Youth Music ProgrammeFirst Milestone Narrative Report

Organisation Name SEND ProjectName of person completing form Leanne SuttonEmail address for queries Leanne@sendproject.comReporting Period From: Oct 2012 to: Sep 2013

Guidance

Youth Music asks all grant holders to report against the activity report submitted in their application. The reporting requirements are governed by the size and duration of the grant.

Your funding agreement contains the details of all your reporting requirements and submission details, so please refer back to it if you are unsure.

The purpose of this report is to see how you are progressing towards meeting the outcomes set at the beginning of your project, to provide an opportunity to share with Youth Music any obstacles you may have faced and your plans to overcome them.

Once you have submitted the report and the required supporting information, and it has been approved by our Grants and Learning Team, your next grant instalment will be released.

You are required to: Answer the questions on each page of the report (please note word limits

represent a maximum, rather than an expected amount) Download the attachments needed (budget update, declaration) – available

from the grant holders section of our website), complete them, and upload them with this form.

You also have the option to upload photographs, video and audio. Please only upload photographs if you have the appropriate consent forms for public use, and have ticked the box on the declaration form to confirm this.

Case studies: Also available to download from the grant holders section of our website is a

case study template – if you would like to provide us with a case study, the template should help you to write it. Unless otherwise stated, it will be assumed that the case study can be published externally.

Completing Your Form:Whilst completing this form, you will need to refer back to your:

1. Stage One and Stage Two Application forms2. Budget form (submitted with your Stage Two application) 3. Risk Analysis form (submitted with your Stage 2 application)

Youth Music gathers this information for a number of reasons: To monitor our funded projects and ensure that grants are used to deliver

high quality music-making to achieve suitable outcomes for children and young people

To develop a body of evidence of the reach and impact of Youth Music’s funded work and to prove the value of the work we do to external stakeholders

To inform programme development. By analysing the data we receive back from our funded partners, we are able to identify gaps in the reach and impact of our work and develop appropriate modules

To provide a baseline for more in-depth evaluation To support the monitoring of progress towards our organisational goals To identify areas of good practice that could support other organisations we

fund.

Thank you for taking the time to complete this report. Once it has been submitted, we will endeavour to review the information and, if necessary, release your next payment

within 20 working days. Should the process be delayed for any reason, we will be in touch to let you know why.

Payments and expenditurePlease note that prior to releasing your next payment, we expect you to have spent at least 85% of the amount you have been paid to date. If this is not the case, please contact funding.enquiries@youthmusic.org.uk to discuss your options.

Youth Music Programme – First Milestone Report

The Youth Music Milestone Report provides an opportunity for grantees to reflect on the progress of their programme of work to date, and present evidence to Youth Music in support of their findings. We are keen to hear about both the successes and challenges you have encountered in the period covered by this report, and the key learning you have taken away as a result.

1. Please describe your progress towards achieving your project’s intended outcomes (No Word Limit)

In your Stage Two Application form you provided a list of indicators and an evaluation plan for your programme of work. Please reflect on the indicators you provided, and using your evaluation plan, provide evidence on the progress you are making towards achieving your intended outcomes.

Outcome 3:To increase the local provision of high quality, meaningful educational music-making opportunities for young people who are facing extremely challenging circumstances and increase the instance in which learners are engaged in empowering experiences, making key decisions about their own learning and developmental path:

Increasing local provision of high quality music making opportunities:By providing the sessions alone we instantly increased the amount of local music making opportunities. Whilst there is a community recording studio less than a mile away, it offers little music making support, offering instead access to facilities with little support or guidance. .

All sessions were delivered by a team of skilled music professionals that ensured the content was fresh, responsive and informed. Not all of the music leaders had vast amounts of experience in working with learner facing challenging circumstances. Some learned these skills quickly and really excelled, with one support worker actually becoming a music leader halfway through the programme.

Our focus on music leader training & increased CPD opportunities resulted in regular CPD sessions that supported music leaders in identifying & accessing a number of relevant training opportunities throughout the course of the programme. Examples include ‘music mentoring’ with community music practitioner Phil Mullen, musical inclusion CPD training with Nottingham Music Hub, a variety of in-house workforce development training sessions including lone working, professional boundaries, project specific safeguarding & various music team skill share sessions. Most recently tutors have started a PTLLS course.

This project has solidified a group of individual music tutors into a cohesive music team, bringing the tutors from different fields (instruments, digital production, lyrics & performance) together to plan & deliver sessions that explore key musical elements in a way that is interlinked and accessible. Tutors have shared skills and best practice in planning the most innovative & creative sessions possible for all learners & session review forms have clearly demonstrated where the tutors have

reflected on their practice & revised & improved either an element of their delivery style or session content accordingly. This is of course an ongoing process and the feedback of the learners continues to drive the session content & we have seen this carry through into other projects already.

Attendance:

Day Group:SG01 94%RH06 85%JB09 89%NW11 93%TW12 96%

This group attended for min 15 weeks and successfully completed the Bronze Arts Award.

LJ04 50% (14 weeks) – dropped off programme to attend vocational training

Evening Group:

Although not planned this way we ended up having three separate blocks of evening groups over the course of the year.

Oct – Dec 2012 (Instrument module): Two attendees were both belonging to NECJT02 67% (7 weeks)RG03 67% (7 weeks)

When the session content moved away from live instrument playing and into other aspects of music creation, both lads felt the draw of their peers and began to turn up late / fail to attend. RG03 later rejoined the programme (see Apr-Jul) after he approached the project manager with humility, stating that he had gone through a very destructive patch in his life & had been ‘stupid’ to leave the programme.

Jan – Mar 2013 (Lyrics module): Two attendees; 1x white British, 1x dual heritage BritishKS07 63%AX08 63%

Attended enthusiastically for 6 weeks before KS07 moved area and transport / travel became a barrier. AX08 did not attend without KS07. KS07 has been re-enrolled on the programme this year after sorting out transport costs / arrangements & clearly having matured a little over the last 6months.

Apr – Jul 2013 (Flexible: later became Band session): 5 x NECRG03 67% (15 weeks)JAT10 71%NA13 38%

RA14 50%Also RH06 attending with peers

The large variation in attendance/commitment between band members ultimately led to the dissolving of band.

Majority voluntary self-referrals which meant that long-term commitment & motivation to complete arts award was not as successful as we’d hoped. The Style/ Structure & flexibility of evening group has been addressed & a revised plan has been put in place for the second year (see section 4).

Our plan was to replicate/mirror day content in evening session. In hindsight, this may have contributed to the poor attendance records of those learner signed up as there was too much information to pack into sessions that were 40% shorter in duration. Feedback has led us to modify evening sessions to be more fun and open ended. Ominous length of commitment (40 weeks) was also cited as a turn off. Second phase has been modified to 3 x 10 week blocks with the option / carrot of progression both within the accreditation & working towards being a young music leader & possible volunteer (this is of course only offered where appropriate in light of age, maturity etc)

Ensuring that all learners are facing challenging circumstances:We designed & implemented three stage referral process that ensured that all young people we accepted onto the project met the criteria.

The first stage involved holding a programme launch event where all key referral partners were invited to attend a briefing that outlined clearly outlined what the programme was about, the general objectives & content of the sessions & advised of the clear criteria that any young people must meet to get a place. This was also accompanied by a project brief & a flyer & poster that could be distributed amongst their colleagues/organisations etc.

Secondly; all key referral partners (a key nominated person from all appropriate local & city/county wide organisations) were sent a criteria & referral form that the referral partner had to fill out & return for any suitable referral.

Finally the programme manager would then set up & hold a short informal interview where one or two of the SEND team would meet with the young person & the adult referrer. This allowed the programme manager to inform the young person about the project, the opportunities & the commitment it involves, as well as discuss any foreseeable issues & what the young person hopes to gain from the project. Once the interview was complete the team would make a decision about whether or not to give the young person a place on the course.

This three stage process made sure that the right young people were given the opportunity to get involved in the programme.

Making Key decisions about their learning & development:

IAPs/Musical goals & Session planning: Each student completed an Individual action plan (IAP) during their programme induction phase which they then reviewed with their mentor on a weekly basis. At the beginning learners set themselves one musical goal for each of the three main music modules (Lyrics & Live performance, Digital Music Production & Live Instruments). Once the modules were completed the students IAPs were reviewed & updated so that they focused on completing a primary & a secondary musical goal. Whilst the learners were supported in identifying & breaking down their goals they made the choices about what they wanted to focus on & achieve.

Although the taster sessions& the initial module content was planned in line with a general scheme of work, all sessions beyond the induction period used the learners IAPs to shape the session content to ensure it supported each student in achieving their goals.

All of the students achieved the majority of their goals. Some had to be scaled down & revised a little from their original form as they were ambitious, but mentors helped steer the learners so they still kept their original goal(s) at the heart of the end result/product (e.g. make an EP that uses original drum beats that I play in & record – became – make two tracks that use my recorded drum beat).

The team of tutors had a couple of keys ways in which they ensured the sessions were responsive to the learners needs.

Debriefing at the end of the final session of the week which enabled them to identify & discuss key content that needed to be included in next week’s sessions. The music leaders (each leading on a key module area) would use this time to use their combined skills & knowledge to support each other in making each session as responsive & inclusive to each learners goals & needs as possible.

Amounted white board in the music studio that the tutors would update after each session. This clearly demonstrated each learner’s progress & highlighted what tasks/element they had to achieve next. This not only enabled the tutors to know instantly what they had to focus on but also enabled the learners to take responsibility for knowing what task they were doing & what stage they were at.

From April onwards the evening group chose to have a band structure. The key elements of working as a band were discussed and sessions planned accordingly, taking into account the styles of music the group wanted to incorporate.

Feedback From partner’s questionnaire:Considering your above observations, how far would you say that the young person was making positive decisions about their learning and development?

One partner reported significant improvement in the 3 learner referred, citing their continued attendance as ‘extraordinary’.

“All three students have grown as individuals whilst being on this project. They have clearly demonstrated their musical ability and this has been recognised by the achievement of the Arts Award.”

Arts Award Goals: Each learner’s Arts Award goals were shaped through use of their main musical goals. Some also did some complementary digital media (making a CD cover) so that they had a really great end product. Whist some elements of the arts award had to be steered by the tutors (e.g. event visit) the learners chose (again with guidance & support from their mentor & tutors) how they would achieve their goals themselves. Each IAP had an arts award goals section which enabled them to develop & achieve their goals at their own pace.

Personal development: As the learners’ personal development is such a key part of this project we included a ‘personal development goals’ section on the IAPs. To begin with most mentors & learners did not dive straight into identifying & tackling the personal development goals but took their time in building trust & supportive relationships. This in time allowed the learners to open up & identify the real hurdles & challenges they faced that prevented them from reaching their full potential. Once they’d spent their time building up to this point the mentees & mentors used the personal development section on the IAP to record & demonstrate progress on their goals. Again some of them achieved their goals in full, some of them (mainly those who weren’t with us for the full length of the programme) made some decent headway into overcoming the issues they identified. On reflection, the most significant outcome in relation to this element is that all the learners were empowered enough to recognise & identify what the key issues/challenges were for themselves; even if they didn’t fully achieve them, they were given the space & the skills to be able to start to tackle them.

Outcome 4: Improve young peoples’ self-esteem, confidence, social and psychological wellbeing by providing embedded holistic mentor support. Increase young people’s motivation to engage in education and training to ensure that we improve both learners and tutors knowledge of positive educational and developmental music-making opportunities in their locality.

Improve young peoples’ self-esteem, confidence, social and psychological wellbeing by providing embedded holistic mentor support.

Mentoring sessions: Weekly mentoring sessions enabled the learners & their mentors to have regular catch up sessions giving the learners space to talk about their lives, say what was going on for them & know that they were being prioritised. Through use of anecdotal evidence & the later introduction of a mentor ‘Holistic Scale Monitoring’ form the mentors have been able to observe and record a number of behavioural indicators that evidence the overall improvement of each learner’s confidence & overall wellbeing.

All mentors experienced their mentees reported negative behaviours or incidents that they had been involved in. This in itself was significant, showing that they trusted the relationship and felt listened to. This gave the mentees the opportunity to reflect on the choices they were making & paved the way for the mentors & mentees to discuss different was they could approach challenging situations in the future. For example one learner reported staying up till early morning using social media sites with the result that he had no energy and was missing crucial appointments. Though there were a number of relapses, mentees reported making positive changes to their lifestyle in response to the support given.

Holistic scale monitoring:All our learners exhibited a range of responses in their development in the key areas being monitored over time, reflecting each learner’s different starting point and specific needs and circumstances.Areas monitored were:

Thinking & behaviour Perception of self & others Communication Connection to community Social skills

(see graphs below)

Some showed discernable improvements in one or two areas but no real change in others. Some showed steady improvements across the board whilst others still exhibited a downward trend in particular behaviour indicators, which directly correlated with challenging life events (e.g. NW; separation of parents, JB; mum leaving for Africa).

It is obviously not possible to second guess how that learner would have fared were they not supported by this programme, but it may be reasonable to assume that the downturn in positive decision making and general life-resilience may have been more pronounced and had wider, long-lasting repercussions.

What we can say for certain is that each learner completing the programme reported that they valued the project and would miss it. One or two have visited since the summer to check in and report on what they are now doing.

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Specific Outcome indicators (evidenced through a variety of sources):

Learners feel: Able to make positive decisions.

4 of 5 learners completing the programme reported an increase in their ability to make positive decisions about their life (YM Agency & Citizenship)

Listened to: 3 of 5 showed significant increase in feeling listened to (+2 points on YM

Agency & Citizenship). 1 showed +1 point increase, 1 showed no change.

Partner feedback questionnaire:

“I think [the learner] found the mentoring scheme extremely useful because the mentors at the project could relate to him on a personal level. I get the impression that he has really opened up to some of the mentors which proves that he is comfortable in sharing his problems and talking about things. This is really important for somebody like him as he requires attention and enjoys talking, even if it is about general day-to-day things.”

Learners have: Increased confidence.

Of the 5 learners completing the programme, holistic monitoring showed; 3 learners increasing their confidence and self-efficacy. One showed no change and one a decline.

(It was noted that these last two learners were experiencing significant family trauma mid programme & beyond. Specifically imprisonment of father and acrimonious divorce respectively).

Of those not completing the programme; Two re-engaged with formal learning One entered a vocational programme

Indicating high levels of self-efficacy.

Partner feedback questionnaires:

“It was great to see [the learner] bringing some of their work in and showing it to staff. They were clearly proud and felt like they had achieved something.”

“All 3 of the learners are more confident and have a pride in the work they have achieved even if they appear reluctant to show it.”

“Confidence has increased due to being forced to be a little more independent.”

When reporting their own confidence levels through the YM Wellbeing questionnaire, snapshots at the start and the end of the programme revealed 2learners felt an increased self-confidence, 2learners (with high initial figures) reported no change and 1learner reported a slight decrease. Interestingly, the same snapshot showed that each learner also reported an increase in ‘feeling good

about myself’, which did seem slightly contradictory.

learned to work well with others (social skills)As above from mentor’s holistic monitoring;

3 improvements, 1 flat (no change) 1 decline

same family issues background info for the learner showing no change and a decline

Partner feedback questionnaires:

In response to the question; ‘Ability to deal with group situations’ and ‘Interactions with peers’, all partners reported an improvement in each learner on both of these indicators, with the exception of referrer who reported ‘no change’ in their learner. It’s worth noting that his particular learner was taking a very high dosage of medication for clinically diagnosed ADHD & as such really struggled to observe group norms & work as part of a team. The Sound & Vision was providing a group working setting for this learner for the first time in a long time & although we saw clear improvements whilst he attended the sessions it is evident that it was difficult for him to transfer that progress into other areas of his life.

Improved communication skills. Holistic monitoring shows that all 5 learners completing the programme showed an

improvement in their communication skills over time. Also noted by a number of mentors was that learners continued to be reluctant to

ask questions when unsure or unclear. Particularly pronounced in group setting.

Punctuality*:

SG01 63%RG03 75%LJ04 80%RH06 72%JB09 72%

JAT10 60%NW11 80%TW12 100%NA13 60%RA14 50%

Successfully completed Arts AwardDid not complete programme*Only learners attending for 10+ weeks shown.

Generally there was a strong correlation between punctuality and course completion.

The exceptions;SG01 exhibited chronic lateness, possibly perpetuated by self-medication and excessive investment in video games, issues that were worked on through mentoring. The majority of the lateness events tended to be in first half of programme, indicating some progress.

RG03 started the programme in October, was removed in December and re-enrolled in April, effectively starting again. Best attendee from final evening group but didn’t quite have the maturity to complete the arts award away from his peers. In discussion with his mentor he demonstrated willing to have come in for additional sessions to gain support with completing the arts award but then had to miss three weeks in May/June due to a family holiday which made it impossible for him to complete the remaining tasks.

LJ04 was a single piece of work away from completing the Bronze arts award when he started attending vocational training during session times. No amount of persuasion was able to get him back in to complete. It was felt that the huge gap in attending had resulted in LJ loosing interest. We hope to support him in completing his award this year.

Tutor evaluation questionnaires:

“Many learners re-engaged with other learning opportunities whilst on the programme and that has to be a good thing. Two of the lads [from a new emerging community] took the technical skills they had learnt and began to turn up early to open youth activity sessions to set up music facilities for other learners to use.”

“I observed significant improvement for some learners and smaller amounts for others. All [with attendance beyond 5 weeks] learners and their referral organisation have commented on some positive impact on their self esteem and / or self-efficacy.”

“I’ve seen their confidence and self esteem grow...they feel like someone is there to listen when being mentored - something I would have valued when I was going through difficult times.”

Weekly video diaries:

Video diaries were great for showing how the learners felt about their achievements; If there were any fantastic bits that they’d loved or if there were areas that they didn’t like & therefore didn’t really want to explore. At the beginning of the project all of the learners felt uneasy about being in front of a camera & just used it to record their voice. However, as their confidence improved most of them really began to enjoy doing their video diary, many of them taking ownership of filming each other & improving the way in which they reported on their progress, a skill which many of them excelled in & thoroughly enjoyed. So whilst unintended, a positive outcome that demonstrates a growth in confidence & self-esteem nonetheless.

Advisory Group:Regular advisory group meetings with key referral partners & team members gave all parties the opportunity to meet every half term & discuss developments with the learners & specific strategic/logistic elements of the project.

In particular large sections of the meetings were based around updating & discussing the learners’ progress & making sure the programme & session content continued to remain responsive to their needs throughout the project.

The easiest way to demonstrate what was discussed during each meeting is to show the groups agenda that was used to steer every meeting;

1. Introduction and apologies2. Referrals3. Updates and feedback from all partners4. Review & Evaluation of Programme: Structure & Content5. Review & Evaluation of Programme: Effectiveness6. Sharing of Good Practice7. Remaining Relevant & Responsive (points for development)8. AOB9. Next Meeting Date

One of the partners suggested putting the purpose of the group on the agenda and the following was included as a result:

“The group will review and evaluate the structure, content and effectiveness of the programme. This will facilitate the sharing of good practice amongst partner organisations. The outcomes of these meetings will influence the programme as it develops, ensuring it remains relevant and responsive”.

All the information discussed was with the aim of ensuring that the holistic wellbeing & development of the learners was a priority throughout the project. Working together to create a solid holistic support network for these young people (including identifying where there were any additional support needs/issues) was an extremely important process that enabled us to work towards this aim.

Increase young people’s motivation to engage in education and training

Learners (highlighted learner completed programme)

Evidence of increased motivation

JB09 Re-engaged with mainstream education and enrolled onto GCSE classes during programme“Values education a little more” – partner feedback

TW12 No specific evidence outside of this programme

NW11 Re-engaged in alt ed program post programme

RH06 Enrolled in maths and English college courses

during programmeRG03 Accepted into new mainstream education

after removal from programmeJT02 No evidence – family moved cityJT05 No evidence – family moved cityJAT10 No evidence – family moved cityAX08 No evidenceKS07 Moved area. Now enrolled for year 2.LJ04 Enrolled in vocational training which clashed

with programme (just short of meeting Bronze standard)

RA14 No evidenceNA13 No evidenceSG01 Progressed onto college digital music

programme

Outcome 5: To improve community integration and support for young people in transitional and new emerging communities. To enable them to pass on new skills to the wider generations within their families in order to open up the use of local resources

Language barriers /cross cultural communication / behaviour management

Day Group: RH (belonging to NEC) started out quiet & lacking in confidence with respect to speaking to tutors & students alike.

Using the evidence demonstrated by the Scale Monitoring form we saw a steady increase in his communication skills. In completing part D of his arts award he taught both a fellow student & 2x tutors how to play 3 different rhythms on the electric drum kit & he often supported the instrument tutor in helping fellow students how to improve their drumming skills. He remains a quiet young man when away from his immediate peer group but his confidence in mixing outside of this group certainly increased.

Moving away from looking just at NEC specifically, the day group had a mix of local white British, mixed heritage, black (African) British & NEC (Czech), which was good to see. Between the group members themselves their varying cultural backgrounds was never an issue & all respected & supported each other most of the time.

There was one incident in particular that demonstrated a great degree of learning & understanding all round; one of the learners was recounting an incident that had occurred outside of the sessions, during which he had made an extremely racist remark. Whilst this (understandably) upset a couple of the learners they recognised that due to his learning difficulties he did not fully understand the enormity of what he’d said so the other learners took the time to explain to him why this was so unacceptable & how much trouble this might get him in if he were to make this same remark in & around different circles. All tutors felt that this demonstrated incredible

maturity & understanding from the other learners in the group & ultimately was a real positive learning experience for all members of the group & in the case of the learner recounting the incident; this experience had such an impact on him that it would no doubt have a lasting effect. There was certainly never a similar incident to report during the remainder of the year.

Evening Group:

The fact that we ended up have three distinctly separate blocks of evening groups demonstrates that different learners were drawn towards specific musical elements of the project. The first two groups came together independently & whilst it was nothing to do with cultural differences amongst the learners (as the groups never overlapped) it was clear that learners belonging to NEC were not interested in doing very little that didn’t involve playing instruments.

This was a challenge & learning curve for team for the team as in interviews NEC learners stated they were up for & looking forward to learning other elements, such as music production, sound engineering, rapping etc. When it came to learning about these elements many of the NEC learners ‘switched off’ very quickly & showed very little willingness to develop their learning around these topics.

It was clear that they responded much better to a more flexible session type, which was why during the final third of the programme we switched the sessions to much more malleable band sessions. This enabled the group of lads to devise & carry out individual & group based goals that revolved around learning & developing together as a band.

Whilst 2 out of the 5 had sporadic attendance (1 fell out with his peer group & the other was hanging around with an older peer group) this was going extremely well for 3 out of the 5 (one of whom was one of the original evening group learners from initial instrument module 2012). These three were attending regularly & were starting to work on tasks that enabled them to expand their learning beyond just jamming on instruments. Unfortunately in mid-June two out of the three left the group (1 went on 3 weeks holiday & 1 moved out of the area). The third learner also attended the day group so still completed his accreditation.

Increased mixing of groups in local youth sessions & Czech, Polish and British learners working cohesively & NEC development of music leaders:

Evidence from other local (non SEND) youth session’s shows that there has been an increase the number of young people belonging to a NEC attending all sessions. Within our own Thursday evening open activity session (Fusion) we have noticed an improvement in cross culture interaction & collaboration. For example several of the lads from NEC who attended the evening group have been supporting the sessions. They arrive early to set up the live instrument room before every sessions & taking some responsibility for supporting the younger participants in accessing & learning the basics on the instruments. This is an on-going process but there has certainly been a positive impact. One young man from a NEC not connected to the Sound & Vision programme has been shadowing the volunteers and now he regularly supports in preparing and managing the live instrument activities.

The mentoring side of the Sound & Vision project built the relationships with these key individuals from within the NEC and has built a platform from which community relationships with the wider peer group have developed.

Czech, Polish and British families mixing during celebration event:

Unfortunately none of the NEC families attended the celebration event. One did say they would attend & seemed really happy to do so but didn’t. We believe that the learner was self-conscious & told them not to come.

Attendance of referral partners and parents/carers at reviews and evaluations:

Referral partners representing all learners did attend advisory group (review & evaluation) meetings unfortunately we were unable to recruit willing parents into the group.

2. Please describe your progress towards achieving the outputs you detailed in your Stage Two Application (No Word Limit)

This section asks about your progress towards achieving the outputs detailed in your Stage Two application form. Youth Music is keen to hear about those outputs you have successfully achieved and equally any outputs that may have presented more of a challenge.

a) Working closely with key partner, using a fixed criteria and referral process, to ensure that the 10 most suitable learners from the two key target groups get places on the programme

The referral process was slow to get off the ground at the beginning of the project. Despite our excellent relationships with city & county Youth Offending Service (YOS) teams we failed to receive any referrals directly from any YOS personnel until March 2013.

Our liaison officer at the YOS (whom we have been working in partnership with for over three years) was part of our advisory group throughout the year & in one particular meeting we dedicated a section of the meeting to looking at the barriers for referrals at three key identified stages; SEND to liaison worker, liaison worker to case managers & case managers to young people.

We concluded that in the main the routes (email's to all county team's & offices) being used to get the information from the YOS liaison officer to the appropriate case managers was not being distributed in a manner that really sold or highlighted the opportunity the project offered to case managers & their prospective young people. It was recognised that as a countywide worker it was difficult for the liaison worker to have much regular face to face contact with specific case managers but sending an email to an office of busy YOS workers was resulting in very few case managers actually taking the time to look at or even read the email. The liaison suggested that case managers

did not like referral forms historically. We feel that our referral form was designed to be as brief and simple to complete as possible and so suspect that potential referrers were not even attempting to use it.

To remedy this we agreed that face to face contact between SEND project & the YOS case managers was the best option so we organised to attend a team meeting at the relevant (south locality) YOS office. Unfortunately, the whole team were in the middle of a huge re-shuffle and re-location! The only day that we could get to meet with them for months was the day after they moved to their new office and when we arrived everything was upside down and moral in their team was clearly pretty low.

Nevertheless they gave us 5 minutes of their meeting, so we gave them an upbeat synopsis of the project as well as project brief hand-outs, referral forms & flyers for their young people. Unfortunately, there were still no referrals. Another YOS partner that we have a long & successful history of working in partnership with advised that it was very unlikely that the individual case managers would be pro-active enough to make referrals.

Similarly, when I spoke to personnel at the city YOS I was advised that they would see this as the responsibility of the alternative education departments at the local schools (for those YP 16 or under), rather than an opportunity for them to refer their young people themselves.

As a measure to combat this barrier, for year two our aim is to contact individual YOS personnel that we have previously worked in partnership with & make sure they are fully clued up on the programme. Our county liaison has been really helpful at continuing to point us in the right direction to contact said personnel & we so although our reach may diminish this year we hope that by targeting specific individuals we will increase our chance of getting YOS referrals. This situation will continue to be monitored & developed throughout the programme.

On a positive note, our group of partners (local alternative education director, local anti-social behaviour officer, Nottingham Family Intervention Team, Renewal Trust Youth Change Manager, Representative from Vanguard Plus (ending youth gangs & youth violence initiative) have come together regularly & supported our project either through representing on the advisory group (once every 6-8weeks) or through being a point of contact to distribute & promote/arrange referrals for the project since we launched back in Sep 2012.

We received in total 15 referrals, which despite being a lot lower than we thought they were all excellent candidates for the project. Out of the 15 two chose not to sign up for the project as they had too many other commitments (in truth both of these were borderline in terms of meeting the criteria of facing significant challenge but both had a strong passion for music). Whilst only 5 completed the accreditation side, most of 13 of the lads who got involved over the course of the year had significant benefits (e.g. improved

confidence went on to access further training courses, have started being young music leaders in other local youth sessions etc.)

b) Run 2 weekly creative music sessions for 2 academic years; one during school hours (NEET Only) and one in the evening. Sessions will run during school term time and be mixed groups of 5 learners from 2 target groups.

Our registers show that in the first year we fully achieved our goal with respect to the day group. The day sessions had great attendance (averaging 91%) albeit with a challenging staggered referral pattern. The group was consistent though slow to build and covered a diverse mix of cultural backgrounds.

Both the day & the evening group sessions were planned & held every week starting Oct 2012 (barring holidays). Recruitment and attendance on the evening session was disappointing.

As stated in part of question 1, the evening group learners had a tendency to attend particular sections that were more relevant to them. Whilst we worked hard to ensure the groups were mixed this was more of a challenge in the evening group due to low referral numbers.

In the first instance our aim & structure was for the day & evening sessions to mirror each other. However, we realised that the evening group needed a much more relaxed structure. Whilst we responded to this need, it was important that there was still a strong element of musical & educational development (as per our objectives). It was tricky to balance this, in particular with learners belonging to NEC. This was because despite the evidence shown in referral forms & informal interviews, many of them purely wanted to gain additional studio time to play their traditional music & it was slow progress in getting most of them to see the potential in working with & learning from the experienced music tutors. There was a reluctance (when in a group) to move away from playing learnt music and to try and develop the skills to widen their repertoire. Several of the learners found it difficult to move away from an individualistic approach to performing.

c) Employ 3 skilled music leaders to deliver high quality music-making activities.

100% achieved. We have had one change in personnel which is worth explaining here. The original lyrics tutor was (for a number of reasons) not able to give this project the commitment & dedication that it needed. It was quickly noticed that he was not able to allow appropriate time for planning & preparation both before & in-between sessions and before long the difference in the delivery of the lyrics sessions was clear. What became really apparent was that the support tutor (a local rapper that had been trying for some time to find a way to mentor lads on the wrong track) was excellent at engaging the young people & was equally working really hard to quickly learn how to plan & write sessions. With our support (through supervision, CPD & lots of key training session) he became a confident & effective music leader.

d) Ensure music leaders and mentors receive and attend appropriate training (5 skills share sessions, 3 in weeks 1-7. Remaining 2 in years 1 & 2.

All the music leaders took part in our internal ‘Work Force Development’ training programme (Sep 2012), which included training around professional boundaries, lone working, mentoring, SEND specific safeguarding plus provided a great forum for all of the team to plan & deliver skill share sessions which enabled all the music leaders to gain skills in the other musical areas. As stated earlier in this report, all three now work closely together in their planning & delivery, which is a direct result of working & learning together on this project.

All music leaders have a comprehensive CPD plan that has identified key training needs & provides an ideal platform to identify & target appropriate training opportunities; for example all tutors identified the need to undertake a formal teaching qualification. Consequently all tutors were funded & supported in identifying & enrolling on a suitable PTLLS & are now working towards achieving their certificate. External training so far includes; music mentoring with Phil Mullen (facilitated by Readipop), soundLincs & Nottingham Music Hub networking events & music facilitation and workshop techniques for working with children from challenging backgrounds, also with Phil Mullen.

e) Support all 20 learners through the Bronze Arts Award, with a minimum of 6 continuing on to undertake the Silver Arts Award.

I think it’s fair to say that this has perhaps been the most unsuccessful output throughout our first year.

Out of 10 possibilities for the 1st year we have successfully supported 5 in achieving the Bronze arts award.

One evening learner was a single piece of work away from completing the Bronze arts award when he started attending vocational training. Other evening group issues are stated above in (relation to output b).

All 5 of day group achieved bronze with outstanding remarks from moderator (report attached as appendix). Moderator identified that 2 out of the 5 were very close to being at Silver standard.

Three of the learners joined the programme after the New Year, meaning they did not progress on to the silver award.

The staggered referral intake meant that the group were at different stages at different times which was quite challenging for the tutors to juggle. All had high support needs & often it was difficult to really get even the more

advanced members of the group to progress independently (without 121 support).

Fluctuations in the group dynamic (as a result of the staggered in take) also had quite an impact on the groups productivity; in particular with the addition of the last two learners. Whilst no one individual was a significant problem, when they combined at times (often depending on the state of mind & mood of any one of the learners) this resulted in a negative outcome. To be clear, we never had any significant issues, but the desire for them to make friends & socialise in an environment where they felt comfortable meant that at times their motivation to do some of the more academic elements (arts award tasks, music theory) suffered.

f) Provide each learner with a personal mentor to support them in developing a creative and educational portfolio to be used as a resource pack. Weekly 1:1 mentor sessions will follow up any creative or educational progression routes and further local opportunities for music making.

For the first year this was approximately 80% achieved. Each learner was assigned a personal mentor who provided them with appropriate support & guidance. Unless there was a case of absence on the day group (of which there were very few) this was provided, achieved & formed a really valuable part of the learners journey.

As part of the ‘Referral Partner Evaluation’ questionnaire all referral partners were asked to rate the mentoring element. All partners gave a score of either 4 or 5 (Scale of 1-5; 1 being poor & 5 being excellent).

In the case of the evening group there was a noticeable difference in the motivation to attend mentoring. Despite how we explained or sold it to the evening learners it was often the case that the learners would opt out of the mentoring element & would often arrive on time for the practical session.

As alluded to previously, this was symptomatic of using the same model on the evening session (at least to begin with) as that of the day session. Few bought into the accreditation as being relevant or something into which they wished to invest time. Neither did they value the opportunity to engage in the additional support offered through the mentoring programme. In light of this (as with much of the structure of the evening session) the mentoring element will still exist but will change it is style; It will form part of the evening session as a whole but will be a less structured element where (once the tutors & learners have built up strong trusting working relationships throughout the taster & prolonged induction period & first block of sessions) the assigned mentors & their mentees will peel off at different stages of the evening to have a 1:1 informal discussion. It will still have a focus on their musical goals & general wellbeing but will be delivered more flexibly. Lengthy discussions around this issue during the end of year

team evaluation led us to believe we could use the mentoring time more effectively by reducing the focus on their progress with the accreditation.

More time will be spent building the relationship between mentor and mentee (as well as fellow learners) through shared experience, be it musical or otherwise. This should allow for greater reflection on and support with wider issues.

g) Hold monthly joint learner review meetings with music mentor, parent/carer and referral worker)

Whilst not initially intended, it ended up that a mini review with the mentor & mentee happened on a weekly basis. On two occasions was it necessary to call a joint meeting of learner, carer, referral worker and music leader.

On reflection, this output was perhaps set a little naively and optimistically, especially in thinking that very busy professionals could give a monthly commitment, or that it was necessary for them to do so.

We also often found that the learners wanted to distance themselves from issues/relationships associated with outside agencies. With many of the referrers attending the advisory group meeting every 6-8 weeks & communicating regularly with the programme manager & other members of the team (tutors & mentors) it was felt that this was sufficient involvement in the programme.

Similarly, unless absolutely necessary it was impractical & counterproductive to have any of the parents/carers regularly involved. Despite wanting & being open to getting parents involved in the programme their relationships with their sons were (in most cases) extremely poor & chaotic, to the point that this would have created a barrier for the learners.

Overall it was felt by our team & the advisory group that a regular meeting of this structure is very formal & reminiscent of other multi-agency meetings that often have very negative connotations for parents & young people. As such it was shelved as being counterproductive to the overall aim of the project.

h) Hold monthly SEND team meetings (includes programme manager, all tutors & all mentors)

By proxy this happened a lot more regularly. As a small team we were having session briefs on a week by week basis & the project team were meeting regularly to look at progress & planning. Some of this was pre-planned & minuted in a more formal manner but much of it occurred naturally in the course of how things role out on a ground level. All tutors, mentors & the programme manager were taking relevant notes that were appropriate to their role & tasks.

i) Hold an advisory group review meeting every half-term to discuss the projects progress and any issues, ensuring that the agenda addresses sharing of good practice

Apart from missing one half-term meeting out as the term was so short, this was fully achieved for the first year. The agenda (see Pg.15) always focused on the progress & development of the project & ensured that we shared good practice at every meeting.

j) Hold two annual celebration events, including performance opportunities and the sharing of learners work, developments & experiences, to which parents/carers, other immediate family and referral workers will be invited. In the first year we held one celebration event. It became clear that it would be more appropriate to hold one larger event at the end of the year to enable all the learners to have achieved the accreditation. Again I refer to the slow & staggered starts for some of the learners, meaning that our target of having all Bronze awards completed by the end of February was unrealistic.

The celebration event held at the end of July was really successful. All learners (despite any statements to the contrary) were clearly very proud to receive their award & to showcase their work. The event featured a DJ (also one of the music tutors) playing the music they had produced as a creative mix and their portfolios & picture evidence were on display. All learners took stock of how much they had accomplished during their time on the project. All but one of the learners had parents/family members in attendance & all learners had numerous support workers & referral workers in attendance. Throw in a tasty spread, a few speeches & some of the parents even being shown how to use some of the more exotic music equipment and it was a fantastic way to finish the 1st year.

3. Please describe any problems or challenges in the period covered by this report, and what steps you have taken to address them. (500 Words)

Please reflect on the risk analysis form you uploaded with your Stage Two Application, and comment on mitigation plans that had to be followed through, and any new risks you may have identified.

Risk #1.Referrals:

The lack of referrals was a significant & unexpected challenge. Despite letters of support & match funding pledged from all (previously identified) key referral organisations the referrals were slow to come in. We found that in many cases case managers, youth workers & local anti-social behaviour officers are snowed under with workload and fire-fighting issues; i.e. pressing negative issues tend to take precedence, particularly with high-end cases.

In mid-2012, Nottingham city council brought out a new alternative education procurement system, meaning that only providers that had been successful in becoming part of the new system would be given the high-end permanently excluded referrals. Unfortunately, at that time we were deemed financially too small to meet their criteria despite our track record of excellence and countywide reputation. This was an unforeseen challenge & one that meant that NEET referrals were from fewer sources.

We have reviewed the manner in which we get the information out to key referral partners, identifying & solidifying relationships with key personnel at each of the main referral organisations as a result. Also we identified the need to (wherever possible) physically meet with key agencies/personnel/youth groups ourselves.

Retention on evening session:

Retention on the evening session was disappointing. In the first instance our aim & structure was for the day & evening sessions to mirror each other. This may have contributed to the poor attendance records of those who signed up as there was too much information to pack into sessions that were 40% shorter in duration. Sessions were too pressured. Feedback has helped us revise the style, structure & flexibility of the evening group for the second year. Changes are detailed in Q4. To increase referrals we have linked with the Ending Gangs and Youth Violence initiative from the police’s Vanguard team, also opening up to possible referrals from the Young People’s Panel (consisting of representatives from a number of organisations working with young people in East Nottingham) who use multi-agency meetings to identify young people in need of additional support.

Risk #7 Project timetabling and finance management:

Budget did not take into account the large amount of front end project management and planning that would have to take place in the early weeks of the project. Simple things like team planning meetings, curriculum development, document preparation and standardisation all had to be done once Youth Music funded the project. Promotional material had to be prepared and disseminated to partners who were snowed under with the strains of a new academic year, delaying referrals.

There were two weeks between the approval and the start of the project. In reality it took 6 weeks to get the project ready to roll and this incurred higher than expected project management costs and lower tutor costs.

Tracking project spending proved more time consuming than anticipated, incurring on average an extra hours admin support costs p/w.

Finance worker employed for 8 hours per week. Use of Gnucash open source accounting software implemented.

Risks #2-6Plans followed with no issues.

4. Please describe any changes you have made to your programme of work based on what you have learnt so far (500 Words)

Year 2 Revisions:

Structure (daytime)

Increase in day provision hours. Based on advice from Nottingham City Children and Young People’s Network; ratified by programme advisory group

Additional afternoon offered to include personal project time (2h) and fixed mentoring session (1h)

Lunch will be provided to help with group bonding Occasional mentor sessions off site (e.g. cafe) Full team building day at Lea Green (outward bound) learning and development

centre before Christmas Mentoring will incorporate a series of workshops with Dr Isabel Gois –

specialising in Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of Psychology. These workshops are to support learners in identifying and reflecting upon thoughts and actions that perpetuate negative behaviours or prevent them from overcoming challenges.

Structure (evening programme)

Now 3 x 10 week blocks, enabling up to 5 new learners to join at the beginning of each 10 week block.

Beginning of each block has two weeks of taster sessions covering the basics of all three musical areas

Learners will then use their experiences to plan their main goal/area of focus. Remaining 8 weeks all learners will work both on individual goals and a group

project Mentoring will occur informally throughout the course of each session with

30mins dedicated time slotted into each evening session Offer progression to next 10 week block after mentor review with option of

Silver arts award Full team building day at Lea Green (outward bound) learning and development

centre before Christmas

Style

Reduced compulsory content (day) / no set curriculum (eve) Shorter tangible music outcomes (day) / project based supported learning (eve) Those progressing to Silver will support new Bronze cohort (eve) Tutors will be using a combination of digital portfolios (new for Yr 2) & minimal

paper evidence (day & eve) All mentors will be part of delivery team (from staff end of year evaluation) Focus on building the team dynamic ahead of task-based outcomes (day & eve)

Increase in project management:

Project manager hours increased to average 5 hours p/w to enable following roles and responsibilities to be met:

Liaison with referral partners and other support workers Upkeep of monitoring / evaluation and additional QA administration Organising and facilitating delivery team and advisory group meetings Day to day communication with project staff Staff supervision CPD facilitation

Increase in admin support:

Extra hour p/w for financial management of project

5. Please describe your priorities for the next phase of your programme of work (250 Words)

a) Improvement in the referral process

1. Widen project audience from professionals & organisations that work with young people across the city & county of Nottingham. Provide & create as many opportunities as possible for SEND to personally promote the Sound & Vision programme & not to rely so heavily on referral partners to produce appropriate referrals.

2. Ensure that all learners are genuinely passionate about music making; no post-Christmas referrals.

3. Introduce a probationary period for those referred on to the programme so that places remain valued.

b) Better retention on the evening session

Implement new evening structure & style. 10 week blocks will ensure that the commitment is not too onerous for the learners.

c) Better achievement in the accreditation

Day: by ensuring that referral intake is not staggered & that the group dynamic is stronger, increase the likelihood of day group progressing onto the Silver award.

Evening group: Increase retention by providing short blocks that are more individually responsive and less focused on the accreditation. Music leaders will take greater responsibility for collecting portfolio evidence.

d) Streamline & improve the manner in which we evidence & evaluate the programme

We have now sourced & recruited an independent social researcher & evaluator who will be conducting an on-going review & evaluation of our programme over the course of the 2nd year.

Streamline the number of evidence sources we are collecting without compromising the quality of the evaluation.

6. Please describe how you are engaging with other organisations (500 Words)

In your applications you told us about your key partners and other organisations you would be engaging with; please tell us what progress you have made in this area. What are your plans for the next phase of your project?

As demonstrated in output i) we held 5 out of 6 possible advisory group meetings over the course of year 1. At the programme launch & first advisory group meeting we had 8 key partner agencies representing a wide range of organisations.

Over the course of the year the organisations/representing personnel did dwindle down to those who remained involved in the programme either through having referred learners on

to the project or because they represented an organisation that has an interest in the progress & development of those learners or in the development & success of the project in general (local ASB team & city wide ending gangs & youth violence scheme).

Despite the drop in attendance the meetings were well attended by those with a vested interest & they continued to involve those partners in key decisions, discussions & developments of the project, which is what we set out to ensure.

Between the programme manager & managing director of SEND Project the Sound & Vision programme was regularly represented at local & city wide Children & young people’s (CYP) providers’ network meetings. Furthermore, in response to recent changes in both the local authority & local area management of Children & young people’s provision the SEND Project managers are key advocates for the sector & are responsible for ensuring that providers at their community centre & in their local area meet regularly to ensure that any issues & needs arising for local CYP are identified & addressed & with the overall aim of continuing to build & develop a strong area consortium that provides a good range or high quality provision for CYP in the area.

Additional partnerships formed for year 2 of the project include: EGYV group (Ending Gang and Youth Violence) – referral partner; formed from

Nottinghamshire Police Vanguard unit. YPP (Young People’s Panel) – referral / advisory partner; made up of representatives

from organisations working with young people in East Nottingham. Wheelbase – referral partner; geographic neighbours who use motoring and

mechanics to engage with young people from challenging circumstances VBA (Visualise Believe Achieve) – referral partner; newly formed local community

group working with older young people involved in or on the periphery of criminal behaviour

One key gap & consequential aim for this year is to build better relationships with the city youth offending service (YOS), whilst there has been some partnership work in the past the city YOS still remain a key partner that is not in regular communication with SEND, something that we really aim to improve. Similarly, whilst there are excellent, long-term relationships with some county YOS personnel, these are not necessarily the right ones to improve the amount of referrals received through this route.

Despite the fact that the project received low referrals, good partnership links are a strength of the SEND management team & one that they will continue to build upon.