Mentoring disaffected young people: an evaluation of "Mentoring Plus"
Michael Shiner and Tim Newburn, Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Well-run mentoring programmes have succeeded in engaging very disaffected young people and helped them take

up education, training and work opportunities.

But there is no evidence that by the time young people finished the programmes there had been any impact on crime or drug/alcohol misuse.

These are the findings of an extensive evaluation of 10 "Mentoring Plus" programmes run by the charities Crime Concern and Breaking Barriers.

The programmes lasted between 10 and 12 months and started with a residential weekend, with volunteer mentors recruited from the local community and matched with the young people. Regular education and training sessions were also provided, and frequent social activities were organised.

The evaluation found that the Mentoring Plus programmes had been particularly successful in engaging those young people who were at most risk of social exclusion, including large numbers of black African and Caribbean young people. Many had left school without any

qualifications and showed much higher levels of offending and illegal drug use than average.

Two thirds of the young people felt the mentors had been helpful, and nearly all found the training sessions and organised social events helpful. There was a big increase in the proportion of young people engaged in education by the end of the programme, while participation by members of a comparable group who were not on the programme did not increase.

One of the aims of Mentoring Plus was to reduce offending, but there was no clear evidence that they had succeeded in this. The researchers point out that the programme’s structured activities relate most clearly to education, and that no activity was specifically designed to reduce offending. They also suggest that insecure funding and fixed-term employment for project workers led to high staff turnover which in itself may have reduced the programme’s impact.

The researchers put forward the view that programme funders and designers should recognise the inherently difficult nature of working with very disaffected young people, including the risk of violence and antisocial behaviour on the programme itself, and that risk management should be given a higher priority.

A model of the inter-generational effects of parental education
Leon Feinstein, Kathryn Duckworth and Ricardo Sabates, Department for Education and Skills

The transmission of educational success from parents to children is key to equality of opportunity. Parental education and income have more impact on children’s educational attainment than any other factor including teen motherhood, maternal employment or family structure.

Parental beliefs, values and aspirations as well as parental mental health and well being are also very important, but neighbourhoods and schools can have a substantial impact in mitigating the effects of family-related disadvantage on children.

These are the conclusions of a review of the existing literature on the effect of parents’ education on the development of children. It distinguishes different kinds of influences on children, including factors such as family size and income, parental mental health and physical health, the way parents and children relate to each other, and the context outside the family such as neighbourhood and school.

Parental warmth and disciplinary skills are also major factors in children’s success or otherwise at school, and can offset other influences, says the study.