State of Play
April 2009
Introduction and Context
This research project has been carried out on behalf of the North East Regional Youth Work Unit.
It builds on a number of reports that have been written over the past five years focussing on issues affecting the voluntary and community sector in the region and is intended to provide a snapshot of the ‘state of the sector’ in 2009.
The research is in four parts. The first part is a contextual report about developments taking place nationally and regionally in children’s and youth work. The second part has focussed on a number of key issues that have been part of the VCS Engage Project’s Self-Evaluation Tool Kit for local authorities and includes: Networking, Children’s Trust Arrangements, Integrated Services, Workforce Development and Safeguarding. A questionnaire, which was used as the principal research tool, was modelled on the Self Evaluation Tool Kit for Local Authorities, covering the areas contained in it. Throughout this report there are extracts taken from the assessment tool following narrative describing the outcomes of the research, which reflect information captured from the respondents.
‘The VCS Engage programme aims to strengthen the engagement of the voluntary and community sector (VCS) in the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda (more details can be obtained at www.vcsengage.org.uk). The Self Evaluation Toolkit (SET) is designed to be completed in partnership with statutory and voluntary sector representatives. Within each section, there are a number of questions for discussion which require partners to consider their progress, provide
evidence for their judgements and then establish ratings of green, amber or red as a baseline. The SET then provides a template for establishing agreed further actions and a communications proves to disseminate this within wider stakeholders. The programme is funded by the DCSF.’
The third part of the research picks up and highlights issues that have emerged from the research and reflects the concerns of the sector in the region on the impact that these will have corporately and on individual agencies. In the fourth part there case studies of some examples of good practice that were highlighted during the research process.
Children’s and Youth Services have undergone major transformation over the last decade and over the past five years, in particular. Change began with the introduction of the Connexions service in 2001, which sought to provide a comprehensive service for young people providing information, advice, guidance and support. Through multi-agency working, Connexions aimed to provide young people with a range of services and opportunities that would help remove barriers to learning and progression and ensure young people make a smooth transition to adulthood and working life. Since 2001, however, Government policy has moved on and the policy context which affects services to children and young people is much more complex and fast moving. The following section provides a brief description of the policy drivers for change.
