Learning and evidence

As well as sharing the practical lessons and resources, the Beacon peer support programme was supported by Office of the Third Sector at the Cabinet Office, which was keen to use evidence from the programme to inform future policy development for volunteering.

De Montfort University Youth Affairs team were commissioned to evaluate the impact of the programme, which resulted in a final report ‘Doers and Shapers - Young people’s volunteering and engagement in public services’

The report includes an executive summary, literature review and main report, which can be downloaded and includes a fuller examination of the headline conclusions noted here:

Doers and Shapers - DMU Report

The headline conclusions of the Doers and Shapers report include:

• Young people can and do contribute to the delivery and shaping of local authority services in many different and equally valid ways. They might not always be classified by observers as ‘volunteering’ in sense of a dictionary definition
• Young people clearly see themselves as giving their own time and energy without pay in the service of others
• The benefits gained by young people can be considerable. These are felt especially in confidence and self-esteem; in particular, knowing they had ‘made a positive contribution’ to their own local area and in gaining new skills for the labour market
• Whether volunteering in public services or engaging in participation schemes to influence and shape them, young people experience not only personal development but gain specific skills needed in the workplace
• It was not too difficult or impossible to involve certain groups of young people. Skilled workers are essential to support disadvantaged target groups and enabling them to derive maximum benefit from volunteering and engagement
• The benefits to the public sector can also be substantial not only in assisting the delivery of services but in making them more responsive. Young people from under-represented groups can help in making services more accurately tailored to the needs of particular groups
• Volunteering needs to be adequately resourced over a realistic timeframe in order to demonstrate benefits to the full, including longer term investment needed to improve all forms of access more generally
• In order to achieve maximum value from that investment, schemes need to be sustained indefinitely and embedded in the culture of the local authority. Positive outcomes become cumulative when programmes are continued in the long-term.
• An authority’s longer-term commitment can help to diminish the frustration often felt by young people about how long it can take to achieve change and they may be able to see that they are part of a succession of effort, passing the baton on to others when age, education or career make it necessary to move on.
• ‘Support skills’ needed to overcome barriers are multi-faceted and it should not be taken for granted that all workers will have them: these skills need fostering, development and recognition.
• In accordance with the Russell Report, young people should not lose out financially by volunteering. Support should include practical resources, especially the provision of transport or help with the expense of travelling to activities.
• Preparation, training of adults, culture change around expectations, and positive attitudes towards young people’s participation take time to deliver and short, fixed-term programmes are less likely to get these foundations properly laid. Factors such as staff turnover, reorganisation, and the introduction of new policy initiatives mean that these efforts also have to be sustained.
• The support of elected members and senior officers is vital. Champions are needed who see the value of youth volunteering and engagement and who will work to resolve the intractable problems at a high level.
• Ownership needs to be corporate and should not reside in one service or department alone to deliver and sustain all the consultation and engagement of young people all the service areas.
• It is important that local councils take on board that young people may find different routes to volunteering. Where there is an attempt to channel all volunteering and engagement through one ‘approved’ structure, this is likely to prevent other young people finding a niche for themselves. Young people need to be able to take part on their own terms and their own issues with a variety of routes corporately owned and acknowledged, rather than a single quasi-democratic structure.

You will also find references to the report within Making it Happen as specific evidence in relation to the experiences of the local authorities involved in the programme.