Youth Service involvement with Children's Homes

Introduction

The youth service has long held an interest in working with young people who are vulnerable and there is considerable evidence young people living in children's homes are some of Hampshire's most vulnerable young people.

There are a number of changes taking place which means responding to and supporting this group of young people is critical those being:

· Developments within the Hampshire Education for Children Looked After team to focus on supporting Children's homes

· Local authority responsibility as corporate parent

· Children looked after are part of the PSA targets which provides the local authority with its three star status and thus considerable benefits in relation to flexibility and inspection

· The outcomes of the Children Act and Every Child Matters.

Youth Service Contribution.

Youth work is the personal and social education of young people in groups, which is achieved through a well-publicised curriculum document. The service focuses particularly on 5 areas of learning:

· Enabling young people to develop personal and social skills

· Involving young people in democracy and decision making

· Promoting the social inclusion of young people

· Engaging young people in new and challenging experiences

· Encouraging young people to lead healthy lifestyles.

Young people become engaged with youth work because they want to and is a voluntary relationship based on the mutual respect created between youth workers and young people.

The youth service develops targeted work focussing on specific groups of young people such as teenage parents, young carers and young offenders but in general youth work is provided on a universal basis within the community which young people can attend if they wish to.

Children's Homes in Hampshire

Young People living in Hampshire's Children's homes will have inevitably experienced family trauma, had a range of placements over a number of years experienced a host of different schools and their life experiences will be a catalogue of inconsistency and disappointment. They will often have very poor self-esteem and under developed social skills and feel isolated from their mainstream peers and from the communities they live in.

The children's homes in Hampshire, which accommodate 12 -16year olds and in exceptional circumstances up to 18 years old are:

Developing specific opportunities for young people who live in children's homes is a distinct possibility as they often develop their own friendship group and peers from within the homes. This would lend itself to offering some of the more challenging experiences to facilitate their development as a group.

Children who are looked after should have the same opportunities and integrate with their non looked after peers at every opportunity and particularly through schools and youth groups. Developing and maintain friendships and activities outside the looked after system can dramatically improve the life chances of looked after children; and is highlighted in `Every Child Matters'. In such a potentially transient population ensuring young people know what is available, where and when becomes an important part of the process.

Practical proposals for developing joint work

It is proposed that each children's home has a named youth worker who could fulfil a number of different functions as the need arose:

· There would be a designated notice board, which would be regularly (monthly) updated with local activities and opportunities, opening times for centres, activities and information, advice projects. This notice board would also be updated with relevant information, list national support lines and local support services

· The process of updating the notice board provides a ready opportunity to meet with the staff and young people of the home to find out interests, this might lead to supporting the staff in developing an opportunity or working with the young people themselves to organise one

· The named youth worker may introduce a young person for the first time to a local provision that they want to attend

· The named youth worker may become part of the education group that meets in the children's home on a weekly basis to support young people's learning

· Where there is an expressed interest the youth worker may want to work with the young people towards a youth work accredited outcome such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

Summary

1. Youth work can support young people who live in children's homes

2. Youth work should support those young people as part of the County Council's responsibility as corporate parent

3. Opportunities can be made within the curriculum framework and good practice arrangements, which young people can access if they wish.

4. Young people should be encouraged where possible to take up existing opportunities

5. Youth workers should work with the other agencies involved to maximise opportunities for young people living in children's homes.