The National Youth Agency - eYPU Issue 228, 29 October 2008

eYPU Issue 228, 29 October 2008

29 Oct 2008
This issues includes details of a report into the effectiveness of Children's Trusts and an announcement to make Personal Social and Health Education a compulsory part of the curriculum.

Children’s Trusts

An Audit Commission report into the progress local councils and their partners are making in developing Children's Trusts has found there is little evidence of better outcomes for children and young people resulting from the requirement that local areas in England put arrangements into place to coordinate children’s services. While professionals are working together, this is often through informal arrangements outside the trust. The report says that children and young people should be given a greater say in how children's services are designed by drawing on The National Youth Agency’s Hear by Right standards, but did not call for the trusts to be abandoned.

Also of interest...

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has launched the Commissioning Support Programme designed to help Children’s Trusts plan and implement services more effectively by providing them with tailored support, online resources and networks to help commissioners share best practice, and face-to-face events, such as national and regional conferences. Jointly sponsored by the DCSF and the Department of Health, the programme will run until April 2011 and will cover the commissioning of all services for children, young people and their families in England.

The DCSF is consulting on whether to merge three key websites - Every Child Matters, Sure Start and Local Authorities websites - into one channel. A short online questionnaire is available for responses and should be completed before 14 November 2008.

Social exclusion

Ofsted has published a report of a consultation with 686 children and young people living away from home or using social care services, who discussed the key issues that they would like to see considered for future inclusion in the new National Minimum Standards to help providers and users judge the standard of services. The report found that young people rated having their own privacy, being kept safe and healthy, and staying in touch with their families as the most important of the rules they would like to see included in the standards. They were particularly keen that the standards address specific concerns about internet safety.

The DCSF has announced the 20 areas in England who are to receive £13m to set up Intensive Intervention Projects designed to challenge and support at-risk young people and prevent them from turning to anti-social behaviour and crime. The programmes will be set up between 2008 and 2009, and target up to 3,000 young people who will be given one-to-one support and help with specific problems, such as drug abuse.

Health

The DCSF has announced that Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) will become a compulsory part of the curriculum from Key Stage 1 to 4 (ages 5 to 16). The announcement comes in response to the principal findings of both the Review of Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) in Schools and the report by the Advisory Group on Drug and Alcohol Education, which both recommended that good PSHE was vital to providing a healthy, rounded education.

Ofsted has published the findings from its TellUs3 survey of 150,000 10-to-15-year-olds which reveals that a large majority are happy, healthy and feel safe in their schools and local areas. However, the survey also finds that a significant minority suffer from bullying, and that around 11 per cent have tried drugs by the age of 15.

Higher education

A pilot programme aimed at developing the leadership potential of students in higher education has been launched by Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. The Student Leadership Project has been designed by the charity Youth at Risk UK. It aims to identify and support students with leadership capacity who may be at risk of losing interest in or dropping out of their course and increase attendance, achievement and participation in both curricular and extra-curricular activities.

A report from the Sutton Trust says that improving careers advice is key to getting more disadvantaged young people into university. It quotes research that found that only half of young people receive adequate advice on their options after school and warns that those most likely to miss out on fulfilling their potential are high-ability children from poorer backgrounds, where there is no family advice available about higher education.

Positive activities

A report by CABE has claimed that bland playgrounds are restricting children’s creativity, with too many local authorities relying on an ‘identikit’ approach to design. The emphasis on safety has resulted in local authorities playing safe and avoiding risk. CABE has published guidance to help provoke a different approach to playground design.

Conferences

The Young Researcher Network (YRN) is running a conference on 15 November 2008 aimed at those with an interest in involving young people in research. The conference will showcase the findings from 14 youth-led research projects that have been carried out this year.