The Children and Young People Policy Agenda of Welsh, UK and European Government - Research Paper Example

 Under section 123 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000, the National Assembly for Wales may direct local authorities to provide, participate in the provision of or secure the provision of youth support services. The latter mean services, which, according to the National Assembly of Wales, involve provision with, encouragement, and assistance for the youth in such areas as education, training, employment, and community life (Office of Public Sector Information, 2000). The Assembly’s flagship policy, Extending Entitlement, includes all opportunities, support and services for young people in Wales. It aims to make a difference in the youth’s lives through the recognition of all services and support that may contribute to their development as well as all enriching learning experiences and opportunities. (Welsh Assembly Government, 2005). The Extending Entitlement suggests several key recommendations, which have a crucial importance for youth community and work practice. First, under this policy support for Welsh youth should be structured around an entitlement for all young people to a variety of services in their preferred language, created to promote their personal realization and development. Secondly, the ethos of this approach involves guiding and encouraging all the youth to take up their entitlement rather than supervising their participation. Furthermore, the Entitlement emphasizes the need for a young people’s strategy, designed by a common effort of statutory and voluntary agencies in order to create a network of support and opportunity for all young people in the area. This strategy should also be aimed to enable every young person in Wales to participate successfully in education, training and work as well as to contribute as citizens within their communities and beyond, as such activities may enable young Welsh people to become aware of their full potential. The youth themselves would play a very important role in both design of the strategy and monitoring its effectiveness (National Assembly for Wales, 2000, p. 6-7). This policy also involves the quality improvement and extension of services, aimed to create a comprehensive support network. This network should involve a shared responsibility to support young people and fulfill their needs, as well as clarity concerning the specialist contribution of each agency to the common strategy. The network would be supported and lead by the local authority, which would also pull together data on outcomes for the cohort of young people in the local area. Furthermore, the Extending Entitlement states that National Assembly for Wales has to create the capacity to ensure implementation and delivery of this support strategy, as well as to contribute to wider UK youth policy development. The Assembly could also create a multidisciplinary implementation monitoring group, responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of the services. The strategy would also involve identification of vulnerable young people and providing them with help. Moreover, in order to support effectively this wider youth agenda the remit of the Wales Youth Agency should be significantly broadened (National Assembly for Wales, 2000, p.7-8). Finally, there is a great need for additional investment in the field in order to improve the quality of the youth services available and, thus, to make a reality of the entitlement. The priorities for the investment include strengthening capacity in local authorities to support partnership for local young people, improving the quality and reach of youth voluntary work, and, finally, increasing the Contribution of Careers service companies and core-funding for the all-Wales voluntary section (National Assembly for Wales, 2000, p. 8). Apart from the Extending Entitlement, Assembly Government has provided local Welsh authorities with several documents, which comprise the most crucial elements of government policy concerning young people: learning, inclusion, citizenship, and safety. Since 2002, all local organizations involved in the provision of services to young people have been required to follow the Guidance, which accompanied the Youth Support Services Directions. The Guidance has regard to the principles included in several documents, concerning Welsh as well as UK and European youth policy (Welsh Assembly Government, 2002, p.1). A very important document concerning youth policy was A plan for Wales 2001, which promoted a more inclusive society, which provided everyone with the chance to fulfill his or her potential. This document advocated a community-led approach to finding local solutions, which involved cooperation between health, employment, skills, communities, and other policy areas. A plan for Wales 2001 also involved the promotion of partnerships between local authorities to provide children and young people with support they need. With grant support, local partnerships could create comprehensive service for young people, including voluntary activities, constructive play, and extracurricular activities. Under this policy, young people would be offered with opportunities, advice and support to be able to achieve their help and aspirations (Welsh Assembly Government, 2002, p.1). A document entitled Children and Young People: a Framework for Partnership, published by the National Assembly for Wales suggests new approaches, aimed to focus and reduce a variety of funding streams supporting local initiatives for the youth. Furthermore, it describes an approach to involve young people in the processes of planning and review of services in schools, across local authorities and health groups. Another important document that influenced the Guidance was The Learning Country, which addresses key policy directions in preparation for Welsh provision in the future Education Act. Among other issues, this document discusses the importance of using academic, technical and vocational learning pathways in order to enable young people to become more adaptable and employable in the face of technological change. It also stresses the role of school as a community resource, essential to community capacity building (Welsh Assembly Government, 2002, p.3). Currently, it is estimated that only 1% of Welsh local authorities’ education budgets is allocated to youth services. While nearly 90% acquaint themselves with statutory or voluntary youth programs, only one third of them are likely to get involved in these activities. There are several reasons for development and promotion of the youth sector. First, youth services play a very important role in re-connecting young people to wider opportunities. Furthermore, participation in statutory or voluntary programs allow disadvantaged and vulnerable young people to participate with other youth in mainstream informal provision. Finally, such programs may significantly contribute to social inclusion and lifelong learning (National Assembly for Wales, 2000, p. 43). The objectives of youth work involve enhancing personal and social development through informal education, supporting other agencies in developing effective work styles for young people, allowing the youth to influence the services provided for them and, finally, providing the bridge between young people’s priorities and the goals of public policy. A significant advantage of the youth work sector is its diversity, which enables young people to get involved in a variety of activities in many different organizations, both unique to Wales and Welsh branches of UK institutions. As the Youth Work Curriculum Statement for Wales states, youth work, provided by statutory and voluntary youth service in Wales involves such diverse activities as centre-based work, curriculum specialties, project work, targeted provision for specific groups, partnership working, volunteering opportunities, and mechanisms for involving young people in decision-making process. Many of these organizations are supported through National Assembly and local authority budgets (National Assembly for Wales, 2000, p. 44). Under the Extending Entitlement, there have been several key developments in the youth work sector in recent years (National Assembly for Wales, 2000, p. 45-46). To start with, due to the local authorities’ maximized investment in schools and minimized overheads, the core maintained youth service has been significantly reduced. Furthermore, as a result of several Welsh Office and Assembly initiatives such as the Youth Access Initiative, the Children and Youth Partnership Fund and the Youth Work and Schools Partnership program, there has been an increase in funding for youth work projects. Youth work programs have also focused more on targeted youth work, which aims to prevent social exclusion, offending and other problems. Finally, under the Youth Work Curriculum Statement for Wales there has been a greater focus on informal learning with the development of practice. The Youth Work Curriculum Statement for Wales states the main objectives of youth work in Wales and provides common understanding of these objectives, brings a framework for the development of work practice and determining of priorities, and creates a method to measure and evaluate the progress towards the achievement of these purposes (Standing Conference for Youth Work in Wales, 2007, p.3). This document suggests that the main purposes of youth work in Wales include promotion and encouragement of opportunities for all young people, support for the youth through important changes in their lives, and encouragement for all young people to develop knowledge, understanding and values which allow them to use constructively their skills, resources and time. Furthermore, Youth Work should provide all young people, whatever their race, age, gender, language, sexual identity, or personal circumstances with opportunities and access to meaningful experience and, thus, challenge inequality and oppression. Youth Work may help young people to recognize the importance and value of both the Welsh language and Wales as a country with diversity of languages and cultures (Standing Conference for Youth Work in Wales, 2007, p.6). The opportunities for learning offered through Youth Work should be educative, expressive, participative and empowering. The education gained through participation in youth work programs involves skills, knowledge and values young people need to understand and pursue their rights and responsibilities as individuals and as members of their communities. Youth Work should also provide young people with creative and challenging opportunities to express their emotions and aspirations. Youth Work opportunities are participative as they enable young people to work together and share responsibilities for their actions, which affect both their own and other people’s lives and environments. Finally, through participation in Youth Work activities young people become more aware of their rights and responsibilities as citizens and, thus, they can engage with the personal, social and political issues that affect them (Standing Conference for Youth Work in Wales, 2007, p. 7-8). There are several challenges to cope with when developing and implementing the youth work policy. First, there is great variation in quality and coverage of these services across Wales (National Assembly for Wales, 2000, p.47). In many parts of Wales, there is a shortage of suitably qualified staff. Due to a challenging nature of work with young people, there is a great need for professionally trained and supported staff, complemented by volunteers. Thus, it is necessary to provide youth workers, teachers, social workers, career advisers and other professionals with adequate training. Moreover, it is quite a challenging issue to create a youth quality service that fulfills the needs and develops the potential of all young people as well as responds to special needs of vulnerable youth. Welsh authorities often need to strike a difficult balance between funding services for the most vulnerable youth and maintaining universal access facilities. Moreover, due to general budget pressures, there have been reductions in both the core of traditional youth provision and in the management structures available to support it. While many areas have received grant for targeted projects from European voluntary sector and the Assembly, there is still a shortage of funds and qualified workers in many Welsh areas. In most unitary authorities youth clubs rely heavily on single workers, often volunteers, which results in several management and resourcing issues. Furthermore, due to the lack of career structure to create permanent workplaces for the best youth workers, there is a risk of losing experienced staff as they may move to the new Connexions service in England, where they can be provided with better career opportunities (National Assembly for Wales, p.49). Both the Assembly and local authorities providing services for the youth need to address such issues as training, facilities and equipment, supply of qualified staff and, finally, lack of balance in funding and staffing structures. It is very important to develop the youth work sector as it does not only enables young people to access their full entitlement, but also contribute to cultural life, social and economic prosperity of Wales (Welsh Assembly Government, 2002, p.1). Since 2004, under section 26 of the Children Act, all local authorities in Wales have been required to prepare and publish a plan covering their strategies for discharging their functions concerning children and young people policy (Office of Public Sector Information, 2004). Thus, Welsh Assembly Government has issued a guidance entitled Shared Planning for Better Outcomes, to which local authorities have regard when prepare their plans. This document addresses the foundations of the Plan in the context of the UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child, describes different stages of its development and the structure of the Plan in relation to seven core aims and, finally, discusses the ways to address workforce issues in the Plan (Welsh Assembly Government 2007a, p. 3). Under the UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child, the recipients of all youth services are children and young people first. Thus, services need to be supportive and fulfill the youth’s emotional, social and educational development needs (UNICEF, 1989). The guidance also stresses the importance of providing children and young people with opportunities to influence the planning and provision of youth services. Thus, when working with children and young people it is essential to encourage user feedback that may be used for planning and improvement purposes. Under this guidance, local Youth Partnerships should pay special attention to young people in greatest need, such as disabled youth, juvenile delinquents, or underprivileged youth people. It is also important to maintain universal services, accessible to all young people (Welsh Assembly Government, 2007a, p. 4). When it comes to workforce issues, it is necessary to develop a children and young people’s workforce strategy. Due to challenging nature of work with the youth, it is essential to provide youth workers, teachers, careers advisors, lecturers and other professional groups with relevant workforce development. The workforce section should involve the statutory, voluntary and private sectors in order to enable all young people with access to highly-qualified and trained staff (Welsh Assembly Government, 2007a, p. 61). The Assembly Government’s objective was to develop and implement viable cooperation between all organizations providing services for young people. Partnership of local authorities could provide the youth with a network of support and experiences, which would enable them to benefit from opportunities available and make an effective transition into adult life. The cooperation between Young People Partnerships, local authorities and other relevant partners may contribute to the well-being of children and youth in their area. Cooperation in such areas as governance and accountability provides partners with access to pool budgets and other non-financial resources to support their activities (Welsh Assembly Government, 2004, p.3). Furthermore, as stated in all relevant documents (Children and Young People: A Framework for Partnership, Extending Entitlement: supporting young people in Wales, Children and Young People: Rights to Action), partnership working is the only way to achieve the principal objectives of youth policy. (Welsh Assembly Government, 2004, p.1). Since 2002, all local authorities need to have a Children and Young People’s Framework Partnership that comprises all local organizations that offer services targeted at children and young people. This partnership involves two sub-groups, the Children’s Partnership and the Young People’s Partnership. (Welsh Assembly Government, 2004, p. 6). Young People’s Partnership is responsible for developing a strategy that will deliver entitlements for young people (Welsh Assembly Government, 2005, p.2). The Young People’s Partnership needs to develop collaboration with other partnerships offering their services for young people, such as the Youth Offending Team, Crime Reduction Partnership, or Consortium for Training. All these organizations will play an important role as the partners in the planning and delivery of services. It is necessary to ensure that there is a flow of information concerning the activities of the Young People’s Partnership and those organized by other partnerships. Members of the Partnership need to comprise local authorities, statutory and voluntary sectors. At an early stage of their activity, the Partnerships need to consider and agree on their operating policies and procedures. There are several issues that need to be discussed within a Partnership: the development of references which make clear that the Partnership’s main objective is to improve the provision of services for the local youth as stated in “Extending Entitlement”, ensuring equal status of all partners, the ways in which partnering organizations will contribute and be informed of its activities, ways of engagement with young people, and specific arrangements concerning continuing information-sharing and cross-referral of client data between agencies as well as communication with the entities implementing the plans and the wider local audience (Welsh Assembly Government, 2002, p. 15-16). To be effective, a partnership needs to work together to find the best ways of using the contribution and expertise of each partner to achieve their common goals and fulfill the needs and expectations of young people within a local area. All statutory, voluntary and independent sector partners have to recognize, respect and take advantage of each other’s expertise. Young People’s Partnerships have to be undertake and keep date-to-date audits of need of, provision and resources for young people in their local area (Welsh Assembly Government, p.17). Thus, they need to be informed of and keep under review all relevant information concerning young people in their area, including health, participation, basic skills, achievement and offending. With the information provided by such entities as the Children and Young People’s Framework Partnership, Community Consortium for Education and Training (CCET), the Index of Poverty and other institutions, Young People’s Partnerships are able to identify the neglected youth and the reasons of their exclusion and undertake an audit of need, supported by the views expressed by young people. An audit of provision involves all services provided for young people by the voluntary and independent sectors as well as the data on their accessibility. Young people should contribute to this audit with their opinions on adequacy, location and effectiveness of the provision. The audit of provision enables the Partnerships to identify gaps, overlaps and duplications. It is also necessary to undertake a skills audit of youth workers, such as communication, multi-agency team working, and other skills that may be useful in work with young people. Given this information, Young People Partnerships are able to identify and tackle skills deficits and develop a cohort of staff with required skills across all youth organizations and agencies (Welsh Assembly Government, 2002, p. 18). When undertaking an audit of resources, Young People Partnerships need to identify financial resources available and to increase these resources. The Partnerships’ annual delivery plan needs to explain partners’ strategies to realize the maximum benefit from all opportunities to increase resources, which may contribute to the fulfillment of the Partnership’s goals and objectives. Every five years, Young People Partnership have to develop a strategy for young people based on the policy provided by Framework Partnerships. This strategy needs to involve aims and objectives to guide the Partnership’s activities in a number of key areas and a 5-years strategy for achieving them. The Partnership needs to define clearly the role and responsibilities of each partner agency in the strategic plan. The strategic plans should address such issues as provision and providers of youth services, developments of services targeted at young people, and the ways of making general services more accessible for the youth. The Partnerships also produce an annual plan, covering progress towards its established goals as well as the monitoring and evaluation of activities (Welsh Assembly Government, pp. 19-23). There are several aspects of efficient cooperation between the Young People Partnership and local organizations offering services for young people. First, in terms of attitudes and process cooperating organizations need to share a common vision, objectives and goals to fulfill when working with young people. There should be mutual respect in the partnership, essential for democratic decision-making process. With effective leadership and willingness to innovate and be adventurous, Partnerships are likely to progress successfully towards their common priorities (Welsh Assembly Government, 2002, p. 57). When it comes to strategic approach, Young People Partnerships should develop and implement cooperation with many diverse agencies within their local area, including voluntary sector and programs that fund children’s services. Through common training on roles and responsibilities, and support at senior level, the Partnerships together with local agencies can develop appropriate strategies for achieving their goals and objectives. All services offered by Partnerships should meet the needs of and be easily accessible to all children. The Partnerships should provide the most vulnerable and neglected youth with targeted services as well as maintain universal services for all young people. All activities have to be undertaken by trained and highly-qualified staff (Welsh Assembly Government, 2002, pp. 157-158). Finally, all partnerships need to establish procedures to measure effectiveness of cooperation between partners as well as systems for monitoring and evaluating the outcomes for young people involved in youth work practice. Performance measurement is a very important aspect of youth work as measuring progress and judging success are the best ways to identify strong and weak points of youth programs and implement necessary improvements. Thus, it is necessary for the Assembly Government and local authorities to develop an outcomes framework, aimed to measure outcomes for children and young people as well as progress in the implementation of Youth Work policy. Performance measurement, monitoring and evaluation have to be reliable, valid, appropriate to their task and effective in cooperative working. Furthermore, measures used to measure the outcomes have to be meaningful to partner agencies, facilitating the achievement of common priority outcomes (Welsh Assembly Government, 2004, p. 24). There are specific sub groups, formed on a regional basis, which work in the areas of research and evaluation of youth services (Welsh Assembly Government, 2000, p. 7). These groups have to ensure an increase in the research undertaken by practitioners and dissemination of work carried out in Wales to a wider UK and international audience. This sub group needs to work with employers to make sure that the widest possible number of staff from the sector can be provided with opportunities and to explore how work produced in the field of youth work can be spread to a wider audience (Welsh Assembly Government, pp. 6-7). While different organizations use a number of different tools for measurement of the outcomes from young people’s involvement in youth work, there is no universally agreed model that could represent them appropriately. As all benefits from used work may not be apparent for some time after finishing the activity, it is difficult to define its outcomes. Furthermore, in many cases participation in youth work is just a part of a specific process targeted at youth people and, thus, outcomes cannot be attributable to any specific intervention (Welsh Assembly Government, 2007b, p. 13). A very important policy to develop means of measuring the outcomes of Youth Work is Demonstrating Success. The domains identified as the basis for Demonstrating Success reflect the skills and attributes developed by young people as a result of participation in youth work. Demonstrating Success reveals several performance indicators that can be used by local and national authorities to measure a wider influence of Assembly Government policy for young people. These performance indicators involve qualitative measures which could be subject to national survey to guarantee evidence of a great influence of youth work services for young people in Wales (Welsh Assembly Government, 2007b, p. 13). The tools included in Demonstrating Success are based on Emotional Intelligence as well as on the domains and concepts underlying the NYA Getting Connected Program. They can be used both by youth workers to measure young people’s outcomes and by young people themselves, for the purposes of self assessment as well as for peer assessment. (Welsh Assembly Government, 2007b, p. 13). Demonstrating Success states that youth work enables young people to value and develop all kinds of Multiple Intelligences proposed by Howard Gardner: emotional intelligence, which involves intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, visual-spatial, musical, and naturalistic intelligence, thus contributing to holistic development of young people. It also measures more formal outcomes, such as qualification and accreditation (Welsh Assembly Government, 2004, p. 24). Youth work process is a complex notion, which involves a variety of different ideas, activities, organizations and, finally personal and unique experiences for all individuals involved. Thus, it is difficult to predict or define its outcomes, which often make up only a part of a more complex process, involving personal, educational and social experience of adolescents. Furthermore, in many cases all benefits of youth work cannot be seen clearly immediately after finishing the activity (Welsh Assembly Government, p. 13). However, the National Assembly for Wales (2000, p.43) mentions several benefits of youth work programs, such as their role in re-connecting young people to wider opportunities, support and help for disadvantaged youth and, finally, a crucial role in social inclusion and long life learning. Youth work can provide or facilitate young people with places and relationships within which they can feel secure and valued, learn to recognize and resist potential damaging influences and, thus, have more control over their lives. Participation in youth work programs offers young people non-formal and structured education opportunities, which can significantly contribute to their personal, social and political development. They can also understand their rights and responsibilities through access to relevant information, advice and guidance. This knowledge may enable them to become more aware citizens and make informed choices concerning their lives (Welsh Assembly Government, 2007b, p. 8). Young people comprise approximately 20% of the Welsh population. It is estimated that out of all 575.000 young people in Wales, 200,000 get involved in activities of the Youth Service (Welsh Assembly Government, 2007b, p. 5). This numerous group has a great potential as individuals, learners, members of their local communities and, finally, the future economy of Wales. Thus, under the National Assembly for Wales policy, Young People’s Partnerships should implement appropriate strategies to take the maximum advantage of this potential. Development of youth work sector has several benefits not only for young people themselves, but also for their communities and the whole society of Wales. References: National Assembly for Wales. Extending Entitlement: Supporting young people in Wales. Cardiff: National Assembly for Wales, 2000 Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI). Learning and Skills Act 2000. London: Office of Public Sector Information, 2000 Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI). Children Act 2004, c. 31. London: Office of Public Sector Information, 2000 Standing Conference for Youth Work in Wales. The Youth Work Curriculum Statement for Wales. Cardiff: Standing Conference for Youth Work in Wales, 2007 UNICEF. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. New York: UNICEF, 1989 Welsh Assembly Government. Extending Entitlement: Support for 11 to 25 year olds in Wales. Direction and Guidance. Cardiff: Welsh Assembly Government, 2002. Welsh Assembly Government. Children and Young People: Rights to Action-Stronger Partnerships for Better Outcomes. Cardiff: Welsh Assembly Government, 2004 Welsh Assembly Government. Extending Entitlement. Working Together to Provide Young People’s Entitlements. Cardiff: Welsh Assembly Government, 2005 Welsh Assembly Government. Shared Planning for Better Outcomes: Planning Guidance for Local Authorities and their Partners on Children and Young People’s Plans. Cardiff: Welsh Assembly Government, 2007a. Welsh Assembly Government. Young People, Youth Work, Young Services: Towards a National Youth Strategy for Wales. Cardiff: Welsh Assembly Government, 2007 b. Read More