Targeted youth support: redesigning services - helping young people devise a summer activities programme

Issue

A number of agencies in Worcestershire provide summer activities for young people, but with little coordination. Consultation with young people in the county showed the activities were not always when, where and what they wanted.

Background

Young people were regularly asked what activities they would like to see in Worcestershire, but little had changed. Much of the consultation was duplicated with the same group of young people and didn't necessarily involve those with the most challenges.

Actions prompted by targeted youth support

A targeted youth support (TYS) change team was formed including representatives from the children's fund, youth service, Connexions, schools, the district council, Sure Start and voluntary sector groups to look at how to improve the engagement of young people.

TYS has given us motivation and a method of bringing all of the providers of activities and young people together and getting things done
Joe Green, participation and engagement coordinator, children and young people strategic partnerships (CYPSP), Worcestershire County Council

A directory of contacts for people who had previously consulted young people was created. The team looked at the results of this consultation and identified the need to engage a broader group of young people, including the harder to reach.

The TYS process supported young people from existing youth groups to actively seek out young people who'd not previously been engaged and find out what they wanted for the summer programme.

Benefits and results

Young people have used the youth opportunities fund to coordinate and fund a new programme of activities. Take up for the programme is high. The activities have attracted wider groups of young people, including those not previously involved.

The involved young people have devised a variety of methods to evaluate the quality of the activities, including the use of DVD recordings to capture what they did and what they learned.

A toolkit with case studies has also been produced outlining how to design, deliver and evaluate young people's engagement at individual, service and strategic levels. This will be available on the Worcestershire county council website.

One result of the new programme is a reduction in youth offending over the summer.

The local authority

Worcestershire is a large county authority. The TYS pathfinder focuses on a rural area and two deprived urban sites. The authority's statistical neighbours include Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, West Sussex, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Cheshire, East Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Bedfordshire and Shropshire.

Click to read more case studies on redesigning services to help young people with particular needs.