Issue 12 Winter 2003 

CONTENTS

4 News
9 Good practice in photographing young people
10 Social inclusion, partnerships and learning – the role of the Youth Service in Extending Entitlement - John Holmes
14 Llanrumney generation project bridges the age gap 
16 Overview of the European YOUTH funding programme, plus connecting futures in Azerbaijan 
18 Veronica Wilson discusses the concept of young people’s participation
21 Courtney Taylor poses the question, is youth work training in Wales standing still or moving forward?
24 Bert Jones talks about sustainable youth work at the Youth Cymru conference
28 The Handy Guide to Self Assessment and YWSPP Toolkit 
30 Janice Roberts of Denbighshire Youth Service 

 

This document is focused on reducing the number of young people aged 11 to 25 who are not engaged in education, employment or training (NEET). All parts of the system from Welsh Government, National Partners, local authorities and providers will need to work together to successfully implement this plan. The plan sets out the different roles and responsibilities of key players and expectations for how each partner will deliver. Partners include senior leaders in local authorities, Careers Wales, the Youth Service and providers (schools, further education (FE) colleges, work-based learning (WBL)). 

The Youth engagement and progression framework – Implementation plan has six key elements:

1. Identifying young people most at risk of disengagement.
2. Better brokerage and coordination of support.
3. Stronger tracking and transitions of young people through the system.
4. Ensuring provision meets the needs of young people.
5. Strengthening employability skills and opportunities for employment.
6. Greater accountability for better outcomes for young people.

There are two new offers to young people through the framework.

• The first is the allocation of single point of contact (a lead worker) to the most at-risk young people to help ensure that support is delivered in a joined up and coordinated way and that works to meet their needs.
• The second is the development of a proactive and positive Youth Guarantee that will help to ensure that every young person has access to a suitable place in learning post-16. 

The Youth Engagement and Progression Framework (YEPF) aims to reduce the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET). The Framework has six components, proven to be effective at increasing youth engagement and progression when implemented together as part of a strategy. These are: early identification, better brokerage and coordination of support; stronger tracking and transition of young people; ensuring provision meets the needs of young people; a focus on employability skills and opportunities for employment among young people; and greater accountability. Local authorities (LAs) have been charged with the role of leading implementation of the Framework, working closely with Careers Wales, youth services, schools, training providers to those aged 16 and over and other partners.  

The evaluation aimed to assess progress made to implement the Framework and the effectiveness of implementation processes with a view to considering whether the non-statutory guidance is sufficient to achieve the Welsh Government’s ambitions and targets and identifying learning to improve guidance and implementation. 

This document is in support of the Youth engagement and progression framework. This document provides initial guidance to local authorities and key partners regarding the Youth Guarantee and the key processes that need to be put in place to ensure young people remain engaged in education, employment or training. The document will be informed by pilot activity and will be finalised in autumn 2014 before the Youth Guarantee is implemented across Wales.

In the Youth Engagement and Progression Framework Implementation Plan we commit to introducing a guarantee to a place in education or training for young people leaving compulsory education for the first time. Our Youth Guarantee is the “offer, acceptance and commencement of a suitable place in education or training for a young person making the first time transition from compulsory education at age 16.”

The Youth Guarantee is being piloted in the North and West regions of Wales from November 2013 to October 2014. It is planned that the Youth Guarantee will be rolled out across Wales from November 2014 to October 2015. This means that the first young people will take up their offers under the Guarantee in September and October 2015.

Background to the youth work career pack produced for the Welsh Assembly Government by the Council for Wales of Voluntary Services (CWVYS) and Promo Cymru as part of the 'Thanks Sam' campaign.

Includes details of contributors and list of contents.

 

Section 28 of the Local Government Act (1988) was a piece of legislation which was implemented by the Conservative-led Government to prevent the promotion of homosexuality as a pretend family unit. This study set out to explore whether Section 28 impacted on Youth Work with young people, whilst exploring whether this legislation impacted on the practice of youth workers and their youth work colleagues. There has been a huge amount of research and literature into how Section 28 impacted on the Education Services, with little or no research undertaken from a Youth Work perspective.

This short paper explores a number of issues related to the Youth Service in Wales - squeeze, capacity, drift, managerialism, organisational learning, leadership, vision and ultimately organisational resilience.

Guidance on integrating Partnerships and Plans.

The Welsh Government considers that a single integrated plan should be used to meet the statutory duties in relation to the development of plans and strategies required under the following legislation:

• Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009 (Part 2: Ss 37-46) – Community strategies;
• Children Act 2004 (Part 3: S26) – Children and Young People’s Plan (which include plans required in accordance with section 2 of the Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010 and Part 1 of the Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010);
• National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006 (Part 3: S40) – Health, Social Care and Well-being Strategies; and
• Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (Part 1: S6) – Strategies for the reduction of crime and disorder, strategies for combating the misuse of drugs, alcohol and other substances, and strategies for the reduction of re-offending.
• Children & Families (Wales) Measure 2010 sections 11 & 12 – the duties in respect of local authorities to assess for sufficient play opportunities and to promote and facilitate participation by children in decisions of the authority which might affect them, and to publish and keep up to date information about its arrangements.

The Welsh Government is seeking views on new proposals to support the development of a new National Youth Work Strategy.

Start of consultation: 18/06/2013
End of consultation: 16/09/2013

The Welsh Government committed in the Programme for Government to update the National Youth Service Strategy. The outcomes of this consultation will be used to inform a new National Youth Work Strategy for Wales to be published during the Autumn 2013.

BA dissertation which examines if the drive towards interprofessional practice and the creation of the 2020 Children and Young People’s Workforce Strategy (DCSF, 2008) provide a case for European Social Pedagogy and its practices to be introduced into the landscape of working with children and young people in Wales?