users of the service, particularly by young people of African-Caribbean origin, is known to be different. In their case, and this was identified in the urban service, use of the youth service by young people from minority ethnic groups increased both relatively and absolutely for the older age ranges compared with their white counterparts. The proportion of non-white users increased from 34 per cent for those aged 11 to 14, to 47 per cent at ages 15 to 17, and 54 per cent for those over 18 years of age. 1.7 There are two reasons why older young people of minority ethnic group origin use the youth service in this way. First, it is recognised as a place of safety for them within youth service provision they are protected from racist reactions which they feel they are likely to encounter elsewhere. The second reason is economic. Even if they felt safe, these young people, and many others, would simply not be able to afford to use the variety of commercial provision otherwise available. 1.8 A further point to note about age profiles is that certain types of provision are more successful than other types at attracting older young people - particularly detached and outreach work. In both services detached workers were working with

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age ranges older than the typical age profile for the service as a whole, particularly young people aged 16 plus. (c) Patterns of Use 1.9 The questionnaire analysis allowed the patterns of use of the service by young people to be examined in some detail. It was found that over the peak years of contact with the service, a large proportion of young people were regular users over several years. For example, in the urban service 25 per cent of young people had been attending youth service provision for 4 years of more, and for both services usage would be spread over one, two, or three years according to age. There was evidence of some loss of users after initial contact with the service, but once established, young people used the service over significant periods of time. Young people tended to use one unit only, and the extent to which they used it was often determined by how often the unit was open. In the county area in particular, this was a critical limiting factor in young people being able to use the youth service. The effective catchment area of fixed youth provision was about a mile radius. Few young people travelled more than a mile and the outer limit was about a mile and a half. (d) The significance of findings about contact, reach and patterns of use 1.10

These findings are significant for a number of different reasons – they show: the extent to which the youth service maintains contact with large numbers of young people that this contact is maintained over relatively long periods that contact is achieved with young people who services find harder to reach, and with what would now be called young people with a high risk of exclusion - particularly in the urban area, and particularly through detached youth work that the key link is between young people and one unit, over time, meaning relationships can be established and developed. These are all strengths of youth service provision. 1.11 The findings also show some weaknesses, though. There was a loss of contact at two points - early on in the users’ experience, and on leaving school. There is a further significant weakness revealed by the catchment area of youth provision. Effective provision for young people in fixed units requires them to be not more than one mile from where the young person lives, and it requires them to be open for use. It is unlikely than any service meets the first requirement for its youth population, and the variety of opening hours have been detailed elsewhere in this report (5.1.9.). The spatial pattern of provision, and the hours of opening, will set limits to the effective reach which youth services can obtain. Put very simply, if the provision is not there, or not within their reach, young people will have no provision available to them, and the potential reach of the youth service will correspondingly be reduced. (e) What young people want, and the help they get from youth workers 1.12. In both services young people were asked what was important to them about the youth service. Although there were differences of detail between the responses in

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the two services, there was considerable common ground. The most important things for the young people were: having a place to go where they could meet other young people where there was a valued relationship with the youth workers with whom they could discuss matters of concern to them and engage in the activities which were available with the opportunity to make decisions about what they did. 1.13. This cluster of characteristics captures the core importance of the youth service for young people. Within this cluster young people were asked about their concerns, and the issues they had discussed with youth workers, or which they had sought help about. Again, the detailed pattern varied between the two services, but there was a close correspondence between the things young people were concerned about, and the things they had discussed with youth workers, either alone or with the worker in groups with other young people. 1.14 A typical pattern of concerns would include getting a job or training on leaving school, personal safety, personal health issues including sexual behaviour and smoking, alcohol and drug use, offending or getting into trouble with the police, and problems in school. Alongside these issues were what might be thought the more traditional concerns of young people about things to do with relationships with friends and others, and having somewhere to go and things to do. 1.15 The responses of the youth workers can best be seen in extracts from the survey reports. In viewing these extracts it is important to remember three things. First, these are analyses across the whole of the service, most of which was generic or open-access youth work. Second, the provision was not targeted on particular social priority groups of young people, although it is known that youth club workers do routinely identify young people who they feel need additional help and support. Third, these analyses pre-date the heightened social policy focus of youth work detailed elsewhere in this report. 1.16 The following extract is drawn from the report on the county service in 1993 which details the things youth workers talked to young people about, and in relation to which they offered support and advice. ‘Five of the top six issues were concerned with aspects of personal health smoking, drugs, alcohol, sex education and AIDS. The focus of the Service in these areas of young peoples' lives is apparent from these replies. The issue not concerned with health, which ranked second, was relationships with friends. If this is taken with the issues ranked seventh and ninth, relationships with parents and with boyfriends or girlfriends then a second cluster of concerns can be seen. The relationships of young people is another area where youth workers have traditionally offered help and support and evidence for this work can be seen …A third group of issues, generally ranked lower than the other two, is concerned with problematic behaviour by young people - damaging things, their relationship with the police, and stealing things. The involvement of young people in crime, and their relationship with the police, have been growing 146

concerns in recent years. The Service can be seen to be responding to these concerns and working with young people on these issues. A final group of issues involved school and employment. Apart from talking about jobs and training these issues appeared to figure noticeably lower in the youth work curriculum. The age of Service users may account for the low level of discussion about problems with work, but it is interesting that school related issues do not occupy a higher place in the discussions between young people and the workers.’ 1.17

A similar analysis for the urban service in 1995 found the following: ‘…nearly 35 per cent of young people …had been helped or advised about relationships with friends, to just under 20 per cent for trouble with crime and the police. The first point to make…is that when help or advice was provided, an overwhelming majority of young people found it very helpful or fairly helpful. The proportions who found it unhelpful rarely exceeded five per cent. It can be seen, therefore, that the educational work of the Youth Service is highly regarded by the young people. Moreover, it is very likely that for many of these young people the youth worker is the only adult to whom they can turn for help or advice in some of these areas. In more detail, the highest proportion, who had been helped or advised about relationships with friends, shows one of the traditional strengths of the Youth Service - helping young people in forming and maintaining rewarding social relationships. This is also consistent with the high value young people placed on the Service, found in earlier surveys, as a place to meet and form relationships with other young people. Interestingly, the next three highest, concerned with drug, tobacco and alcohol use, demonstrate one of the newer roles and strengths of the Service - as a vehicle for reaching young people and being able to work with them on drug and health issues. The very high proportions who valued the help and advice they received in these difficult areas suggests that the Youth Service has an important role to play in these areas of increasing social concern. The next four areas, problems at school, race/racism, sex/sexuality, and jobs and training, help show the contribution of the Service in two different ways. First, the concerns with school and with employment show how the youth workers are helping young people in their relationships with major social institutions. A successful relationship with schooling, and successful entry to work or training, have both been shown to be very important factors in young people establishing satisfactory and rewarding lives in the longer term. Poor school relations, and the lack of training or employment, can have a significant impact on the likelihood of young people becoming involved in certain types of crime, for example. The second contribution of the Service can be seen in the engagement with issues of racism and sex/sexuality. Both of these are highly important areas for young people in which they may need help, support and guidance as they move through adolescence. Both, in different ways, are also areas of broader social concern. Helping young people through their concerns in these areas not only contributes to the development of the individual young people, it also contributes to the broader social environment in which we all live.

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The final two areas are relationships with parents and trouble with crime and the police. The former is one of the more traditional areas of the work of the Service and is another example of how the Service helps young people negotiate the changes in social relationships which have to take place as they get older. The latter is an area in which the Service has become more engaged in recent years, and one which is clearly of concern to both young people and the wider society.’ 1.18 The overall pattern changes when age, gender, and ethnicity are taken into account. Young men were more likely to be getting help on job and training issues and on trouble with the police. The older young people, those aged 15 to 17, were much more likely to be receiving support of different kinds compared with the 11 to 14 years olds. ‘Around 45 per cent of the older age range had engaged youth workers about drug use, for example. Similarly high proportions had been helped on issues of drinking alcohol and smoking,’ When ethnicity is taken into account the picture reveals similarities and differences: ‘Some issues appear to be of roughly equal concern to all ethnic groups. Jobs and training, drug use, sex/sexuality, drinking alcohol and problems at school, all fall into this category. In other cases certain issues appear more linked to particular ethnic groups. A higher proportion of African-Caribbean young people have received help or advice about crime and the police, and smoking. Asian young people appear highly for relationships with parents and friends, but low for cigarette smoking. Advice about race/racism appears to be focused on non-white young people. A general pattern, to which there are exceptions though, is for higher proportions of African-Caribbean and Asian young people to have received help or advice compared with the white young people and those of mixed race.’ 1.19 A final point to note on what young people want concerns the resources of the service. The youth workers were extremely highly valued by the young people. However, the same could not be said, in one of the two services in particular, about the physical resources and particularly the buildings. This was the area of lowest satisfaction for young people. Below we set out the tables from which the survey results summarise above were drawn

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Table 1 – Survey results for Shire County in South West Survey (1993) Total sample c750 split into 3 sub-samples. Each question answered by c250 young people Things of importance about the youth service A place to go To meet other young people To travel The activities Relationships with workers Group discussions Decision making Discuss problems with workers Importance of help from youth workers School Health Jobs/training Police

Areas of discussion with youth workers Relationships with friends Relationships with parents Relationships with partners Bullying Teachers Truanting Jobs/training Work AIDS Alcohol Smoking Drugs Sex education Damaging things Stealing things Police

Satisfaction with youth service

Very important % 47 34 15 29 41 25 26 32

Fairly important % 42 45 33 45 38 38 41 33

19 17 26 29

29 36 28 32

Per cent answering Yes 58 42 42 24 25 16 34 22 47 50 60 53 48 42 37 40

Per cent answering Very Satisfied

Frequency open Time closes Buildings programme Youth worker numbers Youth worker friendliness Youth worker support Atmosphere Equipment amount Equipment quality Opportunity to make decisions Opportunity to go on residentials

38 29 13 25 58 65 55 48 31 21 39 29

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Table 2- Survey results for Metropolitan District in West Midlands (1993) Total sample c750 split into 2 sub-samples. Each question answered by c300-350 young people.

Things of importance about the youth service A place to go To meet other young people To travel The activities Relationships with workers Group discussions Decision making Discuss problems with workers Importance of help from youth workers School Health Jobs/training Police

Areas of discussion with youth workers Relationships with friends Relationships with parents Relationships with partners Bullying Teachers Truanting Jobs/training Work AIDS Alcohol Smoking Drugs Sex education Damaging things Stealing things Police

Very important %

Fairly important %

51 39 26 45 44 30 35 39

36 36 31 35 36 38 34 30

27 29 33 35

27 30 35 56

Per cent answering Yes 54 41 32 25 26 20 33 22 31 39 43 37 38 42 35 29

Satisfaction with youth service

Per cent answering Very Satisfied

Frequency open Time closes Buildings programme Youth worker numbers Youth worker friendliness Youth worker support Atmosphere Equipment amount Equipment quality Opportunity to make decisions Opportunity to go on residentials

41 34 28 38 54 68 54 52 35 32 44 36

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(f) The significance of findings about what young people want / get from youth workers 1.20

These findings are significant in four main ways: They show that what brings young people into the service are the traditional things it has always offered - a place to go, people to meet, the youth workers, the activities, and the opportunity to make decisions about what they do They show that once in contact with the service, large numbers of young people get help, advice and support from youth workers, and also from other young people. This is particularly true for the older young people, and specific ethnic groups. Youth workers are responding to a wide range of needs of young people - including the more personal and traditional, and also the needs they have, closely related to policy concerns, about finding their ways through an increasingly complex society. The focus on these latter concerns will have increased over the intervening years There is an essential balance between these two sets of needs: the personal relationships with the workers and the personal support given are the means by which the policy related issues themselves become addressed. Within the scope of the generic or open access youth work, there may be what we have called protective work, or preventive work, which may also extend into diversionary work and work to achieve the re-integration of young people Although these findings cannot be linked directly to measurable outcomes or impact, what they do identify is that the essential processes are in place, and working, for outcomes and impact to be achieved. Even though it cannot be measured, it would be surprising in the extreme if the extent of support identified above made no difference to the lives of the young people concerned.

1.21 Once again though, the analysis reveals some weaknesses in the work of the service. First, loss of contact means loss of impact potential and the loss of early users, and older young people may be a cause for some concern. In particular, some youth services may need to address difficulties in attracting and maintaining contact with the older age groups. The ability of the youth service to maintain and increase contact with young people from minority ethnic groups, though, is a considerable strength. Second, one of the most important things for the young people was a place to go - yet the places offered by some youth services are far from attractive, let alone ideal. This may be part of the difficulty in maintaining contact with early users, or older young people. Third, although not discussed above, a great many youth work sessions were provided by part-time staff, and unpaid staff. To be able to work effectively with young people part time workers need to be adequately trained - yet this report has shown how little current resource is devoted to such in-service training. The value of the opportunity the service creates for working with young people may not be fully realised if the workers themselves are not adequately trained to take full advantage of the opportunity.

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2.

Other evidence focussed more directly on outcomes and impact

2.1 The following examples provide additional evidence drawn from different types of enquiry or data which can provide a closer focus on impact. In some cases the studies on which we draw are on a small scale but detailed. We also refer to data drawn from much larger programmes of work with young people. (a) Evaluation of a youth work project to divert young people from substance misuse 2.2 A small scale but detailed independent evaluation of a project to divert young people from drugs misuse was carried out in 1993 funded by the Home Office Drug Prevention Initiative. The project was not formally part of the local youth service but had close links with it, and used essentially a youth work approach to working with young people. A total of 50 young people were assessed during the evaluation. The summary of the evaluation reported on the work of the project in the following way: The work of the project is based on a number of principles: the involvement of young people must be voluntary, and the approach taken non-judgmental, confidential, attentive to young people, holistic and empowering. The project works only with young people and aims to be accessible, flexible and responsive to their needs, supporting them as they move away from drugs misuse and attempt to find other goals. In addition to the direct work with young people the project also carries out outreach work, training and drugs awareness work, it supports a group of parents, provides general advice and information, and works with a range of other agencies. To undertake this work the project has one full time paid member of staff, one full time voluntary worker, and two part time voluntary counsellors. The users of the project were mainly white young people, of whom 60 per cent were male and 40 per cent female, with an average age of 18.2 years. Many of them had become heavily involved in drugs misuse by the time they made contact with the project and 40 per cent had injected drugs at some point. Over 40 per cent of the young people had been in care at some time, and about 90 per cent were reportedly involved in offending, or had recent histories of offending, at the time of first contact with the project drugs misuse and offending appeared to be closely inter-related for the young people using the project. The examination of the work of the project identified a number of outcomes. A wide range of help was given with personal and social issues which helped the young people achieve greater personal stability in their lives. There was a substantial decline in self-reported drugs misuse among those young people with whom the project worked most intensively, with many apparently remaining free of any continuing drugs misuse over the course of the study. The involvement in offending among this group also appeared to decline. Other young people, who were worked with less intensively, also seemed to reduce their misuse of drugs and their offending behaviour. The overall assessment was that the work with young people was effective, a strong practice base had been established, and that the project was filling a gap in current services and meeting needs not currently being met by other agencies.

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(b) Evaluation of a youth work project to divert young people from re-offending 2.3 An evaluation was carried out over two years up to 2002 of a small youth service project working with young people who have been referred to the project because of their offending. The project, funded by the Youth Justice Board and the local authority, worked with young people with the greatest needs: having unstable families and disrupted family relationships, often with a history of local authority care; having several agencies simultaneously involved in their lives; having very significant problems in their relationship to schooling and education; having significant involvement in offending prior to their referral, and nearly all assessed as at risk of further offending by the project. The project worked closely with the local Youth Offending Team and formal referral arrangements existed for young people on a final warning to be referred by the Youth Offending Team (YOT) to the project. 2.4 Re-offending patterns were examined in detail. In view of the relatively small numbers involved a basic distinction was made between those who re-offended and those who did not. Seen in this way, and tested simply on re-offending or not, the result for the project is that of 30 young people referred to the project, 11 (37 per cent) are known to have re-offended, and 19 (63 per cent) are not known to have reoffended. In addition, a number of more detailed conclusions were drawn. 2.5 The great majority of the re-offending was related to two factors - a significant history and a substantial involvement in local authority care, especially residential care; and continuing suspension or exclusion from school. If young people had this type of care background and this type of relationship to school then re-offending became almost certain. 2.6 Twenty three per cent of the intake had a history of full care support. This group accounted for 55 per cent of the re-offenders. Twenty per cent lived in a Children’s Resource Centre at referral. This group made up 46 per cent of reoffenders. The project appeared to have most difficulty engaging this group over an extended period. It is difficult to conclude that the project worked as effectively with this sub-group as it did with the wider target group. For the other young people, especially if the re-offending impact of the substantial care group is taken into account, much higher levels of effective prevention were achieved. 2.7 In addition to effectiveness on re-offending there was evidence also of two other types of effectiveness in the project. First, measures of personal development were obtained which showed significant gains across a number of areas of young people’s growth. Second, there was evidence also of gain in relation to wider work on the structures and stability of young peoples lives, including their relationship to school and education. 2.8 The overall conclusion was that the project had been effective in contributing to the personal development of the young people: it has improved aspects of the structures and stability of their lives, and it has been successful in preventing reoffending. However, the degree of effectiveness differed for different groups within the total intake, and it had achieved more with some groups than with others.

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2.9 The condition and needs of the young people with substantial experience of care were seen by the evaluation currently to be beyond the capacity of a small parttime youth work project. For this group, a more much substantial multi-agency involvement was needed if they were to be re-integrated successfully into schooling and diverted from re-offending. Youth work would be an essential component of this wider approach, but this particular project alone could not adequately respond to the needs of these significantly excluded young people. 3.

Youth work involvement in wider programmes

3.1 In addition to relatively small scale individual projects some programmes have either a significant youth work involvement, or use approaches typical of the informal educational and support processes of youth work. Three examples are given below: youth work involvement in Study Support, the use of informal educational approaches in Study Support, and the work of the Neighbourhood Support Fund. (a) Youth Work in Study Support 3.2 A national enquiry was conducted in 2000 to establish the nature of the contribution of youth work to Study Support. Details of 153 youth service initiatives from across England were examined as part of this enquiry. About 40 per cent of the initiatives were involved in homework clubs and general study support in which the main aim was to improve motivation and support higher achievement in learning. The remaining 60 per cent of initiatives were very largely concerned with working to support and re-integrate young people whose relationship with schooling had become compromised or broken down altogether. There was a very strong focus on young people underachieving in school, disadvantaged young people, disaffected young people, and those who attended school irregularly or not at all. 3.3 As part of the enquiry, project staff were asked to assess the outcomes they had achieved. Nearly all the initiatives reported gains in personal development - such as increased motivation, self-confidence and self-esteem. Of the initiatives most concerned with re-integration, 60 per cent reported that the behaviour of young people in school had improved, and 70 per cent reported improved school attendance and improved achievement. 3.4 These Study Support initiatives involved close partnership working between schools, teachers and youth workers. Close links were often formed with Education Welfare Officers, other youth organisations, and parents. The enquiry showed that youth services were very actively contributing to study support, and the extent to which their contribution was focused on young people at risk of exclusion. 3.5 The extent of the contribution varied considerably between different local authorities. At one extreme there was a strategic response from the local authority with study support initiatives integrated into the wider pattern of provision, often linked to clearly stated aims and objectives concerned with social inclusion. At the other extreme there were single initiatives which appeared largely to arise from particular relationships between a school, a youth worker, and young people, but where there appeared to be no strategic involvement by the wider youth service. It was not the task of this enquiry to investigate the reasons for the different approaches,

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but the absence of a strategic approach may indicate weaknesses or deficiencies in youth service strategic management. (b) Informal Education in Study Support 3.6 The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) has conducted detailed evaluations of Playing for Success - a sport-based learning centre study support initiative using informal education approaches in a non-school setting for young people underachieving at school. During 2001-2 the 58 Study Support Centres took over 18500 pupils from 1103 schools. Sixteen per cent of the young people talking part were eligible for free school meals, and a quarter were from minority ethnic groups 3.7 After participating in the programme pupils’ attitudes showed evidence of significant improvement in several respects, especially in self-confidence, self image, and independent study skills. Although initial numeracy and reading comprehension scores of participating young people were well below the level expected for their age they made substantial and significant progress in numeracy. On average, secondary pupils improved their numeracy scores by about 24 months. These gains brought the performance of these under-achieving young people much closer to the level expected for their age group. In addition, the reading comprehension of young people of secondary school age improved by about eight months. Considerable gains were also achieved in ICT. 3.8 Although sessions were held after school, most pupils attended for 80 per cent or more sessions. The great majority considered the Centre to be ‘fun’, ‘interesting’ and ‘a good idea for me’. The football/sports club setting proved attractive to the young people and motivated them to take part. An educational setting outside of school gave these young people the chance to make a ‘fresh start’, and education mentors were available to provide advice and support. They could provide immediate help for young people to make progress in learning. 3.9. The Centres provided some of the key elements in supporting independent learning. Young people were encouraged to become more self-reliant in their learning and they received feedback on their progress. Young people could also make choices and develop independent study skills. All these elements contributed to progress and a sense of achievement amongst the young people. 3.10 Playing for Success was not a youth work programme. Its significance lies in the out-of-school, relatively informal, approach it adopted with the young people, which made a significant contribution to their motivation and application. In many respects the principles of the approach are similar to those found in informal education settings in youth work generally, and in the youth work contribution to Study Support described earlier, in particular - working with similar young people and having similar goals.

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4.

Conclusions

4.1 This brief review of other available evidence about youth work processes, outcomes and impact has helped demonstrate both strengths and weaknesses in current youth work provision. The contribution youth work makes, to both personal and social development, and to achieving wider policy objectives, is present in both the open access or generic forms of provision, and in the more highly targeted work in which the service is increasingly engaging. The significance of this contribution is set out in the concluding section of this report. 4.2 There is one final point to be made, though. It will be remembered that funding for youth services has three distinctive characteristics: it appears unstable over time; it varies considerably between different local authorities, even on a per capita basis; and a relatively high proportion of funding is from special programmes, projects, or other sources which tend to be time limited. In other words, the core of youth work funding which is stable and available on a predictable year by year basis for supporting work with young people is significantly smaller than the total recorded funding for youth work over any given year. One consequence of this is that maintaining stable provision for working with groups or populations of young people over periods of time is made much more difficult. Yet it is almost self evident that if provision cannot be maintained, neither can impact. Support for this was found in a four year evaluation of two detached youth work projects intended to divert young people from offending. It was found that when the projects were running, diversion was taking place. However, when one of the projects was not fully operational the impact on the young people in that areas was lost and they became more involved in offending again. If provision cannot be maintained, the contribution to both personal and social development, and to the achievement of policy objectives, cannot be maintained either.

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Annexe 5 - Literature Search on the Outcomes and Impact of Youth Work As part of this project we have undertaken a literature search for studies and reports of the impact of youth work, not just in England but in the UK more widely. Overall, the literature on this theme is slight but the sources that we have examined are included in the bibliography in Annexe 3. Below we summarise some of the main themes that have emerged from the studies that seemed to us to provide the most useful and reliable evidence. They corroborate the findings that are found in the main body of the report. (1) Furlong and Cartmel, Evaluating youth work with vulnerable young people, (1997) This study involved a survey of 573 secondary school pupils, a series of focus group interviews with 132 young people with experience of youth work and individual interviews with 20 particularly vulnerable young people and with key service providers. The focus was on youth work activity in six geographical areas of Scotland. Young people clearly valued the opportunity for social contact and appreciated having access to a place in which they could meet their friends and develop new ones. Youth organisations provided young people with a chance to develop new skills and take part in different activities. Youth clubs organised by community education stood out as providing a useful source of information on personal and social issues. Young people expressed concern about a number of issues such as AIDS or drugs and youth club participants felt that they were being provided with valuable information in this setting. Members tended to be relatively happy with their level of involvement while acknowledging that their involvement in the decision making process tended to be rather superficial. The one area in which youth work failed to meet its objectives was in the field of guidance and counselling. Probably as a result of lack of opportunities for one-to-one contact very few young people were willing to discuss personal problems with a youth worker. Outreach and detached workers tended to focus on an older age group and the limited evidence which we reviewed suggested that in this context the guidance and counselling function of youth work was extremely effective and provided young people with an essential source of advice and support. “All the young people involved with outreach and detached youth workers said that they felt they were able to talk about anything with their youth workers, saw them as friends and considered them to be on the same wavelength. In term of personal gains, a number of young people said they increased their self confidence, broadened their social networks, and in the Glasgow youth 157

initiative had a place where they could go along to and be accepted on their own level. A number of young people said that they would like to become youth workers themselves.” An assessment of the relationship between youth group participation and self esteem found no significant difference in levels of self esteem between members and non members of youth clubs and groups. Those who used youth clubs and groups tended to spend less time hanging around than non participants and were occupied at times when they may otherwise have engaged in risky behaviour or become the focus of police attention. Low levels of participation were observed among those who truanted, those who had been excluded from school and those who had been before a children’s panel. Although working within tight financial constraints, youth work has a positive benefit on the lives of many young people and it is likely that any further reduction of resources would have negative consequences. In particular, young people would spend more time hanging around the streets and would lack opportunities for constructive social interaction, information on important social issues and the chance to become involved in decision-making within a structured organisation. For the most vulnerable young people, youth work offers opportunities to participate in a range of activities which would not otherwise be open to them. There is also some evidence that involvement can reduce participation in illegal activities and therefore it may be worthwhile to consider a shift of resources from crime control to prevention via youth work. It is also important to note that a reduction of existing services could well be reflected by an increase in crime, drug and alcohol abuse and that skills developed in a youth work setting may help smooth the entry into employment among those otherwise at risk of economic marginalisation. Does youth work provision make a difference to vulnerable young people? Vulnerable young people are under represented in the take-up of youth work provision. It is also the case that there is insufficient detached and out reach work to make a difference to the circumstances of the most vulnerable young people. Participation in youth clubs and groups provides opportunities for young people and helps them use free time in a constructive manner. Youth work involvement is also significant in reducing the amount of time young people spend hanging around outside and to some degree reduces their vulnerability. On the other hand, young people can only spend a very limited amount of time at youth clubs so the overall impact of youth groups may be diluted. Measuring the success of youth work has not been systematic and few providers would claim to being more than a single contributory factor responsible for any change in an individual’s behaviour attitudes and knowledge. Promoting self confidence and self esteem were seen as important in encouraging young people to take control of their lives and be less influenced by negative experiences. Providers highlighted the contributions that their work made to reducing vulnerability among

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young people but some also recognised that without systematic evaluation it was difficult to demonstrate this. (2) Youth Council for Northern Ireland, Benefits of the Youth Service, (1998) This study examined the impact of youth service provision on 14-18 year olds throughout Northern Ireland to assess the extent to which young people have benefited by regular participation in youth service groups taking contextual factors into consideration. Self completion questionnaires were filled in by a total of 726 youth service users and 82 non youth service users together with interviews with 92 youth workers. Phase 2 of the study used qualitative techniques to study young people’s perceptions in six different youth work locations which had been found to have high impact on young people. Females were more likely than males to like the youth club. They can develop new skills, they have a say in what goes on, they can become more confident, learn to make better choices and play a part in the community. Results show a significant association between frequency of involvement in projects to improve community relations and a lower likelihood of engaging in sectarian behaviour. There was also a significant association between participating in community service schemes with the youth club and a number of attitudinal and behavioural factors such as Confidence to share opinions with adults Confidence to solve problems in their community Involvement in other community events Likelihood of becoming involved in fundraising events outside the youth club Involvement in other voluntary work activities outside the youth club. Young people from a working class or unemployed background were significantly more likely than those from a middle class background to be influenced to stop engaging in antisocial behaviour by the youth worker. The researchers asked those attending youth service facilities who had given up antisocial behaviour and putting their own health at risk who they felt had helped or influenced their decision to stop. All respondents quoted a combination of sources as helping them to reach decisions; parents and friends were usually cited as the most influential. Youth workers were often rated as highly influential, most particularly among members of full time clubs. Overwhelmingly members of youth groups viewed the primary purpose of the club as a place where they could socialise, meet friends, develop new relationships and enjoy themselves with their peers. For many the club provided the only such meeting place within their local area and so was seen as a focal point within their lives. Within the programme there was space and opportunity for natural relationships to develop.

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The variety and open access to activities were viewed as key elements in the success of the groups. Activities were stimulating, challenging, gave scope for experimentation and were often offered in innovative and exciting ways. Young people were consciously aware of the opportunities to learn, to test values and to develop new skills and knowledge. In all the groups the young people were aware and appreciative of the opportunities to become involved and to take on responsibilities. They recognised they had the choice of becoming involved and that they could exercise responsibility without feeling under undue pressure. Relationships with workers were seen as a critical factor in young people’s perceptions of the youth groups. In all cases a genuine regard was voiced for the workers with emphasis on the trust and equitable treatment received from them. The youth service was identified by its users as an important point of information on social and political issues. It was seen as an arena in which they can take part in indepth discussion of such matters and be helped to make choices about their lifestyles. The findings show a majority of youth service users are acutely aware that they are involved in an educational process which they value and take heed of. Full-time youth workers based in the more socially disadvantaged areas were perceived as considerably more influential and accessible than teachers in the areas of personal and social education. Indeed, in deprived areas youth workers were perceived to be of greater influence than parents and peers in encouraging young people to question their drug use. These observations highlight the status accorded to full time youth workers in the eyes of youth service users. The status is lower in part-time and uniformed units: unsurprisingly given that young people have less contact with these elements. The research did not set out to examine the impact of funding on youth work. However, during field work, many of the youth workers inevitably made a linkage between the potential for quality programmes and resourcing. The quantitative study also found that a high percentage of workers said they could not capitalise on their youth work experience due to resource and funding constraints. Over half the fulltime and part-time workers felt a lack of funding had prevented them from providing the optimum range of programmes. .

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(3) Williamson, Youth and Policy: Contexts and Consequences, (1997) In 1995 135 young people aged 15-19 were interviewed in twelve different youth settings in Wales to explore how they perceived their ‘needs’ and the ways in which they felt the youth service contributed to meeting them. The settings were diverse, ranging from ‘ordinary’ youth clubs in both maintained and voluntary sectors to projects specifically targeted at more disaffected young people. Young people presented a catalogue of ‘problems’ which they typically faced and about which they sought independent advice. Beyond troubling personal relationships, young people experienced difficulties and worries in relation to the law and the police, and to do with school, training, work and the benefits system. ‘Someone to listen to you’ in a confidential and non judgemental way was viewed as crucial, particularly in those local contexts where specialist professionals were perceived to be peddling a particular agenda. Young people expressed The need for association -somewhere to go The need for activities -something to do The need for autonomy -some space of our own The need for advice -someone to talk to Much of the youth work practice experienced by the young people interviewed was highly valued for three specific reasons The youth work setting was important as a social meeting place offering space to socialise in a free atmosphere without pressure. Young people embraced many of the activity-based aspects of youth work provision with a great deal of enthusiasm although they stressed ‘that’s not the main reason for taking part.’ The key issue lay in the way that the activity and discussion that formed the basis of the youth work provision was contingent upon the young people having a say in what was provided. Unlike younger participants in youth work who tend to highlight the tangible provision it offers as the central reason for participation, older young people lean heavily on the more intangible dimensions of provision: the accessibility of advice, support and guidance on an informal, non-judgemental and confidential basis. Young people constantly differentiated between workers in whom they were willing to confide their very private feelings and concerns, those few whom they steered clear of and those with whom they made small talk but were reluctant to broach deeper issues. Youth service provision remains an important dimension within the choices available to young people during their leisure time. It offers a social space within which young people are able to congregate and socialise. It requires youth workers to adopt a very different approach to relationship-building and intervention than that which prevails in the school, the home or the local pub because it is contingent upon respecting the relative level of autonomy secured by young people within the youth work setting: the essential reason why young people find it an attractive place to go.

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Where older young people really valued a youth work setting it was because it provided a safe space for considering personal beliefs, attitudes and behaviour – both individually and collectively – especially on matters such as alcohol and drug misuse and personal relationships. It was widely recognised that youth work in itself could do little to address some of the ‘core’ needs identified by young people, such as unemployment and housing but, nevertheless, effective youth work could ensure people were equipped with a fuller picture of possibilities and limitations on these fronts in the local context. The most telling statement throughout the whole of the research was that young people were less concerned about the competencies of youth workers than about a feeling that youth workers (and usually a specific youth worker) would do the very best for them. Careful listening, close understanding and sensitised interventions (at individual, group and setting level) were the benchmarks of practice which achieved this quality of provision. “You can always talk to the youth leaders here about anything you want, like the police, school or private relationships. They’re there for us, no matter what. The youth worker is always understanding. If you’re down, he tries to cheer you up, give you some support. There’s no embarrassment. It’s easier to talk to him than to my parents. I trust his advice more than any one else’s. he wouldn’t tell anyone.” (4) Wales Youth Agency, Youth Work and Schools Partnership Programme, (1998-2000) The evaluation comprised commentary and analysis on the work, after the first 18 months, of eight projects across Wales designed to build partnerships between schools and voluntary youth projects. This is acknowledged to be a programme with ambitious aims for countering rates of school exclusion and underachievement, and was probably unrealistic in its expectations. There were very variable degrees of relationship between schools and youth projects and considerable variety of interpretation regarding the role of the project and the activities which took place. No real data was collected by the projects which could assess the progress of young people. “There was a lot of talk of “tracking” individuals which resonates with current govt policy thinking. However, with some exceptions there was little hard data on the level, duration or intensity of engagement by individual young people and where this has led” In the best projects: “there were many positive outcomes for individual young people. There were clearly improvements in their attitude and self esteem which helped them in adjusting back into the school community and credibility with their peers. There was also evidence of an improvement in attendance and achievements and young people appreciated the support they received.”

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Changes in school In some cases, schools have demonstrated a firm commitment to change and development; to become more responsive to the needs of young people experiencing difficulties. In one case a whole-school strategy to address disaffection had been put in place but in others much remains to be done, to ensure that the culture and ethos of schools gives sufficient priority to projects that have demonstrated what needs to be done to change attitudes. In another case, in spite of some difficulties, non –target groups became engaged in activities outside school hours (frequently alongside individuals who had built a bridge between the youth service and the school, with an increase in participation in youth work from the target group.) The head expressed his opinion that the school needs to become a true community school and that the project is enhancing the process by which this will happen. (5) HMI, Effective Youth Work, (1987) This survey amounted to a review of the essential elements of effective youth work drawing on observations of a range of practice observed during inspections. “The observed outcome (of youth work) is often the product of careful planning and much skilled work to bring the group or the individual to the point at which we see them. It is much harder to generalise about the elements that make up good practice. The range of things that youth workers do is as broad as the range performed, for examples by teachers. However there are features which all the examples display either implicitly or explicitly. First much of the work described is part of a planned process. This leads to the second point, that the youth workers and in many cases the young people are fully aware of the complexity of what they were doing. The third element is the engagement of the young people in a task. They are neither recipients nor consumers of what the youth worker is offering, but are both active and willing partners in the process. All the young people described had some understanding of the objectives of the task they were engaged in and what the possible outcomes might be. (page 20) This approach to social and personal development thus requires youth workers to carry out four basic functions. To identify and proffer to young people a range of appropriate experiences To create the situations in which young people can learn from those experiences To muster the resources necessary for both the experience and the learning To support young people while they undergo the experience and learn from it. The examples themselves afford no firm evidence about all the necessary conditions to foster good practice. Often the youth worker described operated in discouraging circumstances, with inadequate resources and little or no recognition or support for what they were doing. Yet it would be quite wrong to deduce from this that youth work is so dependent upon the professional skill of the individual that nothing can be

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done to foster effective youth work beyond employing the right staff. Exceptional youth workers may succeed in spite of difficult working conditions but they certainly do not succeed because of them and they cannot continue indefinitely in such circumstances. It is important to recognise that appropriately trained and skilled youth workers are the prime resource of youth work but also to take account of the other factors which can contribute to their success: effective management, adequate resources and appropriate staff support. (6) NFER, Providing for Young People, (1996) One of the most consistent findings emerging from this study was that the relationship between the youth worker and young people was absolutely central to any successful initiative. Quite simply, no amount of additional funding, curriculum planning or new facilities could compensate for youth workers who did not engage with young people in the way they found acceptable. Thus the successful youth worker, as perceived by young people in this study was someone in whom they could confide; who treated them as equals; whose relationship with them was that of a friend, rather than parent or teacher. While these essential components appear straightforward enough – and certainly all youth workers undoubtedly aspired to this type of role – the number who achieved it, in the eyes of the young people interviewed, was significantly lower. Those workers who had a special rapport with young people were undoubtedly able to achieve the aims identified for good youth work; to exert a positive influence on the lives and attitudes of young people. The importance of the skills that these individuals brought to their work should not be under-estimated; without them, even the best facilities and youth work programmes were unlikely to achieve their full potential. This does not, however, mean that the of facilities was unimportant. Although the youth worker's role was pivotal, poor facilities and resources were often a source of great frustration and concern to those working in the youth service. Numerous examples of run-down, badly-located, inadequately resourced youth service premises were described and were criticised by the young people themselves. Some of those working in the service felt that this undermined what youth work was about, since it conveyed to young people a feeling that society generally placed a low value on them and their needs. (7) Smith, Farrant and Marchant, Wincroft Youth Project, (1972) This individual project is significant as it is one of the very few accepted by the criminology field as containing reliable statistical evidence of the role of youth work in preventing crime. The Wincroft Project was jointly funded by the Youth Service Development Council and the city of Manchester local authority. It lasted four and a half years. It used a centre known as the Bridge café and a team of volunteers and youth workers to make initial contact with at risk young people and develop activities with them. In the second phase of the study, after the café had closed, 54 boys who were identified as requiring more intensive support were re-engaged and involved in more systematic group work over a two year period. Youth workers built up their relationships with

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the young men who were involved in a regular pattern of meetings and activities. The fact that young people were able to come to the workers for help in crises indicated the trust and faith they eventually developed in them, but support given during the crisis often later carried the relationship forward to new levels. Workers were employed to help specified young people reach some ‘dynamic adjustment’ and thereby to control their delinquency. The youth workers used detached work methods to develop their relationship with the young men and a programme of group work built around recreational activities, with the workers acting to stabilise and support the group and help it to function. They also did individual casework. A key feature of the youth work was the considerable planning that took place. In relation to one boy the youth workers came up with plans to: offer group activities to him and his friend circumvent his failures to turn up, his lying and deception and his apparent inability to give any shape to his week or to his life offer and provide help during his absences from home encourage and develop his need for mixed company provide opportunities for him to shape a strong and healthy self image. Through all the twists and turns of work with this boy the team persevered in order to be available to help, without in any way making such help obvious or official. “For these young people their initial view of self, or others and of society and its institutions was so blurred as to provoke a generalised reaction of hostility to anything which could not be easily assimilated. Workers refused to fit into the young people’s expectations of their behaviour and the adolescents found their own behaviour changing to accommodate the new situation. In time the gradual change in the adolescents’ perspectives extended far beyond their relationship with the workers. Groups were no longer threatened by strange places or by unfamiliar people and demonstrated changes in attitude to other minority groups, to authority figures and to the world around them. This was also due to the process of maturation and exposure to new situations. Workers by being watchful for changes in client’s attitudes were able to boost any increase in the degree of self-awareness and to shape programmes of work in such a way as to reinforce changes within the young person that made his relationships more personally satisfying and more social acceptable.” The evaluation of the project compared the project group of boys with a control group drawn from a different area of Manchester, There were 54 participants and 74 in the control group. The research team used police records, the Jesness social attitude inventory, self-report on delinquency and questions on personal adjustment. Five different aspects of delinquency were investigated using official records and the self report. In three of the areas (proportion of each group convicted, number of court appearances and number of offences) there was strong statistical evidence of a significant difference between the two groups. There were no significant differences on measures of social attitudes.

165

It would seem that a relatively high level of contact was required to have a positive effect in terms of the outcome variables on participants. A level of contact of over seven hours per month produced greater effect than contact of between two and six hours per month It was found the programme was more successful with those not previously convicted, those with low maladjustment score and those aged 14 and under when the evaluation period began.

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Annexe 6 - The effect of stable funding on service provision and impact (The experience of local authority adult learning) Background In 2001, new arrangements came into place for the funding of non-accredited adult learning provided and secured by local authorities. Previously, the funding had come directly to the local authorities from central government via the Standard Spending Assessment. It was left to the determination of local authorities how much of their total resource they would allocate to the adult learning service. From 2001 the total amount of money that had been made available for adult learning in this way was removed from the local government budget and passed through the Learning and Skills Council that had been recently established to plan and fund all post-16 learning. The then Secretary of State said that those authorities that undertook to maintain their existing expenditure in 2000-1 would be guaranteed an amount for the following two years at least equal to that level of spend. This became known as ‘the funding guarantee’. Although the guarantee finished in 2003 the allocations have been effectively ring-fenced for a further two years until 2005 while the Learning and Skills Council develops new arrangements for funding all post-16 learning. As such, local authority adult learning services, have recently experienced stable and consistent levels of funding, and the ostensible lessons it offers are of relevance to local youth services. For the purpose of this study, we have undertaken a small-scale investigation drawing on the views of ten local authority adult learning service managers of the difference a more stable funding arrangement has made on service provision. The findings that follow derive from the accounts of service managers and have not been corroborated through analysis of other sources. Findings All agree that funding has either remained stable (for those local authorities that were not subject to year-on-year cuts) or become more stable (for those that were). In most cases overall income to the service has also increased because greater certainty about funding projections has allowed service managers to lever in additional funds more easily. Impact on culture of the service Stable funding stops the service being so risk averse. It enables managers to review and deploy resources more sensibly, plan for at least three years and thus give the service more strategic direction. It helps the service become less defensive and reactive, and to concentrate on key outcomes rather than inputs. It encourages the service to take risks. In one case, a review of the fees policy was undertaken and subsidies diminished for some learners and increased for others (e.g. those on benefits). This has changed the profile of the service and helped not only to increase participation but also widen it. This restructuring of fees policy would not have happened under previous arrangements when funding was less stable.

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When funding was both less stable and subject to annual cuts (because local authorities wanted to divert resources to other priorities such as schools and social work) services would have to draw on short-term project funding (e.g. SRB, EU) to support mainstream provision, but these were time-limited resources and did not lessen the service’s overall vulnerability. Stable funding contributes to a more efficient service and use of officer time. When officers and staff have to seek support to continue work initiated by funding that is short-term or subject to annual fluctuations, it diverts them from attending to systemic improvements in curriculum, facilities and teaching and learning. Impact is therefore hard to sustain. Focus of service Stable funding helps services to direct resources to disadvantaged communities where provision is more expensive and takes longer to have impact. It takes years to reverse the culture prevalent in such communities that have not valued learning and require considerable and sustained investment – e.g. outreach, learning champions, different sites for learning. In previous years when services were subject to cuts, the risky provision in needy areas would often be the first to go, as services reverted to the ‘comfort blanket’ of mainstream provision where numbers were ‘almost guaranteed’ to hold up; or where there were fewer implications for the local authority (e.g. the extra costs and inconvenience of making redundancies) of making the cuts. Stable funding has encouraged the services to direct resources more easily towards government priorities, such as family learning, and to build stronger partnerships, in particular with the voluntary and community sector – strengthening the latter’s involvement and its capacity. The building of partnerships is helped by project funding but they are difficult to sustain once the money runs out. Stable funding makes partnerships more enduring. The service tends now to be taken more seriously by partners such as schools, which can see how adult and community learning can help them achieve some of their own policy objectives such as extended schools. It has encouraged one service to take the risk of creating an ‘in-business’ arm building a partnership with small and medium enterprises that takes learning into the workplace. Infrastructure of service Stable funding has allowed services to invest in their infrastructure and produce service improvements. Examples include: Longer-term contracts with staff. This is particularly important in areas where, for different reasons, it has proved difficult to recruit staff on the basis of short-term project funding.

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Enhanced quality assurance arrangements (also prompted by the Common Inspection Framework and the need for annual self assessment reports) such as observation of teaching and learning, better data collection. New posts to strengthen management; e.g. quality managers, information officers, asset managers to oversee the maintenance and development of premises. Stable funding can also help services derive better value for money – for example, it can secure better leasing agreements on IT equipment. Stable funding has enabled some services to invest in their buildings and provide a better service as a result. It has also allowed managers to plan more sensibly, for example in response to the DDA, and bring in new learners.

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Annexe 7 Additional Tables derived from the Annual Audit 2001-2 conducted by The National Youth Agency

Table 1 - Youth Service expenditure 2001-2002: Variability by type of authority (Per capita expenditure ranges for each authority type)

LA Type

Shire

Metropolitan

Unitary

London Outer London Inner Total

Count % within LA Type Count % within LA Type Count % within LA Type Count % within LA Type Count % within LA Type Count % within LA Type

£25 to £49.99 18

Per capita expenditure ranges 2001/2 £50 to £75 to £100 to £74.99 £99.99 £124.99 13 2

£125 and above

Total 33

54.5%

39.4%

6.1%

5

17

10

1

1

34

14.7%

50.0%

29.4%

2.9%

2.9%

100.0%

8

28

7

3

46

17.4%

60.9%

15.2%

6.5%

100.0%

4

12

3

19

21.1%

63.2%

15.8%

100.0%

2

2

7

11

18.2%

18.2%

63.6%

100.0%

35

72

24

4

8

143

24.5%

50.3%

16.8%

2.8%

5.6%

100.0%

(Source: Annual Audit 2001-2, The National Youth Agency)

170

100.0%

Table 2 - Per capita expenditure ranges for each region

£25 to £49.99 Region

London

Southern

South West

Eastern

East Midlands West Midlands Yorkshire and Humberside North West

Northern

Total

Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region

Per capita expenditure ranges 2001/2 £50 to £75 to £100 to £74.99 £99.99 £124.99 4 14 5

£125 and above 7 23.3%

Total 30

13.3%

46.7%

16.7%

7

10

1

1

19

36.8%

52.6%

5.3%

5.3%

100.0%

5

9

1

15

33.3%

60.0%

6.7%

100.0%

5

5

10

50.0%

50.0%

100.0%

2

5

1

1

9

22.2%

55.6%

11.1%

11.1%

100.0%

4

8

1

1

14

28.6%

57.1%

7.1%

7.1%

100.0%

4

4

6

1

15

26.7%

26.7%

40.0%

6.7%

100.0%

1

14

6

21

4.8%

66.7%

28.6%

100.0%

3

3

3

1

10

30.0%

30.0%

30.0%

10.0%

100.0%

35

72

24

4

8

143

24.5%

50.3%

16.8%

2.8%

5.6%

100.0%

(Source: Annual Audit 2001-2, The National Youth Agency)

171

100.0%

Table 3 – Youth Service 2001-2002 : Staffing profile INSET by type of authority Proportion of Youth Service Net expenditure spent on INSET

LA Type

Shire

Metropolitan

Unitary

London Outer London Inner Total

Count % within LA Type Count % within LA Type Count % within LA Type Count % within LA Type Count % within LA Type Count % within LA Type

0 to 0.99% 4

1 to 1.99% 11

2 to 2.99% 6

3 to 3.99% 8

4 to 4.99% 1

12.5%

34.4%

18.8%

25.0%

3.1%

5% or more

Total 2

32

6.3%

100.0%

8

14

5

4

1

32

25.0%

43.8%

15.6%

12.5%

3.1%

100.0%

9

14

12

6

2

1

44

20.5%

31.8%

27.3%

13.6%

4.5%

2.3%

100.0%

3

3

5

1

12

25.0%

25.0%

41.7%

8.3%

100.0%

5

2

1

1

9

55.6%

22.2%

11.1%

11.1%

29

44

29

20

4

3

129

22.5%

34.1%

22.5%

15.5%

3.1%

2.3%

100.0%

(Source: Annual Audit 2001-2, The National Youth Agency)

172

100.0%

Table 4 – Youth Service 2001-2002: Staffing profile INSET by region Proportion of Youth Service Net expenditure spent on INSET

Region

London

Southern

South West

Eastern

East Midlands West Midlands Yorkshire and Humberside North West

Northern

Total

Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region Count % within Region

1 to 1.99% 5

2 to 2.99% 6

3 to 3.99% 2

38.1%

23.8%

28.6%

9.5%

2

7

6

1

1

1

18

11.1%

38.9%

33.3%

5.6%

5.6%

5.6%

100.0%

2

5

3

4

1

15

13.3%

33.3%

20.0%

26.7%

6.7%

100.0%

3

2

2

2

1

10

30.0%

20.0%

20.0%

20.0%

10.0%

100.0%

1

4

3

1

9

11.1%

44.4%

33.3%

11.1%

100.0%

3

3

4

2

2

14

21.4%

21.4%

28.6%

14.3%

14.3%

100.0%

3

5

3

3

14

21.4%

35.7%

21.4%

21.4%

100.0%

6

11

1

2

20

30.0%

55.0%

5.0%

10.0%

100.0%

1

2

1

4

8

12.5%

25.0%

12.5%

50.0%

100.0%

29

44

29

20

4

3

129

22.5%

34.1%

22.5%

15.5%

3.1%

2.3%

100.0%

(Source: Annual Audit 2001-2, The National Youth Agency)

173

4 to 4.99%

5% or more

0 to 0.99% 8

Total 21 100.0%

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