Targeted youth support pathfinder links with budget holding lead professional initiative -1

This case study relates to  Mobilise Achievement 1: The local authority understands in depth what targeted youth support is, what the government requires by 2008 and how it fits with related workstrands.

Overview

Gateshead is one of the 14 targeted youth support (TYS) pathfinders. Halfway through its TYS change process, the opportunity arose to also bid to become a budget holding lead professional pathfinder.

A decision was taken by senior management to bid for the opportunity, in spite of the bid process taking place in the middle of a joint area review. The managers could clearly see the benefit of linking the two pathfinders closely together.

Action taken

The two-year plan for budget holding lead professionals is set out below. It makes it clear where there are links between the two pathfinders:

In year one, Gateshead will focus the pathfinder activity in the Birtley area the same area as the TYS pathfinder. This link will be strengthened by working initially only with 8-17 year olds, which is also the same age range as the TYS pathfinder.

However, this model is unlikely to be sustainable unless linked to the wider Every Child Matters: Change for Children programme. Therefore, in order to embed the model, in Year 2 the pathfinder will be extended to all children and young people in the Birtley area, aged 0-19. This will represent a major challenge, but unless integrated services can be focused around family members, regardless of age, the authority anticipates difficulties with the model.

The focus will be on those children and young people who have additional needs, but who do not meet the higher level criteria for specialist services.

Results

Linking the two pathfinders together has provided Gateshead with an opportunity to demonstrate coherence and cohesion between different initiatives within the umbrella of the Change for Children agenda.

This has helped practitioners and others see the links between initiatives more clearly. It has had the added benefit of continuing momentum for the change process and for making early gains on the budget holding lead professional role.

Click for further process case studies relevant to the Mobilise stage of the targeted youth support change process or to read the achievements for this stage.