Meeting documents

Children's Services Scrutiny Committee
Tuesday, 27 September 2005

CH270905-08

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ITEM CH8

CHILDREN’S SERVICES SCRUTINY COMMITTEE – 27 SEPTEMBER 2005

YOUTH GREEN PAPER, "YOUTH MATTERS"

Report by Director for Learning & Culture

Introduction

  1. Published on 18 July, ‘Youth Matters’, the Youth Green Paper, sets out the government’s vision for the organisation and delivery of services for young people. The Green Paper builds on the reforms implemented as part of the Children Act 2004 and Every Child Matters. The executive summary of the Green Paper is attached as Annex 1 (download as .doc file). The Green Paper itself is on the DfES web site - http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/youth/ - and is in the Members’ Resource Centre.

    2. Key Issues from the Green Paper

  2. Youth Matters distinguishes clearly between universal and targeted aspects of service provision. With regard to universal provision, Chapter 3 focuses on ‘Things to do and places to go’ and Chapter 4 on making a positive contribution through volunteering. These chapters apply potentially to all young people - both have a strong community flavour. Chapter 5 focuses on Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) for all young people passing through the education system and concentrates on young people as students. As for targeted provision, Chapter 6, focuses on the issue of targeted support for young people in need, both within and beyond the reach of the education system.

  3. Youth Matters is also clear in its intention to establish clear national standards and entitlements for certain service areas, for example:

  • New national standards for positive activities for young people (paras 24-6)

  • New national quality standards for IAG (para 179)

  • Core IAG offer for young people to be established (paras 168/9)

  • National initiative to develop volunteering for young people (paras 147-62).

  1. Youth Matters seeks to establish greater coherence in the provision of services for young people, by reinforcing the powers and responsibilities of local authorities (LAs) working through Children’s (and Young People’s) Trusts. For example, the Green Paper proposes that:

  • There should be a revised statutory duty on LAs to secure ‘positive activities for young people’ (para 121)

  • LAs should publish an annual ‘Local Offer’ of activities for young people in their areas and an ‘activities handbook’ (paras 127-9)

  • LA’s should carry out a regular detailed needs analysis of things to do and places to go in their areas and use this as a basis for deciding which types of provision to support financially (paras 130/1)

  • The funding for IAG and the responsibility for commissioning it should be transferred from Connexions Services to LAs/Children’s Trusts by 2008 (paras 171-3). (However, if a school or college believes the provision to be poor, it will be able to opt out of the service commissioned by the LA/Children’s Trust and purchase its own - para 174)

  • LAs should work with local Learning & Skills Councils to publish a local prospectus of learning and training opportunities in their areas (para 186)

  • There should be a strengthened role for LAs in relation to prevention (para 218) and a possible transfer of accountability for young people’s drug misuse to Directors of Children’s Services (para215).

  1. Youth Matters contains a number of ideas and details of some specific initiatives for improving provision for young people and also for involving them more fully in the design of services. For example:

  • Work will take place between 2006-08 to trial a new national system of ‘Opportunity Cards’ for young people (paras 103-13)

  • An ‘Opportunity Fund’ for young people will be introduced. This is similar to the Community Chest scheme currently being operated by the Children’s Fund. This new fund will be administered by LAs and young people will be expected to be fully involved in decisions about the allocation of monies from it (paras 118/9)

  • A new capital investment fund for ‘strategic investment in youth facilities’ will be introduced from April 2006. The total size of the fund nationally will be £40m spread over two years and each LA will receive an allocation from it (paras 136-9)

  • A national network of sports development managers will be established to encourage participation in sport by young people and the use of sport for personal development (para 141)

  • The government will explore the possibility of giving more young people the opportunity of participating in summer residential events (para 142)

  • The government will promote greater use of ICT to provide personalised IAG services for young people (paras 189/90)

  • There will be renewed emphasis on health as part of IAG, including a ‘personal health MOT’ for all 12/13 year olds (paras 191-5)

  1. Youth Matters makes a number of quite far-reaching proposals for the organisation of services to support young people. It proposes that:

  • At local level there should in time be a single, coherent system for commissioning services for young people through Children’s (and Young People’s) Trusts (paras 215-220)

  • The establishment at local level of an ‘Integrated Youth Support Service’ and targeted youth support teams as a key part of the new integrated support service (paras 221/2)

  • The establishment of the role of ‘lead professional’ as a single point of contact for young people (para 223)

Implications of the Green Paper proposals for the County Council

  1. The greater coherence proposed by Youth Matters and the enhanced leadership role and accountability of Local Authorities should be welcomed.

  2. In implementing the proposals in the Green Paper, key tasks for the Council will be to establish:

  • Effective commissioning arrangements for young people’s services - particularly IAG - through the new Children’s (and Young People’s) Trust

  • An integrated Youth Support Service capable of addressing both the universal needs of all young people in communities and educational institutions, and the more complex needs of those young people who need targeted support.

  1. The County Council is quite well prepared for the challenges of implementing the proposals in the Green Paper. It has a very good Youth Service and effective arrangements in place for supporting young people in relation to the five key outcomes in Every Child Matters framework. This is expected to be confirmed shortly by the Audit Commission in connection with the Council’s Annual Performance Assessment for 2005.

  2. Resource planning for the new responsibilities set out in the Green Paper will need close attention over the coming two or three years. The document states (para 251) that Government is making specific resources available to support the proposals and that its intention is to ensure that no new unfunded burdens are placed on LA resources. However, Cabinet is well aware of the pressure on resources under the existing arrangements, particularly for example in relation to the Youth Service. This pressure will need to be addressed both prior to and during the implementation of the Green Paper proposals.

    3. Responding to the Green Paper

  3. The closing date for responses to Youth Matters is Friday 4 November. The timetable for preparing the County Council’s response is as follows:

  • 27 Sept - Consideration of the Green Paper by Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee

  • 17 Oct (pm) - Seminar on the Green Paper at Kassam Stadium involving members, officers, staff, representatives of key partner organisations

  • 2 Nov – Cabinet decides its response to Green Paper

KEITH BARTLEY
Director for Learning & Culture

Background Papers: Nil

Contact Officer: Rick Harmes , Head of Community Learning Tel: (01865) 810626

September 2005

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