Targeted youth support: stage 3 - Deepen

The Deepen stage is where targeted youth support (TYS) teams test findings from the Discover stage in greater detail and where they acquire deeper understanding of the scale of the changes they need to make to achieve their aims.

Decision Point 2, the presentation of the collected data to the TYS senior management group, takes place at the end of this stage and a set of critical questions about the key priority issues to be addressed in the next stage of the change process are decided.

At the end of the Deepen stage...

1. The TYS team has identified the separate elements and root causes of the major prioritised issues.

2. Services and agencies for young people, and the children's trust have increased their awareness of potential priorities and target benefits, even further.

3. The collected data has been analysed and presented to senior management at Decision Point 2 and a list of critical questions has been agreed.

4. Young people and the scope established in the project initiation document remain the focus of the project.

Click for further details about these achievements, including the processes behind each one.

Click to read about activities that will help you to deliver these achievements.

Rationale

During the Deepen stage, participants in the change process use the process and its tools to identify the root causes of the issues uncovered in the Discover stage. They establish which issues are causing, or have the potential to cause, the most problems and clarify their impact on young people, their families and local communities.

To do this successfully, the project needs to engage and consult frontline services and agencies as well as young people, their parents and their communities.

It is vital to avoid the temptation to jump straight from identifying issues to implementing solutions at this stage. For a solution to be effective, the underlying causes of an issue must be identified and understood. This is what Deepen is all about.

There is, however, a judgment to be made on how much effort is spent on deepening all issues at this stage. It is important to understand issues in enough detail to confirm your critical questions, but there is a risk of  investigating issues that won't be taken forward as high priorities at Decision Point 2. It can be better to leave some deepening to the Develop stage.

Deepen culminates in Decision Point 2, an in-depth presentation to the senior management group of the current TYS situation in the scope area, including quantitative and qualitative data, an analysis of the root causes of the issues, and a series of critical questions that need answering if outcomes for young people are to improve.

You can't walk away from that senior management decision meeeting without wanting to do something different.

Damien Allen, Director of Children's Services, Knowsley

The quick wins identified during the Discover stage may also be implemented at this stage.

It is particularly important to address the emotional and political barriers to change during this stage as well as the rational, straightforward practicalities of change, as it is the time when emotions are typically at the bottom of the change curve, as the scale of the task becomes evident.

Next stage

During the next stage in the process, Develop, TYS teams start to address the critical questions agreed at Decision Point 2 and begin to think about a range of possible solutions.

Click to move on to Develop or to read about the activities for the Deepen stage.

Further resources

Targeted Youth Support - Overview of Activities and Achievements

Targeted Youth Support - Personal View Case Studies

Targeted Youth Support - Develop Process Case Studies