Targeted youth support: redesigning services - improving prevention and early intervention for families with social care problems

Issue

Agencies in York, such as the youth service and Connexions, were identifying young people with early social care issues, but they were unable to refer many of them on to social services because they did not reach its threshold criteria.

Background

York City has been developing integrated services for young people for some years. For example, there are existing multi-agency support teams working within local schools.

Service staff tend to know each other as the population of the city is relatively low, so there was contact between social services, Connexions and the youth service. The managers of these services met on a fortnightly basis to discuss common issues, but referral remained an issue.

Actions prompted by targeted youth support

The targeted youth support (TYS) change process identified at-risk young people and anticipated later problems, but social services was still based on a model of referral criteria, not prevention, so no early intervention support was offered.

The TYS process has enabled services to move away from the way they presently operate and support young people in a more preventative way, before problems manifest themselves

Stephen Flatley, TYS project manager and Connexions manager

A TYS change team was formed to explore the local issues and discuss how referrals between services can be improved, with a strong focus on early intervention to meet the needs of young people with social care issues.

Benefits and results

The change team has developed a model that ensures social workers are involved in the initial assessment of young people's needs. They help decide which service(s) including those provided by voluntary sector and other social care agencies will be most appropriate for the young people, without overwhelming social services capacity to deliver.

In the medium to long term, this is expected to result in fewer young people presenting in crisis to agencies in the area and in increasing social services' capacity to focus on those in the greatest need.

The local authority

York is a unitary authority. Its TYS pathfinder is focussed on west York, an area of relative deprivation. York's statistical neighbours include Northumberland, the Isle of Wight, Warwickshire, Darlington, Warrington, Worcestershire, East Riding Yorkshire, Calderdale, Bedfordshre and North Lincolnshire.

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