VOYC – REVIEW OF COMMUNITY BASED PROVISION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.

VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND CHILDREN (VOYC)

EVALUATIVE REPORT OF (COMMUNITY) DEVELOPMENT OF PROVISION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN DEVON: AUTUMN 2015.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A. This Report was commissioned by VOYC Trustees in July 2015. The main aim being to inform the Trustees and other interested stakeholders of the progress being made by local communities in developing provision for young people in the wake of the reduction in funding by Devon County Council (DCC) in its youth service budgets. The report also aims to disseminate good practice and to identify the support that young people and their communities want and need to support and sustain their future efforts.

B.The Report has been produced at no cost, due to the voluntary contributions that have been made by the author and other contributors in its compilation.

C. The review took place from September to November 2015 and it focused upon case studies of three projects and a ‘desk study’ of a similar report carried out by Learning South West in Somerset in 2012/2013. The desk study of the Somerset case studies was used to compare progress with the Devon case studies and to identify the issues and successes common to both.

D. Evidence was obtained from three people, each of whom has a major leadership role in their project. This was supplemented by the evidence of three people who have been involved, to varying degrees in supporting these community development projects.

E. The report attempts to provide an outline evaluation of these projects against nationally accepted definitions and models of ‘community development’ and within local and national policy contexts.

F. Themainconclusion is that the work currently being carried out is consistent with manyaccepted community development practices and principles. The main recommendations (see section 4 pages 15-19) are:

  1. Training and ongoing support for those involved is paramount
  2. ‘Communities of Practice’ need to be set up to provide support, co- ordination and professional development.
  3. Projects need good quality ongoing advice and guidance
  4. Mechanisms need to be developed to facilitate partnership working between the different tiers of local government and other agencies
  5. There is a need for ongoing monitoring and evaluation
  6. The work of the young people and their communities engaged in this work needs to be included into the strategic role of the DCC Children, Young People and Families Alliance.

STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT

  1. Introduction: (Pages 3-5)
  1. Purpose/aims of report and the potential audience
  2. Contexts
  3. Policy frameworks locally and nationally that inform the report
  4. Methodology: case studies; evidence from stakeholders through structured feedback in writing and/or structured interviews using ‘reflective practice’ models
  5. Limitations of this review.
  1. Community development models and principles which will provide a ‘theoretical’ framework against which the case studies will be analysed and evaluated: (Pages 5-6)
  1. Case studies: (Pages 6-15)
  1. A local ‘people led’ community initiated project
  2. A voluntary sector provider led project
  3. A ‘town council led’ project
  4. Other Case Studies in Somerset
  1. Analysis, Conclusions and Recommendations. (Pages 15-19)
  1. References (Pages 19-20)
  1. Appendices: (Pages 21- 26)
  1. National Infrastructure Support Functions
  2. The Reflective Note Proforma
  3. The National Occupational Standards for Youth Work
  4. Community Development Models
  5. Exemplar of ‘good practice’ from Somerset Case Study
  1. Author of Report,List of Contributors and Acknowledgements. (Page 27)
  1. Introduction

A. Purposes of Report and the Potential Audience.

  1. To inform VOYC Trustees and other stakeholders, such as town/parish and county councils, policy makers and community development practitioners, of progress being made by local communities taking responsibility for provision for young people, following the reductions in Devon County Council funding (DCC) in 2014
  2. To identify and disseminate ‘good practice’ of community development approaches and strategies to developing provision for young people.
  3. To inform stakeholders and policy makers of the ongoing support needed to sustain current developments
  4. To provide the Open University with relevant data to inform future developments for their BA (Working with Young People) professional qualification course.

B. Context

As part of its governance function, VOYC Trustees are required to:

‘Record the nature of engagement and monitor effectiveness to develop examples of practice to support communities’ (VOYC Work Plan 2015/16).

One of the national infrastructure support functions (see Appendix 1 for all national infrastructure support functions) is to ‘provide direct support; advice and information; facilitate learning’. VOYC does this by providing:

‘Direct support for individuals and groups to empower them to effect change in their own communities relating to youth provision’ (VOYC Work Plan 2015/16).

Consequently, the VOYC Chief Officer and support staff have been providing advice, guidance and direct support to varying degrees to a number (12) of communities relating to provision for young people over the past two years. This report, therefore, is aimed at informing Trustees of progress and development in this important area of VOYC’s work.

C. Local and national policy contexts

Devon County Council (DCC) has explicit policy commitments to work more closely and collaboratively with communities, voluntary sector organisations and other stakeholders, one of the aims being to provide services to mitigate the effects of substantial reductions in public sector funding. These policy commitments are reflected in the statements on the DCC website made by the DCC Chief Executive, the Council Leader and in the DCC ‘Operating Principles’ document (also on the DCC website). This policy commitment has recently been strengthened by the work of the ‘Stronger Communities’ Task Group in its Report (CS/15/13) to the Council in June 2015. DCC also has a Children, Young People and Families Alliance (CYPFA) that has a strategic responsibility to develop and co-ordinate services as follows:

CYPFA is a partnership of organisations that listen to and work for children, young people and families ...... with representation from Local Authority Social Care, Education, Public Health, Police, Health and Voluntary Sector.

(Councillor James Mc Innes, Page 3, Devon Children, Young People and Families Plan, 2015)

National policy over the past five years has focused on local communities taking more responsibilities for services due to reductions in local authority funding and services (‘Big Society’/Localism Act 2011). In the context of informal educational (youth) work with young people, this was strongly reflected in ‘Positive for Youth’ in 2013 and onwards, which advocated much more partnership working between local authorities and voluntary youth sector providers.

  1. Methodology

Evidence to inform this reviewhas been obtained from a key participant in each of three case studies in Devon during autumn 2015 and a ‘desk study’ analysis of a review of similar projects undertaken in Somerset in 2012/2103.This evidence is complemented by the evidence of three ‘stakeholders’: an independent trainer/consultant who has worked with a number of projects in Devon (not just the case study projects); a DCC youth service officer with responsibility for supporting voluntary sector organisations; and the chief officer of VOYC, who has been involved, to varying degrees, in supporting the three case study projects in Devon. The evidence supplied from the above has been checked by them for accuracy and relevance.

The evidence has been obtained through feedback,principally from individual structured interviews (four face to face and two by telephone), lasting on average 90 minutes, using Schon’s (1983) ‘reflection on action’ model. Schon’s model is now widely used as ‘reflective practice’ in many professions such as: teaching; youth and community work and social work. It is also a fundamental approach to work based learning on university professional training courses.(See Appendix 2 for the Reflection Note pro forma used to gather evidence).

Day (2000) has described reflective practice as a way in which practitioners revisit and review their own commitments, qualities and skills. It is also the capacity to think about things thatwe have experienced andhow we evaluate those experiences and learn from them. By carrying out regular, critical analyses of our skills and knowledge, we can improveprofessional practice. This has been the main approach in reviewing and evaluating these community development projects.

E. Limitations of this Review

  1. Due to time constraints, it is restricted to relatively few of the many projects currently underway.
  2. For each of the Devon case study projects, only one perspective was obtained, albeit from the ‘key’ participant, who in two cases also checked the draft reports for accuracy and relevance with others involved in their projects.
  3. Full,corroborative evidence has not been obtained from the Devon projects, especially from the young people and other volunteers and stakeholders who were involved.
  4. In only one case was it possible to peruse documentationsuch as meeting notes/minutes.
  5. A full evaluation of each of the Devon projects was therefore not possible
  6. It follows, therefore, that this is a relatively brief and superficial initial study.

2. Community Development models and principles

What is community development?

The Case Studies in this review will be analysed within the context of the following community development models and principles. Firstly, the principles and approaches as defined by the Community Development Foundation.(Edited version of a Community Development Foundation (CDF) website presentation- )

Community development is a set of approaches undertaken by individuals, informal groups and organisations. It can be practised by all sectors, whether public, private or voluntary. It can be paid or unpaid, qualified or simply experienced.

The role of community development is to support people and community groups to identify and articulate their needs, and to take practical, collective action to address them.

It works with communities of place (geographic location, neighbourhood, street), interest (in sports, politics, activity groups, clubs and so on) and identity (culture, religion, ethnicity, and age groups), helping diverse and competing community voices to be heard. By addressing issues of power, inequality and social justice, it aims to bring about change that is empowering, fair and inclusive. Individuals, informal groups and organisations can all practise community development.

Those who practise community development come from a range of backgrounds and gain their skills and knowledge both from formal qualifications and through practice and support.

Why do we need community development?

Expectations are increasing for communities to take on roles in service design and delivery, planning and budgets for their local neighbourhoods. Accounting for differing and minority voices in the process will be a challenge for diverse and rapidly changing communities. This includes the voice and needs of young people.

The Localism Act (2011) and greater community control will see local people dealing directly with statutory authorities, developers and others to negotiate financial benefits and management or ownership of assets. Reduced spending in the public sector brings dangers that deprived communities (including young people as a community of ‘identity’ – see above) will decline further, while prosperous communities may tip into deprivation or experience widening inequalities. This can lead to tension and unrest.

Community development can address issues of power and inequality, and can help competing communityvoices to be heard. It can also create communities that are more resilientto stress, who are proactive and creative thus preventing tensions from spilling into unrest.

Models

In addition to the CDF principles and approaches above,the community development models that will be used to inform this Report are: Arnstein’s (1969) ladder of participation; and Julian Dobson’s Six Aspects of Community Development – full details shown in Appendix 4.1 and 4.2

3. Case Studies

Case Study A: Axminster Youth Project: ‘People Led’

Axminster Youth Club is a part time facility for young people at the Pippins Centre. Until July 2014 it was the responsibility of the Devon County Council Youth Service.

When it was announced that the centre was to be closed, the local part time worker, the young people and parents campaigned for it to continue. A meeting was organised and the town council and mayor were approached.

This resulted in the town council agreeing to take responsibility for the Pippins Centre from Devon County Council and a local steering group consisting of parents, young people and the former youth worker was set up to determine ways of continuing the provision for young people.

The steering group met on a number of occasions to determine what sort of youth club they wanted to provide. Resulting from this, posts were filled such as safeguarding officer, fundraisers, Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary. A constitution was obtained from the internet and the steering group became the management committee.

Initial issues that the committee faced centred on the type of provision that was to be provided and the values that would be promoted. There was a difference in philosophy and opinion between the new volunteers to the committee and the former youth workers. The views of the new volunteers prevailed and the club was established based on the values of respect, structure, personal responsibility, codes of behaviour, rules and safety. The club now operates two nights a week: juniors (11-13), 6.30-8.30 and seniors (14+) 6.45-8.45. There is a group of 11 volunteer workers led by a community mental health nurse. Volunteers include parents and a teaching assistant from a local secondary school. There is a minimum of three volunteers on duty each evening.

The club is equipped with table football, a coffee bar, outside playing space, pool table and art and music rooms. Currently, there are 150 members, of which around 70% are juniors.

The success of this project over the past year has been founded on:

  1. The initial determination and resolve of young people (strongly supported by their parents and the wider community) not to let the provision founder
  2. The strong support of the town council in taking responsibility from Devon County Council for the Pippins Centre
  3. Strong leadership from the community health nurse: some of her professional skills and knowledge have been ‘transferable’ to the youth work context
  4. A strong, active and properly constituted management committee who take responsibility for the full range of functions required to run a youth club, such as:
  5. Raising funds
  6. Programme management and development
  7. Health, safety and safeguarding
  8. Public relations and maintaining community support
  9. Staffing the provision
  10. General governance
  11. Good links with and support from other community groups such as the local secondary school (information sharing); local businesses who donate materials/equipment (e.g. the Co Op provide food and drink for the coffee bar); the local police (the PCSO officers visit in a supportive role on a regular basis); Rotary Club (fundraising)

Some of the issues/problems encountered have been:

  1. The initial ‘discord’ referred to above, i.e. the varying views about the type of provision to be run and its value base.
  2. Challenging behaviour of some young people, especially older ones, with associated issues concerning drugs
  3. Obtaining clear pathways to advice and information regarding how to set up a youth club and what initial and ongoing support would be available
  4. Lack of expertise in how to engage with young people in this context
  5. Lack of initial training and support for the volunteers, particularly as follows

1)Youth worker induction training

2)Methods of engaging with young people in this context

3)Developing relationships with young people

4)Communication skills with young people

5)Young people and motivational skills so that young people can participate fully in the project

6)Leadership skills

7)Delegation skills

8)Programme and project development

With regard to the issue of training and support, the view of the project leader is that training and support should have been established in the early stages of the project. Currently all 11 volunteers are undertaking basic training in working with young people via an independent youth work trainer. It is also suggested that other forms of support for the volunteers could include: mentoring: being linked to other projects to share expertise; support; inter project/club activities.

This project has clearly been successful in preserving its youth provision, one year after the withdrawal of DCC youth service funding. This has been due to the determination of young people, with excellent support from other sectors of the community and the commitment of, and the leadership skills within, the team of volunteers.

To sustain this provision, it appears that training and support for the existing and future management committee and the volunteer workers will be important. The ongoing commitment of the town council and various community groups will also be important.