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• The work of the Youth Service

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• The work of the Youth Service

• School based youth work

The work of the Youth Service

Following the implementation of the Change for Children agenda resulting from the Children Act (2004) there will be significant change to the way in which the Youth Service is currently structured and the approaches it makes in delivering services.

There will be further changes when the current consultation on the Government Green Paper Youth Matters ends, so much of what is described below may change significantly over the coming months.

About the service

The Youth Service is currently organised into neighbourhood teams, school-based teams and city-wide  projects.

City-wide projects include:

• the Sexual Health and Drugs Outreach Work Project (SHADOW), which is primarily funded through a partnership arrangement with the Primary Care Trust
• the Democracy Project, which focuses on enabling young people to become involved in significant decision-making processes and structures that affect their lives and their city
• the One Stop Shop, which is a partnership between the Connexions Service, the Primary Care Trust and the Youth Service

Our Accreditation Officer provides opportunities for young people to achieve accredited learning using programmes such as the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, Youth Achievement Award, Open College Network courses and a regional accreditation framework for Youth Services across the West Midlands.

Our objectives

The youth service will:

• Engage young people in personal, social and educational learning opportunities to increase and enhance self-esteem, self-confidence, aspirations and achievement.
• Encourage achievement and high aspirations amongst young people through the accreditation and validation of learning.
• Involve young people in local decision making, democratic and participatory activities, service design and delivery and through programmes encouraging active citizenship.
• Encourage young people to lead healthy lifestyles, particularly in relation to drug prevention and reducing under 18 years conception levels.
• Provide programmes that address issues of crime and anti-social behaviour.
• Provide accurate, up-to-date advice and information to young people so that they are enabled to make informed decisions and choices and to develop the skills to act upon them.
• Reconnect those young people who have become disengaged from education, employment or training.
• Work in partnership with schools to deliver programmes focused on raising achievement and increasing aspiration so that young people can secure maximum advantage from their education.
• Implement programmes that promote community cohesion and cultural diversity.

Learning outcomes for young people

Follow this link to view some examples of learning outcomes for young people who participate in youth work programmes.

Our national targets

These four main priority targets set by Government are:

• Numbers of young people reached/contacted:
  The benchmark is 25% ‘reach’ by youth services into the target 13-19 population (to reflect cultural diversity of the community).
• Number of young people who regularly participate:
  The benchmark for participation of the 13-19 population is 15% (participation is defined as ‘engaged in learning’).
• Number of recorded outcomes:
  60% of 'participants' in youth work gaining a recorded outcome which is written-up as a record of achievement.
• Number of accredited outcomes:
  30% of ‘participants’ in youth work gain an outcome that is formally accredited.

Working in partnership

The Youth Service has a number of key partnerships with:

• secondary schools
• the Youth Offending Service
• the Connexions Service
• the Primary Care Trust
• the voluntary and independent sector

City-wide contact details

National Youth Agency

The National Youth Agency provides information on all aspects of youth work, youth services, training routes, professional qualifications, Government policy and recent developments for professionals, young people and their parents.

Downloadable documents

About PDFs and Accessibility

•  Learning outcomes for young people (PDF, 75kb) (77 kb)