Agenda item

To receive an update on the action that has been taken to implement recommendations made by the Youth Services Task Group in April 2012 and to receive further information about the Positive Activities programme in Worcestershire.

(Report attached).

The Committee received an update on the action that had been taken by both Worcestershire County Council and Redditch Borough Council to implement the recommendations that were made by the Youth Services Provision Task Group in April 2012.  As part of this update a presentation was delivered on the subject of Worcestershire County Council’s arrangements for commissioning positive activities (Appendix A).

During the course of delivering this presentation the following salient points were highlighted for Members’ consideration:

·                Worcestershire County Council had adopted an outcomes based commissioning approach to delivering positive activities to young people in November 2011. 

·                The focus of this programme was on delivering positive activities to young people aged 13 – 19 and, in particular, on helping young people at risk of becoming NEETs (those not in education, employment or training) or of committing anti-social behaviour.

·                Worcestershire County Council had committed to maintaining existing youth services until the commissioned activities had started in order to ensure that there was a smooth transition to the new process.

·                Across the county 25 contracts had been issued to different service providers.  In each district contracts had been awarded by the County Councillors representing the area.

·                In Redditch two consortiums had been commissioned: the Arrow Vale Consortium and a consortium led by the shared Leisure service for Redditch Borough and Bromsgrove District Councils.  A third group, Core Assets, had been commissioned to undertake specific projects that would target young people at risk of becoming NEETs.

·                There had been a phased approach to the introduction of positive activities commissioned from the consortia. 

·                The consortia were expected to achieve particular outcomes that would have a long-term beneficial impact on the life prospects of the young people participating in the activities as well as on local communities.  The extent to which these long-term aims were achieved would be monitored rather than short-term outcomes.

·                The Commissioning Manager would be involved in monitoring the work of the consortia, though County Councillors and young people would also have a significant role to play in monitoring the delivery of activities.

·                The extent to which young people were engaged, together with any outstanding requirements for support, would be taken into account whenever activities were monitored.  Quarterly data would be provided to ensure that monitoring remained effective.

·                This quarterly data would over time enable Worcestershire County Council to assess how NEETS and young people at risk of committing anti-social behaviour were engaged in positive activities.

·                The Arrow Vale Youth Centre had been transferred by Worcestershire County Council to the RSA Academy Arrow Vale for school and community use.  All young people, not just pupils at the school, were entitled to access this facility.

·                Redditch Youth House was due to be disposed of by Worcestershire County Council’s Property Services team.  Two organisations had expressed an interest in the building and one body had submitted a bid.  A decision on the successful bidder would be made on 26th August 2013.

Further information was also provided about the work of the Council-led Consortium, focusing on the following key points:

·                The Council was working with a range of local Voluntary and Community Sector organisations.

·                The Council’s role in the consortium was to submit the bid to Worcestershire County Council.  The Voluntary and Community Sector groups had taken a lead in delivering positive activities to young people.

·                Nine new youth clubs had been established by the consortium using funding provided through the commissioning process. 

·                The consortia that had been awarded funding were working closely together, using the same software and sharing information about young people at risk of becoming NEETs. 

·                This close working relationship helped to ensure that activities provided by one consortium did not duplicate the work of another.  Members were advised that both consortia were also keen to avoid duplicating the work of other Voluntary Sector and Community Sector organisations that had not applied for funding from Worcestershire County Council.

·                The youth clubs were aiming to change the programme of activities available to young people to reflect opportunities in different seasons of the year.

·                The Council-led consortium had consulted with representatives of North Worcestershire Community Safety Partnership.  As a consequence of this meeting a mechanism had been identified to enable the partnership to refer young people committing, or at risk of committing anti-social behaviour to the consortia.

·                The Council had envisaged that transportation would be a barrier to participation.  However, young people had managed to access the clubs relatively easily.

Following receipt of the presentations Members discussed the commissioning process in further detail.  Concerns were expressed about the geographical spread of positive activities across the Borough.  In particular, Member noted youth clubs had not been established in areas such as Crabbs Cross, Headless Cross, Hunt End and Webheath.  It was suggested that there remained a risk that some young people living in these areas would commit anti-social behaviour or become NEETs. 

Members were advised that, in a context of reduced resources, the County Councillors had been required to concentrate on prioritising commissioning positive activities that would meet the greatest need.  The activities that had emerged had been considered best able to achieve this purpose at the time that the County Councillors had reached a decision on the process.  However, if further data emerged to indicate that there was particular need in other parts of the Borough there was flexibility within the contracts awarded to both consortia to ensure that activities could be redirected accordingly.

The suitability of outreach work for engaging with young people at risk of committing anti-social behaviour was considered.  The North Worcestershire Community Safety Partnership had suggested that outreach work would better enable youth groups to engage with young people at risk of offending.  However, outreach work had not been commissioned specifically.  There was the potential to introduce outreach work; though it was likely that resources would need to be diverted from existing activities which could lead to the end of some practices.

There was the potential for the consortia that had been awarded contracts to fail to meet target outcomes.  Worcestershire County Council had retained the right to decommission service provision by the consortia if this occurred.  However, the Council was eager to support the consortia and to help to identify solutions to problems before they became intractable.

Intergenerational projects were due to be provided in some parts of the town as part of the process.  The exact nature of these projects remained to be confirmed, though it was likely that it would include activities such as lunch clubs.

A variety of methods had been utilised to promote the positive activities.  All of the Youth Clubs in the Council-led consortiums used social media to communicate with young people.  The council-led consortium would also be promoting youth activities during the Morton Stanley Festival in August 2013. In the long-term Worcestershire County Council was due to re-launch the Plug and Play website, which was dedicated to promoting youth activities, and which could be used by all youth clubs to promote events and activities. 

The Committee finished their discussions by considering the overall impact of the Youth Services Provision Task Group review.  The recommendations that had been made by the group were considered to have had a significant influence over the work of the Council-led consortium in particular. The Council had not been involved in delivering youth work for a significant number of years and, therefore, a number of innovative actions had been taken to ensure that activities were delivered in partnership effectively.  For these reasons Members concurred that the Task Group exercise had been worthwhile.

RESOLVED that

1)        a presentation on the subject of the data outcomes from the positive activities programme in Redditch be presented for the consideration of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in October 2013; and

2)        the report be noted.