Issue - meetings

The Board considered a report of the Acting Strategic Director – Children and Young People providing information on developments regarding youth matters and Connexions transition.

It was noted that the publication of the Green Paper “Youth Matters” had presented a number of proposals building upon the Every Child Matters Agenda and taking into account the 14 – 19 Education in Schools White Paper proposals. Youth Matters proposed the merger of a range of existing Government funding streams which were targeted at young people. These would be devolved to local authorities, working through Children’s Trusts, to ensure a more holistic approach to meeting the needs of young people at a local level. The subsequent Next Steps document cemented the proposals following consultation and identified four key themes as priorities for delivering services to young people:

(1)   Empowering Young People – things to do and places to go;

(2)   Young People as Citizens – making a contribution;

(3)   Supporting Choices – information, advice and guidance; and

(4)   All Young People Achieving – reforming targeted support.

Within the key themes, specific actions were set down and these were outlined for the Board’s consideration.

The Education and Inspections Act 2006 consolidated these requirements placing new statutory duties upon local authorities to ensure that young people had access to a wide range of positive activities which empowered them to shape the services they received. Specific guidance and information that had recently been published was outlined for the Board’s information.

In addition Members were advised that Connexions was an information, advice and guidance organisation, which predominantly delivered services to 13-19 year olds. Connexions in Halton was delivered as part of Greater Merseyside Connexions Partnership (GMCP) made up of the Boroughs of Halton, Liverpool, Wirral, St. Helens, Sefton and Knowsley. In order to ensure effective transition, a GMCP Transition Group had been established with representatives at Chief Executive or Director of Children’s Services level from all six Boroughs. The group had published an interim report in January 2007, which set down a framework for development.

A Multi-Agency Youth Matters Steering Group had been established and specific terms of reference set. The Group would answer directly to the Universal Task Group within the Children’s Alliance Board Framework. At the last Youth Matters Steering Group, a proposal for a smaller, time limited Integrated Youth Support (IYS) Working Group to be established had been endorsed. The main aim of this team was to plan, co-ordinate and deliver a multi-agency changed plan. A multi-agency half day event had already taken place to launch the transition process and Connexions Transition Funding had secured the half-time secondment of the Connexions Area Manager to the Local Authority to add capacity to develop the agenda.

The next step actions to be taken were outlined for the Board.

Members considered a number of issues as follows:

·               The Halton Youth Bank was proving to be successful with 44 applications received so far and 12 being approved. It was noted that it had taken some time to get  ...  view the full minutes text for item 101