Equality impact assessment - youth development service

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

Youth Development Service – youth work delivery

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

The Youth Development Service designs and delivers with young people, programmes of informal educational activity that provide opportunities for them to:

• develop their physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, social and emotional capabilities;
• identify and accept their responsibilities as individuals, group members and citizens;
• understand and act upon the personal and social issues which affect their lives - those of others and the communities of which they are a part.

Key Activities:

The Service activities provide informal learning through high quality youth work designed to achieve the standards and targets identified within Transforming Youth Work: Resourcing Excellent Youth Services.

Its activities are:

• To provide Youth Development Centres and Locality Teams as the hub of youth work delivery across Wiltshire; aware of and responsive to, local need.
• To develop and service Locality Youth Issues Groups able to identify local needs and contribute to the identification of appropriate responses and practices.
• To use a range of youth work methods and settings, to be accessible to all young people aged 13-19 years and target those who are at risk of exclusion by social or economic  factors, having ‘contact’ annually with at least 27% of the 13-19 year olds;
• To engage young people, voluntarily in the youth work curriculum, enabling learning which is relevant to their developmental needs through diverse, challenging and enjoyable opportunities.
• To contribute towards young people’s safety, physical health and emotional well-being through service delivery, sign-posting and referral to specialist services.
• To provide advice and information services which are available to young people ‘on line’ by text and telephone; and to provide at every youth work delivery point, advice, information and signposting to specialist agencies.
• To provide counselling services for young people.
• To promote and provide opportunities to celebrate and accredit young people’s learning and  achievements;
• To engage young people in democratic processes, enabling them to have ‘voice and influence’ about the services which affect them;
• To provide professional advice and support in the development and maintenance of youth councils and fora across all settings relevant to young people;
• To advocate on behalf of young people and present positive images of young people;
• To respond effectively to the changing demands and needs of young people;
• To deploy staff who are appropriately trained and qualified and for whom there is a continuous professional development programme of nationally recognised accreditation;
• To provide a clearly defined quality assurance process.

To work in partnership with those agencies working with and for, young people of the target age group, to increase provision and bring added value to services for young people. Key partners include Connexions, the Youth Offending Team, YPSS, schools, colleges, voluntary organisations and Wiltshire Youth Services Council.

• The Service works in partnership with the Wiltshire Youth Services Council to provide a diversity of opportunities for young people.
• The Service is a key partner in the Wiltshire Youth Arts Partnership. The work of the Service, both in partnership with, and as a partner of WYAP has increased the accessibility and diversity of youth arts opportunities and increased the numbers of young people participating in ‘the arts’.
• The Service is a leading partner in the development of the Wiltshire Alternative Youth Sports Partnership, increasing the range of activities which are accessible to young people.

The Service is working in co-operation with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust to develop initiatives which engage young people in learning about the environment

3. In what ways might this 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

• The fifty one minute challenge research evidenced that many young people and their parents/carers were unaware of the ‘out-of –school’ opportunities available to young people aged 13-19 years; this lack of awareness must reduce young people’s access to provision.
• The perception of youth work provision within their ‘home area’ may influence if a young person feels able to attend, the views of the parents/carers may also be an influencing factor and this could relate to the religious and cultural values displayed, the perceived levels of safety, behaviour.
• young people living in rural areas rather than the market towns of Wiltshire do not have equal access to Youth Development Centres which are based in the market towns because of the limited public transport (non-existent in some villages and often not operating during an evening).
• Young people living in rural areas are also less likely to have access to street based youth workers, most of whom work in the towns.
• young people who do not access Youth Development Centres or other youth work projects  may lack awareness of the range of opportunities and services available to them.
• there has not been specific youth work provision for young people who identify themselves as young lesbians or gay men; these young people may not feel that  Youth Development Centres respond effectively to  their needs.
• young people who are not ‘English speakers’ may not have equal access to information about Youth Development Centres or other opportunities/services offered by the Youth Development Service.
• youth work provision has largely been mixed gender work thus limiting the opportunities for those young people who may feel more comfortable, or only permitted to participate, in a single gender environment because of cultural, religious or other considerations.
• Youth Development Centres usually operate an ‘open door’ policy whereby young people can arrive and leave freely during a session, this will not provide a sufficiently safe environment for some young people with learning disabilities.
• Not all young people live within a ‘safe’ walking or cycling distance of a Youth Development Centre or other youth work project; some of those who do not may be able be access public transport or be transported by a parent or carer, for many this will be an excluding factor.   
• Disabled young people are particularly at risk of being excluded because of being unable to travel independently.
• The Service does not provide specific provision for young people who are travellers.
• Young women living in traveller communities may have particular difficulties in access opportunities which are off their site.

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?

• Wiltshire is a sparsely populated county; it has widely separated market towns, villages and isolated houses.
• Young people express concern about the lack of transport available to them to access youth work provision, leisure and recreational facilities. They are concerned about the lack of pubic transport, often find it difficult to get transport from family or friends during an evening, distances to provision are often too great to walk or cycle. Few young people in the 13-19 age group are old enough or have sufficient financial support to have their own transport or access to taxis.  The Wiltshire Assembly of Youth has identified transport as an item in their agenda for action.
• Press coverage often gives very negative coverage about young people, particularly when young people are in groups; this affects public perception of young people and of the places where they meet.
• The youth development service is in contact with 33 % of the 13-19 year olds thus 67% are not in direct contact with the service, some will access information about opportunities and services available to them through the Spark website, radio, other agencies and other promotional/information materials.
• Consultation with organisations involved in working with the families of disabled young people have identified the issues which affect these young people.
• Discussion with disabled young people often identifies a concern about being out on the street alone because of bullying or feeling insecure.
• Data collection shows that Youth Development Centres are used by young women less than young men, approximately 40:60 however the provision of projects such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award and WYAP which engage more young women than young men in youth work resulted in 52% of service users being young men and 48% young women in 2005-06.  
• The 51 Minute Challenge identified that young people and their parents/carers were often unaware of the opportunities available to young people.
• Organisations for gay and lesbian people identify that there is a need for provision for young gay and lesbian people.
• Contact with young people who are travellers and organisations working with these communities have provided information about travellers.
• Data collection shows that across the County a proportionate number of BME young people are engaged in youth work provision, however some community areas are not working with the proportionate number of BME in that community area.
• There is an under-representation of disabled young people and BME young people engaged in Voice and Influence opportunities, this is evidenced by the workers and from the data collection.
• The service target was to engage disabled young people as 7% of service users, this reflecting the population, however only 2.2% of service users identified themselves as disabled. Some young people may have chosen not to identify themselves as disabled but these figures substantiate knowledge gained from voluntary organisations working with disabled young people and their families that open youth work provision may not be deemed as sufficiently safe or secure for some disabled young people. Additionally many young people would require transport for reasons of safety/perceived safety or mobility to attend a Youth development centre. Bridging Projects have provided targeted provision for those disabled young people who can travel to the YDC. The Localities in which there is a Bridging Project are generally seen to have the higher numbers of disabled young people accessing youth work provision.

5. 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?

• Users satisfaction surveys
• Consultation with Wiltshire Assembly of Youth.
• Young Assessors
• LYPIGs notes of meetings
• Advisory Committees
• Tomorrows Voice
• Peoples Voice
• ASK
• Statistical gathering
• Young people through the youth work process

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

No

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 policy or service work better for this group of people? Is further research or consultation required?

• The development of the young people’s web site and radio station are projects which have been targeted to address the weakness in ensuring that young people and their parents/carers are aware of provision for young people, including youth work services.
• Public transport is outside the remit of the (YDS) but the Service, youth workers and young people have addressed this issue in a range of ways and will continue to do so:-
  • through WAY engagement with the providers of transport
  • through youth workers engagement with the Wigglybus, to arrange for its route to include Pewsey Youth and Sports Centre.
  • through the provision of a people carrier vehicle for each Locality Team to enable young people to be transported to youth work opportunities.
  • through the provision of taxis for young people to engage in some youth democracy activities
  • through accessing funding to provide transport for some disabled young people to Bridging Projects.
• The Service is seeking funding/resources to increase the number of Bridging Projects from 4 to 8 thus providing one in each Locality Area which would make this provision more accessible to disabled young people with complex needs.
• Management supervision and Locality planning are being used to focus on addressing at a local level, disproportionately low  attendances/engagement by BME young people, young women and disabled young people.
• Publicity information aimed at young people and their parents/carers needs to identify that the information can be made available in other languages. This could be achieved through translation or interpretation.
• (YDS) management team will seek to develop a strategy for responding to the specific youth work needs of gay and lesbian young people.

8. What actions do you plan to take as a result of this equality impact assessment? Please state any resource implications

• Seek resources to develop 4 new Bridging Projects.
• To develop practice which will, at least proportionately to the community, engage BEM young people in all Localities, Voice and Influence work and all other youth work projects.
• To identify and implement a strategy for the inclusion of young travellers within youth work opportunities.
• To review the curriculum in every Locality to ensure that it appropriately responds to the needs and interests of young women, in order to work towards engaging more young women in youth work opportunities.
• Continue to develop with the involvement of young people the web site and radio station – Spark.
• Continue to collect, monitor and act upon data in order to address equalities through the management supervision and planning processes.
• To research ways in which the (YDS) can more appropriately respond to the specific needs of gay and lesbian young people; identify resources.
• Developing closer working links with Connexions in order to increase the numbers of young people in contact with services.
• Developing links with Community Planners in order to increase opportunities for young people to be engaged in local decision making.

9. There is a legal requirement to publish the outcomes of Equality Impact Assessments. Please outline how / where this will happen

• Through the council website – via Equality  and Diversity Officer

10. Name of person completing form

Head of Youth Development

Date assessment completed

7^th November 2006

11. Senior manager approval

Assistant Director Resources, Improvement and Young People

Date

10 October 2007

Last updated: 14 May 2009