The National Youth Agency - eYPU Issue 231, 19 November 2008

eYPU Issue 231, 19 November 2008

19 Nov 2008
This issue includes details of a new Young Inspector Service which will involve young people in evaluating local activities and youth services.

Participation

Teams of young people will be supported by a third sector organisation to scrutinise local activities and youth services in a new £4.5 million pilot scheme announced by Children and Young People’s Minister Beverley Hughes. The Young Inspector Service will be piloted in up to 36 local authorities across the country and will involve around 30 young people in each local authority drawn from the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has commenced a procurement exercise to appoint a suitably qualified organisation to work with local authority areas to develop and implement the pilots. Further information and the procurement specification are available for interested third sector organisations at: http://ysdf.ecotec.com/.

Also of interest...

Positive activities

A new report from The National Youth Agency looks at the lessons from recent capital investment in youth facilities. Sponsored by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the report – ‘Investing in Youth Facilities: findings from recent experience’ - identifies current leading practice around the ten myplace principles. These include areas such as young people’s outcomes, young people’s active participation, accessibility, community cohesion and long-term viability. The report is based on 36 case studies profiling new and improved individual facilities and eight examining local authorities’ strategic approaches to capital investment.

Crime

The Home Affairs Committee has launched its inquiry into knife crime. The Committee will investigate levels and causes of knife crime, profiles and attitudes of offenders, and will assess effective solutions.

Safeguarding

The DCSF has announced plans to improve child safety. Under the plans new legislation will be introduced to ensure that multi-agency Children’s Trust Boards are operating in every local authority area with responsibility for improving the safety and well-being of all children and young people in the area.

Health

Children’s Secretary Ed Balls and Health Secretary Alan Johnson have announced plans to improve children’s mental health services with a package of measures including a National Advisory Council and the roll-out of extra support for children in schools.

The announcement comes in response to the CAMHS review recommendations.

14-19 reforms

Ministers have announced an increase to the Learning and Skills Council's budget including additional investment in young people's participation in learning which will rise to almost £6.7 billion in 2009-10. The Learning and Skills Council will use this investment to increase participation post-16, raise attainment at 19 and reduce the number of young people not in education, employment and training (NEET).

Inspections

Ofsted has published five new Joint Area Reviews for the East Riding of Yorkshire, Portsmouth, Tameside, Wiltshire and Worcestershire. Two of the reports have accompanying enhanced youth inspections: youth services for both Tameside and Wiltshire were found to be adequate.

Ofsted has also published its annual report for 2007/08. The report reflects the first full year of inspection and regulation by Ofsted across its expanded remit, including findings from childcare, children's social care, and education and skills provision for learners of all ages.

Social issues

A YouGov poll of 2,000 adults commissioned by Barnardo's has found that half of them are fundamentally prejudiced against the current generation of children and young people and critical of their behaviour. It found that 49 per cent of adults think children pose an increasing danger to society and 54 per cent say young people are 'beginning to behave like animals'.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has published two new reports which look at young people and housing. The first presents a review of recent research on the housing choices and issues for young people in the UK and the second study examines issues concerning young people's transitions into independent living, through the views of young people and practitioners who work with them.

The JRF has also published two more viewpoints as part of its debate to find out what are the social evils of the twenty-first century. Stephen Thake argues for the need to support new forms of agency, solidarity and individual behaviour to rebuild a strong civil society, and Neal Lawson (Chair of Compass) discusses why people’s lives are less happy and feel more out of control than ever before, despite them gaining many individual liberties.

The DCSF has published research which investigates how far current policies recognise fathers and influence local authorities and family services to work with them. It also looked at barriers faced by fathers and how to support them at a local level. In light of this research the government has launched the ‘Think Fathers’ campaign and will be working with the Fatherhood Institute to look at how to better support fathers and encourage them to play an active role in their families.

Conferences

Youth and Opportunity - the Directory for Social Change is holding a conference that looks at including and involving young people in society in London on 8 December 2008.