News
eYPU Issue 313, 28 July 2010
28 July 2010
Education, employment and training
The Prime Minister has officially launched National Citizen Service (NCS), as part of the government's vision for 'Big Society'. The programme is designed to bring together 16-year-olds from different backgrounds and around the country to become community volunteers and join in outdoor pursuits. The scheme will start next summer and will initially provide around 10,000 places.
The Prime Minister announced that the commissioning process to set up and run a National Citizen Service pilot will be launched on 2 August 2010. Information events on the NCS will be held at: Admiralty House, Ripley Courtyard (next to 26 Whitehall), Whitehall, London, SW1A 2DY, Thursday 5th August - 1.00pm or 3.00pm; and the Department for Education, 2 St Paul's Place, 6th Floor, 125 Norfolk Street, Sheffield, Monday 9th August - 1.00pm or 3.00pm.
The Department for Education has published its response to the Children, Schools and Families’ Select Committee’s report on young people not in education, employment or training. The Government Response to the Children, Schools and Families Committee’s Eighth Report of Session 2009–10 sets out the Government’s position on each of the Select Committee’s recommendations.
An Oftsed has found in their report on Personal, social, health and economic education in schools that most schools are equipping children and young people with the knowledge, understanding, attitudes and skills to live healthy, safely, productively and responsibly. However, lessons about sex, relationships and health are found to be ‘not good enough’ in 25% of schools in England. The report further found that teacher embarrassment and lack of knowledge were often to blame.
The Department for Education has published statistics on Special Educational Needs in England, showing that boys are more likely to have behavioural, emotional and social difficulties than girls. Figures show that almost one in six boys (17.2%) with statements of special educational needs had behavioural, social and emotional problems reported as their 'primary need'. This is compared with just 6.2% of girls with SEN statements.
Youth justice
In an interview with Children and Young People Now magazine, Crispin Blunt MP, youth justice minister, said that a decision has not been made about the future role of Youth Offending Teams. The Minister stated that there were ‘opportunities for stakeholders to shape this autumn’s Green Paper’ into justice reforms.
The National Audit Office report, Cafcass’s response to increased demand for its services, finds 'endemic problems’ with Cafcass. The report finds that, although Cafcass could not have predicted the sustained increase in care cases from November 2008, it could have responded more quickly and cost effectively to the large and sustained increase in care cases from local authorities.
Safeguarding
The children’s minister, Tim Loughton MP, has announced that ContactPoint is to be shut down on 6 August. The Minister says that the Government is still committed to information sharing among children’s professionals, particularly working across different council areas, however, a 'more proportionate approach' is needed.
An Ofsted report has found that social workers are satisfied with the training and support they receive. The findings form part of Safeguarding and looked after children, Ofsted’s first study into the views of social workers across England, which quizzed more than 4,000 social work practitioners. Sixty-six per cent of respondents said that they felt they were offered sufficient training by their local authority, while 78 per cent said that the training offered helped them to understand and meet the individual needs of children and young people.
Positive activities
The Government has halved the Youth Capital Fund to £13 million, half-way through the final year of the programme. The money was given to local authorities to fund new facilities in consultation with young people.
Youth Services
The National Youth Agency has launched its new Integrated Services for Young People (ISfYP) Framework and Quality Mark. The ISfYP Framework is the only externally validated process available, tailored to assess all aspects of integrated youth support, from universal through to targeted and specialist services. The ISfYP Framework is a self-assessment tool with 15 distinct standards, covering three operational strands – policy and strategy, people, partnerships and resources.
The National Foundation for Educational Research (nfer) has published its report on Implementing outcomes-based accountability in children’s services. The report focused on the impact of Outcomes-Based Accountability (OBA) approach on local authority practice in Children’s Services. The report’s findings suggest that the OBA approach was contributing to positive outcomes for children and young people.
Research
Lifelong Learning UK is undertaking its 2010 Sector Skills Assessment and is keen to hear the views of youth workers and youth work organisations to identify future skills priorities for the UK. You can help by completing the online survey before that deadline of is 31 August 2010.
Youth services
Youth Access has published new guidelines for making advice services young person-friendly. The Opening Your Doors to Young People guidelines provides advice agencies with: basic information about barriers to access to services; a way of assessing how accessible, relevant and age-sensitive current services are; practical steps to take to improve services; examples of work undertaken by other advice agencies who have proved successful and could be replicated.
Consultation
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has issued Skills for Sustainable Growth, a consultation on the future direction of skills policy. The National Youth Agency has included a summary of the key points on our website. The consultation runs until 14 October 2010, but earlier responses will have a better chance to influence the process.