eYPU Issue 227, 22 Oct 2008

23 Oct 2008
This issue includes a newly updated implementation plan for Aiming High and recent announcements as part of the Youth Crime Action Plan.

Every child matters

A newly updated plan sets out arrangements for implementing Aiming High and highlights progress to date, as well as the key actions which will be taken over the next 12 months. It is intended to be of use to all agencies and professionals working to improve outcomes for young people and will be updated regularly to reflect progress and new developments.

The DCSF has published Delivering 14-19 Reform: Next Steps which shows progress to date on the reform programme, and sets out wider objectives for every child aged 0 to 19 and beyond as set out in the Children’s Plan. Next Steps sets out the timetable of reform to 2015 and establishes four key strategic objectives.

Crime

The Home Office has announced that five areas across the country have been awarded funding to create a network of support services for young victims of crime. Part of the Youth Crime Action Plan, the new pilot scheme will deliver services such as workshops in and out of school to educate young people on how to keep safe; drop-in sessions in schools where young people can go for support; peer support networks; and training by young people for police on how better to work with young people.

An extra £3m for ten police forces participating in the Tackling Knives Action Programme has been announced by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. The new money will go towards funding after school patrols, Safer School Partnerships, and Operation Staysafe – where police will use safeguarding laws to remove young people at risk from the streets at night and take them to a place of safety.

The Ministry of Justice has published research on factors linked to reoffending. The study took the results from three resettlement surveys of prisoners, including young offenders, to look at the association between resettlement factors – such as having accommodation and obtaining education, training and employment – and one-year reconviction rates.

Participation

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has unveiled a new team of 'youth advisors' for the first of a series of monthly meetings aimed at giving young people the opportunity to influence the department's issues. The first meeting focused on young people's views on making green spaces - such as parks, piers and town centres - more attractive to young people and protecting them from vandalism.

Social exclusion

Findings from the Engaging Youth Enquiry by Rathbone/Nuffield into young people who are not in education, employment or training claims that plans to force these young people back to school or college could fail. It acknowledges the complexity of the issues involved, and argues for the need for further debate and research in this area. The report is the beginning of a consultation process which will continue until March 2009.

A new Confederation of British Industry (CBI) report has warned that Britain’s failure to get young people off the streets and into work leaves them vulnerable to becoming involved in crime, to ill health and a life 'at the margins of society as the people that prosperity forgot'. The CBI says it is unacceptable that Britain ranks 23rd out of 28 in the OECD's league table of young people not in education, employment or training and that £250m a year could be saved if the number of young people claiming benefits was halved.

An Ofsted report into the re-integration of disaffected pupils has found that a shared commitment by school staff to helping pupils succeed and effective monitoring of pupils’ academic, personal and social progress are among the keys to reengaging pupils who have become uninterested or de-motivated.

Community cohesion

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has welcomed the launch of a new dedicated website giving expert help and guidance on creating strong, cohesive communities. The new interactive website, developed by the Institute of Community Cohesion, brings together a range of practical advice and support on how to promote cohesion and integration drawing on good practice case studies from across the country.

Rights

The Youth Citizenship Commission has launched a consultation on lowering the voting age to 16. The Commission, chaired by Professor Jonathan Tongue, was set up by Gordon Brown to investigate young people’s engagement in politics. The deadline to respond is 20 January 2009.

Social issues

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published the fifth in its series of Viewpoints taken from the ‘social evils’ debate. In this briefing, Zygmunt Bauman, Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds, argues that society's 'ills' are caused by the withdrawal of the traditional conception of 'society' and are rooted in today's individualised society of consumers.

Voluntary organisations

The government has announced plans to create a new Third Sector skills body which will identify and address skills gaps and shortages for charities, voluntary groups, social enterprises and other third sector organisations. It will pull together the work of the sector skills councils to create learning opportunities for third sector paid and voluntary staff. It aims to see that the sector's needs are properly considered in the design and development of national occupational standards, the design apprenticeship frameworks and sector qualification strategies.

Conferences/events

The Regional Learning Project in the East Midlands is running a one-day workshop for people working in children’s services on Using Outcomes Based Accountability to tackle child poverty - with Mark Friedman in Leicester on 3 November 2008.

Make Your Mark and One Water have launched Splashing Out! The initiative aims to encourage young people to come up with innovative and enterprising ways to sell bottles of One Water. Make Your Mark has reserved ten lots of water exclusively for The NYA. Ten youth groups will get 240 bottles of water to set up a mini-social enterprise. Interested groups should email their contact details to Helena Ferrao-Read.
The project will launch in Enterprise Week on 20 November 2008 which is Social Enterprise Day.

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