Children’s Services1

Positive for Youth – A

Response from ADCS

Mark Carriline

Executive Director (Children’s Services) Bury Council ADCS Lead on Youth Issues

CHYPS Convention – 5 November 2012

Starting Points

• Greetings and best wishes from ADCS – we are very pleased to be here

• Like you we share a very keen interest in and commitment to the Young People’s agenda

• In this input I want to respond to Positive for Youth and the broader policy agenda for young people

• Not all of the views expressed are necessarily those of ADCS as a whole!

Strengths

• The fact that Positive for Youth exists at all

• The overall vision of a society which is Positive for Youth

• Promotion of Young People’s role in decision-making

• The investment in the National Citizen Service

• The promotion of a mixed economy of provision

Weaknesses

• The lack of detail – for example the sufficiency duty

• The lack of enforcement mechanisms• Young people as ‘economic units’

“Young people should be allowed to be young, to have fun and develop interests and aspirations.”

• Dubious VFM of NCS• Resources in general

Threats

• On going squeeze on local government funding with youth work as discretionary spend

• Transfer of funding for 2 year old offer from EIG to DSG

• Short term focus for outcomes• “Myself and Sarah Teather really had to

battle against various unnamed forces in the past to keep the youth role of the DfE on the agenda, be it everything from dangerous behaviours to teenagers and funding for youth voice” – Tim Loughton in CYPN 9 October 2012

Opportunities

• Schools – especially as the curriculum becomes more academic due to EBacc?

• RPA – different forms of provision needed?

• Finding ways to demonstrate the long term impact of youth work

• Troubled Families?• The costs of care – especially for

teenagers

Conclusions

• Possibly the most challenging environment we have ever faced in local government

• There is an absolute requirement to make the case for youth work in ways that will be heard and understood – politicians may get it better than officers(?)

• We must be resilient and rise to the challenge – young people need us to succeed!

• Strap on your tin hats – it’s going to get bumpy!