The National Youth Agency - Twenty-first round Joint Area Reviews (JARs) (October 2008)

Twenty-first round Joint Area Reviews (JARs) (October 2008)

A further round of Joint Area Reviews (JARs) has been published by Ofsted which continues to include an encouraging number of positive references to the role of youth services. JARs explore the extent to which children and young people are healthy, safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution, and secure economic wellbeing.

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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 this round which show that youth services are contributing in particular to helping vulnerable young people adopt healthy lifestyles and 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

In Redcar and Cleveland, ‘good work is being undertaken in schools and the youth service to promote equality and diversity’. The report highlights the Youth and Community Black and Minority Ethnic project as having ‘done much to raise awareness of diversity and challenge racism’. In Lancashire, the Building Bridges in Burnley project has successfully brought together young people from different heritages to work on activities to break down racial barriers in their communities, one result of which has been increased representation from all groups of young people on the youth council.

In Waltham Forest, young people are ‘involved well in the promotion of community cohesion’, for example through the young Muslim leaders’ project and a swapping cultures project to explore cultural identity and Islamic awareness. Connexions 4 Youth, the combined Youth Development and Connexions Services in Telford and Wrekin, provides ‘well-differentiated’ programmes for vulnerable groups of young people including young mothers, Travellers and those from Black and minority backgrounds.

Being healthy

The report on Telford and Wrekin describes how ‘well targeted work by the Connexions 4 Youth service has been effective in encouraging young people to defer parenthood’. Young women at one youth club described how youth work sessions had had a positive effect on their personal development, attitudes and values. The service is also planning a programme of detached youth work targeting young men and potential young fathers. In South Gloucestershire, all youth workers are trained in sex and relationships education and targeted access to sexual health services for vulnerable groups is provided via the mobile Urbie Project. A clinical outreach nurse runs drop-in clinics in selected schools and youth centres and young people interviewed stated that they ‘highly rated the service offered by the clinical outreach nurse and youth workers at the drop-in clinic and in youth centres’.

In Waltham Forest, the youth service is a partner in delivering ‘effective and coordinated’ child and adolescent mental health services. A designated youth worker works with black and minority ethnic young men to provide ‘good work’ on sexual health and relationships and the youth service also plans to establish a young fathers group. Redcar and Cleveland youth service is represented on the Young People’s Substance Misuse Partnership Board and partnership initiatives between the police and the youth service are described as having a ‘positive impact’ on reducing substance misuse.

The Trelya youth project in West Cornwall is cited as providing ‘an outstanding service to vulnerable young people living in a deprived area,’ offering education and support on alcohol and drug use. The project has recently been involved in successful work with young people around alcohol-related harm. In Nottinghamshire, trained youth workers helped two looked after young people with their emotional needs during activity weekends.

Making a positive contribution

Local democracy

In South Gloucestershire, the youth service leads on participation. The report notes that ‘young people are involved in all aspects of its work and feel they make a real difference’. There is ‘strong evidence that young people have had significant influence on the development of their local communities’ influencing a range of issues including anti-bullying initiatives, the development of open spaces, and sex and relationship education programmes. Young people are fully involved in the recruitment of staff, designing job specifications and sitting on recruitment panels. They are also involved in developing and managing projects, such as the Big Stash fund, where they allocate grant funding to initiatives designed and presented by young people. The council has recently developed the Youth Unlimited website to promote participation and act as a signpost to activities on offer.

In Waltham Forest, the ‘Forest Flava’ young people’s newspaper is delivered to every household in the borough and advertises participation and consultation opportunities on offer to young people. Examples of young people’s participation include the 2012 Olympic youth ambassadors scheme, involvement in interventions to combat anti-social behaviour and knife crime, the young advisors programme, running high profile events, and publishing their views and achievements in the local press. The report notes that many participation activities are accredited.

The DAFBY (Democractic Action for B&NES Youth) project in Bath and North East Somerset is cited as an example of the active participation of young people in shaping services, where they make ‘particularly impressive contributions to their communities’. In Lancashire, consultation with young people is described as ‘extensive and imaginative’ through surveys, participation events and youth councils. Nottinghamshire has developed a young inspector scheme to enable young people to shape and influence local services.

Anti-social behaviour

The youth service in Redcar and Cleveland is involved in a wide range of projects to tackle anti-social behaviour with ‘many positive outcomes recorded’. A fleet of buses is used to promote citizenship and respect in hotspots in the borough. They are equipped with healthcare facilities and offer a support service to meet the physical and emotional needs of vulnerable young people. The report notes that the buses engaged with over 6,000 young people last year.

In Waltham Forest, ‘the youth service contributes well to activities deterring young people from anti-social behaviour, for example, through good opportunities for accredited learning’. A combined approach in the borough has resulted in a recent reduction of 18 per cent in incidents of anti-social behaviour.

Supporting vulnerable young people

South Gloucestershire council consults and involves a broad range of children and young people who are at risk of not being heard. At the Brimsham Green youth centre, young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities are involved in planning sessions and bidding for funding. A number of rural youth projects help to engage young people from rural areas, and care leavers have been involved in developing and delivering training to staff and councillors on working with looked after children. CAMHS has appointed a dedicated participation worker to work with young people with mental health issues, and black and minority ethnic young people are described as ‘actively engaged’ in local services. The report highlights a number of specific initiatives including the Breakthrough project, described as ‘excellent’, where young people shape the programme to meet their individual needs. Young mothers have been involved in developing the Parenting Support Strategy which has led to funding from Sure Start for four new ‘Young Mums’ groups. Traveller young people also designed a booklet entitled The Site Detective Safety Book and were involved in a focus group to raise awareness of their experiences and needs with other agencies.

The youth service in Telford and Wrekin is described as providing ‘some outstanding opportunities’ for young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, such as Club 17. In Nottinghamshire, the Young Pioneers group helps young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities influence the shape and quality of services and is described as ‘well supported by the youth service’. Redcar and Cleveland youth service runs a ‘good range’ of inclusive activities and provides good support to young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities through open access provision at the Fusion Youth Club and targeted provision at the Grenfell Club. In Cornwall, ‘young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities are involved effectively in mainstream, open access youth service projects and extended school activities’. The youth service in Bath and North East Somerset provides provision for black and minority ethnic young people, including a music project and holiday workshops.

Economic wellbeing

In Cornwall, youth workers ‘engage effectively’ with young people not in education, employment or training ‘through a good range of projects and styles of working, including mentoring in schools and colleges to encourage course completion’. The report on Telford and Wrekin notes that ‘schools report good, specialist support from the Connexions 4 Youth service’ for young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.