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Exclusive: Special report on the youth green paper

Young people could become “consumers” rather than recipients of services under proposals outlined in a draft of the Youth Green Paper leaked exclusively to Community Care, writes Maria Ahmed.

The draft of Youth Matters, which is due to be published shortly, also sets out a new statutory duty on councils to provide positive activities for young people.

With themes that strongly echo Every Child Matters and the adult green paper alongside key Labour messages of “rights and responsibilities” and citizenship, the draft document pledges to give young people:

• A “real say” in decisions and a strong sense of “ownership”

• A choice of safe places to go and “enjoyable and productive” things to do

• Advice and guidance to make the best of the choices they face

• The extra support – and sometimes challenge – they need

• The chance to develop into fulfilled and active citizens

Service reforms

“We need to reconfigure services for teenagers in line with the principles of Every Child Matters – so that they start from the needs and aspirations of teenagers themselves.”

Building on the proposals of Every Child Matters, the draft proposes that the local authority, working through children’s trusts, should have lead responsibility and accountability for youth policy.

The draft proposes devolving responsibility for a number of existing services and programmes to local authorities, together with the resources to go with them, and states the key service affected by the reforms would be Connexions.

The draft says:

“In the light of wider Every Child Matters and 14-19 reforms, it makes sense to transfer commissioning responsibility for Connexion’s partnerships’ existing responsibilities to children’s trusts. In the case of Connexions universal responsibilities, there may be further devolution of commissioning responsibility to schools.

“It will nevertheless be important to manage the transition to these arrangements in a way that allows high-performing Connexions services to continue to make a contribution to improving outcomes for young people locally.”

Putting spending power in the hands of young people

“We must go further than just consulting with teenagers and their parents – important though that is. We must put power and resources in their hands and we must think innovatively how to do so."

The draft proposes piloting a “youth opportunity card” providing access and discounts to services for all young people.

The cards, which could be used like debit cards, would be funded by “activity accounts” into which central government, local authorities and parents could pay money that could be then spent by young people on sport, clubs and other positive activities.

The draft also proposes that central government would expect to provide (an unspecified) amount per month into the accounts of disadvantaged 13-16 year-olds.

The draft says: “Putting spending power in the hands of young people will not only help overcome cost as a barrier to participation, but will empower them as consumers. The government believes that putting funding into the hands of young people is the best way of ensuring that the activities that are provided meet their needs.

“In addition to central government subsidies, we would therefore hope to see a shift in local authority funding for activities from the supply side to the demand side through young people’s activities accounts.”

New statutory duty to provide positive activities

“Evidence shows that young people who are not involved in activities are disproportionately likely to experience disadvantage in other ways.”

Local authorities could be required by law to secure the provision of positive activities for young people, according to the draft.

It sets out national standards for councils that would cover a range of activities for young people including:

• Two hours a week of purposeful, supported activities

• At least two hours a week of sport or other physical activity

• Making a contribution to communities by volunteering

• A wide range of other recreational, cultural, sporting and enriching experiences

• A range of safe and enjoyable places to go to

Local Entitlements

“The Local Entitlement will be a highly visible statement for young people of what they should expect in terms of activities and places to go in their local area.”

Councils would also be required to publish a Local Entitlement, a statement of opportunities for young people in their local area.

The draft says this would contain details of how the opportunity card scheme would operate and the level of subsidy a young person might receive to support their participation in activities.

The LE would also contain a clear statement of parents’ and young people’s responsibilities to pay for activities whenever they can, and how young people can get involved to shape provision.
 
Contestability

“Provision is strongest where we take the best from the public sector, the private sector and the voluntary sector.”

 
The draft states that guidance for national standards should include the presumption that the provision of services should be “contestable” and young people and parents given a voice in what services are offered.

It says: “We would expect a specific focus on involving young people from different cultural backgrounds, different ethnic and faith communities, different neighbourhoods, those with disabilities and those without, and those facing disadvantage, to ensure that service provision reflects the needs of the diverse communities in the area.”

“We would expect children’s trusts to analyse local services and, taking into full account of the make up of the local population, commission new provision or services to fill locally identified gaps.”

Young people at risk

“Despite tremendous progress in improving services for young people at risk, too many young people continue to fall through gaps in service provision.”

The draft acknowledges that there is not enough emphasis on prevention and on supporting young people before their problems escalate. It says: “This matters particularly if we want to do more to stop young people who are at risk of getting involved in crime and anti-social behaviour from actually doing so.”

The draft proposes to “reform and simplify” the current system to ensure young people at risk receive an integrated package of support which meets their needs “from someone they know and trust” by:

• Putting children’s trusts in charge of developing a more integrated and efficient support service for teenagers

• Placing responsibility with children’s trusts for the local delivery of the Public Service Agreement targets on young people in education, training or employment (with shared accountability with schools), teenage pregnancy and drugs and also contributing to reducing youth crime

• Merging a range of existing government programme which currently focus on specific issues, rather than tackling the needs of young people in a holistic way

• Ensuring that every young person who needs targeted services has a lead professional to take care of their interests

• Establishing front-line youth support teams focussed on prevention

• Giving children’s trusts the resources, authority and incentives to deliver a more integrated and efficient service

• Clarifying the role of schools – and of the new school collaboratives in particular – within the reformed system

Information, advice and guidance

“We know that many young people prefer to get information, advice and guidance from people who know them, their circumstances and their strengths and weaknesses.”

The draft proposes a new entitlement for all young people to access good quality information, advice and guidance through:

• Access to online learning prospectus for post-14 choices

• Access to skilled advisor by phone or web chat 18 hours a day, 365 days a year

The draft says this would be supported by a transfer of primary responsibility for commissioning IAG for young people from Connexions to children’s trusts.

It says that local authorities would receive directly the money spent on universal services by Connexions, and suggests that in the longer term children’s trusts would agree “how and when” to delegate IAG responsibilities to schools and colleges .
 
Funding

No new money is set out in the draft, but “additional” government resources to support young people’s activity accounts could be on offer “subject to piloting.”

The draft proposes to support the reforms by simplifying funding available for services by devolving a range of existing central government grants currently supporting young people to children’s trusts.

What next?

After being promised since last autumn, the Youth Green Paper is expected to be published shortly in its final form.

The draft leaked to Community Care, from June, suggests that the proposed reforms would be completed by 2008, but states any changes would be piloted extensively before being introduced nationally. It says this would be particularly important in relation to workforce issues, funding changes and to the proposed opportunity card.

Decisions on the way forward will be decided by consultation with local authorities, schools, colleges, the private and voluntary sectors and parents and teenagers themselves.