Targeted youth support: redesigning services - tackling alcohol and substance misuse

Issue

Young people engaged by the targeted youth support (TYS) process in Test Valley, Hampshire rated substance misuse as one of their highest priorities.

Background

The Hampshire drug action team (DAT) is responsible for commissioning treatment services and developing specifications for an early intervention service in the authority. The DAT coordinator for services for young people was vacant until six months into the TYS change process.

The DAT and the youth inclusion support panel (YISP) jointly fund positive activities for young people so those involved have alternatives to negative behaviours, but these tend to be group activities with only short-term funding.

There are no early intervention services in the TYS pathfinder area, but there is a drug and alcohol youth worker.

Actions prompted by TYS

A TYS change team (known as a work-stream group in Hampshire) has been formed to develop a model for an integrated multi-agency TYS team. The newly appointed DAT coordinator for young people's services was invited and joined the team.

One key question facing the team was: why is substance misuse such a major issue for young people in the area? The team agreed that substance misuse, like youth offending and teenage pregnancy, is an outcome likely in young people with low aspirations, self-esteem and poor life skills.

Benefits and results

The TYS team is working with the drug action team to determine models of screening for substance misuse issues, to identify young people who may need more specialist support. The teams are looking at two separate ways to provide early intervention: a one-stop-shop provision where young people can self-refer, and through extending the role of community outreach workers who proactively search out at-risk young people.

The exciting thing about TYS is that it helps us see a holistic picture of young people. We need to provide drug and alcohol support for young people as part of a wider programme of general life skills training. The director of children's services fully supports this and has encouraged us to come up with new ideas and not be constrained by other things that are already going

Campbell Todd, DAT young people's coordinator

The TYS team is also helping to determine and improve the relationship of specialist agencies with universal services, in particular looking at the need for earlier specialist intervention and how that might be provided.

This will include giving additional training to universal service staff and may involve them getting improved support from expert practitioners. There may be funding available, for example, to support the development of an advanced practitioner in substance misuse issues.

The impact of these changes will be assessed using existing measures for drug and alcohol misuse.

The local authority

Hampshire is a large county authority. The TYS pathfinder is focussing on the Test Valley, which includes a rural area and an area of deprivation. Hampshire's statistical neighbours include Gloucestershire, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Dorset, Oxfordshire, Devon, Bedfordshire, Kent, North Yorkshire and Worcester.

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