Youth Connexions - Literature review Example

?Youth Connexions All the young people in England of the ages 13 – 19 years are provided with support service by the government; the support service provided by the government to these young is referred to as connexions. The service aims at providing integrated guidance, advice and access to the group’s personal development and assists them in making smooth transition to working life and adulthood. Connexions link the work of the government departments with those of the voluntary and private sector groups and the careers and youth services. All the support and services that are needed by the young people during their teenage years are brought together by Connexions (Bekaert 2005, p165). In the year 2003/2004, close to 3.6 interventions were made with the young people. By March 2004, nearly 100,000 teenagers aged 16 – 18 years left the ‘Not in Education Employment or Training’ group and entered training, a job with training or education (Department for Work and Pensions 2004). Connexions provide practical assistance in the choosing the right careers and courses. It also offers access to a number of personal development activities such as volunteering activities, performing arts, and sport. Advice and assistance is also provided on issues such as homelessness, sexual health, and drug abuse. Connexions provide an all inclusive support to the young people. A personal adviser is made available to these young people. The personal advisers have different roles depending on the need of the young person. Some are career advisers and others it is personal adviser who provides an in-depth support to the young person, and to help them in the identification of learning barriers and find solutions and gain access to a more specialist support. The personal adviser works in a number of settings such as colleges, community centres, one-stop shops, on an outreach basis, and schools (Bekaert 2005, p165). Connexions has its own website that has all the information for the personal advisers and other professionals; this is the national website for the Connexions. A national Connexions website for the young people also exists. Another website for Connexions is the Connexions Direct and it assists the user with information and advice in regard to issues such as housing, health, career and learning options, relationships with friends and family, activities to participate, and money. The local Connexions partnerships website also exists (Bekaert 2005, p165). There are proposals to sustain Connexions in regions where its performance is good and there are still indications that the guidance and support provided by Connexions is supposed to go local as much as possible. The responsibility for organizing the focus of the services in regard to working with the young people should have a coherent and holistic response approach and should lie within the future of the Children’s Trusts (Hine and Wood 2009, p177). The Connexions Strategy The proposal for the Connexions strategy was signed in 2000 by the Prime Minister and 7 Cabinet Ministers. The intention of the strategy is to coordinate policy in a number of partner agencies; they include colleges, training providers, schools, drug action teams, employers, leaving care teams, social service, the youth service, teenage pregnancy coordinators, and the voluntary sector. The primary aim of the strategy is to offer support service to all 13 – 19 year olds through a system of personal advisers; the services are delivered by multi-agency teams (Roche 2004, p97). The Connexions Service There are around 47 Connexions partnerships that cover England. Each of the Connexions partnership has an extensive workforce that works directly with the young people. The workforce is composed of professional qualified personal advisers and delivery staff who work under the supervision of the qualified professional personal advisers. The main focus of the Connexions service is the young people and their primary objective is the promotion of the welfare of the young people (Great Britain Department of Health 2006, p65). The Connexions Service in England was as a result of two government documents that were published in 1999. These documents include; Learning to Succeed (DfEE 1999) and Bridging the Gap (Social Exclusion Unit 1999a). Both documents are attributed to the establishment of the new support service for the young people and the bringing together of a portion of the Youth Service and the Careers Service (Barry 2005, p17). The Connexions partnership and their subcontractors have the following responsibilities: a. Identification, keeping in touch and offering the required support to the young people in their locations. Each of the young person’s desires is evaluated and support offered, and a continued contact given them is customized to meet their desires (Great Britain Department of Health 2006, p65). The young person may get a combination of the following on the basis of their needs: advice, counselling, information, guidance, referral to specials services, advocacy to assist them to gain opportunities such as funding, and personal development opportunities. Connexions partnerships offers priority to the desires of young people who are from vulnerable groups such as care leaver, young people with disabilities or difficulty in learning, young people under the supervision of Yots, and teenage mothers (Great Britain Department of Health 2006, p66). b. Identification of young people who are at a risk of child protection issues; in such a scenario, the relevant authorities are informed or alerted. Connexions staff are supposed to be aware of the contacts and agencies that they can use to refer young people who at risk. They should also be aware of the ways in which these issues can be followed up. c. Minimization of risks in the organizations in which they suggest for the young people. For example, those who provide training opportunities and employment may pose a threat to the development of the young people morally, psychologically, and physically. d. To ensure that the recruitment exercise of all the staff conforms to the current vetting regulations. e. To ensure that all the staff including their subcontractors know the risks linked to the welfare of the young people and can be able to exercise their ethical, professional, operational and legal obligations to safeguard the young people from those risks. Agencies information sharing protocols are given the highest priority in order to safeguard and promote the welfare of the young people. The staffs are supposed to act in accordance with these agreements (Great Britain Department of Health 2006, p66). Structures and Supporting Information The service provision is overlapping and largely fragmented and there is little communication between the regional, national and local agencies in the delivering of the same service. Connexions intends to address the variable quality of advice, the fragmented nature, support and guidance available to the young people, and relevance and quality of the post-16 training and education (Canny, Green and Maguire 2001, p10). Connexions service is designed in a way that it is consistent in the current service boundaries in order to offer a more holistic response to the individual desires. Collaboration is achieved through innovative and flexible structures that link the private and public sector, voluntary and community sector, and delivers an effective joined –up service to all the sections of the community (Canny, Green and Maguire 2001, p10). Accurate, organized and readily accessible information is provided to the young person with the most suitable guidance, realistic choices, and advice which permits the young person to accomplish their full potential. It is imperative to provide a more effective service in such a case. The Connexions database ensures that the young people do not become lost to the Connexions service or fall through the net (Canny, Green and Maguire 2001, p11). The Different Organizational Layers within Connexions Before 2003, Connexions service consisted of a National Unit (CSNU) that was responsible for the coordination of the national service. The unit was located in the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). CSNU was replaced by Supporting Children and Young People Group (SCYPG) towards the end of 2003. Connexions service delivery is structured sub-regionally by 47 Partnership Boards that are spread across England. The Boards are structured from a number of agencies and they include representations from other major players such as colleges, Local Education Authorities (LEAs), schools, Jobcentre Plus, and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). The Partnership has support from the senior management t team and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Partnership (Britton, Coles and Hicks 2004, p3). Some of the sub-regions are large and they consist of up to 10 local authorities and the local managers are the ones responsible for the Connexions development within these local authorities. The Local Management Committees (LMCs) assist the organization of Connexions within the local authorities. The committee gets its membership from the various agencies in the local authority. The senior managers from the YOTs, the Youth Service, schools, LEA, voluntary sector, the firm delivering careers guidance and education, and the health services. The local authorities have gone further to create various ad hoc committees that are concerned with the day-to-day issues implementation and they are structured to disseminate and share good practice. The management and organization of the front-line workers (Personal Advisers) is dependent on the partnership development model adopted by Partnership Board (Britton, Coles and Hicks 2004, p4). References Barry, M. (2005) Youth policy and social inclusion: Critical debates with young people. London, UK: Routledge. Bekaert, S. (2005) Adolescents and sex: The handbook for professionals working with young people. London, UK: Radcliffe Publishing. Britton, L., Coles, B. & Hicks, L. (2004) Building better connections: Interagency work and the Connexions Service. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press. Canny, A., Green, A. E. & Maguire, M. J. (2001) Keeping track: Mapping and tracking vulnerable young people. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press. Department for Work and Pensions. (2004) Opportunity for all: Sixth annual report 2004. Norwich, Germany: The Stationery Office. Great Britain Department of Health. (2006) Working together to safeguard children: A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Norwich, Germany: The Stationery Office. Hine, J. & Wood, J. (2009) Work with young people: Theory and policy for practice. London, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd. Roche, J. (2004) Youth in society: Contemporary theory, policy and practice. London, UK: SAGE. Read More