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Subject: |
Youth Service Update and Use of Housing Revenue Account Funding |
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Date of Meeting: |
19 June 2019 |
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Report of: |
Executive Director of Families, Children and Learning |
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Contact Officer: |
Name: |
Caroline Parker |
Tel: |
01273 293587 |
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Email: |
caroline.parker@brighton-hove.gov.uk |
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Ward(s) affected: |
All |
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FOR GENERAL RELEASE
1. PURPOSE OF REPORT AND POLICY CONTEXT
1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide members with an update on youth services including the use of the Housing Revenue Account’s (HRA) annual £250,000 contribution to the budget. The report includes information on performance from April 2018 to March 2019 including outcomes for Council tenants and their families. The report also includes information on the Youth Led Grants and the work of the Council’s Youth Participation Team. This report was discussed by the Children, Young People and Skills Committee on 17 June.
2. RECOMMENDATIONS:
2.1
That the Committee notes the report.
2.2
That this report is presented to the next round of Area
Panels.
2.3
That Housing & New Homes Committee agrees in principle to
include a minimum of £0.125m for youth services in the HRA
Budget for 2020/21 in order to extend existing contracts for 6
months to October 2020. This will be subject to Policy, Resources
& Growth Committee (PR&G) approving this as part of the HRA
budget in February 2020.
2.4
That a progress report is considered by the Committee in June
2020.
3. CONTEXT/ BACKGROUND INFORMATION
3.1 The Housing Revenue Account contributes £250,000 to the Youth Services budget to help maintain services for young people. The total Youth Service budget of £886,000 for 2019/20
Youth Grants Programme
3.2
The Youth Grants Programme runs from 1st October 2017 to 31st March
2020 with an annual budget of £400,000. The Youth Grants
Programme is based on four areas of the city and three citywide
specialist equalities services, with a focus on young people living
in council house tenancies (see appendix 1). Providers
are commissioned to promote positive changes for young people based
around both short and long term outcomes. The focus of the
programme is the impact on young people’s lives and their
experience of the services that they use rather than processes such
as numbers of service users or opening hours.
3.3 In order to align the programme more closely to HRA objectives, the service specifications were revised to reflect the geographical location and density of council properties within the city to maximise opportunities and improve outcomes for council tenanted households.
3.4 Three key priorities for council tenants were identified as:
· The reduction in anti-social behaviour in communities with council house tenancies:
· Improving the social inclusion of young people in communities with council house tenancies
· Supporting young people in communities with council house tenancies to improve their readiness for employment
3.5 The youth grant providers have developed relationships with housing colleagues and other agencies through the housing clusters and casework to work preventatively to identify and address any anti-social behaviour issues (ASB). Feedback from the housing teams has been very positive, with fewer reports of ASB relating to young people coming up at the cluster meetings, and some good examples of joint case working between housing officers and youth workers.
3.6 In order to maximise the impact on HRA tenants, the delivery of both detached youth work and centre based activities has been targeted in areas of high density council stock to improve engagement levels and outcomes for young people living in council housing.
3.7
The area based providers use a central ICT (Aspire) system to
manage their casework and report on outcomes for young
people. The equalities providers record their data
separately. Quarterly service review meetings are held with
providers in conjunction with housing colleagues to ensure that
council house tenants benefit from the
funding.
3.8
A summary of performance information on work with young people is
attached at Appendix 2. Around 2200 different young people accessed
services with an average of eight visits each. In total 36%
of visits were from Council tenants. The youth providers are using
this information to look at how to increase the participation of
council tenants. The report also includes information about
the take up of different activities. It is important to note
that services vary in intensity ie. a large open access group
attended by lots of young people compared to small group or one to
one support. In the case of detached work it can be difficult
for youth workers to get the full names of the young people they
are working with which can impact on the accuracy of the of
young people from HRA properties taking up services in the
performance monitoring reports. For the first time this
report also includes information on contacts by the numbers of
outcomes achieved with 71% of contacts achieving at least one
outcome. A trial of Progress Star outcomes began
in July 2018. The report includes results for 53 young
people. Initial (baseline) assessment scores are compared to
the most recent assessment scores over five assessment
elements.
3.9 Each of the lead providers have completed a narrative monitoring report to address how their services have:
· included young people in the development and delivery of services;
· enabled young people with Protected Characteristics e.g. BAME, disabled or LGBT or with multiple disadvantages e.g. facing school exclusion, experiencing mental health issues and/or poverty to feel safer and supported;
· supported communities with council house tenancies, particularly around anti-social behaviour, social inclusion and improving readiness for employment;
·
delivered a particular project that demonstrates good youth work
practice and evidences positive impact.
3.10
Copies of the monitoring reports are at appendix 3 and also include
case studies to show the detail of the work. The reports
describe the work of each area in detail and explain the contacts
the providers have had with the local Housing Cluster meetings and
Local Action Teams.
3.11
The Youth Grants were due to end in March 2020. The proposal
is to extend the grants for six months to the end of September 2020
to allow more time for the re-commissioning process. This
will include taking account of a wider review of preventative
services.
Youth Led
Grants
3.12
In the 2018/19 budget a further £90,000 was agreed to fund the
voluntary sector to deliver youth work. The Cross Party Youth
Group (CPYG), which included young people representing various
organisations, developed proposals for how this investment should
be allocated to improve outcomes for young people across the
city. The funding has been used for a small grants programme
for projects lasting up to a year. The young people led evaluation
panels and made decisions on what was funded. The Brighton
and Hove Youth Led Grants were winners of the British Youth
Council, London, South East and East Regions Award for best Youth
Led Project.
3.13
The young people reviewed the process and recommended changes to
the framework for the 2019/20 bidding round. Further
applications were considered in April 2019. A summary of the
successful bids is at appendix 4.
3.14 The proposal is to bring a progress report on the Youth Led Grants to the Children, Young People and Skills Committee in November 2019.
Youth Participation Team
3.15 The Council’s Youth Participation Team deliver advocacy for children in social work, youth participation targeted at vulnerable young people and an independent visitors service for children in care. More information about the work of the Youth Participation Team can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gibal7N8d3U.
3.16
The team delivers the Youth Advocacy Project which supports
children and young people aged 8 to 21 who are cared for by the
authority and care leavers ensuring their rights are
respected. In 2018/19 they supported 147 children and young
people.
3.17 The Independent Visitors team support a buddy system for young people in care and care leavers. Independent Visitors undergo a rigorous vetting and training procedure. They are all volunteers who commit to a minimum of 2 years to buddy-up with a young person. Ten new Independent Visitors were trained and accessed in 2018/19. A training day for 23 potential new IVs was held in April.
3.18 The Team supports the Children in Care Council which represents the views of children in care and care leavers to improve support for these young people. Meetings are held monthly and the number of young people attending increased over the year. The team also reintroduced the Ask, Report, Change (ARC) programme with 5 new assessors trained and one residential assessment visit completed. The Young Ambassadors programme recruits and trains young people who are looked after, care leavers and those supported by Social Work, to be used to support recruitment of Families, Children and Learning staff including all new social workers.
3.19
The Youth Participation Team support young people across the city
to present their views to key decision makers to influence change
on both a local and national level. The Youth Council sent
their UK Youth Parliament representative to the national Youth
Parliament sitting in the autumn. A partnership of young
people from across the city including the Youth Council, voluntary
sector youth providers, and Children in Care Council have fed into
the Youth Cross Party Working Group and the Youth Led Grants
process. The young people are considering options
to reach a wider group.
3.20 The Team supports young people facing multiple barriers to education to gain formal accreditation outside school through the Youth Arts and Duke of Edinburgh (DoE) awards. The team supported 41 targeted young people to work towards Duke of Edinburgh Awards and 44 young people to achieve Arts Awards. This work was partly funded by National Collaboration Outreach Programme (NCOP) which ended in September 2018. Support for the DoE awards is now available from the Duke of Edinburgh organisation following an increase in the number of DofE licences in the city. Support for young people to access Arts Awards is now partly funded by the national Troubled Families Initiative and is focussing on young people whose mental health issues are preventing them from attending school.
4. ANALYSIS & CONSIDERATION OF ANY ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS
4.1 The alternative option considered as part of the budget process was a greater reduction in funding for youth services which would have led to less commissioned services.
4.2 The funding arrangements were changed to a grant process rather than a contract following feedback from the market and a change in commissioning requirements.
5. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & CONSULTATION
5.1 The Council’s Youth Participation Team support the Youth Council and Children in Care Council to ensure young people are consulted on the future delivery and development of services. A Cross Party Group on Youth Services has also been established. The reports from the Youth Grant Providers explain how they have included young people in the development and delivery of these services.
The report and relevant sections of the annexes will be presented to the next round of Area Panels in the autumn.
6. CONCLUSION
6.1 The funding from the Housing Revenue Account will ensure that the Council can continue to offer a citywide range of youth services which will benefit council tenants.
7. FINANCIAL & OTHER IMPLICATIONS:
Financial Implications:
7.1
The HRA contribution of £250,000 forms part of the total Youth
Service budget of £886,000 for 2019/20; of which £400,000
funds the externally delivered Youth Services Grant programme,
£386,000 funds the council’s in house Youth
Participation Team, and an additional £90,000 has been
received for Neighbourhood Youth work and £10,000 for the
Youth Bus. The Independent Visitors budget is outside of this and
totals £68,000.
7.2 A further HRA contribution of £125,000 would be needed in 2020/21 to extend the existing contracts for 6 months. The budget will be included in the HRA budget report for 2020/21 and is subject to approval by PR&G and Budget Council.
Finance Officer Consulted: Name Steve Williams Date: 07/05/19
Name: Monica Brooks Date: 6/06/19
Legal Implications:
7.3 Section 507b of the Education Act 1996 places a specific duty on the Council to secure ‘as far as reasonably practicable’ sufficient educational and recreational activities for the improvement of young people’s well-being, and sufficient
facilities for such activities. Young people are defined as those aged 13-19, and those with learning difficulties to age 24.
7.4 Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities on Services and Activities to Improve Young People’s Well-being issued in 2012 clarifies that it is not prescribed which services and activities for young people local authorities should fund or deliver or to what level. Local authorities are responsible for securing, so far as is reasonably practicable, a local offer that is sufficient to meet local needs and improve young people’s well-being and personal and social development. They should strive to secure the best possible local offer within available resources. Under the guidance it is for local authorities to determine the mix of open access, targeted, preventative and specialist provision needed to meet local needs and how to integrate all services around young people and decide what facilities are needed and how to make these available and accessible, wherever possible maximising the utilisation and potential of all local partners’ assets.
Lawyer Consulted: Natasha
Watson Date:
4/06/2019
The HRA is primarily a landlord account, containing
income and expenditure arising from the council’s housing
functions. Department of Environment Circular 8/95 gives advice in
relation to the operation of that account. It provides that where
amenities benefit the wider community, costs should be shared
between the HRA and General Fund. Items specifically mentioned
include amenities such as play and other recreational areas,
grassed areas and gardens, community centres and play schemes. In
each case it is for the local authority to form its own judgment on
whether provision should be charged to the HRA or General Fund. In
2017, budget council determined that the HRA should contribute
£250,000 to Youth Services. Budget council in 2019 approved a
further contribution of £250,000 from the HRA to Youth
Services. A further contribution as proposed in the report is
within the council’s powers, but is subject to the budgetary
approvals process outlined in paragraph 7.2.
Lawyer Consulted: Liz Woodley Date 23/05/19
Equalities Implications:
7.5 The Youth Participation Team focus support on vulnerable young people including children in care and care leavers. Monitoring information from the Youth Grants providers includes details of the take up by young people from protected groups. The reports from the Youth Grants Providers include information on how services have enabled young people with Protected Characteristics, or with multiple disadvantages to feel safer and supported.
Sustainability Implications:
7.6 The Youth Grants Programme has been designed to reflect the geographical location and density of council properties within the city to reduce the need for travel and maximise the sense of community for council tenanted households.
Any Other Significant Implications:
7.7 One of the intended outcomes of the Youth Grants programme is to decrease young people’s antisocial behaviour in the targeted areas. Both the Council and commissioned services aim to increase the engagement of young people and help ensure young people feel they have a voice in their community.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION
Appendices:
1. Youth Grants Programme Service Areas
2. Youth Grants Performance Summary
3. Youth Grants Narrative reports
4. Youth Led Grants awards for 2019/20
Background Documents:
None
Appendix 1 - Youth Grants Programme 2017 – 2020
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Service Area |
Providers |
Wards |
Budget 2017/18 (1/2 year) |
Budget 2018/19 & 2019/20 |
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Hangleton, Portslade and West Hove
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The Hangleton & Knoll Project (lead) YMCA (partner) |
· Hangleton and Knoll · Hove Park · North Portslade · South Portslade · Westbourne · Wish |
£39,500 |
£79,000 |
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Whitehawk and The Deans |
The Trust for Developing Communities (lead) The Deans Youth Project, Impact Initiatives (partners) |
· East Brighton · Rottingdean Coastal · Woodingdean
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£30,500 |
£61,000 |
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Moulsecoomb & Patcham |
The Trust for Developing Communities (lead) Impact Initiatives, Albion in the Community Extratime, Friends, Families and Travellers, Bevendean Activities Group (partners) |
· Hollingdean and Stanmer · Moulsecoomb and Bevendean · Patcham
|
£44,000 |
£88,000 |
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Central Hove and Brighton
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Brighton Youth Centre (lead) Young Peoples Centre, Tarner Project, Youth Advice Centre (partners) |
· Brunswick and Adelaide · Central Hove · Goldsmid · Hanover and Elm Grove · Preston Park · Queen's Park · Regency · St. Peter's and North Laine · Withdean |
£49,500 |
£99,000 |
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Equalities: LGBTU |
Allsorts Youth Project Ltd |
£9,500 |
£19,000 |
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Equalities: BME |
Black and Minority Ethnic Young People’s Project |
£9,500 |
£19,000 |
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Equalities: Disabilities |
Extratime |
£9,500 |
£19,000 |
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Aspire |
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£8,000 |
£16,000 |
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Total
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£200,000 |
£400,000 |
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