Benefits of the targeted youth support change process

The targeted youth support (TYS) change process delivers many benefits, as evidenced by the 14 pathfinder authorities. It gives children's trusts a practical tool with which to deliver the Youth Matters and Every Child Matters agendas by:

• Keeping a focus throughout on service users and improving outcomes
  
  
• Being inclusive - valuing the input of staff and stakeholders, young people, parents and communities in creating and implementing plans for tailored change in an atmosphere of consensus
  
  
• Identifying where change is necessary - helping children's trusts uncover and analyse the needs of young people and their families and identify strengths and weaknesses in service provision
  
  
• Providing a flexible step-by-step framework - wherever you are in delivering this agenda for young people, the toolkit can help
  
  
• Building upon existing good practice and children's trust planning
   
  
• Taking account of the emotional, political and rational factors of change
  
  
• Ensuring equal opportunity for all during the implementation process
  
  
• Helping develop and deliver sustainable improvement

Below is what some people have said about some of the benefits that they have experienced during the TYS pathfinders. The quotations are mainly from TYS pathfinder project sponsors and project managers, whose roles range from directors of children's services to frontline practitioners.

Strategic fit and impact of TYS

"The process has energised Every Child Matters and the profile of the Common Assessment Framework, information sharing and assessment, and lead professional. It has been a breath of fresh air for Hertfordshire and has energised the organisation."
Alan Dinning, Deputy Director Integrated Children's Services, Hertfordshire

"The pathfinder has shifted the targeted youth support agenda to centre-stage in the authority. It has properly aligned it within Every Child Matters and other policy areas, and has shown the power to influence strategic thinking. It has joined up all of the main agencies and will have a major impact in Leicester City."
Paul Vaughan, Education and Lifelong Learning (Acting Service Director), Leicester City

Generating commitment from senior management

"You can't walk away from that [senior management decision meeting] without wanting to do something different."
Damien Allen, Director of Children's Services, Knowsley

"The presentation to the senior group brought out emerging learning and good practice, but it also identified some important weaknesses. It provided a baseline to understand that staff are at different levels of understanding of multi-agency working - now we need to get people to a common level before we can move forward."
David Finn, Project Manager, Derby City

Engaging practitioners in the development of solutions

"The process has challenged cultural norms and silos. People often talk a lot about partnership but don't always deliver it - they talk to each other but don't always really work collaboratively. Now they do this and will sit together and challenge their own services and not just other people's. This is a big cultural change and is fundamental to reform. This process forces them into that position."
Kim Bromley-Derry, Director of Children's Services, South Tyneside

"The process has hugely increased the engagement of the workforce in the agenda. It has directly helped the development of the 0-19 commissioning strategy and alignment of services underneath it. In the past, discussions around this would be in silos; as a result of the process they are now integrated."
Alan Dinning, Deputy Director Integrated Children's Services, Hertfordshire

Engaging young people, families and communities

TYS has sharpened people's focus on what the key issues are for young people.
Vince High, Project Manager, South Tyneside

The young people's engagement gave real credibility both to local politicians and to practitioners. The DVD of young people telling their stories has had a huge impact - it stripped away the bureaucracy and process and gave a strong motivator that this was what it is all about.
Anthony Fielding, TYSP Project Manager, Hampshire

The senior management decision meeting (Decision Point 2) was very powerful, especially the elements where young people described their experiences directly. This gave the whole process credibility with staff and senior management - it helped the decision-makers visualise the problems young people face.
Keith Moore, Director for Children and Young People, Gateshead

Setting out a roadmap for change and delivering benefits quickly

"We have clear ownership of a plan by a range of partners to change services. I am absolutely convinced that we will have different services within the next 12 months as a result of the pathfinder."
Geoff Taylor-Smith, Head of Community Partnership, Worcestershire

"The process has given us direction and a shared vision, not dependent on me. People can see they are shaping the future."
Kim Bromley-Derry, Director of Children's Services, South Tyneside

"The process gives quick wins. It has brought organisations together that did not know each other, and it has generated high-quality needs analysis in partnership with young people."
Malcolm Rittman, County Youth Officer, Hampshire

A rigorous and effective change process

"The process is tried and tested and we trust it. It is a very powerful mechanism and what it has delivered for us would have cost a fortune through other means, and this will definitely remain as core business for our Change for Children programme. I wish I wasn't retiring and could stay with it!"
Ron Skilling, Assistant Director, Children's Services, Knowsley

"The process is sound. The high-level decision points really focus the senior team on an issue and push decisions."
Alan Dinning, Deputy Director Integrated Children's Services, Hertfordshire

You can also download a complete list of pathfinder quotations.

Click to read more about the targeted youth support change process.