The National Youth Agency - eYPU Issue 226, 15 Oct 2008

eYPU Issue 226, 15 Oct 2008

15 Oct 2008
This issue includes details of a new consultaton around measuring schools' contribution to pupils' well-being.

Every Child Matters

Ofsted and the Department for Children, Schools and Families have launched a consultation on a proposed set of school level indicators which will measure schools' contribution to pupils’ well-being. The indicators will be a combination of measures for which quantitative data are available, such as the school’s overall attendance rate and the take-up of school lunches, and measures of the perceptions of pupils and parents on the extent to which a school promotes well-being. The consultation will run until 16 January 2009.

Also of interest...

A report from the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities and Cambridge University’s education faculty on including young people with learning disabilties in the life of mainstream schools and colleges has found that involving young people in research can promote enhanced social and emotional well-being and the development of important new skills, attitudes and understandings.

Social issues

An exploratory study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that examines the manifestations and impacts of territorial behaviour among young people in disadvantaged areas of British cities has found that young people are increasingly confining themselves to their immediate neighbourhoods, where territoriality rules their lives. The report finds that although interventions from projects and youth workers are having an impact, little is being done to address the fundamental problem: the feeling in some communities that the opportunities of the wider world are not for them.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published two more in a series of Viewpoints on its social evils debate. Shaun Bailey looks at relationships between individuals, the state and community, and the effects these have on daily lives that may lead people not to trust, and Anna Minton argues that the cause is visible physical inequality and segregation, combined with a commercially driven media promoting fear.

Positive activities

Culture secretary Andy Burnham has announced a six month modernisation review of England's public library service, which will encourage libraries to 'embrace their role as interesting, innovative places for the whole community'. A full report, including specific action points, will then be published for wider consultation. It will look at the key issues facing the sector and those raised by the public.

The Big Lottery Fund has announced the recipients of funding from its £3 million Playful Ideas programme. A total of 16 projects benefiting children and young people of all abilities have been awarded grants to encourage children from a variety of backgrounds to participate in playful and creative activities.

Participation

The Office of the Third Sector and Department for Communities and Local Government are inviting expressions of interest from organisations wishing to become the national partner to deliver the £70m Communitybuilders programme, designed to support investment in multi-purpose, inclusive community-led organisations at the neighbourhood level. The closing date for the pre-qualification questionnaire is Thursday 30 October 12:00 noon.

Community development

Lifelong Learning UK and the Federation for Community Development Learning are undertaking a review of the National Occupational Standards for community development work. The review is planned to be completed by March 2009.

Crime

The International Centre for Prison Studies has published Lost in Transition: Three Years On. The report looks at developments in policy and practice with young adult offenders since its original report published in 2005 and at the challenges that lie in the way of better policies on young adult offenders in the future.

Conferences

The National Youth Agency is running a conference, ‘Access to Positive Activities: Transport Solutions for Young People’, in Manchester on the 29 October. The event will explore the key role of transport in delivering the Aiming High agenda. It will:

explore the key issues faced by young people using public transport;
identify solutions that meet young people’s needs; and
explore young people’s involvement in the planning and delivery of public transport

The event will be of particular interest to local authority transport planners, transport providers, Children’s Trusts, voluntary and statutory youth services and others.

In Parliament

Minister for Children, Young People and Families Beverley Hughes made a statement on the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child’s concluding observations on the UK’s report on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.