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Question
1 - What are your
views on young people’s access to youth work services,
including, for example:
- levels of
provision across Wales and any regional variation;
- issues relating
to access for specific groups of young people e.g. language,
disability, rurality, ethnicity.
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There has been a
variety of reductions in service delivery and provision of open
access, this includes detached work and school drop in sessions
which means that it is harder for young people to engage in youth
work services.
Open access
provision is harder to access due to loss of youth clubs in rural
areas, services are more targeted now in the geographical areas
where there is highest level of need.
Staffing issues
are also linked to both the closing of open access provision as
well as the quality of provision offered to young people. Staffing
issues mean there is a high turnover of staff and the staffing
resource through qualified staff has diminished with the quality of
work reducing also. There is a feeling that open access provision
is “ticking over” rather than being a focus for
workers. Training of the youth club staff has also had an impact,
as training has not been a focus for the level 1 staff the
Qualitative work has also subsided with this. Youth workers
experience has noted that when open access provisions were staffed
with FT / 18 hours posts that the numbers of young people attending
open access provision was higher, since the workers have moved to a
more targeted/ caseload model the numbers of young people accessing
youth work provision has also declined.
There are trends
that prevent young people from accessing youth work provision and
the feeling is that the older young people 16+ don’t access
the services so much unless they are referred into the targeted
side.
There is a belief
and assumption that this is the same throughout wales, youth work
services being reduced to focus on the targeted groups.
Young
people’s access to a youth workers has diminished, when young
people need support they need to be referred, this can take a while
and young people are not having the intervention at an early enough
stage. Youth workers are not as accessible in youth centres /
schools as they used to be
Youth work has
moved too far towards a social care model and as a result there is
not enough provision or resource for young people. Staff have
tensions of finding a balance between targeted case loading and
providing good quality youth clubs/ provisions – some guilt
when focusing on the other.
In terms of issues
relating to specific groups of young people there are services
available and these offer a variety of support:
Menter Iaith
Abertawe
EYST –
Ethnic Youth Support team
The Enabled
Project – supporting young people with
disabilities
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If you believe that there are particular
problems, how do you think they could be resolved?
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Staffing – recruitment of Quality staff
and recruiting a full staff team who can lead activities and
provide consistent staffing – suggestions that provisions are
put on hold while staff are trained, involved in planning and that
promotion is completed and relaunched. Offer training that looks at
theory and strategies rather than just on the job (foundation
courses and level 2 qualifications)
Also concerns that staff are not fully aware of
what youth work is and the challenges youth workers face, therefore
to implement emphasis on supporting young people to come through
recruitment, they have experience and knowledge of youth work and
can be offered varying levels of training, such as senior member
training and level 2 etc. This would also support the young people
who are accessing youth work services that are NEET.
Fear that because staff issues are meaning that
staff are policing a building and not providing informal education
opportunities.
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Question 2
- How effective do
you think the Welsh Government strategy and policy on youth work
is?
In
considering this question you may wish to think about:
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the Welsh Government’s specific youth work policy and
strategy such as ‘The Youth Work offer’; The Wales
Charter for Youth Work; The National Youth Work Strategy for Wales
2014 to 2018;
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Welsh Government departmental responsibilities and whether there is
a cross-departmental and co-ordinated approach to support youth
work provision.
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There is a limited
awareness of strategies and staff admit that they don’t find
the time to make this a priority. Unless looking for it, they
don’t know it’s there.
As a cultural
discussion is it ok to allow time for this and should the service
be prioritising this and allowing staff to explore what polices can
influence the work.
The policies and
strategies that are known are the ones that focus on the targeted
work, such as the engagement and progression framework and
Well-being Act.
There is a
reliance on managers to filter down this information of what is of
use and relevant – this is then relying on others to
determine the suitability and interpretation vary between staff and
managers – the development sessions don’t include this
as much as before.
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How do you think the Welsh Government could
approach its youth work strategy and policy differently / to better
effect?
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Making documents user friendly, some people find
the strategies and polices hard to read and understand.
Offering opportunities to allow workers to
feedback and give thoughts and ideas, may encourage them to take
more of an active interest
Finding the balance of polices that match
current Job role – youth workers are now lead workers using
youth work skills – what polices apply to which
role.
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Question 3
- What are your
views on the funding available for youth work, including through
Local Authority, Welsh Government, European Union, and Third
Sector.
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There is not
enough funding it has eroded over the years cuts and budget
constraints provided by the local authority.
Menter Iaith
Abertawe apply for funding and grants, others don’t know
where there are funding opportunities, in relation to big grants,
questions were asked if youth services, council funded can apply
for funding.
There are some
smaller funding pots available from charities that support
vulnerable families and young people.
Funding streams
that we used to access have been cut – communities
first.
For smaller bids
there was a feeling that the applications are time consuming and
that there is a lot of information required.
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If you believe there are problems in this area,
how do you think they could be resolved?
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Promotion of funding opportunities – again
where do you look and find these – most seem to be from word
of mouth.
Reducing the application process, when these are
lengthy it takes time away from 1-1 work and this is a conflict of
priorities.
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Question 4
– Are there any
other issues you consider relevant to the Inquiry that you think
the Committee should be made aware of?
(for
example: workforce related issues; the Quality Mark for Youth Work
in Wales; buildings and infrastructure; youth work in schools;
transport issues; access to digital technology; Welsh
Government’s consultation on proposals to register and
inspect some out of school education settings).
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The erosion of the
youth work professional qualification status – are youth
workers, youth workers anymore?
Lack of youth work
services within school provisions availability of open access
provision and the quality of this.
Staffing and the
training and maintaining staff.
Buildings are
neglected, no identified role and responsibility for maintaining
and upkeep – unless legal requirement such as health and
safety, funding opportunities to improve provision and value the
opportunities of a young people’s space.
Standardisation of
services – does the quality mark do this, how are youth work
provisions, training and support quality assured and are
standardised across the board.
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