Introduction to youth policy

Wednesday 26th March11:30-1:15pm

What defines “youth”?

Political Squares

Key Factors in defining “youth”

• Education: o In the mid 70’s about 70% were working and earning, now

the figure is 5%o The drive to keep everyone at school means that we have

effectively narrowed our definition of ‘achievement’ for young people to one option – academic success

o Expanded access to university• Family dependence:

o Individual benefits for young people removed and introduction of student loans means longer period of dependence on families

Concepts from Roche et al (2004) “Youth in Society” ; Supporting Evidence from various sources

Key Factors in defining “youth”

• “Can Do” ethos– Anyone can make it if they try hard enough. – Has led to a sense of individual blame for failures

• Dependence to Independence– Most white, non-disabled, and middle class young people face a

relatively smooth pathway– More disadvantaged young people struggle more and more with this

• “Uneven” and “Fragmented Transitions”– “uneven because different groups of young people have very different

experiences of the transition to adulthood. Fragmented, because the different markers of adulthood are increasingly uncoupled from each other” (p xiv)

• Information Age

Concepts from Roche et al (2004) “Youth in Society” ; Supporting Evidence from various sources

Key Factors in defining “youth”• Young People in Northern Ireland have faced additional

challenges over the last two decades

• Conflict/Post-conflict Society: “The effects of the Troubles seem to be associated with

problems relating to underachievement and behavioural adjustment.”

http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/conflictchildrenyoungpeople.pdf

• Segregation:“Segregation and sectarianism are a continuing legacy of

the Troubles”http://www.conflictresearch.org.uk/cms/images/stories/Segregated%20Lives.pdf

SOME KEY CULTURAL CONTEXTS THAT IMPACT YOUNG

PEOPLE’S SENSE OF IDENTITY

MOBILITYAverage Person per year:•take 1000 journeys •travel over 7000 miles2001 1.5 Million House Transactions•Lesser links to the wider family•Generation Gap

GOING OUT TO WORKBoth parents out to work……Less direct contact time with parents……Unsupervised access to media in the home… …TV becomes the live in Nanny!!!

‘We don’t influence teenagers we own them.’ Managing Director of MTV

CONSUMERISM

The average family in the UK watches 27 hours of TV each week.

The Internet

global village

91% of 12 year olds in the UK own a mobile phone

LEISURE / SPARE TIME

Youth Policy

Youth work’s collaborative, cross-disciplinary approach is both a strength and weakness of Youth policy.

A strength in that it enables youth advocates to work with cross-disciplinary organisations to foster links.A weakness in that within a formal academic system its status is considered subordinate to ‘pure’ subjects. This situation poses a range of challenges for youth workers who can often underestimate the role of social/youth policy in their profession.

Youth Policy

• "It does seem an extraordinary failure that you [the youth sector] can’t make a better fist at

• explaining the difference you make" (Children & Young People Now; 2011).

“… The main objective of youth work is to provide space and opportunities for young people to shape their own futures…” (Lauritzen; 2006).

Bessant (2005) 10 principles of youth policy

1. Ensuring the means is available to live a human life of normal length2. Guaranteeing good health3. Ensuring ‘non-beneficial’ pain and suffering is minimized and happiness

and pleasure maximized4. Guaranteeing young people are able to use all their senses5. Ensuring an ability to form and maintain a range of attachments and

identity.6. Enabling young people to form a conception of good, to engage in

critical reflection and to be able to plan one’s own life7. Facilitating young people’s social being8. Environmental ethics9. Guaranteeing an environment that secures the ability to laugh, play and

enjoy recreation10. The principle of non-interference

Key policy Drivers

• Review of Public Administration • Children (NI) Order 1995 • Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act (1998)• UNCRC

Responses to Youth

• Model for Effective Practice • Strategy for Children & Young People • Lifetime Opportunities/Anti-Poverty & Social

Inclusion Strategy for NI • CRED policy • Entitlement Framework • Strategy for delivering youth work in NI 05-08• Priorities for Youth

Group WORK:“located within an understanding of the social and political context”

Stage 1: What are the agendas in youth policy and in wider government in Northern Ireland?

(Consider extract (p. 13-24) from Strategy for Delivery of Youth Work in NI 05-08)

Stage 2: Think critically about the agendas. What is the historical background to these agendas?

(Consider Sam McCready’s lecture notes entitled “A living democracy”)

Where is policy happening?

Your Personal and Social Context

Stage 3: How does social policy impact:o Your work in PPA?o The life of young people in

PPA?o Your youth work practice?o Future employment

prospects – self & YP?o What policy comes to

mind in your local community/PPA?

Group Task

Key Policy Drivers

Key Policy Drivers• Better Government: A Review of Public

Administration (2006)– move towards a more effective system of governance and a more cost-effective,

coordinated organisation of the Government and the services it provides.– re-structuring of health trusts, social services boards and the Department of

Education.– Local and district councils, which previously numbered 26, will reduce to 11, the

current timeline for this are the May 2011 local government elections.– This is leading to a restructure of organisations such as the Youth Council for

Northern Ireland, as well as the Education and Library Boards who will be subsumed into the new Education and Skill Authority

Key Policy DriversChildren (Northern Ireland) Order 1995• emphasis on safeguarding children and young people,

protecting them from the negative consequences of intolerance, inequality and disadvantage, sought to identify mechanisms for championing the cause of the young

• This commitment led to the OFM DFM to establish the Commission for Children and Young People

• one of the Commissioner’s primary duties is to ensure the promotion of children and young peoples’ rights

• The Children (Northern Ireland) Order enshrines in legislation a requirement for children and young people to have opportunities to participate in decision-making processes

Key Policy Drivers

• Northern Ireland Act 1998 (Section 75)• the Government has sought to ensure that

those from all sectors providing services for children and young people rigorously adhere to Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act

• Section 75 addresses issues of equality, equity, interdependence and the challenging of discriminatory practices.

Section 75 of the GFA 1998

“good relations cannot be built on basis of inequality and disadvantage” (McCrudden, 2004: 72)

Section 75 (1) advanced beyond any other equality legislation and amount to “the fourth generation equality laws, based on a positive duty to promote equality, rather than simply to refrain from discriminating” (Fredman, 2002: 122)

Equality and Human Rights were central to negotiating the Belfast Agreement and the advancing the peace process in Northern Ireland. Core principles of the Agreement, enacted in Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act (1998) were the duties to promote equality and good relations.

A public authority shall in carrying out its functions relating to Northern Ireland have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity - (a) between persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation; (b) between men and women generally; (c) between persons with a disability and persons without; and (d) between persons with dependants and persons without.

Policy Responses to Youth

Policy Responses to Youth

• Model of Effective Practice (2004)

A non-statutory curriculum framework for the planning, delivery and evaluation of youth work programmes in Northern Ireland.

Policy Responses to YouthBetter Government: A Review of Public Service Administration

(2006)– outlines significant changes for the organisation of and

responsibility of youth service provision.– newly created Education and Skills Authority (ESA) will assume

responsibility for operational delivery, coordinating and building partnerships across all sectors with the aim of achieving a joined-up approach to delivery

– ESA will take on functions and responsibilities previously performed by the Education and Library Boards and the Youth Council for Northern Ireland (YCNI).

– It will also introduce a new body called the Northern Ireland Network for Youth (NINFY), with an aim to ensure that young people’s voices reach government departments and the youth service as a whole

Policy Responses to YouthOur Children and Young People – Our Pledge(2006)

– calls for an improvement in outcomes for all children and young people.

– suggests that those experiencing severe disadvantage, or whose needs are complex and varied, will benefit from targeted interventions.

• Success will be measured against outcomes in six areas:• being healthy• enjoying, learning and achieving• living with safety and stability• experiencing economic and environmental wellbeing• contributing positively to community and society• living in a society that respects their rights.

Policy Responses to Youth

Our Children and Young People – Our Pledge(2006)– Pledges include an emphasis on preventative and early

intervention approaches, taking an holistic view of the child or young person, and a respect for rights and working in partnership.

– awareness that the community is still emerging from conflict and that whole communities need to be involved in the support of the young

– prerequisite of success that young people are integral to the strategy’s development, implementation and general governance.

– Participation Network, operated through the Northern Ireland Youth Forum

Policy Responses to Youth

Lifetime Opportunities: Anti-Poverty and Social Inclusion Strategy for Northern Ireland (2006)– This introduces measures to join up departments,

sectors and providers to better achieve social justice– The strategy is in response to an evaluation of the

New Targeting Social Need (New TSN) policy of 2001– found that tackling poverty and social exclusion

needed a more coherent and strategic approach

Policy Responses to Youth

Lifetime Opportunities: Anti-Poverty and Social Inclusion Strategy for Northern Ireland (2006)– eliminating urban and rural poverty and social

exclusion– tackling area-based deprivation– promoting respect and tolerance between the

country’s two main communities– tackling inequalities in health and the labour market– ending cycles of deprivation.

Policy Responses to Youth

Lifetime Opportunities: Anti-Poverty and Social Inclusion Strategy for Northern Ireland (2006)– acknowledgement in Northern Ireland that a sustained

period of conflict has resulted in too many young people suffering negative consequences of societal stress

– development of education, learning and skills is promoted as the most influential mechanism for lifting young people out of poverty, reducing exclusion, breaking deprivation cycles and ensuring their engagement with the labour market

– every intervention pertaining to this group must encompass opportunities to develop knowledge, skills and experience

Policy Responses to Youth

Delivering the Entitlement Framework (2006) – The Big Picture – Curriculum Entitlement Framework aims to ensure greater

choice and flexibility in education and learning for all young people

– Tailored learning opportunities will be available, matching programmes and pathways to the needs, aptitudes, interests and motivations of the individual concerned

– more joined-up and holistic approach, while laying greater emphasis on developing knowledge and skills in relation to ‘learning for life and work’.

Policy Responses to YouthDelivering the Entitlement Framework (2006)• Youth services and youth workers play a critical role • expected to support young people, helping them to

engage fully with the new developments and to reach their full potential

• recognition of the importance of detached youth work to engage those who are hardest to reach

• Also includes mentoring, generic support services, participation work, informal, accredited group work and programmes that challenge intolerance and discrimination

Policy Responses to YouthStrategy for the Delivery of Youth Work in Northern Ireland 2005–

2008 (2005)– In 2003 Youth Service Liaison Forum established, assisting Department of

Education in development and implementation of Youth Service policy. – the first country-wide strategy, and it has been developed, endorsed and

implemented by those from the statutory, voluntary and community sectors.

• specifies a clear vision for the service, one in which young people:– enjoy themselves– realise their potential and participate as active citizens in a secure and

peaceful society– know their rights and responsibilities, and have these protected and

promoted– are valued, understood and involved– feel safe and supported.

Policy Responses to YouthStrategy for the Delivery of Youth Work in Northern Ireland 2005–2008

(2005)– underpinned by a strong value base -‘the seven P’s’: personal and social

development, promoting rights, protection, participation, peace-building, people, and partnership

four aims, organised into central operational themes:– effective, inclusive youth work– participation– resources and funding– implementation.

• delivery focused, and takes an holistic approach to youth work and young people’s development

• In October 2008 the Department of Education completed a consultation process in which it sought to establish what the sector considered to be the priorities for youth. This will form the new strategy

Delivering Social Change

• In small groups:• Respond to the

OFMDFM Consultation on Delivering Social Change for Children and Young People

Evaluation of lecture

• Returning to the baseline questionnaire:• Please mark if there has been any change in

your understanding of learning after today’s session.

Policy Responses to Youth

• CRED policy (Jimbo McDowell focusing on this on 9th April)

• 30th April UNCRC (Chris O’Donoghue)• Exploring Priorities for Youth (7th May)