Positive results for young people
Warwickshire County Council’s Positive about Young People team has struck gold with all five teams which comprise the service being awarded gold standards from Warwickshire Children’s Fund.
The Warwickshire Award for Involvement is a kite mark, developed by the fund, and judges the teams’ capacity to work through the three levels – bronze, silver and gold – by making improvements such as improving evaluation and ensuring that young people have an input into decision making within the services.
The Warwickshire Children’s Fund has been tasked with participation, prevention and partnership and has established the award for involvement.
Five of PaYP’s programmes received the award including;
Warwickshire Crimebeat – a scheme which encourages young people to make a contribution to prevent crime, improve the quality of life and create safer communities by making grants to support young people’s own ideas for crime reduction projects.
PODS – working in shelters, existing buildings or steel cabins in areas of high impact, the Positive Operational Drop-in Strategy takes services to young people. The aim of PODS is to provide somewhere for young people to meet, with activity workers providing positive activities, such as music, sport and art for them to engage in.
Commissioning Services - Working mainly in areas of high impact across Warwickshire, Positive about Young People commission Partner agencies to provide constructive Activity Play programmes against service specifications to meet identified needs of young people.
HUB119 – Working in partnership with Positive about Young People this project aims to reduce stress for families by providing a pleasurable, entertaining, and interactive environment for families by means of new experiences.
Youth Inclusion and Support Panels – these multi-agency groups seek to prevent offending and anti-social behaviour by offering support to ‘high risk’ 5-13 year olds and their families. The main emphasis of the YISP is to ensure that these children and their families receive complementary interventions as appropriate to their needs.
Among the improvements that were made which the awards recognised were the introduction of young people as evaluators, allowing them to analyse in-house and partner programmes.
A participation policy which ensures young people be given the opportunity to make decisions within the service was written; this will acknowledge that children and young people are the best authorities on their own lives; and that only children and young people themselves can communicate what they like and dislike, what works for them and what doesn’t. Therefore Positive about Young People will involve them meaningfully in individual decision making and in planning, delivery and evaluation that will be better to meet their needs and be better used by them.
POD Councils also raise the level of involvement among young people by ensuring all participants have an equal voice in the ongoing development of their POD via a ‘style council’. A style council will be a group of young people, which will include regular attendees voted in by their peers. This council will have a major voice in planning and running of PODs including applications for additional funding and specific projects. It will be part of the overall decision-making process in PODs including planning of activities and events.
Councillor Mrs Izzi Seccombe, Warwickshire County Council’s portfolio holder for children’s services, said: “I am thrilled by this news. It has made for a great start to the year. I send my congratulations and my thanks to the team.”
Stephen Davenport of commissioning services said: “This is an excellent and well-deserved achievement for Positive about Young People and reflects our commitment to involving young people and their families in the consultation and implementation of our action plans to provide the most relevant service for their needs.
“The awards will contribute greatly to the Hear by Rights standard which all services working with young people have to work towards.”