Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Creating Integrated Youth Support and Development
Creating Integrated Youth Support and Development
Introduction
We want to create a society in which all young people develop and progress, fulfilling their
potential and making a positive contribution to their communities. To achieve this we need to
advance consistently with the ‘Youth Matters’ strategy based on the five ‘Every Child Matters’
outcomes and building on existing good practice. This requires a step change in how we
support young people, and help them to develop during their teenage years and into young
adulthood, through a comprehensive youth offer.
Effective policies and services for young people are supported by five pillars:
Ready access Involving Early Effective Account-
for all young young people intervention coordination ability to
people to themselves with of imaginative young people
a range of in the design, individuals and provision by and the wider
opportunities delivery and communities statutory, public for better
and services review of to prevent the independent outcomes,
for their programmes to onset of more and leading to
support and tackle specific deep-seated community- continuous
development issues in their problems and based improvement
lives and take to develop organisations, of performance
action human and linking local that aims for
social capital delivery to excellence
well directed
national
policies
Our Vision
During the transition to adulthood, every young person will be entitled to, and be
able to shape:
• personal, social and educational development opportunities;
• independent and impartial information, advice, counselling and guidance; and
• positive leisure-time activities and facilities,
with whatever level of support is needed to enable each of them to achieve and
progress.
Joint statement from The NYA, NACP and APYCO on Integrated Youth Support and Development
Characteristics
The creation of a locally integrated support and development system will be
underpinned by:
As they grow up, young people draw on a wide range of universal services including schools,
colleges, health and housing. These form part of the framework within which more targeted
services operate, and should develop a personalised approach to respond to young people’s
individual needs.
Young people’s needs for activities, information and support are individual and change over
time. It is therefore important that the services are flexible enough to offer a personalised
response without stigma or labelling, offering the right level of support as and when needed,
from the extensive range of professional skills and technologies available. Good personal
contact and effective assessment and review are tools to help ensure that each young person
gets the right response for her or him.
At the local level it might resemble the diagram that follows. As the diagram shows, provision
includes basic information for everyone about what is on offer; a broad and balanced stable
foundation of core facilities and activities for anyone who wishes to participate, in locations
and at times that suit them; and more flexible provision shaped by their interests, needs
and aspirations. Activities should be properly planned, resourced and supported, with either
informal recording or accreditation through local or national award schemes.
Joint statement from The NYA, NACP and APYCO on Integrated Youth Support and Development
BEING INFORMED
All young people informed
about their entitlement: TAKING PART:
• letter at age 13 Open access provision
• phone helpline for those who choose it:
• website • building-based and
• radio ACHIEVING OUTCOMES
mobile
• posters wherever young through:
• street-based youth
people go • young-people-led activity
work in deprived
• active involvement
areas
• accountable advocacy
• extended schools
• programmes of personal and
• sports and arts
social development based on
organisations
a comprehensive assessment
• museums, libraries
of need
and other specialist
• opportunities for volunteering
facilities
• information advice guidance
and counselling
• targeted work for those with
complex needs
Joint statement from The NYA, NACP and APYCO on Integrated Youth Support and Development
Outcomes
The key aim is to measure services against better outcomes for young people. New national
and local targets are required which better reflect outcomes for adolescents and young
adults. These should include targets in respect of increasing the number of young people
in education employment or training (EET) who make successful transitions into adult life;
opportunities for vulnerable groups and action on community issues including offending.
This requires:
• annual published government reports of the ‘condition of our young people’ with trend
data over time;
• similar reports by every Children and Young People’s Service and Government Offices so
that a picture is available locally, regionally and nationally;
• an explicit set of Standards for each element of the youth offer;
• clear arrangements for internal quality assurance complemented by regular external
inspection of the performance of integrated youth support services in each locality,
including young people in the inspection team and reporting to young people and the
wider public;
• rigorous action and support to raise the quality of poorly-performing services; and
• a defined programme of continuing professional development to increase the skills of staff
and promote better multi-disciplinary working.
Conclusion
Youth support and development will be delivered as part of the overall machinery of the local
Children and Young People’s trust arrangements, ensuring that these include a clear strategic
and structural focus on the teenage years within the 0 to 19 age-range.
The experience of each young person and the resulting outcomes will be the
measures of success. Rather than a series of unrelated interventions in their day-to-
day living, young people will experience holistic support, forward movement in their
lives, improved skills and development, excitement and friendship. They will have
someone to talk to about their wishes and aspirations; safe places to go; interesting
and affordable things to do; the right and ability to make decisions about the things
that matter to them. They will know we are interested in them and listen to them, and
that services are relevant to their needs and interests.
Joint statement from The NYA, NACP and APYCO on Integrated Youth Support and Development
About NACP
NACP is an independent Association – funded through member subscriptions – of
organisations delivering integrated information, advice and guidance (IAG) and support to
13 to 19-year-olds. Our purpose is: to enable young people to maximise their economic
wellbeing and their contribution to the country’s skill base; to champion the involvement of
young people at every level in the development and delivery of services that they utilise; to
work collaboratively with national and local government and other bodies who have a remit
to improve outcomes for young people; to advocate on behalf of young people; to promote
the need for national standards and accountability for the delivery of information, advice,
guidance, support and wider development opportunities; and to develop and disseminate
good practice, seeking continuous improvement of youth support services.
www.nacp.co.uk
About APYCO
APYCO is the primary voice of the leaders of local authority youth services in England. It
employs a Chief Executive and Professional Assistant whose work is guided by the Executive
Committee of serving Principal Youth Officers, or their equivalent, elected from each of the 9
regions.
It provides an independent network of support and advice and advocates on their behalf
through the provision of a professional response to youth work issues regionally, nationally
and internationally. In seeking to ensure the continued delivery of high quality responsive and
effective youth work and other services for young people it asserts the need for a framework
to be adopted to inform strategic thinking and planning. It works in collaboration with other
organisations to create informed debate on issues affecting young people particularly in
relation to their direct involvement in decisions which impact on their lives.
www.apyco.org.uk
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