The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director – Children and Young People outlining proposals to secure improved outcomes for young people through the future commissioning arrangements of Halton Youth Service.

 

It was noted that, in June 2002, the Executive Board had agreed that:

 

·        the principle of the Youth Service transferring to Greater Merseyside Connexions Partnership; and

 

·        that a first stage transfer would take place from September 2002 with staff seconded to the Connexions service. The second stage for transfer was to take place from April 2003.

 

In March 2003, the Board further approved the Partnership Agreement for the management of the Youth Service by Greater Merseyside Connexions Partnership. This had proven to be successful with the Youth Service now demonstrating improved performance against National Performance Indicators. However, the contracted period for the commissioning of the Youth Service ended on 31^st March 2009.

 

In 2006, the Government launched “Youth Matters”, a key policy directive which promoted a vision of integrated support structures and services for teenagers which promoted and sought to secure access to positive activities and high quality information, advice and guidance. This would be delivered within a framework of integrated and targeted youth support with local flexibility for service re-design.

 

As a consequence of youth matters, local authorities were responsible and accountable for Youth Policy in their area and were taking responsibility for integrated planning and commissioning of the full range of services for teenagers from universal activities through to more specialist and targeted support. This would, over time, enable universal and targeted services to work closely together to provide integrated support for young people and to improve outcomes for them.

 

In addition, Youth Matters also made it clear that the support and guidance services provided by Connexions should now “go local” so that they could be more fully included and integrated with a whole range of services for young people and their parents and carers. It was intended that the “localisation” of Connexions services would be achieved through the development of an integrated Youth Support strategy at the local level, which would enable a greater coherence of service to young people and their parents/carers and provide greater efficiency in the way services were procured and delivered locally.

 

The guidance contained in Youth Matters had subsequently been confirmed in legislation through the Education and Inspections Act 2007 and would be further embedded in the forthcoming Education and Skills Act.

 

More recently, the publication of PSA Delivery agreements and, in particular, PSA 14 focused upon the objective to “increase the number of children and young people on the path to success”. Mechanisms for securing progress against the objectives contained in PSA14 included delivery of high quality opportunities and activities for young people to secure their engagement in positive activities and to include diversionary activities to prevent them engaging in “at risk” or anti-social behaviours in the community. Traditionally, this had been delivered through youth clubs but additionally was increasingly now being secured through more creative routes.

 

In April 2008, Ofsted had undertaken a joint area review of services to children and young people in the Borough. This inspection included further investigations in the areas of Health and Integrated Youth Support, particularly focused upon the impact of this provision on young peoples’ involvement in planning and delivery of local services, their engagement in youth work and in addressing the level of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET). The major strengths highlighted by the inspection were outlined within the report for Members’ information together with important weaknesses. Whilst focussing upon many positive developments, the report emphasised the need to locally progress to “determining a single management structure” and also to “review job tasks and identify a model best practice in order that skills and experiences of both personal advisers and youth workers operating in a broader range of settings could be more effectively utilised”.

 

Consideration needed to be given to the future commissioning of Halton Youth Service within the context of Youth Matters, PSA14 and the future commissioning arrangements for Connexions services. Steps were being taken to commission Connexions services across the City Region in partnership with five other Merseyside Local Authorities. At this stage, Halton Borough Council was the only local authority to have taken steps previously to commission external providers to deliver its Youth Service. As a consequence, it was not appropriate to include the commissioning of Halton’s Youth Service within the specification drawn up for the Connexions service. However, it was evidence that within the developing integrated Youth Support arrangements currently being drawn up that there would need to be a closer alignment if not integration of the Youth Service and Connexions workforce to secure maximum benefit of service support to young people. As a consequence, it was proposed that the commissioning of Halton Youth Service was aligned with the process of commissioning of Connexions service and was secured within the framework of a single City Region commission with an additional local dimension specific to Halton. This would ensure the delivery of Connexions services and Halton Youth Service by a single provider.

Reason For Decision

 

Arrangements for the future delivery of service to young people would affect all young people aged 13 – 19 in the Borough. It would also include the targeting of specialist services to vulnerable young people to enable them to access their universal entitlement.

Alternative Options Considered And Rejected

 

None.

Implementation Date

 

It was intended that the new contractual arrangements would take effect from 1^st October 2009.

 

RESOLVED: That

 

(1)          steps be taken to secure future commissioning of Halton Youth Service;

 

(2)          existing arrangements for commissioning Halton Youth Service from Greater Merseyside Connexions Partnership Limited be extended to 30^th September 2009;

 

(3)          commissioning of Halton Youth Service be separate but aligned with the commissioning of Connexions Service; and

 

(4)          the timescale for the contract should align with that of the Connexions Services and should cover the period 30^th September 2009 to 31^st March 2012 with an option of an extension to the contract for a further period of up to three years, with the contract accommodating an appropriate break clause in the event of poor performance or reduced financial capacity to commission this service to level previously agreed.