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Policy

Policy work

Arts Work with Socially Excluded Young People

In 2009 the NYA was commissioned by the Local Government Association to examine the role that arts organisations play in engaging with socially excluded young people - especially those not in employment, education or training.

This document visits five different organisations in the statutory, voluntary and commercial sectors which work across a range of arts disciplines to examine how they engage with hard to reach young people. The case studies examine the benefits and outcomes of this work and the document discussed the emerging themes.

Community Cohesion

This briefing paper gives an overview of the development of government policy on community cohesion since the term first came into use in 2001, following the disturbances in three northern towns of England, drawing on guidance, reports and research from government and other organisations. It is divided into three sections:

  • The first section looks at the ‘story so far’, charting the changing understanding of community cohesion as going beyond race and faith to include issues such as age and class.
  • Section 2 focuses on embedding community cohesion, covering aspects such as the local authority performance framework, the role of voluntary and faith groups and schools, and the links between community cohesion and other policy areas such as volunteering and intergenerational activity.
  • Finally, section three looks at community cohesion in relation to young people and youth work, highlights research findings on effective approaches to community cohesion, and provides some snapshots of practice.

Youth work and community cohesion - Sept 2009

Budget Devolution and the key themes

Progress on the exploratory work organised by the NYA, funded by the former DCSF, on the implementation of the budget devolution commitments in Aiming High for Young People: the ten year strategy for positive activities is set out in the Budget Devolution Survey and Seminar Report with a short summary also available.

The commitment in Aiming High for Young People to increase young people’s direct influence over resources is referred to as ‘budget devolution.’

The NYA ran a survey from January to March 2008 to explore the feasibility of gaining baseline data on spending levels on positive activities for young people and young people’s involvement in decision making on this.

Further exploratory work was undertaken at a seminar in May 2008 with delegates from local authority youth services, finance services, leisure services, from the third sector, the DCSF and the NYA. The intention was to reach recommendations for the DCSF on which terms to use for both the 2011 and the 2018 targets.

Both the Budget Devolution Survey and Seminar Report Summary and the full Budget Devolution Survey and Seminar Report, which includes the summary are published and available to download (below).

Youth Taskforce

The former DCSF published a progress report on its Youth Taskforce and ‘next steps’ on its targeted youth support agenda. The NYA produced detailed briefings on both which can be found below.

The Youth Taskforce progress report set out the DCSF’s programme of reforms designed to ensure that local authorities have a joined-up and systematic approach to early identification, prevention and support for young people at risk.