Report for Minister of Education, Sport & Culture |
Subject: | Review of Jersey Youth Service |
Exempt Clause: | | Date: | 1st December 2008 |
| |
Author: | David Greenwood : Assistant Director : Culture & Lifelong Learning |
1: Background
The attached report was commissioned by the Minister for Education Sport and Culture in order to gain an external view of developments within the Youth Service in recent years, to take account of the comments and recommendations made by the Controller and Auditor General in his report of May 2008, and to develop a set of priority actions for the further development of the service in the future.
The report was prepared by a specialist youth focused consultancy ‘Innovation Partners’, during September and October 2008. and it was presented to, and approved by, the Minister of Education Sport and Culture in December 2008.
An Executive Summary of the findings is contained on Page 3 of the report and recommendations for future action are on Page 22.
In summary, the Report suggests that youth work in the States of Jersey is good and that the States provide a well managed and rapidly developing service which provides value for money. Through contact with the Service, young people achieve well; they make good gains in their personal and social development and acquire useful skills and knowledge. It also suggests that youth work practice is appropriate across a variety of setting and through its 5 Year Strategy and Annual Action Plans it is committed to achieving excellence by 2011.
The Report also recommends actions which the Service should take in order to achieve excellent status.
2: Recommendations
The Minister is recommended to:
accept the findings of the report;
charge the Youth Service with the task of implementing the recommended changes and developments;
instruct officers to publish the report in the States as an ‘R’;
instruct officers to distribute the report with a press release to all media.
EXTERNAL REVIEW REPORT
THE STATES OF JERSEY
YOUTH SERVICE
2008
Contents
Executive Summary & Key Findings
1. Terms of Reference, Background and Methods
2. Demographic Context
3. Service Description/Infrastructure
4. How the Service meets the needs of young people
5. Targeted work
6. Local Generic Youth Work
7. Youth Voice & Participation
8. Strategic Planning & Delivery
9. Curriculum
10. Quality Assurance
11. Staff Development and Training
12. Operational Issues
13. Partnership Working
14. Value for Money
15. Conclusions & Summary of Action Points
16. List of Information Sources
Executive Summary and Key Findings
Youth work in the States of Jersey is good. The States provide a well managed and rapidly developing Youth Service that provides value for money. Young people achieve well; they make good gains in their personal and social development and acquire useful skills and knowledge. Youth work practice is appropriate across a variety of settings. The Service is committed to achieving excellence by 2011.
Jersey is a unique island community, its young people are its greatest and most precious resource. Young people are the States of Jersey’s key investment and most tangible link to the future.
The Assistant Minister of Education, Sport and Culture regularly reviews the Youth Service’s work through an established series of meetings and discussions. The Assistant Director of Education, Sport and Culture, Principal Youth Officer and the Youth Service Senior Management Team, provide clear strategic leadership. The Service has sound and effective mechanisms for planning, delivering and reviewing its work.
The Service benefits from a well qualified workforce, that is proud to work for the States of Jersey. Staff retention is good. Succession planning is a strong feature of the Service, underpinned by the staff development and training programme. Staff morale is high.
The Youth Service supports 2,847 young people, who are members of one or more of the islands Youth Projects. The core target age range for the Youth Service, are young people aged 12 – 17. The Service is now working with 35% of young people within this age range. There has been a successful growth of specialist work targeted at vulnerable young people.
149 volunteers, 63 of who are young workers, support the full and part time professional fieldworkers. The cash value to the Service of this dedicated group of volunteers is approximately £120,000 per annum. Partnerships with the Parishes and other organisations provides an additional £250, 000 in service support (conditional on the Youth Service providing matched funding)
Finances are well managed and accounted for. Expenditure through prudent monitoring and financial control has been contained within yearly estimates over the past three financial years. The Service operates within current States financial regulations, and has in summer 2008 been subject to a successful full audit inspection.
The level of resources provided to the service, and the quality of its physical provision such as premises, provide a sound basis for developing work with young people. The uplift of the base budget by the States, over three successive financial years, has had a direct impact upon the range and quality of Youth Service delivery. Strong foundations are presently being built to create a high quality professional Service. With continued focus, commitment and hard work, and with the support of the States, Jersey Youth Service could reach its ambition of becoming recognised as an excellent Youth Service by 2011.
To achieve this status the Service will need to ensure that the new systems, methods and procedures that are presently being evolved, are embedded across the Service by providing staff at all levels with clear and simple guidance. The acid test should constantly be ‘do the systems, methods and procedures that are being designed, have a direct impact upon improving the quality of youth work and youth development in the States of Jersey?’
The main areas for development, concern better analysis of needs and the requirement to improve the “voice” of young people at every level. If young people had a louder voice, then their needs would be more clearly articulated. The two areas need to be developed in parallel. The Youth Service should provide a lead in developing good practice that can be spread throughout the work of the States.
The States of Jersey would clearly benefit, from the development of an overarching, multi-agency, youth strategy, to further strengthen partnership working, increase efficiency, and make explicit the linkages between various providers. The Youth Service is clearly well positioned to lead on this initiative, particularly if the Youth Strategy was to focus on the teenage years, to address the many issues that surround the key transitions, and choices that young people have to make, as they move from adolescence to adulthood, and from dependence to independence.
1. Terms of Reference Background, and Methods
The Youth Service Review was commissioned by the Director of Education, Sport and Culture to examine the work of Jersey Youth Service. Inn-ovation Partners, a specialist youth focused consultancy, was engaged to undertake the review during September/ October 2008. The timeframe for the review of the Youth Service’s work was focused in particular on activity spanning the last three financial years, and also considered projected developments contained within the Strategic Plan for Jersey Youth Service 2007-2011. A comprehensive list of documents and reports that formed the evidence trail can be found in Appendix 1.
Fidelma O’Neill undertook the last in-depth review of the Youth Service in 2003/04. Her report entitled ‘Report of the research into sources of pressure, support systems and structures of Jersey Youth Service’ painted a bleak picture of low morale, lack of structure and systems. The Service took the report seriously, and following the appointment of the new Principal Youth Officer in June 2005, the management team set about tackling these concerns in a systematic manner, whilst simultaneously creating a new vision for the Jersey Youth Service. A Youth Service response to the 2003/04 review has been produced, addressing the issues of concern, and demonstrating the distance travelled to date.
The Jersey Youth Service early in September 2008, held a two day visioning event to explore and chart the significant service developments over the last three years. This included objectively and honestly reviewing the next steps through a series of SWOT analyses. The work covered young people’s achievements and outcomes, the youth workforce, young people’s involvement/participation and the mix of targeted/generic Work. The staff team then went on to review performance, partnerships, participation, progression, provision and people. This resulted in an agreed list of action points to drive the Service forward.
The Inn-ovation Partners Review Team undertook a substantial amount of desk based research, and held a series of meetings with key officers, politicians and fieldwork staff to seek out additional information. A number of visits to youth projects and youth centres were undertaken, to see a snapshot of youth work in action across the island.
Relationships between staff and young people were found to be excellent, young people could easily refer to numerous ways in which the Youth Service was currently providing for their needs and creating challenges and positive experiences.
The Review Team would like to thank all of the staff, volunteers and users for their openness, frankness and honesty in describing and debating the work and being so objective with regard to its quality, direction and development.
2. Demographic Context
Jersey is a unique place, with a wealth of qualities that have created a very special community. Most young people in Jersey lead active and productive lives, achieving at school and enjoying the range of social and sporting activities on offer. However, for some young people, life in Jersey can be hard. Not all young people have the support and guidance of parents. Some young people are disengaged from school, and are unlikely to achieve their full potential. Many young people grow up in families that face poverty and hardship. Some may become involved in crime.
Jersey Youth Service tries to address the needs of all these young people. It uses its resources to provide these young people, with a broad range of youth work opportunities, which help them to develop the skills and attitudes to overcome any issues they face. Young people are Jersey’s future, so it is important that this investment is made to support them to become strong, mature adults who have social awareness and are able to make a valuable contribution to their community.
The States of Jersey, maintain a specialist unit to monitor demographic and economic data, in relation to the island and its governance. Detailed information is available from:
http://www.gov.je/ChiefMinister/Statistics/
3. Service Description/Infrastructure
Jersey Youth Service has a variety of components and resources to deploy, in endeavouring to meet the needs of young users. Young people in each local parish, have access to some level of local youth resource/premises and the services of a senior youth worker. The 2007-2011 strategic plan indicates that an allocation of 240 hours per week of part time youth worker support is made available across the Projects. (242 hours for all the youth projects per week, so approx 11,132 hours per annum) This figure has now been increased to 380 hours per week, thanks to additional funding from both the Youth Service and Parishes. In addition to these paid staff, there are 149 volunteers who make a substantial additional contribution to Service delivery. The whole Service is led and managed, by a team of five officers and supported by a small administrative team.
The 2007 -11 strategic plan, categorises the Service's activities around the “Every Child Matters” five outcomes as utilised by Children's Services on the mainland. However, the outcomes have been refined to offer a similar but customised version suitable for the States use.
The youth work target age range, is 11- 25 in the States of Jersey, with a priority for those aged 12 – 18 years. The Service also delivers junior youth work to 9-11’s, but this is funded from additional external resources .The majority of youth work provision on offer, serves the generic needs of the youth population. However, the Service has additionally evolved a range of cutting edge targeted provision, to meet specific needs and respond to particular priority groups. These are described later in this report.
4. How the Service meets the needs of young people
As part of the requirement for accountability, the Jersey Youth Service has endeavoured to collect and collate statistical information regarding users of its services. The original system used for data collection, was devised and promoted by the National Youth Agency and adopted by the Service. In practice and over time, this system has proved to be unfit for purpose and is currently being replaced with a bespoke system, devised by the Service’s own staff. At the time of the review, the new system was not complete or fully operational. Staff have however, kept manual records and the following information is drawn from their data.
The 2001 census indicates that there were 7,203 young people aged 12-18 on the island at that time. This is the core target age range of the Service. The 2007-8 Youth Service figures show that 2,077 young people of this age range were members of youth organizations. However, not all young people that the Youth Service works with are recorded as members i.e. detached youth work contacts, school based youth work, and Youth Enquiry Service users etc. would further boost these numbers. Recorded individual attendances were just under 32,000 during 2007–08.
The Service also delivers youth work to young people below and above the core target age range. Records (2007-08) show 442 junior members and 328 members aged 18 – 25. A number of these older members were involved in projects such as the Prince’s Trust and Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Across the spread of age range, more males than females were found to be in membership.
The needs of young people are largely determined through discussions with young people and staff observation at a local level. This was verified in fieldwork visits to a range of projects. Some of the specialist provision, targets specific needs i.e. the Prince’s Trust TEAM programme that works with the young unemployed aged 16 – 25 and the Youth Inclusion Project, targets young people with a disability.
Overall, the process used for determining needs works well at local level, although there is some variability in practice. Presently however, there is currently no overall system to capture, quantify and analyse the needs of young people overall.
Some initial work has however taken place to develop methods of consulting with young people about their needs. A number of older young people, were interviewed as part of the “Imagine Jersey” project and the results of this can be seen in the video http://www.gov.je/video/imagine2035.html
The Service should build upon this approach and conduct an annual survey of young people, to include users and non-users of the Youth Service. The surveys should be constructed to profile the young people involved, examine their priorities in terms of need and to seek a view on how the individual Youth Projects are performing. This information should provide a valuable tool in future planning, testing the accuracy of data and measuring progress against Service objectives and targets.
There is also a connection between a lack of overall evidence of need and the necessity to improve young people’s voice in influencing or directing services. Improve the voice of young people and their needs will be more readily met!
The key issue to improving impact overall, is to refine existing systems so that they become fully operational and embedded in practice and effective. Systems across the Service are still under development. The next stage is to refine these systems by harmonising the components, simplifying procedures for staff and having a robust plan for both implementation and delivery.
In essence the simplified system should contain the following components:
- An analysis of the needs identified by young people and staff.
- Annual Plans implemented at both Service and Project levels that match these needs.
- A set of S.M.A.R.T standards that match the key objectives of the plan.
- A curriculum that meets the needs identified and is capable of being quantified and delivered across all units.
- A management information system, that collects the data required to do the above and to provide evidence of performance at both local and Service levels.
- A staff development and resource plan, that addresses issues arising from the above.
As matters stand, all of these major components are already in evidence. However, some are in draft form or in different stages of development. These new systems, standards and procedures need to be refined and integrated around a common core, with agreed data requirements. This issue needs to be tackled, tested and embedded as a matter of priority, to capitalize on the substantial amount of time, effort and commitment that has been devoted by the various Service development groups, particularly over the last twelve months. A deadline should be set for all of the new systems to become operational across all projects supported by the Youth Service.
5. Targeted work
Over the last three years, the Youth Service has begun to develop new areas of work that are targeted at specific groups of young people or at particular needs. The aim of this work is to complement the existing local provision and to provide more specialist support to young people. The following projects illustrate this approach.
The Youth Enquiry Service (YES) provides information, advice and support for those aged 14 -25. The service links to 1:2:1, a youth counselling project, which offers an independent and confidential service to young people in need. Working out of an office in the La Motte Street complex, the YES project offers drop-in sessions six times a week. At the time of writing, the drop-in had only been open for a month or so but some trends are already being observed. Initial enquiries concentrated upon helping young people leaving school with their CV’s. However, this has now been superseded with most enquiries centred on housing and benefits. The benefits enquiries are evidently time consuming, as this is a newly developed State income support service, which is taking time to embed. The project demonstrates sound principles of partnership work, in that it is jointly funded by both the Jersey Youth Trust and the Youth Service. Additionally, the 121 youth counselling work, receives funding of over £20k from the Building a Safer Society Community Safety Partnership. Thus the core budget is more than matched through external funding.
The States Youth Service, under license from the Prince’s Trust operates several Prince’s Trust Programmes. The Youth Service receive £75k per annum from the Prince’s Trust to deliver these programmes, but makes an in-kind contribution which includes staff time and the use of buildings and equipment. The main TEAM programme is aimed at young people aged 16 -25 and is targeted at the unemployed, young offenders, ex-offenders, those in or leaving social care and educational under-achievers. The TEAM programme is a model developed through national practice. The programme runs over twelve weeks and involves a team building residential, community projects, fund-raising activity, work experience, employment skills, a community challenge and a final presentation. The programme offers accreditation and a portfolio based formal qualification, accredited by City and Guilds. Over the period February 2006 – September 2008, a total of 275 young people were referred or applied to participate in the programme. Of those 275, a total of 78 young people obtained places on the programme, since each has a maximum of 15 places. Of the 78 attendees, 41 have completed and 15 remain to do so. Over 65% have found employment since the programme and up to 15% have returned to full time education. On the downside, four young people have committed serious offences since leaving/completing the programme. All of these were alcohol or drug related. Given the background of these young people then the programme outcomes demonstrate a consistently high level of success. The cost of failure is likely to be significantly higher to the States and the Jersey community. Therefore, this work represents a significant return on investment and demonstrates value for money.
Jersey Youth Service, is also the Delivery Partner for 2 other Princes Trust, programmes similarly targeting young people in need. The XL programme, is a school based programme aimed at 14 -16 year olds, who are struggling with conventional education. Sound Live, is a very successful programme based around music skills, targeting 18 – 25 year olds. Taken together, all of these programmes provide substantial positive and productive outcomes for the young people of Jersey.
The On Two Wheels Programme has been run by Jersey Youth Service for over seven years. Whilst it was initially aimed at the general youth population drawn from schools and youth projects, the programme has been widened to include working at La Moye YOI with young offenders. Work involves theory and practice and is accredited through ASDAN. As the programme has progressed, the emphasis has evolved towards vehicle related crime and safety. The service keeps records of young people’s views on being involved and these suggest a very positive response. The programme enjoys the support of a wide range of partners, such as Jersey Fire & Rescue, The Ambulance Service, Jersey School of motoring etc. demonstrating again that core funding by the youth service is attracting added value to the money spent.
The Youth Inclusion Project is aimed at promoting opportunities for young people aged 12 – 25 with special needs, to access youth service facilities and resources. It currently offers opportunities to young people who may either be on the autistic spectrum or have a physical disability, learning difficulty or a sensory impairment. Records for 2007-08, show 123 young people in membership with 1,150 recorded attendances. The Project works in partnership with a number of key agencies. Core funding for the project comes from Jersey Youth Service, Lloyds TSB, Autism Jersey and Jersey Mencap. The current funding programme expires in 2009. Additional funding for projects is drawn from a wide variety of sources including the Association of Jersey Charities, Jersey Society for Deaf Children and Adults and the Bosdet Foundation. The work involves regular programmes at La Pouquelaye Youth Centre and St. Lawrence Youth Club and a number of special development programmes aimed at the target groups. Examples of these would include training young people in sign language, to ensure that deaf young people returning to the island are less isolated and linked in to existing youth services.
‘Include’ is a six-month personal development programme for young people aged 17 –25 with special needs, piloted in partnership with the Jersey Employment Trust. Seven young men and two young women took part. Each achieved four separate certificates. Of the seven who participated, two went on to permanent employment, one joined the Prince’s Trust Team and Business Programmes, one crewed in a week long tall ship training experience and one has gone on to become a volunteer at another special needs youth club. There is a willingness to build on the success of the first Include programme by working towards staging another in 2009 if sufficient resources can be found.
The Young Mums Group works with young women aged 16 – 21 years. It was originally based at Le Squez Youth Project but is now based more centrally at La Motte Street. The project is run in partnership with Health and a Health Visitor works with the Senior Youth Worker to support the young mothers and to advise on the care of their babies and toddlers.
Street based youth work is well established in Jersey, especially in St. Helier. Staffing is funded both from the Jersey Youth Service and BASS (Building a Safer Society). More recently the St. Helier Youth Committee has pledged funding for additional sessional youth workers. Teams of detached youth workers are deployed several sessions a week including Friday nights, where they meet young people who gather on the streets of St. Helier. The work principally concerns developing contact and relationships with those young people who would not normally access youth services. Youth Workers focus on those young people in greatest need and whilst some of the work can be developed around positive programmes of activity i.e. involving young people in music, sports etc. much of the work entails responding to the particular circumstances of young people. Staff regularly deal with issues of safety, alcohol, drugs, sexual health, benefits etc. The practice endeavours to ensure that the Service works with those who are harder to reach. As such, the work is an important barometer and evaluation source for the impact and effectiveness of the island’s wider social policies.
The growth in specialist youth projects that target specific groups of young people provides greater reach, positive focus and enhanced opportunity for the young people of Jersey. Much of the work is done in partnership with both other components of Jersey Youth Service and a wider group of specialist partners drawn from the State, voluntary and private sectors. These are important developments that have a number of interesting characteristics and aspects that are worthy of further reflection.
These specialist services complement and enhance the local generic youth work provision, which is likely to work in a less intensive way on similar issues.
Youth Service staff and managers rightly focus on the effective delivery of their work. As a consequence, some issues of cost/benefit are not currently sufficiently transparent. The cost benefit of some of the targeted youth work needs recognition. Programmes such as the Prince’s Trust TEAM project and the Inclusion Programme are likely to save the States in the medium term significant expenditure. The Team programme in particular, can show evidence of good success rates and demand for places on the courses that at present cannot be met. The economic and social costs of failure with the young people, is potentially significant to the States i.e. prison costs, long term welfare benefits etc. The evidence from the review, suggests a potential to expand programmes and make longer-term savings as a consequence. What is needed is a detailed financial analysis of the potential cost/benefit of such interventions.
The Youth Service could play a key role in helping support young people, both in the care system and those who are moving into independent living, in building their voice into the youth debate, providing some life-skills training and signposting them to a range of projects.
The Youth Service has clearly made great strides around the inclusion agenda. There is however, a number of needs that as yet have not been met, including those of Gay, Bi-sexual and Transsexual young people and ethnic minority groups. The Service through a proactive and robust needs analysis should be able to identify a raft of other underrepresented groups. The successful inclusion work and initiatives should be mainstreamed where appropriate, across the Service in a more systematic manner.
Many of the services described here, have been developed through emerging opportunities and the enthusiasm of staff. Whilst this approach has certain merits, the development of targeted services needs to be based on a more rigorous analysis of needs. In the longer term this will enable the Service to take a better view on strategic priorities. Targeted provision also offers additional challenges in terms of data collection and performance management. Issues such as differing age ranges, a variety of methodologies and outcomes, mean that currently some of these programmes do not fit within the existing specification for the proposed management information system. This is an issue that needs to be addressed.
6. Local Generic Youth Work
Currently the Youth Service owns or manages the following buildings:
• Grands Vaux Youth Project
• Le Squez Youth Project
• Maufant Youth Project
• Gorey Youth Project
• La Motte Street Youth Project
• Queens Jubilee Activity Base, Crabbe
• Move on Café (presently under refurbishment)
Other buildings are owned by Parishes or local communities and are usually subject to shared use.
In the last two years, the Youth Service has invested in a refurbishment programme at Le Squez, Grands Vaux, Maufant and Gorey Youth Projects and major work at La Motte St. Youth projects have also fund raised to make improvements. Each now has a drop-In café facility with internet access. Many centres have access to sporting facilities, group meeting rooms, kitchen facilities and dance studios. Grands Vaux additionally has a fitness studio and a climbing wall.
The La Motte Street Centre has been subject to major works since 2006 resulting in the creation of the Print Room Lounge and Café Diner. This has greatly improved the youth facilities creating a hub of youth activity and development. Plans are in place to further develop the potential of this old building. Its central location means that it is accessible to a very large number of young people from across the island. La Motte Street also acts as a base for a variety of projects, including the Prince’s Trust, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Open Award Group and the Youth Enquiry Service. The main focus of La Motte Street will always be Youth Arts and it is envisaged that this in due course, will broaden to embrace dance, drama, film and visual arts in addition to all types of music.
The Queen’s Silver Jubilee Activity Base is approaching its 30th Anniversary. The residential unit has been well used by both schools and youth projects. Many thousands of young people have benefited from the provision of this unique facility. It is currently run on a shoestring budget, keeping charges to a minimum. The Youth Service has plans to create a charitable trust to support the continued support and development of the Base.
The Youth Service had access to a mobile unit until 2006 when the vehicle had to be taken off the road. The Service is currently attempting to raise sufficient finance to purchase a new mobile unit. St Peter has a newly converted bus to continue with its outreach work. The new vehicle was fundraised for, designed and converted by a dedicated team of young people, volunteers and staff. The new bus is a credit to the endeavour of the Design and Build Team and now provides a resource of quality to reach out to young people.
The Youth Service maintains records of its users through a variety of systems. The figures below for 2007/2008 show both the figures for membership of youth organizations and attendances.
Project | St Peter | St Ouen | St Brel. | St Law. | Maufant | Le Squez | Trinity | Gorey | G. Vaux | La Motte |
Members | | | | | | | | | | |
Jun. male | 104 | 33 | 0 | 25 | 33 | 0 | 41 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Jun. fem. | 83 | 20 | 0 | 24 | 46 | 0 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Int. male | 85 | 27 | 25 | 3 | 30 | 38 | 94 | 12 | 56 | 0 |
Int. fem. | 53 | 17 | 31 | 2 | 35 | 31 | 69 | 10 | 25 | 0 |
Sen.male | 58 | 16 | 49 | 26 | 71 | 121 | 32 | 18 | 74 | 177 |
Sen. fem. | 29 | 19 | 28 | 29 | 59 | 97 | 25 | 13 | 47 | 149 |
18+ male | 0 | 0 | 11 | 10 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 111 |
18+ fem. | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 |
Total | 412 | 132 | 146 | 123 | 274 | 325 | 294 | 53 | 202 | 467 |
Attendances | | | | | | | | | | |
Juniors | | | | | | | | | | |
Jun. Tot. | 2510 | 898 | 0 | 997 | 903 | 0 | 968 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Inters | | | | | | | | | | |
Int. Tot. | 1161 | 613 | 2343 | 324 | 553 | 1638 | 1548 | 884 | 256 | 0 |
Seniors | | | | | | | | | | |
Sen. Total | 1748 | 146 | 1083 | 124 | 1935 | 4134 | 927 | 1258 | 1266 | 4024 |
18+ | | | | | | | | | | |
18+ Tot. | 0 | 0 | 60 | 22 | 0 | 655 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Local youth provision is led by experienced Senior Youth Workers who are based in the following projects:
- St. Brelade Youth Project
- Move On Café
- Grands Vaux Youth Project
- St. Lawrence Youth Project
- La Motte St. Youth Project
| - Le Squez Youth Project
- St. Peter Youth Project
- Maufant Youth Project
- St. Ouen Youth Project
- Gorey Youth Project
| - Trinity Youth Project
- Youth Enquiry Service
- Street Project
- Prince’s Trust
- Youth Inclusion Project
|
The buildings used by the Service to deliver youth provision are good. A number offer outstanding facilities. The States of Jersey, Parishes and the Youth Service have invested heavily in the building stock to good effect. Buildings are well used particularly during the evenings.
The Youth Service has invested in its buildings to try to make them warm, attractive and welcoming places for young people. It is also looking to ensure the buildings are used effectively and efficiently by extending their opening hours for young people, but also to look at extending their use during the day or when they are not currently in use. This has led to offering use of buildings to other key partners such as schools, Highlands College, Alternative Curriculum, Social Services and other agencies. La Motte Street offers meeting and training rooms to various organizations on a regular basis. Once the Live Room is refurbished, it will be able to offer full conference or training facilities to other States Departments. This shows that the Youth Service is looking to make full use of the resources it has and bring in some additional income as well.
The partnerships with Parishes and other bodies indicate further areas of strength and the ongoing strategy to re-enforce and develop these is to be applauded. Once again, the Service demonstrates an ability to turn a relatively small budget into an organization “punching above its weight” in terms of best value.
International youth programmes and opportunities are presently under developed. There is huge potential for the Youth Service to promote and develop such exchange opportunities. The international exposure and learning for young people from such programmes would be immense. Such programmes would not only benefit young people directly, but also enhance the international standing of the States of Jersey across the globe. It may be possible to develop such programmes within or alongside the existing foreign aid granted by the States.
The Service has strengths in its traditions of working on Friday evenings and at weekends and in providing opportunities for young people through the holiday periods. The following are examples of what was provided this summer.
- D. of E. Award Gold Expeditions in France and UK and Silver/Bronze Expeditions in Jersey
- St. Lawrence Youth Centre opened one night per week
- Prince’s Trust recruited for Team 6
- YES was promoted at the Jersey Live event
- Joint trip by Grands Vaux and Le Squez to PGL in France for a week
- Le Squez Youth Centre open 2 evening sessions per week
- Maufant Youth Centre open 2 evening sessions per week
- Maufant had a 5 day residential – 3 days at Crabbe and 2 days at the Fort
- Maufant and Trinity had 2 joint day trips to France
- Maufant and Trinity had a joint activity programme
- Trinity Youth Centre opened 2 nights a week and was well attended.
- Gorey Youth Project hosted a week residential by a girls group from London
- East Area had an end of summer term BBQ with a range of activities
- Street Based work was on 2 nights per week including work with Brook
- St. Peter’s Bus went out 6 times a week, including going to a new estate
- St Peters Youth Project opened 1 night a week for Seniors
- La Motte St. opened 4 nights a week throughout the summer
- La Motte St. was involved in the Battle of the Bands and raised £4,000
- La Motte St. worked with young people on a summer CD
- All the Youth Inclusion projects opened as usual over the summer
- St. Brelade Youth Project opened 2 nights a week
- 10 young people attended a sailing trip.
At the time of writing, the new initiatives around the curriculum and the quality assurance process have yet to be embedded into local practice. Our investigations suggest that there may be a variety of standards in terms of practice across the localities. We would suggest that the service needs to refine its quality assurance process, to ensure that each locality has a clear set of measurable standards by which to gauge their own success and that these standards be periodically tested through a separate external monitoring exercise. For example, a local organisation might set standards for the number of young people rating their organisation as good or better in an annual questionnaire, or for the numbers of young people undergoing specialist training of some form, or for the numbers trained as young workers/peer educators. All of these examples fit the objectives of the Service’s strategic plan but are delivered locally within the Parishes. These could be monitored to give an indication of how each local area is performing and thus meeting the standards set.
7. Youth Voice & Participation
Where young people have a “voice”, there is clear evidence of improvement in the focus and delivery of youth work practice. There are also substantial gains to be made by the young people themselves in terms of self-confidence, community focus, active citizenship, emotional intelligence, safe-guarding and skill development. The “voice” component is therefore key to the development of good practice and good value.
The starting point in developing this voice is to ensure that there are sound relationships between young people and youth work staff. The Review Team’s observations and discussions with staff and young people, suggest that relationships, mutual respect and understanding, are a well-established aspect. The Team have observed staff engaging young people in discussion and debate about their lives, their circumstances and their interests. Senior Youth Workers have been observed delicately managing young people in taking responsibility for their own ideas and actions. There is clearly room for development in building common standards and expectations with regard to maximizing youth participation and engagement in issues. Further training and the establishment of minimum expectations and standards would be helpful.
Jersey is a leader in terms of offering the vote at 16. Youth Service organisations have played their part in promoting young people to register so that they can use their vote. However, initiatives such as the “involve” programme and the development of a youth forum, have not been developed into more structured or established bodies where young people can both have a regular voice and develop the skills of participation, responsibility and leadership.
The Jersey Youth Service is presently investing heavily in working towards achieving the National Youth Agency Hear by Right Standards. The Youth Service has set itself a target of two years to achieve the requisite standards. At the core of Hear by Right, is youth voice and youth involvement at every level. The drive to achieve the standards will involve both the Service and the States in developing effective ways of developing and including young people in democratic structures.
The development of young people’s voices needs to be a key objective over the next period if the Service is to move from being good to excellent. The actions proposed by the Service through its programme need to be embedded into practice and supported through careful management and leadership. There will be opportunities to link the development of “youth voice” with other areas of work. In particular, there is a synergy between the Service’s requirements to improve analysis of need and the opportunity to involve young people.
On the mainland, a number of authorities have struggled similarly with youth democracy. However, recent UK Government initiatives such as the Youth Opportunities Fund, the Youth Capital Fund and Youthbank have helped immensely in demonstrating the many advantages of empowering young people and allowing them to advise on the distribution of grants and resources. Jersey Youth Service has recently obtained small scale funding to develop its own Youthbank initiative. The States should monitor this new way of working and build on its potential.
8. Strategic Planning & Delivery
The core of the Jersey Youth Service Strategic Plan (2007-11) is as follows:
“ Jersey Youth Service’s Vision for the next 5 years is to work towards becoming an excellent Youth Service, which is well managed and resourced and delivers a broad range of high quality youth work, which is accessible to all young people in the target age range of 12 - 18 years.
To do this, the Youth Service will be concentrating on improving and developing the following key areas;
Strategic Development
having a clear vision of what the Youth Service is hoping to achieve, with achievable targets, aims and objectives
Management and Structure
having high quality strategic management and a clear structure to support an efficient and effective Youth Service
Youth Participation
involving young people in the running of the Youth Service and giving them a voice on issues that impact on their lives
Partnership Development
continuing to develop and consolidate its work with key agencies, including the Parishes, Voluntary Organisations and other States departments for the benefit of young people
Staff Development
employing and supporting a team of qualified and experienced youth workers, with access to regular training opportunities to ensure they have the skills to deliver high quality youth work
Curriculum Development
establishing a broad curriculum of youth work opportunities, which meet the needs of young people
Quality Assurance
establishing an ongoing monitoring and evaluation, to ensure quality standards are achieved across the youth service
Buildings and Resources
ensuring venues and equipment are maintained and upgraded to meet the needs of young people
As can be seen from the content of this report, these elements are well underway in terms of their development. Jersey Youth Service has adopted a flexible, proactive approach over the last three years, to rapidly and effectively develop both its range and quality of provision.
It has planned a clear way forward, protected what was working efficiently and set stretching targets around what needs to be improved. The Youth Service has tracked and drawn from effective work and standards on the mainland, in terms of youth development and adapted such initiatives to ensure that they both benefit the States of Jersey and reflect the islands needs.
The Service is well underway in its aspiration to achieve the National Youth Agency (NYA) Quality Mark. The Service has self assessed itself against the criteria and has plans in place to improve performance over the next two years, with the aim of reaching the advanced level.
The NYA has identified eleven standards or, components to be achieved to build a quality organisation:
- performance management;
- management information;
- quality assurance;
- equality and diversity;
- curriculum/programme of activities;
- legal requirements;
- personal and social development;
- involving young people;
- workforce development;
- partnerships and
- resources.
The Jersey Youth Service is also working towards the National Youth Agency, Hear By Right Standards. Again, the Service has undergone training around the requirements and has self assessed itself. The Hear by Right Standards, in due course will prove useful in moving forward the voice and involvement of young people across the island. The Youth Service could act as an enabler and supporter to other partners and providers within the States of Jersey, in reaching the prescribed standards. These two major initiatives have created a challenging but useful set of frameworks, to help drive the change agenda. Staff have undertaken training in both frameworks and are methodically working towards the achievement of the necessary standards.
Jersey Youth Service has many unique features, including the harnessing of a large number of volunteers to support fieldwork practice. The Young Workers training programme enables and encourages the smooth transition of older users of the Service to become volunteers via structured training. Each youth project has a committee to offer support and advice. It is pleasing to report that young people are active members within these structures.
Partnership working is a fast developing feature. The Youth Service is now regarded as a partner of choice by many statutory and voluntary organizations. Strategic links with Parishes have resulted in a number of key developments, including the joint funding of a wide range of initiatives and projects.
Over recent years, the Service has also secured substantial support from a range of benefactors and grant giving trusts. This has resulted in the evolution of many examples of effective practice.
The planning process demonstrates strong linkage between the States and its constituent bodies. i.e. the “Golden Thread” is evident. The States of Jersey Strategic Plan 2006 – 2011, sets out the Government’s vision for sustainability and development of the island and requires all Departments to achieve a number of challenging targets. The Jersey Youth Service Strategic Plan 2007 – 2011, draws on the States Strategic Plan and provides a clear rational for the Service’s work, future direction and aspiration to become an excellent Youth Service. The framework of the Youth Service Strategic Plan is used to inform an annual planning process, where current performance is reviewed and objectives amended if required. All of the Youth Projects have associated annual plans.
Although project plans follow a common format in terms of descriptors, there is too much variation in style and content. There needs to be more rigor from youth service managers in both agreeing individual plans and monitoring their implementation. Plans once agreed, should be shared across the Service. There is a variance of understanding around needs analysis that requires further clarification.
There may be merit in establishing a simple system to help measure the overall annual performance of each centre or project that will both increase the efficiency of individual units and ensure that standards can be raised across Service. The issue of uniformity in terms of both aspiration and delivery will prove to be an important requirement if the whole Service is to reach excellence by 2011.
9. Curriculum
The Youth Service has a designated Area Youth Officer to lead on curriculum development. A Service working party has led on the development of the Curriculum Framework published in March 2008.
The curriculum has five major themes:
- health and well being
- safe and informed
- learning through involvement
- community engagement and awareness
- skills for the future
The five curriculum themes are directly linked to and have been drawn from, the Every Child Matters outcomes.
The annual plans of the individual youth projects, paint a rich picture of work with young people across the island, covering a range of activities, events and initiatives. It is pleasing to note the breadth of holiday events and programmes that add to the range of opportunities provided. The new curriculum will provide a sharper focus on issue-based work, to compliment existing practice. The Youth Service will need to carefully plan for this step change in delivery. Because of the wide age range of users, it is necessary that the curriculum needs to be appropriately differentiated to reflect the three age ranges set.
The new curriculum needs to be fully implemented across the Service. Additionally, the impact and reach of the new curriculum, needs to be linked with performance targets. While some work has been completed in banking curriculum materials, this needs to be extended to provide a comprehensive resource that is accessible to all. The curriculum needs to be described and eventually packaged as an ‘entitlement’ for young people, in order that it can be publicised to young people, their parents or guardians and other agencies, partners or providers. Evaluation directly by young people of each youth work session, needs to be evolved as an aid to both checking impact and monitoring relevance.
10. Quality Assurance
A Youth Service development group has produced a comprehensive draft framework document, which requires further refinement to establish a clearly understood procedure/plan, to track quality at each level of the Service’s performance. The plan has strengths in its linkage between local and states wide planning, but needs a series of SMART standards by which those involved can measure their progress towards developing excellence.
The quality assurance process has a number of different components. These include a national system for measuring quality (YSQM) developed by the National Youth Agency and the Hear by Right standards in terms of developing the voice of young people. The Youth Service has assessed their current performance against these standards and has set itself the task of making substantial progress over the next two years. Whilst these are laudable ambitions, the scale of progress required is substantial. There would therefore be merit in examining what is being proposed and slimming down the proposals to develop a more manageable focused system that can be delivered to the required standard.
Additionally, the paper based system needs to be complimented by the structured observation of practice, to check on the quality and standard of face to face delivery.
11. Staff Development and Training
The Service has a designated area officer who leads on staff development and training. A staff working group has produced a draft workforce and staff development framework that is nearing completion. The Service has evolved clear recruitment and selection procedures in line with best practice. There is evidence of a comprehensive range of training available on an annual basis. The range is expansive and encompasses contemporary youth work issues. The programme includes training in Child Protection and Safeguarding Young People. These two issues are further underpinned by ensuring all staff are aware of States and Youth Service policy. All staff undergo police vetting as part of their appointment procedure.
The operational management of staff is closely entwined with the training and development functions, to ensure that the workforce receives appropriate support supervision and training in order to equip them to undertake their evolving work roles and responsibilities. Fulltime staff are subject to an annual performance review and appraisals that comply with the States of Jersey Civil Service Competency Framework. Appraisals are designed to establish future objectives and targets against agreed performance standards and to identify personal development and training needs. Once identified, these needs are included in an action plan. An appropriate range of policy documents exists, to underpin good practice in the employment and deployment of staff. Induction, probationary and supervision systems are all being reviewed and will form the bedrock of the Workforce and Staff Development Framework.
The Youth Service organizes a regular series of meetings and staff conferences, to create and maintain focus and direction across the Service. Area specific work is similarly supported across the island. Each project organizes unit meetings to develop the quality of the work. Staff have access to a range of Youth Service specific courses and events. They are also able to attend training events provided corporately by The States of Jersey, or travel off island to attend courses or conferences.
The Youth Service has adopted a proactive approach to staff development and training to ensure that staff are aware of current issues and drivers in the field of youth development. The Service benefits from a well-established programme of training and development for sessional workers and volunteers in the form of Level 1 and Level 2 courses. Over recent years, the Service has supported a number of staff to successfully undertake the YMCA, George Williams College distance learning course in Youth Work. The sustained investment in training has resulted in the Youth Service benefiting from a fully qualified workforce. This and the commitment to providing bursaries for additional staff to gain fulltime professional status, provides a corner stone to succession planning.
Building upon the strengths mentioned above, the service needs to consider the following areas for development:
- Evolve an internal system for the observation of practice.
- Consider alternative systems for group/individual support and supervision of p/t staff and volunteers.
- Develop a system to track the impact of training, either through professional development portfolios, individual passports or a link with staffing files.
- Consider the benefits of using alternative initial training routes i.e. Open College Network (OCN).
- Ensure that the new MIS system has an area dedicated to staff development and training.
12. Operational Issues
The vast majority of youth projects have reasonable access to IT resources that are accessible to young people. However, further discussion is required with the States Web Master, around the ‘net nanny’ controls that are presently in place, to restrict access to a number of sites which have been specifically designed in order to provide high quality youth information and guidance.
Although the Service has some web presence via www.gov.je, www.yes.je and youthnet, the virtual learning environment, the potential of ITC needs to be further harnessed to both reach out to young people and respond to their ideas and demands. A number of individual youth projects have expressed an interest in having their own dynamic web presence.
The recently launched Youth Enquiry Service (YES), produced a very useful youth information handbook; over 2,000 copies have been distributed, including copies for all year 10 and 11 pupils. The YES website will provide a useful source of youth information.
Over recent months, the Youth Service in conjunction with the Jersey Evening Post has, produced a series of high quality two page reviews on aspects of the Service’s work, that have helped in both publicizing the range and quality of what is on offer and reaching out to young people. This exciting initiative is set to continue.
13. Partnership Working
Jersey Youth Service recognizes that to be most effective, it must plan and deliver work in partnership with other organisations that have a similar interest in the welfare of young people. Accordingly then, it has developed a range of key partnerships, including Parishes, Voluntary Youth Projects, Uniformed Organisations, Voluntary Organisations and Charities. It also works in close partnership with other States Departments, both individually and as part of a Multi-Agency partnership.
Partnerships with the Parishes
The Youth Service has established a number of partnerships with either the local Parish or Youth Project Committee. There are formal partnership agreements for St Peter, St Ouen, St Lawrence, Trinity, Le Squez, Grands Vaux, Maufant and Gorey Youth Projects. These Partnerships have meant additional funding, which has enabled the Youth Service to employ more youth workers and has increased the amount of youth work being delivered by these projects. Further partnerships are currently being developed for St John, St Mary and St Brelade Youth Projects and a more complex partnership agreement will be developed with the St Helier Parish, to support youth work delivery in the Town area.
Partnerships with Voluntary and Uniformed Youth Organisations
The Youth Service has traditionally worked in partnership with voluntary youth organizations, including uniformed groups. Jersey Youth Service has developed a registration system for small voluntary youth projects. Registration requires them to show that they meet certain standards, which ensure they provide safe and good quality youth work provision. Once registered, a voluntary youth project receives various benefits, including ongoing support and the ability to access training and resources. The Youth Service also has a partnership agreement with the Scouts and the Guides, supporting them with a small annual grant and providing accommodation, where possible, for some of their groups.
Partnerships with Voluntary Organisations and Charitable Trusts
The Youth Service partners a variety of voluntary organisations in different settings.
A good example of this is the Youth Inclusion Project. This has involved the support of two key voluntary organisations; Autism Jersey and Jersey Mencap. Together they have accessed funding from the Lloyds TSB Foundation, enabling the project to employ a youth work staff member. By working together in partnership, and with the support of charitable trusts, resources and expertise have been pooled for the benefit of young people.
The Youth Service has also worked in partnership with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award for many years and is responsible for the operation of the Award in Jersey.
More recently it has become the key delivery partner for the Prince’s Trust in Jersey. These are good examples of how working in partnership can be of huge benefit to young people in Jersey.
Partnerships with key States Departments and other Agencies.
Key partners include colleagues from Health Promotion, Social Services, Youth Action Team, and schools. The Youth Service also has representation at various multi-agency partnerships and meetings, both at strategic and operational levels. This includes the PYO being a member of the Children’s Executive, the Jersey Child Protection Committee, the MAST (Multi Agency Support Team) Steering Group and the YAT (Youth Action Team) Steering Group. This has ensured the Youth Service is able to have a significant input into developing joined up thinking about services for children and young people in Jersey.
The Howard league for Penal Reform has recently produced a review of the youth justice system which is very complementary with regard to the work of the Jersey Youth Service. Their review report concludes that “the excellent youth service provision should be sustained and strengthened” as part of the “Prevention” measures required for young people.
All of this is taking place within a background and context of the work of Andrew Williamson who has produced the enquiry report into Child Protection in Jersey. The Williamson report clearly states that the Children’s Plan should have “a connected youth strategy” as a key component. Williamson goes on to state that
“I have made contact with many other agencies working with children on the island, - the general response is that there is a need for a more joined up approach to providing services for children and young people”
The Youth Service is well placed as a potential core for connected services. The evidence for this is illustrated in the following examples of work.
- The Youth Service's links through the On 2 Wheels course and the Prince's Trust to the Young Offenders at La Moye Prison.
- The YES project now provides independent, free and confidential information, advice and counselling support to vulnerable young people. It also has a strong Project Committee with reps from all the key agencies - YAT, Leaving Care, CAMHS, Ed Welfare, etc who fully recognise and value the additional support provided.
- The Service is being approached by various departments to work more closely with them - Leaving Care, YAT, Alternative Curriculum, D'Hautree House, Highlands College, Schools, YOI at La Moye, Social Services etc.
- The Principal Youth Officer is now part of Childrens Executive and Jersey Child protection Committee.
- Youth Workers now on 4 MAST (multi agency support teams) in each of the States Secondary schools.
- The Prince's Trust programmes are filling gaps in supporting those aged 16+, especially those leaving care.
- The Hear by Right approach being developed by the Youth Service, could have a serious role to play in 'scrutiny' of services for children and young people e.g. those in Children’s Homes
Plainly the call for improved service through working together is evident through both the review processes underway and the emerging practice of many of those involved with services to children and young people. What is important therefore is to develop a model of practice that both builds upon existing strengths and is more effective. We would draw attention to two further reports in this regard.
“Are we there yet? Improving governance and resource management in Children's Trusts by the Audit Commission” ably illustrates the pitfalls of an enforced joined up approach as currently being enabled on the mainland. A better approach we believe is that advocated by South Tyneside Local Strategic Partnership in their report “South Tyneside Multi-Agency Youth Strategy”. The later providing a more immediate and sustainable approach to effective working. We would be pleased to offer further advice on this approach, if required.
The current list of partner agencies includes:
- ACET
- Alt. Curriculum
- Ambulance
- Autism Jersey
- Brook
- CAMHS
- Careers
- Charities
- D’Hautree
- DVS
| - Drugs & Alcohol
- D of E Award
- Education Welfare
- Ed. Psychology
- Fire Service
- Trust Funds
- Health Promotion
- Honorary Police
- Hospital
- Housing
| - Jersey Employment Trust
- Mencap
- Parishes
- States Police
- Community
- PPU
- School liaison
- Prince’s Trust
- Prison
- Probation Road Safety
| - Schools and Colleges
- Shelter Trust
- Social Security
- Social Services
- Special needs
- Child Protection
- Long term care
- Leaving care
- Vol. Youth Orgs
- Youth Action Team
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14. Value for Money
Overall, the Service represents good value for the investment made in it by the States of Jersey. This is demonstrated by a number of characteristics.
There has been substantial growth in the development of focused targeted work with particular groups of young people. The target groups chosen would normally be considered as a high priority for spending. This growth has been achieved through a year on year increase in budget from the States. However, the returns on these investments are likely to accrue savings elsewhere in the States system. The Prince’s Trust TEAM programme is a good example of this, in that it produces demonstrable success and thus potential savings in terms of unemployment benefits, costs of crime etc. What is required is an audit that measures the costs of the programmes, against the costs of the potential savings. We are confident that such an audit would prove value for money and the need for further investment in similar programmes.
This report also makes reference to numerous examples, where the money being provided to the Youth Service is being used to lever additional funds from other parties. We calculate that in cash terms, the Service has attracted an additional £250,000 in this way. This figure does not include gifts in kind, where the figures are much harder to quantify. Examples of this would include the involvement of some Parishes with the Service, support from other agencies and simple measures such as the islands bike shops being involved in the two wheels programme.
What can be quantified is the number of people who work voluntarily for the Service. The current total is 149 of which 63 are young workers. We calculate that the value of this activity is around £120,000 per annum. All of this is only achieved through the work of the paid staff team in providing support, direction and development for these volunteers. Again, the investments made through the States are providing returns beyond the immediate money being spent.
Taken in summary, the additional funds levered through partnerships, gifts in kind and the value of volunteering is likely to amount to over £400,000. This is a substantial achievement, but is wholly dependant upon maintaining current levels of core funding however.
Whilst these are substantial achievements, it would however, still be possible to make further improvement. Currently most of the partnership working has been developed through individual initiatives and business contacts within the States. This is not however, a structured approach to joint working. The results achieved thus far, demonstrate what might be possible through the evolution of a more comprehensive development of an over-arching multi-agency youth strategy. Such a strategy would aim to capture the needs of young people as expressed directly by them. States agencies, voluntary bodies and other interested parties, should be involved in examining ways in which they can better meet the needs of young people through partnerships and multi-agency approaches. This would allow the separate strands of the States resources, to be better utilized in meeting needs.
The work of the Service and more particularly the targeted provision, delivers potential added value in terms of practical intelligence on how the apparatus of the States are performing. The direct contact with young people through youth workers offers valuable insight as to how States policies are working (or otherwise). For example, the work of the YES service is highlighting inconsistencies of practice in the newly formed benefits system. Managers within the benefits system need this information to enable a fair and standardised development of their service. This characteristic of the work needs further development, in order to ensure that feedback is being automatically provided at the necessary points. Such intelligence is unlikely to be available from elsewhere. This is therefore a potentially valuable service to the State.
15. Conclusions & Summary of Action Points
Youth work in the States of Jersey is good. The States provide a well managed and rapidly developing Youth Service, that provides value for money. Young people achieve well; they make good gains in their personal and social development and acquire useful skills and knowledge. Youth work practice is appropriate across a variety of settings. The Service is committed to achieving excellence by 2011.
To achieve excellence, the Service needs to develop appropriate actions on the following points:
- Simplify, sharpen and embed common systems across the full range of services
- Develop a system for capturing needs at local and island level and use this to prioritise policy and practice.
- Develop systems and practice to ensure that the voice of young people is being heard and acted upon.
- Develop arrangements to cost and analyse the benefits of areas of targeted provision. Use this information as evidence to shape future policy.
- Examine the potential role of the Service for young people leaving care.
- Consider the needs of ethnic minorities, gay, bi-sexual and transsexual young people in developing future provision.
- Examine the potential for developing international work possible in conjunction with the States Overseas Aid programme.
- Ensure that all provision has a set of SMART standards by which they can measure their own performance.
- Develop an external monitoring of practice that can verify internal evaluation mechanisms.
- Improve the consistency of local planning and monitoring.
- Implement the new curriculum across the Service and use it to develop an “entitlement” model of practice.
- Develop a common standard for evaluation of every youth work session.
- Refine the Quality Assurance system to SMART standards at all levels.
- Develop an effective tracking system for staff support and development.
- Ensure young people can access appropriate web based material and services as a matter of entitlement.
- Ensure that the emerging management information system is driven by the stated service requirements in terms of measuring performance.
- Promote and lead the development of a multi-agency youth strategy across the States as a means of improving efficiency and effectiveness.
- Ensure that appropriate findings from work with young people are fed back into the States’ mechanisms for reviewing its services.
16. List of Information Sources - States of Jersey Youth Service Review - 2008
- Stress Audit and Final Report
- Jersey Youth Service Visioning Report
- Jersey Youth Service Child Protection Policy January 2007
- 2005 Audit and Action Plan
- 2008 Internal Audit Report
- List of Registered Youth Organisations
- Training Programme - 2007/20008
- Staffing Diagram
- Minutes of Senior Youth Workers Meetings – 2008
- Minutes of Senior Management Meetings – 2008
- List of Working Groups
- Staff Development Draft Framework
- Quality Assurance Framework
- Curriculum Framework
- Participation Strategy + Hear By Right Plan
- Hear by Right Report
- Included evaluation and outcomes report
- Youth Bank Jersey
| - Young Worker Training + Statistics
- Young Workers Evaluation Report - 2008
- Administrative staffing details
- Jersey Youth Service Annual Plans
- Jersey Youth Service Action Plans
- Jersey Youth Service Strategic Plan 2004 - 2007
- Jersey Youth Service Strategic Plan 2007 – 2011
- Jersey Youth Service Annual Plan 2007 - 2008
- Project Plans 2006/07/08
- Conferences/Events/Celebrations
- Self Assessment 2007/08
- Education, Sport and Culture Business Plan 2008
- Aspects of Health Jersey 2002
- States of Jersey – Draft Strategic Plan 2006 – 2011
- States of Jersey Statistics Unit – ‘Jersey in Figures 2007’
- Business Units 2008
- Grant Aid Information and Procedures
- Financial Guidance
- ‘Youth News’ articles Jersey Evening Post
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gov.je