Fourth round of Joint Area Reviews (JARs)

The fourth round of Joint Area Reviews (JARs) continues to reveal an encouraging number of positive references to the role of youth services. JARs examine how far children and young people in a local authority are achieving the Every Child Matters outcomes – i.e. are healthy, safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and experience economic wellbeing. They cover all education and social services directly managed or commissioned by a local authority, as well as health and youth justice services provided by partner agencies.

Four more reports have been published which show that youth services are contributing to the most of the outcomes, particularly helping young people to make a positive contribution.

Youth services’ contribution to partnership work is more difficult to detect. However, scrutiny of accompanying youth service inspection reports reveals instances where youth services are involved in multi-agency work highlighted in the JARs. The reports also indicate the difficulties of categorising work under single ECM outcomes, since similar activities are identified under different outcomes.

Being healthy

Two reports highlight youth service projects as making a significant contribution to this outcome. In Coventry, the SHADOW project is described as providing ‘imaginative education and preventive work on sexual health, teenage pregnancy, drugs, smoking and healthy lifestyles to students in school, college and youth settings’. The Jules One Stop Shop in Rutland provides confidential advice and support to young people and ‘brings Connexions and Youth Services together, with some good, targeted advice provision within general sessions’.

Enjoying and achieving

Youth services and youth workers continue to contribute to this outcome through the provision of informal learning. In Coventry, the youth service is described as providing ‘a good range of informal learning opportunities’, and the report notes that 37 per cent of young people aged 13 to 19 have contact with the service, ‘well above the national target’.

Making a positive contribution

As in previous rounds, this is an area where youth services and youth workers are seen to make a major contribution.

Local democracy

The report on Newham describes the youth parliament as ‘outstanding in its work, which has included influencing the priorities in the CYPP’, and notes that ‘the youth service has played a significant part in taking the parliament and the youth forum forward’. The youth council in Coventry is described as having been ‘very influential in securing councillors’ agreement that all reports must account for the likely impact on children and young people’. The youth service democracy project is also described as effectively supporting the development of citizenship. In Milton Keynes the youth service is cited as playing a key role in involving children and young people in projects and neighbourhood developments. The report also notes that ‘the youth service participation team provides excellent support and training for school council representatives’. In Rutland young people act as ‘young inspectors’, commenting on the quality of youth provision and have also been involved in the design of the youth drop in centre.

Personal development

The report on Milton Keynes states that ‘the work of the youth service contributes well to the personal and social development of those involved’. In Coventry, the youth service is involved in multi-agency work that ‘enables children and young people to form very positive relationships with adults and with each other’.

Volunteering

The report on Coventry notes ‘a very high proportion of young people engage informally in volunteering’. Similarly, in Rutland, ‘a higher proportion of young people than average take part in volunteering activities’.

Anti-social behaviour

In Newham, the youth service is described as being involved in ‘highly rated’ support programmes tackling anti-social behaviour through detached and outreach work. In Rutland, the provision of a mobile youth unit is highlighted as having contributed to some successful activities to deter anti-social behaviour.

Supporting vulnerable young people

Milton Keynes youth service is supporting vulnerable young people by providing ‘specialised support and advice’ for those from minority ethnic groups, those at risk of school exclusion, and refugees and asylum seekers. The youth service also collaborates with the Children’s Rights Service to offer a drop in club for young people in care and those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.

Achieving economic wellbeing

Youth services’ contribution to this outcome is most evident in helping to assist young people back into education, training and employment. In Milton Keynes, the youth service provides ‘good support in preparation for employment for young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities’.

Corporate assessments

Part of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment, the corporate assessment measures a council's corporate effectiveness in providing the leadership and direction to ensure continuous improvements across the range of council services. The Audit Commission has published five new reports which confirm implications in the Joint Area Reviews (JARs) that youth services play a key role in promoting young people’s involvement and participation in local services. The corporate assessment report for Newham states that ‘there is a wide range of opportunities to enable children and young people to make decisions about, and changes to, services’ and describes the work of the youth parliament as ‘outstanding’. The report for Rutland describes the county’s youth parliament as ‘active’. A recent election produced a turn-out of 50 to 60 per cent of young people which is contrasted with the county election turnout of just 37 per cent.

• Bookmark with
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Delicious
• Digg
• Technorati