The National Youth Agency - Seventeenth and eighteenth rounds Joint Area Reviews (JARs) (June 2008)

Seventeenth and eighteenth rounds Joint Area Reviews (JARs) (June 2008)

A further two rounds of Joint Area reviews (JARs) have been published by Ofsted which continue to include an encouraging number of positive references to the role of youth services.

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JARs explore the extent to which children and young people are healthy, safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution, and secure economic wellbeing. They focus specifically on children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, those who are looked after and children at risk or requiring safeguarding. They evaluate the collective contribution made by all relevant children’s services to outcomes for these groups. There are further sections on equality and diversity and safeguarding, and additional investigations are carried out into issues such as child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), other health inequalities, and the 14-19 strategy.

A total of eight reports have been published in these two rounds which show that youth services are contributing in particular to young people’s health and wellbeing and to helping vulnerable young people make a positive contribution.

While it is sometimes difficult to detect youth services’ contribution to partnership work, scrutiny of accompanying youth service inspection reports reveals instances where youth services are involved in multi-agency work highlighted in JARs.

Equality and diversity

The report on Luton describes the youth service’s promotion of diversity and social cohesion as ‘outstanding’, with a range of targeted work aimed at vulnerable and hard-to-reach groups. In St Helens, young people observed during youth work activities are described as displaying ‘much tolerance, understanding and sensitivity towards others’, while the Breeze Youth Festival in Leeds and Talking Leeds DVD are cited as examples where young people from a wide range of communities are given the opportunity to mix and take part in positive activities.

Safeguarding

The safeguarding procedures adopted by the youth service in St Helens are reported as enabling the service to ‘contribute effectively to the community services safety agenda’.

Enjoying and achieving

Youth services in both Poole and Camden provide opportunities for young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities to enjoy and achieve through a range of after-school and holiday activities. The report on St Helens notes that the youth service has improved provision for young people on Fridays and at weekends.

Being healthy

The report on Poole cites a sexual health outreach project based at a local youth club as a ‘good example of multi-agency working’ around health promotion. The project involves a teenage pregnancy reduction co-ordinator, a male sexual health educator, and youth workers. Many young people, including young Travellers, access the drop-in service and take part in activities around alcohol misuse and sexual health. The youth service in Oxfordshire, alongside Connexions, is described as being ‘increasingly involved in health promotion and prevention’. A consultation with young people living rough or in difficult circumstances led to the development of a dedicated clinic run by a GP at a youth centre to cater for their sexual health needs.

The youth service in Southend-on-Sea works with Southend YMCA and the leaving care team in a close partnership that has resulted in ‘timely and appropriate referrals for 16-19-year-olds to training programmes for substance misuse’. The YMCA also produced a film ‘Killer in a Can’ which was seen by 200 young people who attended the ‘2 smart for drugs’ roadshow and has won a Prince’s Trust national award for good community impact. Young carers are also targeted in health promotion work and are involved in producing the Fit It and Vibes magazines, which focus on health issues and are aimed at young carers.

In Luton, young people in need of a substance misuse service are exclusively treated by the young people’s service, and the youth service is described as supporting good personal and social health education around smoking, alcohol and drugs misuse. St Helens youth service is described as providing ‘excellent opportunities for young people to consider the consequences of poor health practices, such as drinking and use of drugs’.

Making a positive contribution

Local democracy

Stockton-on-Tees has a young citizens’ panel called Youth Viewpoint which the report notes has over 500 members aged from eight to 18. Members receive regular questionnaires about issues relating to their community and council services and a newsletter which feeds back on what has changed as a result of consultation with them. Positive examples include the introduction of youth cafés and youth buses in response to young people’s requests for a better choice of more informal provision and better access to facilities in outlying areas. The report on Luton states that ‘excellent systems, supported by the youth service, are in place for involving and engaging young people in planning services at a strategic level’. Most youth groups have membership committees that successfully involve young people in developing and influencing provision, and over 3,000 young people took part in the election for 25 members of a youth parliament.

In Leeds, young people were consulted on the city wide transport policy which was revised to provide subsidised bus fares for young people. Following this success, the report notes that ‘the children and young people’s scrutiny committee formed a shadow scrutiny committee of young people which is developing its own work programme on issues decided by young people themselves, giving them a direct route into policy making at council level’. Young people in Oxfordshire have been involved in helping the council decide where to place play and leisure activities and shape the approach to anti-bullying. The youth forum also takes ‘significant responsibility’ for deciding where youth opportunity funds should be spent.

Anti-social behaviour

In Luton, ‘the police and youth service collaborate successfully to deter anti-social behaviour’. A mobile youth centre has been deployed on estates where anti-social behaviour has been reported which has resulted in a reduction in incidents. In St Helens, the youth service offers ‘a good range’ of projects to deter young people from offending, some of which are described as ‘highly effective’. Camden Youth and Connexions service and the youth offending service are described as working ‘exceptionally well together on community safety and on the prevention of crime’, and ‘good multi-agency work’ involving the youth service in Poole is described as ‘having a positive impact on anti-social behaviour’.

Supporting vulnerable young people

The Independence Day in Poole has been running for the past four years and has enabled young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities to put forward their views on local services and facilities and question policy makers. The report notes that ‘the outcomes of some of the Independence Day activities have been used as exemplars of good practice at regional and local events’. The youth service also engages effectively with other vulnerable groups, notably young Travellers, where youth services are involved in providing parent groups, youth clubs and support for school councils, and young carers, where there are good links with youth workers and the lead worker offers a mobile phone contact service.

In Stockton-on-Tees, looked after young people are described as having good opportunities to participate in a range of activities, for example the annual Riverside Festival, supported by the youth service, where young people gained recognition for their achievements in designing their own outfits and planning their contribution. The report also notes that youth service projects successfully attract young refugees and asylum seekers, ‘who highly value the strong personal support they receive’. Members of Stockton Disability Forum have developed their own award scheme, the MB Awards, which accredit sport and team working.

Twenty-four carers from Southend-on-Sea attended the Young Carers’ Festival in Southampton and a full-time worker is funded through the national carers’ grant. In Camden, young people in care provide a drop-in service for others and for care leavers, act as peer educators and train officers on their particular circumstances. Young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities in Luton are given the opportunity to comment on service provision through annual youth service surveys and are represented on the Luton youth cabinet. In Oxfordshire, rural areas make up around 50 per cent of the county and the report describes how the youth service supports access for young people in rural areas through ‘the creative use of travelling buses, including the rural children’s centre, youth clubs and sexual health advice’.

Economic wellbeing

The report on Leeds notes that a youth worker is based in every secondary school and that this has ‘contributed significantly to the re-engagement of many young people who had previously disengaged from education, employment and training which is improving attendance and raising attainment’. In Luton, the youth service is described as ‘working particularly well’ with disengaged young people, and that as a result these young people ‘achieve very high rates of recorded and accredited outcomes’.