Archived decisions

Item 3

AT A MEETING of the YOUTH PANEL held at Acorn Community Centre, Wecock Farm, Waterlooville on Thursday 10 November 2005.

Chairman:

p Councillor Mrs K. Heron

Vice Chairman:

p Councillor P.R. Edgar

15. APOLOGIES

Apologies were received from Councillor Hughes, Mrs Lea and Mr Upson.

16. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members were mindful that, where they believed they had a personal or personal prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting they should, normally at the time of debate, declare their interest and, having regard to the circumstances described in paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the County Council's Code of Conduct, consider whether to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed.

17. MINUTES

The minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 16 June 2005 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

18. CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and praised the Youth Service projects which she had visited since being appointed Chairman of the Youth Panel.

19. DEPUTATIONS

There were no deputations to this meeting.

20. COUNTY YOUTH OFFICER'S REPORT

The Panel considered and noted the report of the Director of Children's Services (Item 5 in the Minute Book) summarising developments in the Hampshire County Youth Service and updating Members on recent activities and projects. The Director of Children's Services highlighted the four key challenges to Youth Services which were outlined in the government's green paper `Youth Matters'. The Panel were informed that a paper on the Youth Service's responses to the green paper and its strategies for facing those four challenges would be presented to the Children's Services Policy Review Committee in December. It would then be taken to the December decision day of the Executive Member for Education for approval.

It was emphasised that the summer was, as usual, a period of high activity for the Youth Service with many different types of schemes for young people including ongoing projects, day events, residential courses and foreign exchanges. The report outlined some of these projects to provide an overview for the Panel. It also showed how the Youth Service was contributing to the five outcomes of `Every Child Matters'.

Following a Member's question, the Director of Children's Services outlined the aims of the graffiti project in the New Forest. It was explained that this type of project was a commonly used method to encourage young people to be constructive with their talents in art. Schemes were developed in collaboration with local councils, schools and community groups and were aimed at creating spaces within the community which young people could decorate and use in their leisure time.

Concerns were raised by a Member regarding intensive support for young people provided by the Youth Service. It was confirmed that the structures of service provision and the co-ordination of local services were currently being assessed. A pilot scheme working with the Government Office for the South East (GOSE) was looking at different models of targeted youth services. Members would be informed about the outcomes of this scheme through the County Youth Officer's report.

In response to a Member's question, the Director of Children's Services outlined for the Panel the ways in which the Youth Service used music in various initiatives and projects. It was felt that this would create valuable experiences for young people by: teaching and developing new skills; providing tools for self expression; and bringing together young people from around the community.

The Panel welcomed the outlined developments in Hampshire County Youth Service.

21. EFFECTIVE YOUTH SERVICES - GOOD PRACTICE

The Panel considered and noted the report of the Director of Children's Services (Item 6 in the Minute Book) outlining the conclusions of self assessment that Hampshire County Youth Service had performed in the light of the Ofsted publication `Effective Youth Services - Good Practice'. It was explained that Ofsted had published this document in response to the results of its inspection of 31 Youth Services in 2004. It was explained that the document had contained many examples of good practice with which the Youth Service had compared its own practices.

The Director of Children's Services detailed the improvements the service had made in recent months which had featured in the recent annual assessment. These included increases in the number of young people accessing youth services, in the number of active participants in projects and in the amount of accredited work being done by young people. It was emphasised that `Youth Matters' would have a significant impact on the work of the Youth Service and that there were many changes anticipated. It was explained that the self assessment had been carried out by a Youth Officer who worked as an Ofsted Inspector of other Youth Services. While there remained capacity for further improvement, the self assessment had concluded that Hampshire County Youth Service was a good Youth Service.

It was acknowledged that the figures which featured in the annual assessment did not include the statistics from the voluntary sector, therefore the picture was even better than had been described. Youth Services were permitted to include a proportion of the figures from the voluntary youth sector directly relating to the amount of funding and training provided for voluntary workers by that Youth Service. However, it was explained that it had been decided not to include these figures in order to avoid placing greater pressure upon the voluntary sector by requesting more paperwork.

Members were reassured that considerable amounts of youth work was taking place in rural areas. Much of the extra £250,000 which had been made available to the Youth Service with effect from the financial year 2005/06 had been allocated for detached youth work mainly in rural areas. This allowed young people who would not normally be able to access youth services to receive support. The Panel was informed that youth work took place at the weekends, but that this provided different opportunities to that which took place during the week.

The judgement of Hampshire County Youth Service as a good youth service and as providing good value for money was welcomed by the Panel.

22. PROJECT DEVELOPMENT GRANTS

The Panel considered and noted the report of the Director of Children's Services (Item 7 in the Minute Book) providing information on the project development grant applications received since the last meeting of the Panel. It was explained that grants were normally awarded up to a maximum of £4000 on an application basis to fund one-off projects. The Youth Service had a general policy of funding a project by no more than 50 percent. It was expected that young people would either to raise the remaining money through activities or apply to other funding bodies.

RESOLVED:

That it be a RECOMMENDATION to the Executive Member for Education that grant allocations as summarised below, totalling £15,625 be approved.

23. YOUTH SERVICE WORK IN THE HAVANT DISTRICT

The Panel considered and noted the report of the Director of Children's Services (Item 8 in the Minute Book) providing information about youth work in the Havant district which was managed and supported by the Youth Service. The different areas of the district and the distinct needs of each area were outlined for the Panel. It was explained that a financially deprived area such as Leigh Park or Wecock had very different needs to an area such as Hayling Island, where young people had difficulty accessing facilities because of the remote nature of the community.

As a recognised area of deprivation, youth projects in Havant District had benefited from a variety of funding schemes including the Single Regeneration Budget. Much of the extra funding would soon be ending, as would some of the funding for the voluntary sector projects in the area. It was emphasised that the youth workers in the district worked closely with other partners such as volunteers, health professionals, police, counsellors, schools, the Youth Offending Team, the Families and Schools Support Team (FASST) and Education other than at School (EOTAS). It was also explained that a large amount of detached youth work took place in the district to support those young people for whom a youth centre was either not appropriate or accessible.

Projects in the district were described such as: work with young carers, music projects, cooking evenings, general drop-in evenings, young parents' groups, a young men's group, work with 10-13s, a variety of sex education projects, group excursions, support for Havant Borough Youth Council and Havant representatives on Hampshire County Youth Council, Duke of Edinburgh Award support and one-off projects. The importance of accreditation and rewarding young people for their achievements was emphasised and the Youth Achievement Award was outlined. Also highlighted was the importance of encouraging young people to speak for themselves and of listening to their needs and wishes.

Following a Member's question regarding the evaluation of the Youth Service's performance, it was clarified that youth workers were required to record all sessions of work with young people. In doing so, they had to clearly demonstrated the outcomes and learning points of each session. As such, there was a daily evaluative process of how Youth Workers' had aided individual young people. Additionally, District and County statistics provided an overview of the performance of the Youth Service in relation to a range of issues. These showed different levels of impact, but the difficulties of evaluating these statistics were emphasised. It could not be predicted what statistics would have been had the work of the Youth Service not been done. A further issue was that much of the work done by the Youth Service would take considerable time to have a demonstrable impact or would have an impact that could not be demonstrated in terms of statistics.

The Panel welcomed the current development of youth work in the Havant District.

24. DATE OF MEETINGS 2006

It was noted that the dates of meetings for the next year would be Thursday 16 March 2006, Thursday 15 June 2006 and Thursday 9 November 2006 taking place at 4.30 pm, venues to be confirmed.