The British Youth Council (BYC) wants to know what you think about the year ahead and beyond. Whether you are still in school, in training, or one of the 1 million unemployed young people seeking a job – how do you feel about 2012? What do you think about the levels of youth unemployment and education and training prospects for young people? Do you think the Government is doing enough on these issues, and what do you think will happen this year?

Your views count! BYC will tell top decision-makers what you think, including the Commission on Youth Unemployment, the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition.

They’re counting on you! Your views mean they can give a voice to young people’s views. As a thank you for taking part in this survey you can also enter a prize draw to win a £50 Love2Shop voucher to spend in high street stores. If you forward it onto friends, and they tell us about it, you’ll also get entered into another prize draw for more vouchers too!

Get involved at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/bycfuture2012

The deadline to take part in the survey is Wednesday 1 February by midnight.

Click here for further information

Positive for Youth: A new approach to cross-government policy for young people aged 13 to 19 was published today.

For the Executive Summary click here.

Click here to see the full report or for further information go to the Department of Education website.

Youth Academy 1                               Youth Academy 2                          Youth Academy 3

In November 2009, the Unit, in conjunction with Government Office North East, established the Network of Integrated Youth Support Services in the North East. The Network has been developed as a response to the changing nature of youth work and youth service delivery. The introduction of greater integration, the restruction of local authority service provision to children and young people and the changing relationship with the voluntary youth sector, created by the introduction of commissioning have presented a unique range of challenges. The Network of Integrated Youth Support Services in the North East is a positive response and development in relation to these very challenging issues.

The Network consists of two existing groups, the Local Authority Youth Work Leads Group and the Regioinal Forum for Voluntary Youth Organisations, and a new group, the Heads of Integrated Youth Support Services group. As the network develops, other regional groups involved in the delivery of services to young people will be invited to contribute to the network. The essence of the network is to:

• develop a better understanding of the issues related to the introduction of integrated youth support services
• share best practice and knowledge of structural and strategic issues
• offer support to both managers and practitioners involved n the development and delivery to services of young people
• offer support to colleagues across the region provide a regional perspective for the introduction of integrated youth support services

Click here for full prospectus

Youth Policy Exchange is a concept that has been developed by the Regional Youth Work Unit and a steering group of representatives from the Regional Assembly and Save the Children UK and is supported in principle by Government Office for the North East.

Although there is a distinction between consultation and participation, Youth Policy Exchange is a model of consultation which when applied properly, should lead to meaningful participation for children and young people.

The Framework

Youth Policy Exchange sets out a framework which could be used in a number of settings. It is not restrictive but gives clear guidance of how children and young people can meaningfully participate.

The Youth Policy Exchange framework can be followed in seven stages:

Stage 1: Adult decision makers; organisations; service providers; policy officers to make a decision about an area of work in which they would like the participation of children and young people.

This clearly shows the commitment of the organisation from an early stage that children and young people should be involved equally in joint decision making. It’s important that key decisions have not already been made; otherwise children and young people’s participation would be less meaningful. If some decisions have already been made, be honest about what it is they are able to influence. At this stage the adults choose what area of their work they would like to involve children and young people in, eventually a culture of involvement should follow where they seek children and young people’s participation in all relevant aspects of what they do.

Stage 2: The adults should explain the area of work in jargon free, children and young person-friendly language. This should be no longer than one side of paper describing the issue, what they would like to know their views about and
no more than three questions they would like a response to. They should be clear about why their views are being sought. They should also be clear about what can be expected of them and how they will maintain a dialogue with the
children and young people.

Adult language and ways of doing things are often the reason why children and young people don’t engage in what we think are issues that are too complicated for them. The jargon we create to describe our work is often the
complication and the systems we use to make things easier can actually alienate people who do not work within the same environment, not just children and young people. Basically we make it hard for them to understand what it is we’re talking about. It requires a change in organisational culture to be able to make what you do transparent and accessible to others. It’s not easy and does require a commitment, but if you value the participation of children and young people key changes like this are crucial and rewarding. You must also make a clear commitment to children and young people from the beginning about what it is you will do, as we often ask things of them and don’t offer anything in return Please don’t commit yourself to something you can’t deliver on.

Stage 3: Once the adults are clear about what it is children and young people would be involved in, they then approach groups of children and young people or people who work with them to present their jargon free, friendly plan. From
this point onwards children and young people can choose whether to engage with the issue, how they would like to talk about the issue, where they would like to talk about it, the timeframe and outcomes they would like to see happen if they do and how they would like feedback presented to them. It is up to the adults and children and young people to decide the process and after this has been jointly agreed it should be written up so that everyone knows what to expect and the dialogue can begin. It is also at this stage where the needs of the group or individuals can be identified in order that suitable venues, activities, food etc can be provided and to meaningfully take part in a dialogue.

It is important that children and young people have joint ownership over what it is they are getting involved in and the more they understand and are involved they are more likely to engage with the issue and share responsibility
for maintaining a dialogue with you. It’s important that you listen to them and share power with them whilst also being honest about what it is they are influencing.

Stage 4: From the agreed process an appropriate consultation session should be planned. As previously mentioned a number of toolkits, websites and people are available to help this planning. The process should provide you with a
checklist to ensure you have taken into consideration all of the things that have been discussed. For example, if you have agreed to have a meeting on a weekend don’t plan it to happen on a Thursday evening even if you can’t book
the room on the weekend, before you make this decision you should always go back to the children and young people to involve them in that decision or you might end up with one person at the meeting – yourself. If you respect their
views, they will be more willing partners.

There are lots of resources already produced to help people talk to, engage with children and young people in a range of settings, from a variety of backgrounds with a diversity of needs and abilities. In each local authority area there will be at least one person whose job it is to make sure children and young people are involved in decision making and could help you. In the North East there is a network of workers called the Regional Active Participation Network (RAP) who meet with the aim to effectively support children and young people’s active participation by offering support; working across the region networking and sharing practice with anyone regardless of job title who is involving children and young people in the work that they do and work strategically; acting as a conduit for children and young people’s
participation in partnership with statutory, voluntary, national and regional agencies such as office of the Children’s Commissioner and Government Office for the North East (GONE)

Stage 5: Consultation. If you done your planning, this should be very straightforward.

The consultation or engagement stage of Youth Policy Exchange is the fun part! Talking with and listening to young people when they are actively engaged in the issue, having fun and sharing their views is ultimately what you have worked toward achieving and the long process which build up to this stage will ensure good participation and the ‘costs’ will be justified.

Stage 6: How you record the views of children and young people and how you feed back to them should have been agreed at stage three. Again this part should be pretty straightforward, use the agreement as a checklist and refer
back to stage two and ensure that you present you feedback in jargon free, children and young person friendly language.

Again this maintains a dialogue and shows the children and young people that their views have been valued and listened to before and during the consultation stage. Be clear to indicate any next steps and agree to keep them
involved, it’s important that children and young people know what has happened as a result of their involvement and again this requires a commitment to them as partners long after seeking their views. How you maintain this should again be agreed by you and the children and young people and may simply take the form of a newsletter, an email every month, a web blog, or meeting with them in person. It is important that you carry out your commitments to them.

Stage 7: The whole process requires you to produce something at each stage.

This means that you will develop a record of children and young people’s participation and methods that can be adapted and applied a number of times, and information to evaluate different stages of the process. This builds resources within your organization which are appropriate to the area of work you do. You have used the framework as guidance but have adapted it to suit your needs.

Download the full report

At the start of the afternoon session Leon delivered a presentation on national perspectives and personal reflections which outlined some of the key issues from national partners and presented some of Leon’s personal views on current challenges and issues for the future.

As well as presentations, the event also provided a series of workshops for attendees. The four workshops were:

• Developing a World Class Youth Workforce in the North East – Ivan Wintringham
• Commissioning Youth Work – Chris Ford
• Challenges for Youth Work ‘A Managers Perspective’ – Peter Davies
• Affirming our Value Base in Youth Work: Opportunities and Ethical Challenges – Sarah Banks

The workshops were well attended and generated high level of discussion and debate. Facilitators were able to share information and also highlight issues which were later shared with the rest of the conference attendees.

In both the morning and afternoon sessions discussion areas were built into the programme. The morning session was entitled ‘Where Are We Now?’ and discussed current challenges and issues in youth work. The afternoon discussion session was entitled ‘Where Do We Go From Here’ and highlighted some of the future challenges and issues for youth work and youth work professionals. Issues from the two discussion session formed part of the discussion wall, and will be included in the final conference report.

Social pedagogy is widely used in European countries; it is an academic concept involving a system of theory, practice and training given to the professional, which supports the holistic development of the whole child and looks at all aspects of their life skills. The aim of social pedagogy is to achieve a stronger workforce with better and more consistent relationships and communication between professionals involved with children and young people, thus emphasising more focus on every aspect of the child’s life.

The term pedagogy is derived from the Greek ‘pais’ (child) and ‘agein’ (to lead, to bring up). The DCSF are currently carrying out social pedagogy pilot schemes in children’s residential care homes England, but it can also be used in a wide range of settings including early years, youth work, social work settings, health, youth justice setting etc, and applies to overall support for children’s development bringing together education, social care and health.

If you would like to know more, or would like to voice your views about social pedagogy please contact Kerry 0191 440 4410.

Young people were able to visit our ‘Market Place’, where funders and youth projects provided information about their work and funding opportunities. The highlight for many who attended were the presentations by young people about the international work which they have been involved with. We had presentations form the following groups:

• Jack Drum
• Beauty and the Bike
• Bishop Auckland Theatre Hooligans
• Intergen
• Bishop Auckland Area Youth Project: One Chance
• Gateshead 2 Ghana

The presentations ran throughout the day and 25 young people were involved in delivering the presentations. At the same time an international youth work training session was provided for practitioners who attended the event. The training involved information from the European Youth in Action programme, the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council and Platform 2. The day finished with a tour of Durham Cricket Club which was very well received by those who took part.

The evaluation which we have received from the event have been very positive and we hope to make the event part of our annual calendar of conferences and seminars.

Tel: 01325 346285/346431

Durham Children and Young People Service

Tel: 0191 3740534

Gateshead Young People’s Services

Tel: 0191 433 3000

Hartlepool Youth Service

Tel: 01429 523901

Middlesbrough  Youth Service

Tel: 01642 245432

Newcastle upon Tyne

Tel: 0191 277 1247

North Tyneside

Tel: 0191 287 8603

Northumberland Youth Service

Tel: 01670 533 000

Redcar & Cleveland

Tel: 01642 777545

South Tyneside

Tel: 0191 427 1717

Stockton on Tees  

Tel: 01642 526398

Sunderland

Tel: 0191 5617410