1 Wirral Integrated Youth Support Strategy The Story so far ….. 22/1/08

2 Key Facts Grade 3 Children and Young People’s Department 78,000 Children and Young People Primary, 22 Secondary, 11 Special, 1 PRU School Standards High. 75% population live in some of the 10% most deprived areas in Country. Deeside Affluent / Merseyside high level of poverty. 10 years life expectancy difference.

3 The Context Youth Service Enhanced Inspection 2005 “Wirral has a good youth service and provides good value for money. Young people especially those at risk of social exclusion, achieve well and make good progress in their personal and social development. The quality of youth work is good and the majority of workers are experienced and skilled ….. Leaders and Managers set a clear strategic direction for the service and a good understanding exists about strengths and areas for improvement ….”

4 Youth Offending Service “The service was staffed and led by a strong management team, which was able to provide a vision for future service activity”. “Overall, we found a service which we felt was considered to be well placed to meet the future demands of a challenging agenda and in a strong position to develop the recommendations set out in the inspection report”

5 Connexions Service Connexions – The Partnership was inspected by OFSTED in December 2003 and was rated as a ‘good Connexions Service’ in particular OFSTED commented that the Partnership ‘knows itself well through thorough and effective self-assessment and monitoring…. The partnership works effectively with strategic bodies and agencies in education and support services and contributes to their development. Senior managers from the partnership influence and improve the quality of opportunities for learning’. The Wirral Joint Area Review report confirmed this: ‘Connexions is making a good contribution to increasing the numbers of young people in education, employment and training, including care leavers, young offenders and young people with learning difficulties and disabilities…. Young people in Wirral are well supported by Connexions in deciding what to do post-16 and good progress has been made in increasing participation in education and training’.

6 INTEGRATED CHILDREN’S SERVICES Delivery Structure  Four Districts  Eleven Area Teams  Social Care  ESW  Family Support  Education Psychologists - Each with a District Manager  Each with an Area Team Leader  Health  Connexions  Police  Youth Workers

7 Integrated Youth Support – developing the strategy for Wirral…. Overarching policy context: Every Child Matters and in particular Youth Matters Green Paper (2005) Youth Matters Next Steps (2006) Aiming High for Young People (2007)

8 Journey so far…. IYSS – Strategy not service – where are we headed? ‘Department Store’ - delivering different aspects of support to young people but with common goals. Outcome based accountability model Joint planning, integrated processes….integrated front line delivery? IYS Strategy Group/Young People’s Advisory Group

9 Improving outcomes by working together Our intent: Improved IAG, Improved opportunities - participation Better ways to identify vulnerable teenagers and target preventative support - TYS Young people influencing decision making and provision.

10 Some of the constituent parts! Statutory Guidance Commissioning PSAs Single Youth Offer IAG LP Extended Services TYS Workforce Development Information Sharing Participation 3 rd sector

11 Implementation Plan An action plan based around the key 5 PSA areas: Outcomes – National NI set How we will deliver How we will judge success Lead accountability Governance

12 We are a group of young people made up of service users from the youth service, Connexions and the youth offending team who work together to have a say in what changes in the services we use. We meet regularly to discuss what we have done and what our next steps are. I feel that It is hard for a young person on the Wirral at the moment because when 1 young person does something wrong then all young people seem to be taking the blame. Also, when a young person commits a crime and is wearing a hoodie then everyone who wears these are stereotyped as a criminal. As a young person I feel that it is hard to find anything to do because when you want to go to the park for example then you get told by the police to move on. Young people have never had the chance to have a say in what is happening to the services they use until now. Maybe if young people could have a chance to be involved in this form of decision making then they will feel more involved and would enjoy the services they use more. This could result in less youths committing crime and stop damaging things they don’t like in their community. Young People’s Advisory Group

13 Young People’s Advisory Group As a group of young people who had not met before, we have worked well together as a group to deliver presentations to practitioners and young people. Also we have developed a questionnaire for young people which was given out at a conference in Wallasey Town Hall a couple of months ago. Here are a couple examples of things young people said they would like in Wirral. Young people would like to have Trust and respect, not just of other people of our age group but all age groups. We would also like a confidential service were we could go if we need to talk to someone who can help with our needs and requirements. Also, we would love the opportunity to learn and work together, maybe make more apprenticeships available. We would also like help and support with the choices we have to make as young people. Thank you for listening.

14 Youth Service & IYSS National Strategies- Complementary Actions-Local Implementation IYSS-Youth Offer – Youth Parliament Respect, Information, Participation & Access

15 Four Principles & IYSS Respect –Action Plan Intergenerational Understanding ( Aiming High 3.8) Participation-Young people engaged in decision making.( Aiming High 6.7) Access – YP involved in curriculum opportunities – Risk Taking Behaviour (NI 111) Information – Advertise through ext Schools, website and partners – Volunteering Opportunities etc (NI110)