Equality impact assessment young peoples opportunity fund (WYPOF)

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1. What is the name of the function, policy or service that is being assessed?

Youth Opportunity Fund / Youth Capital Fund known locally as Wiltshire Young Peoples Opportunity Fund (WYPOF)

2. What are the aims of the function, policy or service? Whose needs it is designed to meet? What are the current priorities?

The aim of WYPOF is to involve young people in identifying positive activities and things to do; and to support their role as decision makers, grant givers and project leaders.

WYPOF is a pot of money given to Wiltshire Council Youth Development Service by the government; it is divided between Youth Opportunity Fund (YOF) and Youth capital Fund (YCF). YOF is used to pay for young people activities and YCF is used for building work, mobile resources etc in the local area. The money is there for young people to bid for things they would like to do/have but haven’t had the chance to.

The fund is open to young people in the 13-19 age range or 13-24 for those with special educational needs or disabilities. Only young people who live in or attend a group in Wiltshire can apply. The grant has to benefit young people of Wiltshire.

WYPOF is particularly interested in hearing from groups who fall into the “hard to reach” category. These include young people leaving care, looked after young people, young offenders, young carers, young refugees, Lesbian/gay/bi-sexual/transsexual young people, young travellers, those not in education, employment and training, young parents, those using Young Peoples Support Service, ‘at risk’ young people and young people from rural areas.

Activities are prioritised on whether the applications received achieve the ‘Every Child Matters’ Outcomes, which are Be healthy, Stay Safe, Enjoy and Achieve, Make a Positive Contribution and Achieve Economic Wellbeing. All decisions on what projects should be awarded funding are made by young people.

3. In what ways might this function, policy or service affect some groups of people differently? Might some groups find it harder to access the service? Do some groups have particular needs that are not well met by the current policy or service? Please ensure that you comment against each of the dimensions listed below and where no issues are identified that you state this clearly against the relevant dimension.

Age

7.6% of applicants/project leaders are 11-12 year olds and 2.6% are 20-25 year olds, this suggests that 10.2% of applicants are outside of the funds remit (although the 20-25 year olds could include young people with special educational needs or disabilities within the remit)

Young people that are part of an established group, but are younger than 13 years old or older than 19 could be excluded due to the age restrictions of the fund – however, this restriction was set by the providers of the fund Nationally and ties into other Government initiatives. We have no power to alter the age guidelines, but are clear in our promotional material about the restrictions of the funding.

Disability

7% of the population are disabled with only 6.5% of applicants/project leaders applying to WYPOF classing themselves as disabled.

Some young people may not see themselves as having a disability e.g. dyslexic young people.

Gender

To date the divide of funding between males and females submitting applications for the 2007/2008 financial year is 45% females and 55% males. This suggests that WYPOF is appealing slightly more to males than females.

Race

4.6% of WYPOF project leaders/applicants were from BME backgrounds in the 2007/2008 financial year.

Wiltshire has a small, but significant, minority ethnic population. According to the 2001 census, 3.83% of the population stated an ethnicity other than White British. Therefore in comparison to these statistics WYPOF is appealing to BME young people.

Religion/belief

No issues identified

WYPOF will not fund projects that are prejudiced in their aims or outcomes or those that seek to indoctrinate young people. An activity has to be open to all young people regardless of a specific religion and belief.

Sexual orientation

Previously young people have failed to detail there sexual orientation. With the new application forms that have been introduced we hope that this will now begin to be monitored.

4. What evidence do you have for your judgement? Is there evidence of public concern (e.g. complaints)? Have staff raised concerns? Is there local or national research to suggest that there could be a problem?

All of the above statistics relating to WYPOF are from the management information that is provided through the application forms and submitted to government office.

Ann Coffey MP for Stockport has stated that local councils seem to be giving money to people who are established organisations. Her concerns are that not enough is being done to contact disadvantaged young people who continue to be on the streets. Ann Coffey MP also has concerns that informal groups are excluded from the fund by not having a bank account and are therefore ineligible.

5. How and with who have you consulted with as part of your assessment? What were the results? Have you published the results of that consultation? If so, where?

All young people that submit an application to WYPOF via the application form and a subsequent evaluation form are consulted with. All of the statistics relating to WYPOF have to be provided to the Government Office twice per year.

6. If you have found that the function, policy or service might have an adverse impact on a particular group of people, can you justify this?

The guidelines of the fund are set out by the government specifically for the ages of 13-19 (13-24 for those with special educational needs or disabilities) therefore there is no scope for Wiltshire to sway these age restrictions. We do however need to work harder in encouraging the participation of young people with disabilities, females, BME young people, and those with differing beliefs, religious backgrounds and sexual orientations.

7. If the impact cannot be justified, what do you intend to do about this? Are there changes that you could introduce which would make the function, policy or service work better for this group of people? Is further research or consultation required?

Improve publicity material and promote projects that have been carried out by young people in a particular group that may be experiencing adverse effects.

Encourage the Youth Development Centre Bridging projects to make more use of the fund by targeting youth workers and young people. Street based youth work has been used to access more marginalised young people and this will be further promoted in the next year of the fund.

Ensure workers are available to help young people fill in forms and access all information required.

8. How will you monitor the take-up or impact of the function, policy or service in future?

Continue to monitor through application forms and evaluation forms.

9. What actions do you plan to take as a result of this EIA? Please include target dates for completion of actions and resource implications where possible

Continue to use www.sparksite.co.uk, a local commercial radio station and local newspapers to promote WYPOF as overall it has proved to be successful. This will be ongoing.

Promote again to youth workers in both the statutory and voluntary sectors that staff are available to support the process with any young people who require it. – Reminders at Staff conferences in September and December 07, brief presentation to Wiltshire Youth Services Council in September 07 and review Sparksite information to ensure this is included – September 07.

10. If no actions have been identified in section 9 above, please state when a further review of this assessment is planned

N/A

11. Name of person completing form

Voice & Influence Team

Date assessment completed

28 August 2007

12. Name of senior manager approving assessment

Assistant Director Resources, Improvement and Young People

Date assessment approved by senior manager

29 August, 2007

04 January 2008

Last updated: 14 May 2009