Agenda item

To consider the draft strategy consultation which will affect Youth Services in the area.

Officer: Jane Shuttleworth, Interim Head of Joint Commissioning

The Chairman informed the Board that a Young Persons Area Board had been held the previous day at Laverstock Community Farm. At that meeting the views of the young people present had been sought on what their priorities were for the future of the youth service.

Councillor Richard Clewer, Portfolio Holder for Youth and Skills gave a presentation outlining the plans for improving the services for the 13 – 19 age range. He explained that this was not a predetermined consultation, but one which was open to views and comments, with the key aim of improving the outcomes available for 13 – 19 year olds.

Wiltshire Children’s Trust draft commissioning strategy contained the following sections:

• An introduction including the purpose and scope.
• The national and local context for work with 13 to 19 year olds.
• Local needs and services.
• An analysis of the current position from the point of view of young people and the staff and managers who work with that age range.
• The commissioning priorities including some suggestions for the future delivery of youth work services in Wiltshire. These suggestions were developed with a range of stakeholders and wider views were now being sought.

A handout was circulated which contained a number of suggested commissioning priorities outlined below:

During the consultation feedback is being sought on whether the above are the right priorities and which, if any, should have higher priority.

The draft strategy is available to at: www.wiltshirepathways.org on the home page under ‘Latest News’.

Consultation was taking place for 12 weeks from 13^th May 2011 to 5^th August 2011. The final strategy would be presented to Wiltshire Council’s Cabinet in September 2011 along with a report making specific proposals on future plans for youth work.

Written responses to the consultation could be sent to pathways@wiltshire.gov.uk

Tony Nye – Youth Development Coordinator explained that two consultations had been undertaken, one with the CAYPIG and the other at the Young Peoples Area Board. He added that it had been interesting to see some year six pupils expressing their views on a service which would be available to them in a few years time.

One key issue which had come out of these consultation exercises was that the young people felt that there was a lack of transport, to and from the activities and clubs. Also given the choice between having a good quality building to hold youth sessions or maintaining good youth workers, the young people said that they would rather lose the buildings.

Tony gave an update on projects and activities carried out to date over the last year, these included:

·        Weekly evening delivery at 5 points around the community area

• Leisure credits
• Courses based on requests from young people including food hygiene and first aid
• Working in partnership with the Area Board Manager and the Extended Services Cluster Manager to deliver 2 Activity Days
• Looking to deliver a week long drama project over the summer

Tony added that the delivery which had been developed (ie one night a week in 5 different venues where young people can meet up with their friends and then a variety of projects/activities across the community area) was based on how young people had said they wanted to make use of the resources which were available. The conversations about this were started at the locality young people's planning and evaluation residential then a CAYPIG meeting and then to each of the delivery points.

The consultation would be taken back to each of the areas where the Council provides a youth service, however if any other groups want to take part in the consultation please let the Community Area Manager know.

The Chairman added that it was really important for this community area to continue with meaningful engagement with the young people.