Archived decisions

Contact: Malcolm Rittman, County Youth Officer, Tel: 01962 846370

email: [email protected]

1. Report summary

1.1 The Government expects Local Authorities to have an approved annual plan for their Youth Service, which is submitted to the Government Office. The draft Youth Work Plan 2005/06 follows the County Council guidance for service planning. A summary plan is attached - Appendix 1.

1.2 The proposed plan ensures the youth service is actively supporting all Corporate Strategy aims and contributing to the Cabinet priority for Youth. The plan outlines how the service is committed to improvement to support the strategy aim of improving services.

2. Objective

2.1 The aim of this report is to recommend the draft Hampshire County Youth Service -Youth Work Plan 2004/05 for approval by the Cabinet Member for Education.

3. Contextual information

3.1 In autumn 2002 a common planning framework was issued by the Government setting out the key components youth service plans are expected address to meet the following Transforming Youth Work objectives:

.1 Quality support to young people

.2 Enabling the voice of young people to be heard

.3 Ensuring a rich diversity of personal and social development opportunities

.4 Promoting intervention and prevention, addressing disaffection and exclusion.

3.2 In December 2003 Margaret Hodge the Minister for Children, Young People and Families set the following performance measures for youth services:

.1 25% of the resident 13-19 population in contact with youth work

.2 15% of the 13-19s participating in youth work

.3 60% of participants gaining a recorded outcome

.4 30% of participants achieving an accredited outcome

3.3 The format of the plan is based on the County Council planning guidance, builds on previous plans and integrates the standards outlined in Resourcing Excellent Youth Services with the targets set by Margaret Hodge into relevant service objectives and performance targets. Realistic targets have been established based on current funding levels. The target for reach has been slightly reduced due to decrease in external funding.

3.4 The plan ensures the youth service will:

.1 Provide the strategic leadership expected by the Government

.2 Meet service objectives and performance targets effectively

.3 Work with young people to: increase their personal and social skills; promote democracy and decision making; promote social inclusion and community cohesion; develop new opportunities and challenging experiences and promote healthy lifestyles

.4 Contribute actively to the five core outcomes of the Children Act 2004 by supporting young people to: be healthy; stay safe; enjoy and achieve; making a positive contribution; economic well being.

4. Identification of the issues

4.1 The plan sets high expectations for the service. The performance measures outlined in 3.2 will be challenging to meet. In 2003/04 the Youth Service reached 18% of the resident youth population 13-19 with a participation rate of 12%, with only 3% gaining an accredited outcome. Data are not available for this period to identify the proportion of participants who gained a recorded outcome. Improved data collection systems are being implemented.

4.2 In order to work towards achieving the national expectations the Youth Service will need to:

.1 increase the number of young people with whom it works

.2 increase the level of qualified staff

.3 increase the number of local projects providing accredited outcomes

.4 improve the core funding base to meet the objective of a sufficiently

funded service

.5 improve data collection and quality assurance arrangements.

5. Funding

5.1 The County Youth Service has a proposed cash limited budget of £4,528,800. The final figure will be confirmed after the County Council meeting on 23 Feb 2005 added to this there is an estimated £920,000 (2005/06) expected in external funding, representing approximately 20% of the budget, but 5% less than last year, as some time limited funding has come to an end and similar funding streams are not available.

5.2 Seventy nine percent of the Youth Service budget is spent on staffing and most additional funding is used to employ staff or fund running costs of projects. Most additional funding is confirmed only on an annual basis and cannot be viewed as permanent ongoing funding. If there was a significant reduction in external funding the impact on the service would be:

.1 A reduction in the amount of youth work delivered

.2 The cost of possible staff redundancies and or closure of projects

.3 The refocusing of work at a local level.

5.3 In 2004/05 the service received £174,600 via the Government Office for transforming youth work. Funding for 2005/06 has not yet been confirmed and the fund is not guaranteed to continue beyond March 2006.

6. Impact assessment

6.1 Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified.

7. Personnel implications

7.1 The service may have to re-align the management structure to meet the needs of integrated services and changes to implement the requirements of the Children Act 2004.

8. Crime prevention issues

8.1 The youth service actively supports crime prevention, supporting a number of initiatives in communities engaging with young people to divert them from in crime.

9. Financial Implications

9.1 The plan sets out the priorities for delegating the cash limited budget and additional funding acquired by the service.

10. Legal implications

10.1 None

11. Recommendations

That the Executive Member for Education approves the Hampshire County Youth Service - Youth Work Plan for 2005/06

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

N.B. The list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

Transforming Youth Work - Resourcing Excellent Youth Services

Transforming Youth Work - Planning for the Local Authority Youth Service: 2003-04 Guidance

Letter from Margaret Hodge MP Minister for Children, Young People and Families: Planning Guidance to Local Authority Youth Services 2004-05 (December 2003)

Integrated Service and Workforce Planning with Budget - June 2004