Issue - meetings

Catherine Underwood, Corporate Director for People, and Wilf Fearon, Head of Early Help Services spoke to the Committee about the work of Play and Youth Services and how provision is targeted to support those children and young people most in need of support.  They highlighted the following information:

a)  The service delivers a whole range of social and recreational activities to children and young people aged 5-16 years.  There has been a recent reshaping of the service to look at a more targeted approach to delivery in the light of the available budget and concerns about serious youth violence.

b)  County Lines has been a concern for a while. Those who have had contact with the Police are from a range of ethnic and social backgrounds, but there is limited knowledge about young Asian boys.

c)  The Exploitation and Violence Reduction Hub works with partners to map and understand young people and how to share intelligence and engage with them.

d)  Play and Youth Services delivers activity from a number of venues in three localities, covering the north, south and central city. 

e)  Covid has impacted on the Service, for example in quarter 4 last year (January – March 2020) the service had approximately 8,000 attendees.  In quarter 3 this year (October – December 2020) this was down to 2,000. 

f)  Two members of staff are seconded to the Exploitation and Violence Reduction Hub to ensure closer working and sharing of training and experience.

g)  Other partnership working includes working closely with voluntary groups and Area Based Grant partners, the Youth Justice Services, which has just received a grant for youth work, some of which is being used to develop a detached youth team, which will work closely with Play and Youth Services staff to support the work they are doing with children most at risk across city.  The fund will also be used to support other partners to increase their capacity to work with children and young people.

h)  The Youth and Play Service works with children and young people in schools and alternative provision, particularly in the area of knife crime and serious youth violence, to let them know how they can engage with support and get to know staff.

i)  The Service is also involved in family support work, offering constructive activities and interventions to those referred via targeted youth support.

j)  To ensure that work is aligned with partners, Play and Youth Services staff attend a range of meetings to share and receive information, for example the Child Criminal Exploitation Panel and the Out of Court Disposal Panel.

k)  Joint training is undertaken with partners, including training on young women and gangs, targeted youth work and sexual exploitation.

l)  In full lockdown staff are liaising with children and young people through online activities.  Those regarded as vulnerable are seen more often and staff have dropped off resource packs to support them to stay engaged.

m)  The Service doesn’t record if a child or young person has  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26