Agenda item

Context:

           

We received the Annual Report on progress and achievements made by Monmouthshire’s Integrated Youth Offer group.

 

Key Issues:

 

·         Maintained quarterly monitoring and scrutiny of subgroup work programmes ensuring that the Performance Indicators of the Single Integrated Plan are being met.

 

·         The Integrated Youth Offer (IYO) has clear governance and reporting structures in place through the Local Service Board (LSB) Programme Board.

 

·         The IYO has clear Safeguarding protocols and holds a database of all members of IYO group for DBS clearance, training and policies worked to, and is current and valid.

 

·         Sustained and grown membership of the IYO to stimulate momentum. The full group and sub groups are well represented by all partners which enables the workload to be shared and to implement the vision of the LSB and priorities of the Single Integrated Plan.

 

·         The continued work of the Integrated Youth Offer group has led to reduced duplication and improved focused delivery of services to young people.

 

·         Continued to develop ‘community projects’ in areas where specialist targeted projects support young people, in particular around issues of anti-social behaviour, criminal activity and bullying.

 

·         Continued to contribute towards the increase in attainment and attendance of those in Key Stages 3, 4 and 5 across Monmouthshire and to continue providing services that decrease NEET figures – currently at 1.7%.

 

·         Collectively, all youth support services, as part of the IYO, have worked with 6907 individual young people between the ages of 11-25 in 2015/16 (39.9% of 11-25 population).

 

·         The IYO has gathered intelligence from partners to feed into the Single Integrated Plan to provide clear evidence on outcomes achieved.

 

·         Both Chief Officer and Cabinet Member for Children and Young People attend and receive information quarterly on the work of the Integrated Youth Offer.

 

The Youth Service Manager provided the Select Committee with the following information regarding the positive outcomes achieved by the Youth Service over the previous year:

 

·         Continued to develop and collaborate to ensure that the services available to young people are maintained.

 

·         Increased community projects through partnership working.

 

·         Have run a road safety awareness event in the summer which was held in Abergavenny which was well attended by the public and public service bodies.

 

·         Held a multi-agency volunteering event in April 2016 in Chepstow Leisure Centre where there were 31 organisations working with young people. As a result, 97 volunteers expressed an interest in working with young people.

 

·         Continue to provide specialist services to the most vulnerable young people in Monmouthshire.

 

·         The positive futures programme is a collaboration between Leisure Services, the Youth Offending Service and the Youth Service. This has been delivered in the four comprehensive schools and Mounton House School over the previous 12 months.  This programme has now ended.  The project is available for schools if they want it but they will have to pay for this programme.  Other funding has been secured to provide this service in primary schools, particularly working with year 6 students with a view to helping them during this transition period from primary to secondary school.

 

·         Engaging with young people with regard to education and training.

 

·         Young Voices – important that young people are heard.

 

·         Collaboration with mental health services to provide young people with information on where to go to get help.

 

·         One of the members of the Youth Council, from Monmouthshire, is now an ambassador on the Future Generations Programme for Welsh Government and has been tasked to work with local authorities to ensure that young people are as involved in this process.

 

·         Managed to sustain a good level of engagement with young people.

 

·         Have had consistent scrutiny and challenge of the sub groups through the Integrated Youth Offer and the Public Service Board performance Management Group.

 

·         Three of the main priorities that will be looked at over the next 12 months are:

 

-       The mapping of funding of the Youth Service across Monmouthshire.

 

-       The safe audit carried out by the Safeguarding Team which is likely to be completed by December 2016.

 

-       Evaluating the work being done, prioritising areas for next year so that they can be aligned to the Future Generations Wellbeing Act

 

Member scrutiny:

 

The following points were noted:

 

·         There was no substantive evidence outlined in the report.  In future, it would be beneficial to the Select Committee if reports could include more data.

 

·         Appendix 1 of the report refers to Individual contacts for each service area as part of the IYO.  Gwent Police had made 1000+ contacts with young people. It was noted that this figure related to Gwent Police’s school liaison officers and the neighbourhood policing team.  The Youth Service works very closely with these teams.  Therefore, the 1000+ refers to the positive work being undertaken with young people.

 

·         It was considered that the work of Monmouthshire’s Youth Service needed to be more readily available in the report.  It was noted that there were a number of Town and Community Councils within Monmouthshire that would like to invest financially in the Youth Service as they are aware that services are at risk due to the decline in grant funding availability.  Also, it would be helpful if the report could identify any potential pressure points being experienced by the Youth Service.

 

The Youth Service Manager stated that the IYO report was not the place to provide the information requested as Monmouthshire Youth Service was one of 32 agencies in which partnership working was being undertaken.  However, the Youth Service Annual report could be presented to a future meeting of the Select Committee which would provide the detail of the work being undertaken specifically by Monmouthshire’s Youth Service.

 

·         In response to a Select Committee Member’s questions, the Youth Service Manager provided the following information:

 

Contacts

 

There is a variance between an individual person and a contact.  A contact is anything relating to three hours and above with a young person.  The contacts identified in the report are young people that have been registered with every service area.

 

Soft outcomes

 

These are hard to measure.  The Youth Service has an impact on young people’s lives, sometimes this is immediate, sometimes this can be in 12 months’ time, or even longer. It depends on the individual young person’s journey. There are 11 counsellors available via the Youth Service. Teams are located within secondary and primary schools. This is well resourced.

 

Rural Youth Provision

 

Supports youth clubs if they come forward asking for support providing training, guidance, resources.

 

Youth Service Statutory Core Business

 

The core business is that free time that young people have making sure they are engaged in meaningful activity, somewhere young people can go to obtain advice, information, help and support. Added value like schools programmes, these are grant funded programmes, which enhances what the Youth Services provides for young people.

 

 

Committee’s Conclusion:   The Chair summed up as follows:   ·         The Select Committee had received an interesting and informative report.   ·         Future reports need to include substantive data alongside the case studies.   ·         In future have the Monmouthshire Youth Service Report alongside the Integrated Youth Offer report in order to provide a complete overview.   ·         Encourage further communication with the Town and Community Council’s within Monmouthshire.