The National Youth Agency - eYPU Issue 219

eYPU Issue 219 - 27 August 2008

27 Aug 2008
Includes findings from the second phase evaluation report on the Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital Funds.

Positive activities

Young people taking part in Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital Fund panels have seen their confidence and social skills soar, their behaviour improve and their standing in the community increase, according to the second phase evaluation report. Key findings show 100 per cent of local authority staff agreed that panel members had benefited socially; 99 per cent thought that panel members team working and decision making skills had improved; and 98 per cent said that the young people involved in the decision-making panel had done a good job. In response to recommendations in the report, the Department for Children, Schools and Families has also published a Good Practice Guide which provides a range of ideas from different local authorities on how to operate the Funds and engage young people most effectively.

Also of interest...

Education

The 2008 GCSE results show the overall A*-C pass rate has increased by 2.4 percentage points to 65.7 per cent, English has risen 0.7 percentage points and maths 1.1 percentage points compared to last year.

Health

Draft guidelines drawn up by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) outline recommendations to increase physical activity amongst young people.

These include opening school playing fields and facilities out of school hours (including weekends and holidays) and allowing young people to play in office car parks out of hours. It also suggests that the Government develop a five year national campaign to promote physical activity to children and young people. The guidance is open for consultation until 15 September after which final recommendations will be drafted.

The Conservatives have published a document which claims that young people's health has got steadily worse under Labour since 2000. Using government statistics, they say admission to hospitals for alcohol abuse has increased by 51 per cent. The number of reported cases of sexually transmitted infections has also increased in the last five years, up by 21 per cent to more than 53,000.

Children and young people’s services

A review of childcare and early years education provision by Ofsted has found that the number of childminders ranked as 'inadequate' has doubled in the past year, with the situation being worse in the most deprived areas. The report also found that out-of-school schemes provided poorer services largely as a result of an inability to recruit staff. Only 47 per cent of school schemes provided good services.

Europe

The European Youth Forum is inviting European cities to compete for the title of European Youth Capital for the year 2010. The winning city will showcase its youth-related cultural, social, political and economic life and development. The initiative encourages the implementation of new ideas and innovative projects with regards to the active participation of young people in society, and seeks to present a role model for the further development of other European municipalities. The deadline for applications is 20 September 2008.

Economic wellbeing

The Department for Work and Pensions has published a paper that explores the link between changes in income (or income-related measures) and child outcomes in early childhood, middle childhood and in adolescence. Changing economic circumstances in childhood and their effects on subsequent educational and other outcomes uses data from the Millennium Cohort Study, the National Pupils Database and the British Cohort Study 1970. There was only one key finding for adolescence - a change in family income between the ages of ten and sixteen can have an effect on earnings at age 34.

Youth-led innovation

The National Youth Agency and Changemakers are working to produce twenty case studies of youth-led innovation. Despite not being a recognised term, a lot of good practice around youth-led innovation exists, both in the UK and beyond. Innovation can take the form of an idea, invention, programme, action, campaign and more. If you know of a good example please complete the survey (it will take no more than 10 minutes).