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Passing TimeA report about young people and communities

Laura Edwards and Becky HatchDecember 2003

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Institute for Public Policy Research30-32 Southampton StreetLondon WC2E 7RATel: 020 7470 6100Fax: 020 7470 6111www.ippr.orgRegistered Charity No. 800065

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is the UK’s leading progressive think tankand was established in 1988. Its role is to bridge the political divide between the socialdemocratic and liberal traditions, the intellectual divide between academia and the policymaking establishment and the cultural divide between government and civil society. It isfirst and foremost a research institute, aiming to provide innovative and credible policysolutions. Its work, the questions its research poses and the methods it uses are driven bythe belief that the journey to a good society is one that places social justice, democraticparticipation and economic and environmental sustainability at its core.

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Acknowledgements4

About the authors4

Executive Summary5

Introduction9

Section one:Young people talking about community

Lack of things to doDrugs and alcoholSafetyNegative perceptions of young peopleand anti-social behaviourThe state of the environmentWhat do young people want in theircommunity?

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Section two:Identifying the problem31

Section three:Giving young people something better

Get the basics rightTackle the root causes of problembehaviourNew types of professionalsSooner or later? Not an either/or choiceInvolving young people

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Conclusion57

References59

Bibliography61 3

Contents

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Acknowledgements

IPPR would like to thank the GatsbyCharitable Foundation for supportingthe Communities programme. Othertitles in the series include Making Senseof Community (Nash 2003) andReclaiming Community (Nash and Christie2002).

We would also like to thank all of theyoung residents of Tile Hill who gotinvolved in the project, in particular:James, Jimbob, Naidene, Laura, Danny,Kelly, Jamie, Haydn, Hollie, Stacey, Lisa,Kayleigh and Sam. We are also gratefulfor help and guidance from: Colin Bell,Frances Porter and Matt at Frontline AV;Faye Donely, Jackie Fox and LauraThompson at South West Area Co-ordi-nation in Coventry; Hillary Snell andYvette Adhami at the Youth Service; andElin Stefansson at the National Children’sBureau. In the course of the project wewere also grateful for the opportunity tospeak to a range of other servicesproviders and to attend meetings oflocal partners working to deliver servicesfor young people.

Thanks also to Liz Kendall, Sue Regan,Nick Pearce, Kate Stanley and MartinJohnson at IPPR for their helpfulcomments and guidance.

About the authors

Laura Edwards is a senior researchfellow at IPPR and heads the institute’spublic involvement work. She works withpeople at grassroots level to discuss anddebate key policy issues, from health andeducation to crime and policing. She hasa particular interest in children andyoung people’s issues. Previous publica-tions include Politics not parties – youngpeople and politics (IPPR, March 2001)and A bit rich? What the wealthy thinkabout giving (IPPR, March 2002).

Becky Hatch was until recently aresearch fellow at IPPR in the Democracyand Public Involvement Team. Herinterest is in tackling political apathy andincreasing public engagement in deci-sion-making. She developed large-scale,innovative public events in Blackpooland Bournemouth to engage youngpeople in debates about politics andlocal issues. She is currently travelling inSouth America.

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Key findings:

Messages from Government aboutyoung people can be confusing. Attimes young people are pictured asempty vessels waiting to be filled withuseful information and skills in order thatthey may be productive in their adult life.At times they are depicted as vulnerableand in desperate need of protection. Andat times they are characterised as thugsand potential thugs whose actionsinfringe on the rest of the community.The message of Government policy –whether it comes from the Departmentfor Education and Skills, the Children andYoung People’s Unit or the Home Office –needs to add up. It must be underpinnedby the notion that young people aremany things but we are interested inthem not just because they will be adultsone day in the future but because theyhave rights now and deserve good serv-ices and support.

Early intervention is vital – but so tooare ‘later’ interventions. There isgrowing consensus around the role andvalue of early intervention in improvingchildren’s life chances and reducinginequalities. Early intervention must becomplemented however by ‘later’ inter-ventions for young people in their teens.By the time young people reach theirteens the job of interrupting a cycle of,for example, poor attainment, problembehaviour or low self-esteem may beharder and less appealing than a ‘freshstart’ with younger children, but the jobis no less important. Encouraging youngpeople to aspire to achieve more andenabling them to tackle the issues andproblems they face in their teens mustbe seen as part of a continuing processof improving life chances and tacklingsocial inequality. Without raising thestakes communities can become defined by a group of young people withlittle sense of their capacity to changeeither their area or the opportunitiesopen to them.

Executive Summary

This is a report about young people and communities. It explores howyoung people talk about their community and the activities and supportthey want to see provided out of school. It starts by focusing on youngpeople in just one neighbourhood and ends by using their experiences tolook at how well teenagers are provided for across England. It argues thatproviding good services and activities for teenagers is vital for buildingstrong communities that feel safe, vibrant and supportive for everyone.

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Provision for teenagers can be patchy,unreliable and inconsistent. Providingactivities and opportunities for youngpeople consistently tops public opinionpolls when people are asked what theywould most like to see improved in theirarea. Activities for young people havecome to symbolise a solution to many ofthe problems that communities faceincluding crime and safety, drink anddrugs and anti-social behaviour. On theground however services and activitiesfor young people often fall short ofpublic expectations.

Modern youth clubs that combineactivity with support and advice are inshort supply. No national strategy is inplace to revive the often tired and out-of-date centres that are currently avail-able and in use. There is a need for themodern, social and friendly spaces thatyoung people want. The Kids’ ClubsNetwork ‘Make Space’ campaign ismaking good progress in this area andsets out a positive vision of what a youthclub should aim for. However, MakeSpace alone is not enough to effect thesea change in provision for teens that isneeded. Funding and staffing are bothmajor issues. Funding can be short termand project-specific or simply notenough. There are already concernsabout where the new money promisedby Government for the Youth Service isto come from. The increase also comesafter years of under-funding. In terms ofstaffing, recruiting skilled youth workerscan be difficult, particularly to work incommunities which are in real need.

New types of professionals are neededwho can apply a range of skills andknowledge when working with young

people. These will be people who cangain the trust and confidence of a youngperson and have a range of options avail-able to support them. If the focus ofyouth work is primarily on increasingeducational achievement or onproviding diversionary activities to keepyoung people out of trouble there is adanger that the underlying causes of lowexpectations and problem behaviour arenot tackled head on. A new professionmight combine youth and communitywork, social work, adolescent mentalhealth services and careers services toprovide more holistic services for youngpeople. This is a role that is filled to anextent by social educators on the conti-nent. Connexions personal advisers weredeveloped with the vision of a morerounded service in mind yet, in its earlyyears, evidence suggests that educationand work goals are prioritised abovesocial and emotional support. Whether itcan achieve a more rounded service inthe future is unclear. Part of the chal-lenge is in breaking down professionalboundaries (for example between theYouth Service, Connexions and socialcare providers) and recognising theshared agenda of supporting youngpeople.

Young people need a stronger voice incommunities and in the provision ofgood services. Young people need tofeel part of their community and takeresponsibility for both its problems aswell as its assets. However they often feelthat they are typified as a problem, anuisance or simply not a priority.Perceptions of young people as perpe-trators of anti-social behaviour need tobe tackled head on. Most young peopledo not commit crime and want to tackle

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anti-social behaviour as much as othermembers of their community. There isscope to experiment with new relation-ships and dialogues between youngpeople, the police and other serviceproviders to develop local level solutionsto anti-social behaviour. Developing rolesfor young people as managers, advisers,governors, auditors, fundraisers andvolunteers in community level servicesshould also be a priority. There is alsoscope to develop civic service for youngpeople; pilot projects like the YoungVolunteer Challenge launched by theDfES are to be welcomed.

There is some way to go to developpolicies and services that add up to aserious commitment to young people,not just in their early years but wellinto their teens. A ‘Sure Progress’ or‘Sure Futures’ programme for teenagerswould echo the Sure Start model andcould be a way of building momentumand commitment to providing consistentand effective support, intervention andactivities for teens. Such a programmewould emphasise the need to tackle theroot causes of why young people canunderachieve and see themselves on theperiphery rather than at the heart ofcommunities. This might include prob-lems at home, drink and drug use,bullying, depression or peer pressure.A ‘Sure Progress’ of ‘Sure Futures’programme would combine activity witha range of support, advice and interven-tions, potentially including a role forparenting support for parents of teens.

Excecutive Summary

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This study takes a step back from thenational picture. It focuses attention onjust one community, Tile Hill in Coventry,and uses it as a lens through which tolearn wider lessons about what is andisn’t working for young people andcommunities. The project involvedworking with young people at a neigh-bourhood level over a month in Summer2003. IPPR and a local youth arts projectworked with young people to help themarticulate the issues they faced and whatthey wanted to see change in theircommunity. The output of the project is a12-minute film made by young people,Tile Hill Uncovered, in which youngpeople tell their story in their own words.

The report accompanies the film andgives a flavour of the issues, concernsand ideas that young people came upwith for their community. It unpickssome of the problems facing the areaand the role that young people play incommunities. It then looks at nationalpolicy through the eyes of the young

residents of Tile Hill. It uses their experi-ences to analyse national policy in detailand to ask the question: are we doingenough for young people?

The report confirms many of the thingsthat are already known about the provi-sion of services for young people andadds to the existing body of researchevidence and knowledge. It highlightsthat while new initiatives, such asConnexions, Positive Futures, Sure Start,Children’s Centres and Positive Activitiesfor Young People are underway, there isstill a long way to go and many gaps tobe plugged. Above all it shows that serv-ices for young people can lack conti-nuity. Young people themselves tend notto think that they have something to relyon. Young people’s hopes and ambitionsare raised by the provision of activitiesand services one moment, only to bedampened not long after when fundingruns out, services are remodelled ordiscontinued, or staffing problemsemerge. There is a real challenge in

Introduction

The range and quality of services and activities provided for young peopleis important not just for young people but for the community as a whole.When young people have safe spaces to play in and hang out; well-maintained and affordable facilities to use; activities to take part in; goodquality support services to turn to; and good schools to go to, then theircommunities are also likely to feel safe, vibrant and supportive for everyone.

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‘I bet all of this lot, in two years time, will be in prison.’

‘We just want somewhere to go where we can feel safe.’

‘I’m bored by my own boredom.’

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developing a framework that allows services to engage with young peopleover a period of time and maintain theirtrust and interest.

The report also highlights the impor-tance of sustained provision for youngpeople. Providing support in the earlyyears of a child’s life is vital but is not analternative to providing the same level ofsupport and provision when they areolder in their early and late teens. Earlyinterventions need to be sustained andbuilt upon. The report recommends thatthere is a need to think about newmodels for the provision of integratedservices for young people, using the SureStart experience as a guide. A type of‘Sure Futures’ or ‘Sure Progress’ modelcould emerge which would combinehealth, social care, education and sportand arts activities for teenagers, poten-tially with parental support built in.

Context

In Making Sense of Community (Nash withChristie, IPPR 2003) the role of provisionfor young people in supporting commu-nity was highlighted. Young people areoften portrayed as ‘hanging around’ inpublic places. For some this is intimi-dating and can lead to public spacesbeing marked out as no-go areas, notjust by older people but other youngpeople too. The young people ‘hangingaround’ are likely to say that they havenothing else to do, and if they hangaround in numbers it’s for their ownsafety too.

Doing right by young people is not amarginal concern. It is commonly recog-nised as a priority by the public. In a

recent MORI/Audit Commission1 surveyof over 2,000 adults, ‘activities forteenagers’ came top of the list ofimprovements most needed in people’slocal area. It came significantly higherthan improving health, education andhousing. This finding is not unique. In the2002 – 2003 Survey of English Housing2,‘opportunities for young people’ againcame top of the list of aspects peoplemost wanted to see improved in theirarea. Provision for young people featuresahead of crime and vandalism, educationand health and even parking and publictransport as an important local issue. Thissuggests that providing activities foryoung people is seen not just as an endin itself. Activities for young people havecome to symbolise a solution to otherproblems that communities face: crimeand safety, drink and drug problems andthe low aspirations and ambitions ofyoung people.

Despite being a top priority for commu-nities, investment in youth services hashad a patchy past. The past few yearshowever have seen a flurry of activityand greater investment by Governmentin provision for young people. This hasbeen driven by multiple factors: an ambi-tion to tackle poor educational achieve-ment, a desire to reduce crime andanti-social behaviour, a commitment toreduce child poverty and to address therise in mental health problems amongyoung people. There is also an increasingbody of evidence that stresses theimportance of early intervention strate-gies to prevent or interrupt cycles ofdeprivation and low achievement. Newinitiatives and funding streams arecoming through. Connexions, Sure Start,Positive Futures, Children’s Centres and

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the Children’s Fund are just some of theflagship programmes introduced inrecent years. Many, but not all, arefocused on early intervention andworking with children rather thanteenagers.

This project is based on work with youngpeople and local service providerscarried out in Tile Hill in Coventry. Tile Hillis a fairly typical estate; 1950’s councilhouses, mainly low rise but with a fewhigh rise blocks in the process of beingdone up. The population numbers justover 6,000 people, predominantly whiteand with under-18s making up around aquarter of local residents. There is aparade of shops occupied by adult streetdrinkers and shoppers in the day, whereyoung people hang out in the evenings.Unemployment is higher than thenational average. There is a smattering ofcommunity and sports facilities that haveseen better days. There are green spacesand woods around but safety is an issue.Money for new services and to tackle oldproblems is filtering into the area. It isone of Coventry City’s Council’s ‘priorityneighbourhoods’.

Aims

In Making Sense of Community (Nash2003), IPPR identified several key policyareas that have an important effect oncommunity. These areas are: planningand development; provision for youngpeople; crime reduction and policing;design and liveability of public spaceand methods of frontline servicedelivery. The aim of this project was toexplore in more detail just one of theseareas – provision for young people – andto continue using Coventry as a case

study for research3. Working with onegroup of people within a community,young people, the research focused on anumber of key questions:

■ How involved do young peoplecurrently feel within their community?

■ What do they think of theopportunities, activities and servicesavailable to them?

■ How do young people interact witheach other and with other residents andservice providers?

■ What do young people want to seechange in their community in the future?

The particular focus of the project wasteenagers aged 13 to 19 and provisionoutside of mainstream education. Keyservice providers here are Youth Servicesand Connexions but delivery agents arefar broader and include Sure Start (whowill support teenager parents), theLibrary Service, voluntary and commu-nity groups, sports and leisure services,Youth Offending Teams and health andsocial care services.

Methodology

It was important to identify a way ofworking with young people in Tile Hillthat would be interesting to them. Theprocess needed to engage young peoplein order to allow them to take the lead. Aformal question and answer survey-based approach might only scratch thesurface of their opinions. IPPR worked inpartnership with Frontline AV 4 to make afilm with the young residents of Tile Hill;a lasting account of their views on thearea, its good and bad points and thethings that they wanted to see happeningthat would make a difference. The

Introduction

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project worked mainly with teenagers,although the youngest participant was10 and the oldest around 19. In order tobuild interest in the project and recruityoung people to take part, IPPR andyouth workers from Frontline AV spentthree evenings walking around Tile Hill,talking to young people, telling themabout the project and inviting them toget involved. It was felt important to findyoung people on their own turf andoutside of school, not least in order to pickup those who were not attending schoolregularly. Those attending the youth cluband those involved in a ‘Busting StreetCrime’ initiative at the sports centre werealso invited to take part.

A core group of around ten youngpeople stayed with the project frombeginning to end. Aged between ten andeighteen, taking part was a statement oftheir commitment to the community anddesire to make it a better place. Manyother young people appear in the film orwere interviewed as part of the project,around 40 in total. Their views and ideaswere recorded through interviewsconducted by both the young film crewand Frontline AV and IPPR. Participantswere informed about the purpose andnature of the project and were asked togive their consent to using their viewsand images in the final film. Selectingwhat was included in the final film was a sensitive process. Participants some-times revealed things on camera thatthey didn’t want to reveal to a wideraudience or which were likely to makethem feel vulnerable or exposed ifincluded. Some chose to be anonymous inthe film by having their faces blurred. Nofinancial incentive was paid to participantswho took part in the film but each

evening session ended with food beingprovided. At the end of the project coreparticipants were also given a certificateof achievement to thank them and recog-nise their contribution.

The project itself ran over four eveningsessions, each lasting between 2 and 3hours. Part of the time was used to showparticipants how to use the cameras andsound equipment and develop questionsand topics to discuss on camera. The restof the discussion was focused on keytopics including: young people’s role inthe community; activities and opportuni-ties for young people; the state of the localenvironment; drink and drugs; and whothey turned to for support. Discussionsthat began in one session were continuedand developed in subsequent sessions.Many comments and experiences werealso discussed away from the cameraswhen walking around the area or overfood at the end of the filming session.This report also draws on observations ofyoung people and their interactions witheach other and with youth workers.

Using film was a way of getting youngpeople interested in the process as wellas an opportunity to record their viewsin their own words. It also gave some theopportunity to develop new skills. Theytook turns as camera crew, sound opera-tors and interviewers and responded toquestions and ideas raised. They identi-fied places where they spent time andexamples of what was good and badabout their area. They interviewed otheryoung people, and some older residents,in the area. Their film explores how youngpeople see themselves, their area andtheir interaction with other residents andservice providers. It provides an account

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of what they’d like to see change. The 12-minute film is ready to be used to bothinspire and challenge local serviceproviders and young people and adultsin the community alike to create some-thing better for the residents of Tile Hill.

This report complements the film. It putsthe story of young people in Tile Hillback into the bigger picture. What goeson Tile Hill may be different to what goeson in other areas, a different mix ofproviders, funding, initiatives and people.But Tile Hill is not unique. Many of theissues facing the area are the same as

those being grappled with in many otherneighbourhoods. These include devel-oping services that meet the needs ofdifferent residents and not just youngpeople; competition for funding; acommunity which can be mistrustingboth of service providers and of eachother; community venues in need ofrepair; public transport that doesn’talways match public need; anti-socialbehaviour and lack of staff to runcommunity level provision. Tile Hill highlights lessons and problems ingetting work with young people rightthat will resonate in many other areas.

Introduction

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Below are the main themes raised byyoung people in Tile Hill. These issueswere raised in response to questionsabout what was good and bad abouttheir area and how they felt youngpeople were seen.

1. Lack of things to do

2. Drink and drugs

3. Safety

4. Negative perceptions of young peopleand anti-social behaviour

5. Poor state of the local environment

Each is discussed in more detail below.

1. Lack of things to do

Young residents consistently highlighted‘more things to do’ as a priority. At thetime of the fieldwork two main projectswere running. The first was the YouthService youth club for teenagers, runningtwo evenings a week at one end of theestate. The youth worker had recently leftand a replacement was being sought.The venue was not seen as attractive andsome parents and young people consid-ered it unsafe. The second was a range ofsports and arts activities running oneevening a week at the sports centre atthe other end of the estate, run by theCoventry Sports Foundation. One-offprojects have taken place in the past –go-carting and paint balling trips for

Section one:Young peopletalking about

community

The issues raised as important by the young residents of Tile Hill will notsurprise or shock. They are likely to be repeated in many neighbourhoodsand estates across England. They confirm something that is knownalready; that services for young people and the provision of activities andopportunities can be patchy and unreliable. Telling this story will beimportant as long as this continues to be the case. This section of the reportcovers the detail of young people’s views on their area. Subsequent sectionsput their account into the context of a wider analysis of how services forchildren and young people are being developed across England.

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example – where short-term funding hasbeen levered in by local serviceproviders. Applications for similar tripsare also in the pipeline, with youngpeople themselves sometimessuggesting ideas and helping to writeapplications for money.

There are a number of green spacesavailable to play football and othergames outside. Often these are close tohouses and used as pathways and there-fore can lead to young people getting introuble with residents. Behind the youthclub there is a sports court in need ofrepair that is no longer used. Fundinghas however been secured to do it upand young people are likely to see thebenefits within the next year. The librarywas mentioned by some young peopleas a good place to go. They used it to dohomework and revise for GCSEs.

Young people are most likely to be foundin the evenings in different ‘hotspots’: theJardine Crescent shops and woodsnearby, the fish and chip shop on BeechTree avenue or the grassland down byGravel Hill. Others, often younger, simplygather at the corner of their road.

‘All they [the Youth Service] do is stuff forpeople who are about ten.’

‘We’re just playing football in the streetand we get into trouble.’

Those in their teens felt particularly hard-done by. They felt that they were too oldfor the activities put on by the youthclub, but not old enough to go out topubs and clubs in the city centre.Drinking, smoking and taking drugs inpublic spaces was for some the alterna-tive option. They explicitly linked the lackof things to do with many of the other

problems in the area. For others, areaswhere young people gather in groups todrink and smoke become places to avoidor walk quickly through with your headdown. Some were told by their parentsto avoid particular areas.

‘They hang around drinking becausethey’ve got nothing else to do.’

‘I reckon if there was more for teenagersto do, there’d be less crime, less litter, lessunderage drinking and drugs.’

‘We’re just minding our own business,sitting on the wall smoking a bit of weed,we’re not harming anyone.’

The low level of youth work provision foryoung people in Tile Hill is exacerbatedby mistrust between different groups ofyoung people in the area. Young resi-dents from the bottom end of the estatewere unwilling to take part in projectsand activities at the top end of the estateby Jardine Crescent. Different youngpeople and groups of young peoplehave a reputation that means that othersstay away or choose to create their own‘safe’ areas elsewhere. For thoseproviding services and activities foryoung people this poses real problems.Attracting young people from all parts ofTile Hill to participate in a single projectis difficult. Efforts to provide opportuni-ties for young people can get diluted ifthey only reach a specific group of youngpeople but exclude another who do notwant to mix. In the process of making TileHill Uncovered, IPPR and Frontline AV hadto film in three different areas in order toinvolve a wide as possible a range ofyoung people in the project.

For the moment many young people inTile Hill create their own amusement. Forsome this involving smoking and getting

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drunk and high with their friends. Forsome this route seems the most obviousand inevitable option. For others it canmean that they feel less safe in their areaand want a better alternative.

‘If they made a park or something thenwe wouldn’t be hanging around.’

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“Providing young people with a safe place to go after school, andgiving them real opportunities to engage in sport, the arts,volunteering and wider activities is a major priority for Government”Tony Blair

6 out of 10 teenagers and 8 out of 10 parents think that there isnot enough for teenagers to do in the area where they live

8 out of 10 15-16 year olds are dissatisfied with the quality ofoutdoor play facilities where they live

In 2000 – 2001 the typical local authority spent 1.15 per cent onyouth services, a decrease on the previous year. The medianspending per young person aged 13-19 in the same year was£60.45 . The new government target established in theTransforming Youth Work paper is to spend a minimum of £100per head.

The most concerted effort to boost provision of modern spacesand youth clubs for young people is the Make Space Campaign,run by Kids Club Network with Nestle Trust funding. It aims todevelop a network of contemporary, out of school clubs for youngpeople aged 11-16. The campaigns’ objective is to establish 3,000Make Space clubs in England by 2015.

The nationalpicture

Sources:

The Rt Hon Tony Blair, MP, Kids’ Clubs Network annual review 2002

Nestle Family Monitor Make Space for Young People October 2002

Cited in Green Spaces, Better Places: Working Group 3, People andPlaces DTLR, London, May 2002

England’s Local Authority Youth Services – the basic facts 2000-01 TheNational Youth Agency, September 2002

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2. Drugs and alcohol

DrugsDrugs were felt to have a hold on theneighbourhood and many young peopleidentified them as a big issue. Drugtaking was thought to be commonamong young people. There were visiblesigns of this, and we interviewed teenageusers out on the streets sitting on a wallby the shops. Young people openlytalked about using drugs. Some partici-pants mentioned seeing drug deals atthe back of the shops and flats and anumber of young participants statedthat cannabis was easy to get hold ofand commonly used among youngpeople. Other drugs were also talkedabout, including ecstasy. The exchangebelow illustrates how young people cantake on board the messages about druguse being a problem but also the extentto which others define it as the norm.The two girls were sitting side by side ona wall by the shops.

Girl one: ‘If you have to take drugs tohave a good time, then you’re pretty sad’

Girl two: ‘So you’re saying everyone roundhere’s sad then?’

Girl one: ‘Yeah’

The younger participants tended to beagainst taking drugs, and felt that itcontributed to the run down appearanceof the area. They worried that it was abad influence on younger children. Someavoided particular areas because of theirreputation for drug dealing and use, orwere told to avoid them by their parents.

‘The teenagers make the area looktrampy’

‘It puts a bad influence on the youngerones. They shouldn’t have to see thingslike that at their age’

‘You don’t really want to see that everyday.’

The older teenagers (over 15) had a moreambivalent attitude towards drugs, anumber of them appeared to be users.Some stated that they were againsttaking drugs only to be rebuked byfriends who claimed that they werelying. There appeared to be rulesgoverning what was acceptable andunacceptable. For example even thoseusing drugs felt that younger teenagersshouldn’t be doing the same. The grouphanging around by the shop was mixedin age and there was a sense that whilethe younger members of the group, agedaround 10 to 13, might be alrightsmoking, they weren’t ready yet to takedrugs, although some may experimentwith cannabis. Another rule appeared tobe that cannabis was not a problem drugbut one that was just taken for grantedas something that young people woulduse and talk openly about. For someecstasy and other pills were not consid-ered particularly dangerous or seriouseither. Some felt that it was only ‘harddrugs’ like heroin and crack that shouldremain illegal and be the focus of policeattention.

‘Heroin is like a really harsh drug. I thinkeverything else should be legalised.’

AlcoholAttitudes towards young people anddrinking were more ambivalent. Drinkingappeared to be more acceptable. For theolder teenagers in particular it was feltthat it was natural for them to want todrink and that they could handle it, evenif others couldn’t. However, underagedrinkers also stated that it would bebetter if they weren’t able to access

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alcohol so easily. Some stated that offlicences regularly sold alcohol to youngteenagers. Many of the young people feltthat off-licences were wrong to do this,yet admitted that they bought alcoholthere themselves. Government statisticsshow that young people are more likelyto get hold of alcohol through friendsand family than they are to buy it directlyfrom an off-licence5.

‘It’s difficult because I want to drinkmyself, but at the same time I don’t thinkthey [the off-licence] should be selling itto us’

‘Some people can’t handle alcohol. Somepeople go stupid, some people go violent,but if you’re like me, you just go happy.’

Among some young people there wassupport for lowering the drinking age to14 or 16. As with drugs there seemed tobe a form of self regulation taking place,whereby the older teenagers would notgive alcohol to those considered tooyoung (this appeared to be those underabout 13). However the attempts to banstreet drinking by punishing it with a £500fine and giving the police the power toremove alcohol from residents founddrinking in the streets by the shops weremocked as unrealistic and unenforceable.

‘It’s stupid. Who around here has got£500?’

‘No one takes any notice.’

Drugs and to an extent drink, were there-fore raised as a common concern byyoung people. Those taking drink anddrugs claimed it was all they had to do inthe neighbourhood. They didn’t see theirdrinking or drug use as a problem andfelt that police efforts should be focusedon more serious crimes, including thedealing of hard drugs. Those on theoutside of groups congregating to drinkand take drugs felt that the level of drinkand drug taking in particular areas madethe area feel rundown and unsafe andled to a number of fights.

Two drug and alcohol projects operate inthe Tile Hill area, both of which have acitywide reach. One is focused specifi-cally on drug and alcohol use problemsand offers advice and treatment as wellas dealing with referrals from the crim-inal justice system. Another is a partner-ship initiative between Coventry HealthAuthority and Coventry Youth Servicewhich aims to take a holistic approach tohealth education and prevention byeducating people around sexual health,pregnancy, smoking and other healthissues. It was not clear from our researchwhether any of the participants hadcome into contact with these services.


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Drugs

45% of 15 year olds have taken drugs in their lifetime, 36% havetaken them in the last year

Over 30% of 15 year olds have taken cannabis, between 5 and10% have taken Class A drugs and volatile substances

The Home Office Drugs Strategy Directorate has a target of

The nationalpicture

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reducing the use of Class A drugs and the frequent use of anyillicit drug amongst all young people under the age of 25,especially the most vulnerable young people. Many of theinterventions designed to meet this target are based within thecriminal justice system, others, such as Positive Futures, focusmore broadly on the role of sports-based social inclusion intackling substance misuse problems.

Alcohol

24% of 11 to 15 years olds have had an alcoholic drink in the lastweek – 47% of 15 year olds

A quarter of 13 and 14 year-old students in Year 9 at school admitthey have recently downed five or more alcoholic drinks in asingle session, rising to more than half of all 15 and 16 year-oldpupils in Year 11

Two issues not raised by young people in Tile Hill but known to besignificant ‘risk’ issues for young people nationally are levels ofsmoking and sexual health

Smoking

10% of 11-15 years olds are regular smokers. The Governmenttarget is to reduce this to 9% by 2010.

23% of 15 year olds smoke, with girls more likely than boys tosmoke.

Sexual Health

Between 1995 and 1999 in the UK, gonorrhoea increased by 58%and genital Chlamydia by 76%, with the major increase in thoseunder 25 years of age.

Sources:

Home Office Updated drug strategy 2002 Home Office 2002

Beinart, Anderson, Lee and Utting 2002

Boreham & McManus S 2002

Teenage Pregnancy: a Social Exclusion Unit Report, June 1999

Trends in Sexually Transmitted Diseases in the UK, 1990-1999 PHLS 2000

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3. Safety

Safety came up as dominant issue foryoung people in Tile Hill. It emerged indifferent contexts. For some it was amatter of feeling unsafe on the walkhome from school, in areas that werepoorly lit or which might conceal athreat. Sometimes this was a generalisedthreat, for example certain characterswere labelled, probably incorrectly, as‘paedophiles’ on account of lookingdifferent or sticking out. For others theconcern was being picked on, beaten upor mugged by other young peoplehanging around in groups. More broadlybullying was an issue. The boys, particu-larly, appeared to be most concernedabout being beaten up by their peers orby slightly older local groups. They statedthat the reason that they tended togather in groups was for their own safetyand protection. In some of our discus-sions there was a clear undertone thatbullying wasn’t just a marginal or one-offproblem. One participant claimed tohave attempted suicide while his friendsemphasised bullying as an importantissue and one they were keen to protecthim from.

‘You can’t stop people going on thestreets but you’d like it to be a bit safer soyou wouldn’t get battered by the olderpeople’

‘If you go up the shops you can getabuse, shouted at… so some peopledon’t like coming up there.’

‘I’ve seen quite a few fights round here…with the drunkens’

Some participants stated that the fear ofbullying or being beaten up meant thatthey held back from accessing someactivities and services. One participant

stated that he never went to the cinemabecause you were likely to get muggedon the way in. For younger participantssafety could also be an issue thatprevented them from taking part inafter-school activities or doing things inthe evenings. They did not feel safe orwere not allowed to walk home alone.Other young people were alsoconcerned for their safety when outsideof Tile Hill and several had been victims(and sometimes perpetrators) of theft.

‘I like singing and dancing… but I don’tgo to the club after school because itfinishes quite late and I have to walkhome on my own’

‘If I’m on my own I keep my head downand walk. If I’m with friends I carry onchatting. I feel safer’

Young participants talked of bothwitnessing and being involved in fightsand physical attacks. Sometimes this wasonly semi-serious fighting, within groupsof young people – the result of a combi-nation of alcohol, drugs or just boredom.For some it was more than this. Oneparticipant was serving a year’s commu-nity service sentence for assault.Discussing the incident she still felt shewas right to react when she was beingchallenged. Community service wasturning out to be a good option for heras she was accessing new educationalopportunities as a result. Her friendsagreed that she was in the right.Protecting your name, not being seen toback down, not ‘taking it’ from someoneelse were all seen as important. Thisinstinct of sticking together and notletting others get the better of you isreflected in the way that the youngpeople created allegiances with othersfrom the same area or background as


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them and were reluctant to mix withothers from elsewhere in the neighbour-hood, or beyond.

A wide range of issues faced by youngpeople came up in the course of makingthe film with young people in Tile Hillaccounts. These included bullying,domestic violence, siblings in prison,suicide attempts, bulimia, teenage preg-nancy, young people being chucked outof their home and difficult relationshipswith parents. Each of these impacts onhow safe and happy young people feel.Their ability to cope with these issues inturn will impact on how they develop asindividuals and their ability to seize theopportunities that are available to them.

The young participants involved in TileHill Uncovered emphasised the role offriends above all else in helping to dealwith issues such as bullying and prob-lems at home. Friendship networks andthe support and security they offered

came across strongly in the process ofmaking the video. The young peoplewere quick to state that they looked outfor each other and were ready to defendor support friends when necessary.Parents, in particular mums, were alsomentioned as people to turn to foradvice and support. Some also turned toa trusted neighbour or the parents of afriend. Less clear was the role of sourcesof advice and support outside of familyand friends. A number mentionedConnexions personal advisers althoughthis was primarily in relation to advicewith training and work. One however didrefer a different type of support fromConnexions and the help he hadreceived when he was chucked out ofhome and was feeling depressed. Fromsome young participants there was a callfor more trusted and independent sourcesof advice. Some felt that problems thatthey discussed within school were notkept confidential and therefore they choseto turn to friends for support instead.

Perceptions of Danger

79% of people agree that ‘Life for children is more dangerous thanit used to be’

57% agree that ‘Children are more at risk from paedophiles thanthey used to be’

An ESRC study highlighted strangers, drugs and traffic as the mainrisk to children identified by both parents and children

Support

Nine out of 10 young people aged 11-19 years agree that theirfamily is more important to them than their friends, whilstmothers (82%) and fathers (60%) are regarded as their mainsource of personal advice and guidance. 56% say that their friendsare their main source of personal advice and guidance

The nationalPicture

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4. Negative perceptions of young people and anti-social behaviour

A common thread throughout thediscussions with young people in Tile Hillwas a feeling that they were ‘hard doneby’; neglected or misunderstood byother residents and some serviceproviders; seen as a cause of problemsrather than positive participants in the

local community. Some older residentswho also wanted a better deal for youngpeople echoed these sentiments.

‘The young people in this area have littleto do in the evenings, and not just in theevenings, but at the weekends too. Wehave the facilities here for a youth cluband many other facilities but I don’t thinkthey are being used to their potential.’Older resident


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Disadvantaged teenagers have less sources of advice: 18% ofdisadvantaged 14-17 year olds said that they would never turn to their parents or other family for help or advice. Almost half(45%) said they were confused about where to go for help. 81%liked the idea of a single organisation that could help with all their problems.

Crime

33% of males aged 15-16 years report to having committed atleast one offence in the past 12 months.

8% of 11-12 year old boys said they had attacked someoneintending serious harm, increasing to 19% for 15 and 16 year olds.

Almost four out of ten of all young people agreed it was ‘alright tobeat people up if they start the fight’.

Young men are most at risk of violent crime, 15% reportedexperiencing a violent crime in the past year.

Sources:

Guardian/ICM poll, August 2000

Children 5-16 Research Briefing No 19: The Impact of risk andparental risk anxiety on the everyday worlds of children December

2002, ESRC

Nestle Family Monitor 1998

Prince’s Trust 2003

Beinart, Anderson, Lee and Utting 2002

British Crime Survey 2002/03

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But there is more to it than this. Youngpeople talked about a lack of respect.They described their behaviour and atti-tudes as a response to what theyperceived as a lack of respect fromothers. Service providers may well arguethe reverse, that young people do notgain respect because their behaviour canbe disruptive and they do not takeresponsibility for their actions. The twosides of the story appear to be playedout most acutely in Tile Hill in the rela-tionship between young people and thepolice. Young people involved in theresearch generally had a poor perceptionof the police. Many had dealings withthem. The police were perceived to beheavy handed in dealing with youngpeople, approaching them for littlereason and picking up on minor offenceswhich young people themselves didn’tconsider important. This caused resent-ment, for example one young person feltthat the police hadn’t responded quicklyto a domestic violence situation she wasaware of but were happy to crack downon street drinking. Some felt that theywere targeted by the police simplybecause they did not like them. The cycleof boredom and ‘nothing to do’ wasagain cited by some young people as areason for getting into trouble.

‘Every 5 minutes they come round thecorner speeding every time, like they ownthe place.’

‘They nick us just for the sake of nickingus because they don’t like us.’

‘They come up to teenagers doingnothing when they could be out catchingpeople doing real crimes.’

‘They can come up now and again, butthey’re here too much. Really too much,all the time.’

‘They just think we’re thugs.’

‘What more is there for us to do? That’swhy a lot of lads get into trouble aroundhere. It’s boredom isn’t it?’

Young people drinking, taking drugs,fighting and vandalising the area wereseen as a priority by the local police whowere interviewed as part of the project.Young people also objected to theimpact that the behaviour of a minorityof people had on the area and resentedbeing ‘tarred with the same brush’ intheir own dealings with the police. Somehad sympathy with the police. Theygenerally wanted some police presencein the area and recognised policing to bea difficult job. They accepted their ownresponsibility for keeping out of troubleand achieving their potential. There wasa feeling that it was your own choicewhether to turn to crime and that if youdid, you should pay the price.

‘At the end of the day if you commit acrime you should face the consequences.’

‘I’ve always lived in Tile Hill and I’ve keptmyself out of trouble. I’ve seen lots ofpeople be arrested and I’ve never beenarrested once. So it’s down to me really,ain’t it?’

Speaking to a police officer during thecourse of the research also revealedsome of their frustration with anti-socialbehaviour.

‘Boredom is not an excuse for some of thestuff they do around here.’Police officer

But for the young people being ‘anti-social’ they felt that they were justhanging around with friends having fun.A difficult cycle of behaviour andresponses emerges. Young people them-

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selves sometimes admit to acting inways that both they and others mightconsider anti-social and sometimes crim-inal; stealing from the vending machineat one of the youth clubs, throwingstones at a car, dropping litter, paintinggraffiti, getting into fights. Many knew ofpeople around them, neighbours, friends,brothers and sisters, who had been introuble with the police and were livingwith the consequences. When talkingabout the future one young male partici-pant stated that he expected he andmany of his friends to be in prison in twoyears time.They felt that they were justresponding to their environment and thelack of opportunities they could see opento them.

For the police and other agenciesproviding services for young people,working out the right response to someyoung people’s problem behaviour istricky. There is a neighbourhood levelpolicing unit in Tile Hill which is set up torespond to the dynamics and problemsfacing the area, in recognition that thelevel of policing needed can be intense.In neighbouring Canley, NeighbourhoodWardens are in place. In Tile Hill the waysused to deal with problem behaviour areseen by young people themselves as tooharsh, and, more importantly for thosewho keep out of trouble, lead to a sensethat all young people are seen as anti-social. At one end of the scale there arestories of young people being bannedfrom the youth club for disruptive behav-iour, at the other end of the scale there isa fine for street drinking and the applica-tion of anti-social behaviour orders andcourt procedures. Tile Hill police havenow implemented nine Anti-socialBehaviour Orders (ASBOs), three are

current and one has been unsuccessful.The challenge for the police and otherservice providers is recognising that themajority of young people in Tile Hillneither cause trouble or want to causetrouble, whilst at the same time tacklingthe anti-social and criminal behaviour ofa minority. Young participants in Tile HillUncovered felt that they were all ‘lumped’together and seen as a nuisance andweren’t able to give their side of thestory to the police and others.

How others see young people alsoimpacts on how young people see them-selves and the opportunities open tothem. There were lots of positive storiesand young residents talked about wherethey felt that they were heading. Goingtravelling, becoming a car designer, afootballer, a singer/MC, a travel rep, an airhostess, a chef and a sound and lighttechnician were some of the answers.Some, particularly the younger partici-pants, were confident that they couldmake it. For some getting out of Tile Hillwas a priority.

‘I won’t be here. I want to be a holiday repand travel the world.’

‘I’m going to be a car designer, I’ll go touniversity to study.’

‘I’m going to be an MC.’

‘We’re all going to Great Yarmouth.There’s less smack-heads there.’

Many however seemed unconvincedabout what they might achieve. Thisincluded a number of the older partici-pants in their late teens. They focused onthe short term and seemed limited bywhat they knew and what they wereused to.

‘We’re like, the lower class people.’


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70% of older secondary school pupils had mixed views onwhether adults in England were friendly towards children andyoung people. They agreed that ‘some are, some aren’t’

More than 50% of adults agree with the statement ‘I feelthreatened by groups of teenagers hanging around in streets andpublic places’

75% of the adult population support a legally enforceableevening curfew on teenagers.

In David Blunkett’s introduction to the anti-social behaviour WhitePaper he paints a negative picture of young people as a threat toothers by referring to “youth hanging around street cornersintimidating the elderly”

The proposed Anti-Social Behaviour Bill would introduce newpowers to allow police to disperse groups of two or more peopleand to remove young people under 16 who are unsupervised inpublic places from 9pm to 6am to their place of residence

70 per cent of young people agree that the police should not begiven powers to move them on if they have not done anythingwrong. 80 per cent say that curfews are not fair because not allyoung people cause problems. 81 per cent say that the police arevery important in helping children lead safe and secure lives.

The nationalpicture

‘People like us don’t get good jobs.’

‘In 5 years time all of these people will bejail. Every one of them.’

Sources:

Madge 2003

Nestle Family Monitor No2

Taking a Stand Against Anti-social behaviour Home Office 2003

NOP survey of 702 10-16 year olds, September 2003 conducted onbehalf of a coalition of 13 children’s charities opposing elements of

the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill

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5. The state of the environment

‘If you say to someone that you live in TileHill, they’re going to think,“oh, that’s nota very nice place”.’

The final major issue that young peopleinvolved in the Tile Hill Uncovered projectraised was the poor state of their localenvironment. Litter, graffiti and the badstate of repair of some of the buildingsand housing were thought to give thearea a depressing and uncared for feel.They filmed areas that had become adumping ground, buildings that wereboarded up and neglected and flats inthe process of being smartened up.

‘When you go round the back of theshops you’ve got broken bottles, drugpackets, litter.’

‘I just feel ashamed really. People roundhere could do a lot more to help but theydon’t.’

‘I wouldn’t like to bring my kids uparound here.’

There was little sense of pride in the areaand a sense that those from outside

would be likely to view it as rundown.Some however recognised that theywere at times part of the problem. Whilstmany teenagers moaned about the stateof the area, they also admitted to drop-ping litter and pointed out each other’snames in graffiti on the walls.

‘I don’t know, it is natural. You aren’tgonna put it in your pocket until you gethome because the stuff might leak. Sowhy not throw it away on the grass orsomething?’

‘We need some more bins around here.’

Whilst a scarcity of bins was highlighted,many of the teenagers were not opti-mistic about the likelihood of the culturechange needed to bring about respectfor their environment.

‘People wouldn’t stop dropping litter, noteven if you paid them ten pounds.’

‘I think they care, but they don’t have thetime and can’t be bothered to get offtheir butt and do it.’

The physical regeneration of the areawas a priority for young people.


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In identifying the most serious threats to their local environment,people put crime and vandalism first (68%), followed by people'slack of concern/care/interest (42%). This was followed by pollutionfrom traffic (35%), loss of green spaces (29%) and litter (28%).

The nationalpicture

Source:

The Environment, who cares? MORI poll, June 2002

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So what do young people in Tile Hill want?

This section has covered the big issuesfor young people in Tile Hill and theextent to which many of these problemswere caused or heightened by boredom.It is not surprising therefore that thingsto do and places to go were mostcommonly mentioned as priorities forthe future.

When discussing what sort of places andactivities young people wanted to beavailable the following were highlighted:

A neutral space that they can call their own

‘Just somewhere we can go and, like,hang around, so the Old Bill don’t comedown.’

‘A big house, but for teenagers.’

‘I’d build a youth room.’

Somewhere safe and secure

‘You should have CCTV or paid securityguards.’

‘It should be run by someone like youguys’

‘You should have bouncers on the doors.’

Easy to get to

‘Somewhere close around here like TripleTriangle Club and if we had a youth clubit would be somewhere where we can go.’

‘The Midland Sports centre is too far fromhere.’

No drugs or alcoholThe young people recognised that somepeople might prefer to hang out on the

streets where they could drink, but mostthought that any youth space shouldhave a strict policy against alcohol anddrugs.

‘If you allow drinking you will find a lot ofpeople coming in drinking and they willstart to abuse it; smashing everythingand stuff.’

Things to doThe young people all had their ownideas about what activities should be onoffer, depending on their own interests.Common themes were music and sportand were loosely divided along genderlines. The boys tended to opt for footballpitches, basketball and trips to themeparks, whilst the girls wanted music,dance, chill-out space and parties.

‘Sports, discos, music, just things thatteenagers like.’

‘Yeah. Help, and advice, support, sports,football ground, tennis court and discos.’

‘More residential trips.’

‘If we had a basketball court we woulduse it from morning till night. Just purebasketball training because that is whatwe like.’

‘A fair here all the time’

‘A new park’

‘Make places for us to go and things todo. Not just sitting around watching telly,but acting and singing and dancing andstuff like that.’

Help and adviceSeveral of the young people expressed awish to have more sources of advice.They felt the lack of someone older whothey could turn to in times of trouble ortalk to about the big issues in their lives.

‘I wouldn’t go to the school counsellor,because I’ve tried that before and people

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have found out about things that I said.’

‘Social services have helped me quite alot… but I don’t think many peoplewould know how to contact them.’

They stressed the need for any suchperson to be independent and for themto be able to tell them things in strictestconfidence.


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Tile Hill is one of Coventry City Council’spriority neighbourhoods which means itreceives extra funding and attention butmany similar neighbourhoods can befound around England. The accounts thatthe young residents give of their areaand their calls for more things to do anda safer environment are similarly echoedelsewhere. What stands in the way ofproviding sustained, good quality serv-ices and opportunities to young peoplein Tile Hill will resonate in many otherneighbourhoods. Despite a range ofinitiatives taking place in the area,including Positive Futures, mentoringschemes, citizenship and democracyinitiatives and some innovative newhealth education partnerships, themessage that emerges most clearly isthat there are still gaps. Comprehensiveand sustained provision of opportunities,activities and support for young peopleis not in place. Below some of the mainproblems facing service providers in the

area with their work with young peopleoutside of school are identified.

Funding: not enough, short-term,not reliable

Youth service funding constitutes thecore funding base but money is tightand will only stretch so far. In addition,local service providers have to draw onfunding from different areas in order toprovide activities for young people, eachtime meeting different criteria and fillingin different applications. Funding maycome from the lottery, from CrimeConcern, from the Youth Justice Board orfrom government initiatives such asPositive Futures or Positive Activities forYoung People for example. The processcan be highly bureaucratic. The result isthat activities can feel ‘one-off’ or timelimited. Summer schemes that stop aftersummer, trips to go paint balling or go-carting which leave young peoplewanting more but which require further

Section two:Identifying the

problem

It is important not to over generalise what can be learnt from Tile Hill. Thearea has its own dynamics which all play a part in how young people seethemselves and their neighbourhood. There are always limitations todrawing national lessons from local areas. However, Tile Hill is also typicalof a lot of places.

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funding applications to repeat. Localservice providers in neighbouring Canleyare currently in the process of stakingclaim to renewing their NeighbourhoodRenewal Funding (NRF)6. Sometimesfunding just doesn’t stretch far enough.The local sports centre ran a range ofsuccessful activities on Wednesday nightincluding a singing class and sportsactivities but even with young peoplepaying to attend there was no money toextend this to other nights. The MakeSpace initiative has given CoventrySports Foundation £15,000 over 2 yearsto develop provision, with a specificfocus on extending the number of nightsthat activities are provided but it isunclear how far this grant will stretch.

Securing the confidence and trust ofyoung people and staying with them tohelp them develop and be ambitiousand hopeful for their futures is crucial.Yet in practice the provision of servicesoften raises hopes and expectations atone stage, only to dash them furtherdown the line when funding runs out ora key youth worker moves on. There isalso a sense of only being able to do somuch; one or two nights at the sportscentre or the youth centre rather thanevery night and little or nothing at weekends. There will always be limitations on funding and resources.Yet the current framework of provision,which sees different providers drawingon different pots of money for timelimited projects, in tandem with a youthservice with resources that will onlystretch so far, can lead to young peoplebecoming disillusioned and confused.

A shortage of good community venues and youth clubs

The Abermarle report of the 1960s gaverise to a wave of new youth club build-ings across England but these are oftenout of step with the type of modern,social, friendly spaces that young peopleare now looking for. In Tile Hill the sportscentre hosts some activities and theyouth club is also used. Both have theirlimits; the youth club in particular wasfelt to be aimed at much younger chil-dren and not inviting to teens. This islikely to be because a children’s cluboperates from the centre and there is nofull-time youth worker at present. Fromthe outside it doesn’t look welcoming:boarded up and backing on to a sportscourt that has overgrown (althoughfunding has been secured to make ituseable again). The youth club is recog-nised to be isolated and with poor streetlighting. Parents can be reluctant to lettheir children access activities providedthere as it can be seen as unsafe andinadequate. The sports centre at theother end of the estate is a more suitableand welcoming space for young peoplebut there is recognition that access tothe centre is difficult for some youngpeople. There is no direct public trans-port link from the top end of Tile Hill tothe sports centre, the walk would takeabout half an hour and many youngpeople will not be allowed to undertakeit on their own.

However, improvements are planned forthe future. The Jardine Crescent youthclub building is due to be re-furbished in2004 with a budget of £250,000 allo-cated by Coventry Council. The plan is to

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involve young people in deciding howthe youth club might be developed. It isalso hoped that in the future, once a newyouth worker is in place, music tech-nology programmes will be developedusing state of the art equipment.

A mixed and sometimes divided population of young people

Young people don’t always feel safemixing with different groups and can bewary of going into different parts of theirareas where they might be bullied. Anelement of mistrust between differentgroups of young people in Tile Hill wasevident. It is hard to tackle this head onas it requires significant groundwork byyouth workers to build trust and confi-dence. As a result youth work provisiontends to reach only particular groups ofyoung people. This was true for the TileHill Uncovered film project. In order toreach different groups of young peoplewe had to go out and meet them ontheir own turf. Young people were reluc-tant to come together in a single venueand work collectively on the film.

Young people with little sense ofcontrol over their community

Many of the young people who took partin the film project had little sense of theircapacity to change things. They gavearticulate accounts of what was wrongwith their area and particularly whatthey felt young people were lacking.There was a sense however that theywere repeating what they knew wereage-old problems. They were looking forothers (the Council, local serviceproviders) to make things better whilst

at the same time being doubtful thatanything would actually change. There isa danger that the local population getswary of being consulted on what theywould like to see change with littleevidence that their views will be actedupon. There is a challenge in trying toconfigure a relationship between localresidents and service providers that is notjust about service providers consultingpeople on what they want but ratherworking with them so that local residentsthemselves help deliver real change.

For some of the young people involvedin Tile Hill Uncovered, the sense of power-lessness went further. They didn’t havefaith in their own ability to direct thecourse of their lives. Some were hopefulof their chances of a good job or theopportunity to travel and take on newchallenges. Others however had a fatal-istic approach. Teenage boys in particularstated that good job opportunities andprospects were out of reach and morelikely options were prison or a dead-endjob. At times it felt that young peoplegave these accounts because they wereacting out what was expected of them.Even so they demonstrate an underlyingchallenge in encouraging young peopleto expect more and to re-assess theircapabilities. Without raising the stakescommunities can become defined by a group of young people with little sense of their capacity to change eithertheir area or the opportunities open tothem. Public policy and service providersmust challenge low expectations, if theydon’t then they can end up colluding with young people’s sometimes low assessments of themselves and theircapabilities.

Identifying the problem

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Drink and drugs have a grip onthe area

The impact of drink and drugs came uprepeatedly. For many they made the areafeel run down and unsafe. Areas with areputation for drug dealing and use anddrinking became ‘no-go’ areas for some.For the core group of young peopledrinking and taking drugs regularly theysimply became routine – it’s just ‘whatyou do’.

A shortage of youth workers

At the time of the film project the TileHill youth club was reaching only a fraction of the local population of youngpeople. The club was running only twoevenings a week with a low turnout. Ayouth worker from a neighbouring areahad been called in to cover for thedeparture of the permanent youthworker. The club is based at the JardineCrescent area of Tile Hill meaning thatthose living in other parts were reluctantto go. There appears to have been littleprogress made with the core group ofdrinking and drug taking teenagershanging around by the local shops, theywere not keen to attend the youth cluband no outreach youth worker was inplace (although outreach work has beenundertaken in the past).

For some the youth club had bad associ-ations as they had been banned fromattending. The problem is in large partone of capacity and a shortage of goodyouth workers. Working with a broad anddiverse group of young people in a waythat builds their trust and confidence,engages them in creative and mean-ingful activity and meets underlying

goals of raising achievement and tack-ling individual problems is a hard task.Youth work is suffering the same prob-lems as the teaching profession: ashortage of well qualified staff and thechallenge of keeping hold of the onesyou’ve got. In particular there is the taskof recruiting youth workers who areprepared to take on the job of rejuve-nating youth provision in rundown areaslike Tile Hill.

Negative perceptions of youngpeople based on the behaviour ofa minority

Young people in the film talked abouthow the behaviour of a few affects thefeel and safety of the area. They felt thatthey were often all labelled as potentialtroublemakers rather than being giventhe benefit of the doubt. Some talkedabout a lack of respect. They describedtheir behaviour and attitudes as aresponse to what they perceived as alack of respect from others. This led to astrong sense of young people definingtheir relationship with some serviceproviders and other residents as one of‘them and us’. There is a need to findcommon ground and spaces for youngpeople to talk to and interact withpeople across the generations to tacklenegative perceptions and find commonground.

Local service providers grapplingwith the delivery of ‘joined-up services’

Joined-up working has become a buzz-word of public service reform. Puttinginto practice this common sense way ofworking on the ground is difficult. In

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youth provision different providers workto different agendas and there is notalways a coherent story of what the endgoal is. Is it about raising educationalachievement and enhancing futureprospects? Or providing opportunitiesand activities to engage and keep youngpeople out of trouble? Or is it aboutidentifying the health and support needsof vulnerable young people and makingsure that they are met? The reality is allthree but the agendas rarely meshtogether. This is partly about differentwork cultures – the target driven, Ofsted-inspected Youth and ConnexionsServices can rub against the freeformculture of voluntary youth work, arts andsports organisations (even though they

too will have to meet the targets offunding requirements). Both can stand incontrast to the narrow focus of specificsupport and referral services who comeinto contact with young people to offerhelp in particular areas such as teenagepregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse,family or mental health problems. In TileHill a working party of people deliveringservices to young people meet (coveringschool based initiatives, health supportsuch as Sure Start and sports and area-coordination team staff ). It is not clearyet whether the different cultures andorganisations can work to a commongoal of tackling long-term, entrenchedproblems such as drugs and anti-socialbehaviour.

Identifying the problem

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Not least there is the target of endingchild poverty by 2020 and halving it by2010. The creation of a Minister forChildren, Young people and families andthe Children and Young People’s Unit isfurther evidence of the government’scommitment to focus its attention onproviding good services for young people.The message is that policy and initiativesfocused at young people should beconsistent, joined up and workingtowards a common goal: protecting andsupporting young people and enablingthem to reach their potential. It is clearthat the work of every governmentdepartment has an impact on youngpeople’s lives, including the Home Office,which continues to develop strategiesfor dealing with criminal and anti-socialbehaviour, with young people recognisedas an important target of such strategies.

When taken as a whole the goal of initia-tives like Sure Start, Connexions,

Children’s Centres, the Children’s Fund,Positive Activities for Young People andYouth Offending Teams is no less than toradically interrupt the cycle of depriva-tion that traps young people frompoorer backgrounds and prevents themfrom achieving their potential. Butgetting services right for young people isnot easy, particularly when trying toachieve multiple goals: reducing crimeand anti-social behaviour, drug andalcohol use, teenage pregnancy andpoverty for example on the one handand raising educational achievement,aspirations and self-esteem on the other.

Much has already been made of themixed messages about children andyoung people that exist in different poli-cies. The emphasis on educationalachievement and sound careers advicesees young people as vessels to be filledwith useful information and skills thatwill set them up well for a productive

Section three:Giving young people

something better

The Tile Hill Uncovered project takes place against a backdrop of renewedgovernment spending and activity on services for children and youngpeople.Young people are an important target of national policy, particularlythose from the poorest backgrounds and the most deprived communities.

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future. The Every Child Matters greenpaper stresses the importance of safe-guarding children at risk and depicts thepotential for children to be victims. Theanti-social behaviour white paper andnew proposals for more stringent laws to curtail anti-social behaviour targetyoung people as thugs or potentialthugs whose actions infringe on the restof the community. These distinctions areoversimplified but there is a danger thatthe more complete messages about children and young people being people in their own right now and notjust the future, can get lost in the biggerstories that emphasise education,protection and diversion from anti-socialbehaviour. There is also recognition ofthe fact that a single young person maybe the target of all of these policies:underachieving in education, at risk athome and committing crime in thecommunity. Yet linking different policiestogether in a way that offers the mosteffective interventions possible tosupport a young person is rare in practice.

Despite the flurry of activity andrenewed focus on children and youngpeople, Tile Hill illustrates just how farthere is to go. Much has still to be doneto create safe, vibrant spaces and placesfor young people in communities andthe support services to back them up.Below the main issues to be addressedare set out. These are the issues thatneed to be tackled in order to make thenational level commitment to doingright by young people a convincingreality on the ground in communitieslike Tile Hill.

1. Get the basics right: consistentservice provision and decent placesto run services from

In Tile Hill young people’s experience ofthe provision of activities and serviceswas patchy. They wanted something reliable. The key to building the trust andconfidence of young people and encour-aging them to engage over a period oftime is sustained provision. There wasrecognition of this in the Every ChildMatters (2003) green paper:

A consistent theme of consultations withchildren and young people is theimportance of having communitieswhere there is ‘somewhere safe to go andsomething to do’ […] The Governmentintends to widen access to a range ofstructured and unstructured, supervisedand unsupervised activities

Young people and activity is oftenviewed as a happy marriage. A way ofkeeping young people ‘off the streets’and less likely to cause harm or trouble,leaving the rest of the communityfeeling safer as a result. A number ofgovernment programmes focus explicitlyon creating programmes of activity foryoung people in order to divert them fromanti-social and criminal behaviour7. Butthe message of youth provision must beabout more than diverting young peopleaway from nuisance or criminal activity.There must be a positive story aboutcreating activities for young people tosupport them in their own right, toprovide them with opportunities todevelop new skills and experiences, tohave fun and to help them acquire newresponsibilities and independence asthey grow older.

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Funding: not enough, often short-termand doesn’t add upSpending on youth services is beginningto gain ground as a real priority inGovernment as the link between services for young people and a range ofpositive outcomes is recognised. InDecember 2002 extra funding wasannounced for the youth service,bringing the potential youth servicebudget to £513 million per year. It wasannounced as a 5.9% increase in fundingfor the youth service with a target ofspending at £100 per head. There arealready concerns about where the newmoney is to come from and the extent towhich local authorities will be expectedto find the funds to pay for better youthservices. The increase also comes afteryears of decline in youth services andagainst the backdrop of a still limitedknowledge of the effectiveness ofdifferent approaches and models ofyouth work.

More money is being linked to raisingstandards and setting minimum requirements. These include youth serv-ices reaching at least 25 per cent of the13-19 population in their area with aspecific focus on those in ‘at risk’ cate-gories and 70 per cent of those using the service should express satisfactionwith them. There is also a standardrequiring all youth provision per 1,000population to be accessible for aminimum of 4 hours per week8. The focus on raising standards and beingclear on the extent to which youth serv-ices should be reaching out to youngpeople in their communities is to bewelcome. However, the funding toresource the transformation is notcertain. There is still a danger that these

funds can be diverted into other areas by Local Authorities as they are not ring-fenced9.

Youth Service funding is the biggest partof the funding mix but not the only one.A wide range of Government, lottery,European and charity funding sourcesmight also be called upon to resourceservices and activities for young people.In Tile Hill funding from Crime Concern,the Youth Justice Board, the NewOpportunities Fund and the Children’sFund has been levered in by differentservice providers. Another fundingprospect is proposed in the Every ChildMatters green paper. It sets out a £200million ‘Young People’s Fund’ to be allo-cated by the lottery for activities out ofschool. The fund currently appears likelyto be open to offers, with young peopleto be part of determining how it is spent.

That there is lots of funding around tocall upon can only be positive. However,there is a time commitment involved inaccessing these funds which requiresresources, skills and capacity. Each will beaimed at a slightly different target groupof young people. Taken as a whole,funding for services for young peopleinvolves a scatter gun approach.Different pots of money are available fordifferent things, often for a time-limitedperiod and often only available in partic-ular target areas. The result, as in Tile Hill,can be a programme of activities foryoung people that does not cometogether as a coherent whole. When theservice that can potentially join differentyoung people initiatives together – theYouth Service – is short-staffed there isfurther danger of fragmentation.

Giving young people something better

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Lack of spacesThere is no concerted effort or fundingto revive many of the tired and closeddown youth clubs and centres aroundthe country. Innovations in youth serviceprovision have led to multiple models ofprovision, including outreach modelsthat are not based in a physical buildingor youth club. However, in order todeliver most programmes of youth serv-ices some form of community space orcentre is necessary. It means that youthservices have a recognised base andfocus within an area.

There is a strategy gap in this area. Nonational strategy is in place to audit whatplaces and centres are already availableand useable and where more areneeded. The most concerted effort torevive youth clubs is the Make Spacecampaign run by Kids Club Networks.Make Space aims to transform opportu-nities for young people by establishing anew network of modern teenage afterschool clubs. To access funding potentialclubs must show that they will offer adynamic place, different types of areasincluding chill out and activity spacesand must also involve young people indeveloping their club. There is a target ofestablishing 3,000 Make Space clubs for2015.

The vision of the Make Space campaignis a positive one. Tile Hill itself has beenawarded a grant of £15,000 over twoyears to develop the number of nights ofyouth provision available at the sportscentre. The focus is also not on bricks andmortar but on getting in place an inno-vative mix of activities and opportunities.Yet funding is not guaranteed byGovernment but with £2.5million in seed

funding from the Nestle Trust. Longerterm Make Space aims to attract majorgovernment funding. Accessing fundingwill be competitive and dependent onthe skills and motivation of local serviceproviders. Grants are awarded at a lowlevel, to develop existing provision, andwill not cover the creation of newcentres. 2015 is also a long time to waitto see the sort of sea change in provisionof services for young people that isneeded. IPPR has previously identifiedthe need for a programme of capitalinvestment for the development orconstruction of ‘Young Clubs’ – aprogramme for revitalising youth clubprovision and other facilities for youngpeople (Nash 2003:p38).

School buildings should also be takeninto account as possible venues for theprovision of youth services. Primaryschool populations are dropping and arelikely to continue to do so for anotherdecade. Secondary school populationsare just peaking. There is likely to be anincrease in spare accommodation inschools which have the potential to beused as community facilities, the mostobvious use being for the provision ofactivity and support for young peopleand parents. Schools may not alwayswant to be defined as a communityresource but youth workers could makegood use of school buildings facilities(for example IT and arts equipment). Italso makes sense to maximise the valueof this capital resource within a commu-nity. There are barriers in using schoollocations to deliver youth services whentrying to attract those young peoplewho are antagonistic to school or maybe excluded from it. A combination ofthe right staff, programme of activities

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and atmosphere may help to overcomethese barriers. The announcement offunding for at least one extended schoolin every local authority area by 200610 isa step in the right direction. Extendedschools will provide childcare, health andsocial care, lifelong learning opportuni-ties, family learning, parenting support,study support, sports and arts, and ICTaccess. Thinking about the role of youthwork within this context must be apriority.

StaffingMore funding and more youth centresare vital but not enough to up the antein youth service provision. Even withfunding in place and spaces from whichto provide youth clubs and services thereis also the issue, highlighted by Tile Hill,of recruitment. The main youth workerfor Tile Hill had left the post a fewmonths before we made Tile HillUncovered. Finding a replacement wasproving difficult and an advertisement inlocal and specialist press was unsuc-cessful.

Creating a sustained programme ofactivities and opportunities over a periodof time that reaches a broad range ofyoung people in an area like Tile Hill is askilled and challenging job. It is notglamorous and involves unsociablehours. It is likely to require resilience andhard work to build confidence among agroup of young people who feel likethey have been let down in the past. Itrequires someone who is prepared tochampion the importance of providinggood services for young people and notjust meet basic requirements.

Government targets in this area aren’tambitious. The goal is one nationallyqualified, full-time staff member per 400of the 13-19 youth population. There issome commitment to staff developmentwith 5 per cent for the youth servicebudget to spend on the professionaldevelopment of staff. But more innova-tive ways of developing staff to delivergood youth services are needed. Oneplace to start is building the capacity ofpeople living and working in thecommunity to work with young people.It is at this level that commitment toworking in a particular area over a periodof time is most likely to be secured.

2. Tackle the root causes ofproblem behaviour

In the course of making the film withyoung people in Tile Hill accounts spon-taneously came up in discussions ofbullying, domestic violence, siblings inprison, suicide attempts, young peoplebeing unwelcome at home, difficult rela-tionships with parents and young peopleserving community sentences. It was alsoevident that alcohol and drug use wascommon and routine among somegroups of young people. The range ofissues and problems that young peoplemight have to deal with is broad. Gettingthe basics right in terms of providinggood spaces and places for youngpeople to go to and things for them todo is only the start of a serious commit-ment to addressing young people’sneeds. Different young people willrequire different levels of support and forsome the provision of enjoyable andengaging activities will be enough. Forothers the scale of support and level ofintervention required will be greater.


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The provision of services for youngpeople, outside of school and formaleducation, often appear to do one of twothings. Either educating young peopleand preparing them for work or keepingthem active and diverting them fromproblem behaviour. Both models areimportant but there is a danger that theactivity created skirts around entrenchedsocial and emotional problems that willcontinue to hold young people backunless they are tackled head on. Neitherprovides an adequate response toteenagers locked into a cycle of drink,drugs, low expectations, boredom,mistrust of authority and so on. There is aneed to consider young people’s supportneeds as a whole. High on the agendamust be a serious commitment to tack-ling problem drink and drug use. Yetsupport services that target issues likedrug and alcohol use, teenage preg-nancy, criminal behaviour are often to befound only on the peripheries of main-stream youth provision and may onlykick into action once a problem isentrenched.

Education, education, educationThe Connexions service typifies theeducation model of youth provision. Theunderlying philosophy of Connexions isto provide a rounded service that fullyaddresses young people’s needs but inits early days of implementation it hasnot achieved this. There is some localvariation in the delivery of Connexionsbut the dominant story is undoubtedlyabout education, training and work.Support and intervention to help withsocial and emotional needs gets asmaller billing. The service is in its infancyand deserves time to fully develop.However, early evaluations show that the

workload of Connexions personaladvisers and young people’s perceptionsof their role is focused on careers,training and education advice (Joyce,White and Franses, October 2003). In therecently published first phase customersatisfaction survey11 less than 12 per centof young people surveyed had talked toa Connexions personal adviser to discussstress, alcohol and drugs, housing orbullying for example. Onward referrals byConnexions were exclusively to work oreducation-related organisations such asthe Job Centre or local college. This is indespite of the fact that whilstConnexions is a universal service, it has aspecific focus on those most sociallyexcluded, who are likely to have a widerange of needs.

That education and work dominate theConnexions service and its targets is notsurprising. The education mantra hascarried through New Labour’s time inoffice since 1997. Standards and achieve-ment drive the education agenda with astrong focus on improving numeracyand literacy, raising educational attain-ment and increasing the number ofyoung people who stay on at schoolafter 16 and gain access to higher educa-tion. Whilst employment is the lynchpinof the overall anti-poverty strategy it israising educational attainment thatdominates this agenda in relation toyoung people, and rightly so. Better qualifications lead to better jobs andhigher incomes. Education is a driver ofsocial mobility and enables young peopleto step outside of the limitations of theirupbringing and their surroundings.

The extent to which educational attain-ment is seen as the best hope for eradi-

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cating poverty and improving outcomesfor young people from the most disad-vantaged backgrounds is further evidentin recent funding commitments. The2003 Budget announced a cross-govern-ment review of financial support for 16to 19 year olds, including financial incen-tives to participate in education ortraining and the case for extending theNational Minimum Wage. SpecificallySeptember 2004 will see the launch ofthe Education Maintenance Allowance(EMA), a means-tested grant of up to £30a week during term-time to stay ineducation. Additional bonuses of £100will be paid if pupils remain on thecourse and make good progress withtheir learning.

However, there is a danger that thedominant focus on education and workcrowds out other important goals foryouth work. It can mean failing to recog-nise that the extent to which youngpeople are able to take up these oppor-tunities is dependent on tackling someof the barriers that get in their way suchas low self-esteem, substance abuseproblems, poor social skills and so on.One young male in the Tile Hill Uncoveredvideo describes how Connexions visitedhim in his own home yet all they had tooffer him was factory work. A home visitthat offers only the opportunity offactory work may reflect the local jobmarket but seems unlikely to motivate orinspire a young person to broaden theirambitions12. This was not the only storyto tell however. Another young maledescribed how his Connexions personaladviser helped him when he waschucked out of home and was feelingdepressed. The extent to which this moreresponsive advice that meets the

different needs of young people is avail-able through Connexions is still to beproven. It is dependent on the skills andability of individual personal advisers torespond to very different needs of youngpeople. It is also reliant on the ability ofthe service as a whole to reach the crit-ical percentage of young people whoneed this type of fuller support.

Keep them activeThe other dominant model of provisionfor young people is diversionary activity,often with some tie-in to educationalgoals. The Government’s flagshipprogramme in this area is the PositiveActivities for Young People (PAYP)programme, launched in time forsummer 2003, funding is secured forthree years with £25 million available inthe first year. The focus is on providingactivities for young people in the schoolholidays with the aim of reducing youthoffending and increasing the number ofyoung people staying on in school.

The views of young people in Tile Hillclearly show a demand for more provi-sion of engaging activities. Thoseinvolved in programmes run at thesports centre (called Busting StreetCrime, funded by the Youth JusticeBoard) were positive although theywanted them to run more than one daya week. Feedback on the ground forschemes like PAYP is also positive. Itmeans more funding for those strugglingto provide a programme of engagingactivities to young people in communi-ties like Tile Hill.

There are two potential problems withsuch schemes. The first is the danger of‘initiative-itus’ combined with a lack of


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overall coherence. New programmes arelaunched and old ones re-packaged. Wehave already seen how funding sourcesfor youth work are varied – from lotterygrants, to Home Office/Youth OffendingTeam money to European fundingstreams.The result may be more activitiesprovided for young people but no senseof strategy as to how they add up tosomething that will really have an impacton the lives of young people in an area.Projects may only begin to scratch thesurface of a problem and make onlysmall inroads in improving the lives ofthe young people they target.

The second potential problem is that thetarget of these programmes is to provideactivities for young people to interact,sometimes with an education target tiedin. It is not to tackle the root causes ofwhy some young people are excluded,unmotivated and at risk. Programmesmay include a commitment to buildingself-esteem and building trust and confi-dence between different groups ofyoung people. However, there is rarely asystematic approach to integratingactivity with good quality support andadvice to tackle underlying problems,not least drug and alcohol use. By far themost commonly provided PAYP activity,for example, is sports-based with a moremarginal role for, for example, drugadvice.

Tackling underlying problemsProviding support, advice and interven-tions that work to tackle underlyingproblems is a hard nut to crack. Thoseproviding youth work provision willstress the importance of hooking youngpeople into services with interesting andfun activities rather than a suggestion

that they need help to tackle a drugproblem for example. But there is also asense that an opportunity is beingmissed. There is evidence that real prob-lems are only picked up when it isalready too late. For example once youngpeople are in contact with the criminaljustice system they are much more likelyto receive a intensive level of interven-tion or treatment to help with asubstance misuse problem. The new anti-social behaviour bill introduces an indi-vidual support order that will requirechildren and young people with Anti-Social Behaviour Orders to accept help,such as drug treatment, where appro-priate. Such interventions are important,but too late if they only kick in when ayoung person gets in trouble with thepolice. The challenge is getting thebalance right between prevention andenforcement and recognising that bothare needed.

Other interventions will come in theform of social care services and indeedsome of the young people involved inthe project mentioned that they were incontact with social services. Again thereappears to be a need for on-goingsources of support and advice thatyoung people trust that does not requirethe more serious and involved process ofbeing referred to social services.

One way in which youth work andsupport services can be integratedsuccessfully and convincingly is bylocating them in the same area or centre.Such initiatives, which link up health,social care, advice and support serviceswith youth work and provision of activi-ties for young people are relatively rarebut should provide a useful model for

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others. The Sure Start model is oneexample, linking support and activitiesfor parents and potential parents withhealth, housing, parenting, work andeducation advice. The proposedChildren’s Trusts and Directors ofChildren’s Services are also examples ofattempts to integrate and connectdifferent types of provision for youngpeople. There is potential to carry thismodel through for teenagers and theirparents – a type of ‘Sure Future’ or ‘SureProgress’ programme. This would inte-grate support, advice and informationservices, the provision of activities andopportunities and practical guidance indealing with a range of issues, aimed atboth teenagers and their parents.

The reinvention of the library as a safespace for young people to spend time, isa positive development in this direction.Peckham library is the most oftenquoted example, but Stratford in EastLondon, Sunderland, Norwich andBournemouth have all encouragedyoung people through their doors withchill-out rooms, sofas, free internet accessand multi-media centres. They run home-work clubs, teenage reading groups andcomputer courses, taking on a youthwork role as well as providing access tobooks. Innovative schemes are alsobeginning to spring up around youngpeople’s health services. The Parallel inBolton is a flagship example. It is prima-rily a young people’s family planningclinic, but is taking on a much largerremit, dealing with mental health issues,running lesbigay support groups andgiving advice on any other problems itsusers may be dealing with.

However, some attempts to meet the fullrange of young people’s needs aresimply misplaced or off target. The 2002Transforming Youth Work governmentdocument provides an annual youthservice target of ‘60 per cent of youngpeople engaged within the serviceundergoing personal and social develop-ment which results in an accreditedoutcome’13. This seems too vague in onesense and too specific in another.Personal and social development maycover an enormous range of differentactivities and does not communicate asense of what exactly it is that youthwork should achieve: that is a tangibleand positive impact on the lives ofyoung people and support in tacklingthe barriers that stand in the way ofthem achieving. The focus on accredita-tion by contrast is too specific. Thecurrent drive within the sector is to geteverything and anything accredited witha danger that the process and accredita-tion is itself more important than theoutput. The paper also sets as standardsfor provision for Youth Services that 5 percent of the youth population is workedwith ‘intensively’. This suggests a commit-ment to recognising the range of issuesthat a young person might have to dealwith in his life without any sense ofwhere priority should be placed or how apositive outcome of ‘intensive’ youthwork might be judged.

In Tile Hill drink and drug use appearedto have the potential to get in the way ofyoung people achieving. Yet targetsdriving work in this field are either vagueor non-existent. At national level a drugstrategy targeted at young people is inplace with two key strands. One isPositive Futures which aims to divert


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those at risk into sports activities, theother is an education strand focused onexploring different ways of deliveringdrug education for 11 to 13 year olds.There is a broad national target toreduce drug use, particularly class Adrugs, among young people but nospecific goal that states by how muchdrug use should be reduced. The PrimeMinister’s Strategy Unit is currentlyworking on the development of theNational Alcohol Harm ReductionStrategy but there is, as yet, no specifictarget to reduce problem drinkingamong young people. Targets are onlyone way of achieving change but theycan be a starting point in buildingcommitment and momentum in tacklingsome social problems. More ambitiousand clearly defined targets to tackleproblem drink and drug use amongyoung people, and the investment toachieve them, are needed.

3. New types of professionals

The skills of youth workers and otherprofessionals working with youngpeople are crucial. There is scope todevelop jobs that involve supportingpupils in school and other settingsduring the day and in youth settings inthe evening14. People who can apply abroad range of skills and knowledgewhen working with young people will bevital as new services for young peopledevelop and new programmes are rolledout. These will be people who can gainthe trust and confidence of a youngperson and have a range of options avail-able to support them. It is also importantthat young people do not get referredfrom one service provider to another inorder to access the support and advice

they need. Building trust and confidencein one adult worker takes time and maybe hard enough. If a young person isthen referred on to another service orsource of support his needs may simplyfall through the net.

IPPR has already argued that a majorrealignment of professional boundariesin social care will be required in futureand ultimately the creation of newprofessions (Kendall and Harker 2002).One key example of where there is realpotential for this to happen is in thecreation of a new profession combiningyouth and community work, social work,adolescent mental health services andcareers services to provide more holisticservices for young people. This is rolecovered on the continent by ‘socialeducators’.

A 2020 vision would see a unifiedprofession being established to providestaff for youth and community worksettings, social work teams, youth justiceservices, teenage health profession,adolescent mental health services,residential homes, foyer schemes,adolescent careers services andConnexions.

Liam Hughes in Kendall and Harker(2002).

This model of provision will take time todevelop. Practice is likely to be patchyand much is dependent on the skills andapproach of individual youth workers.Part of the problem in Tile Hill is a lack ofyouth workers ready to champion such arounded service. Those that are availableare often over-stretched and more ableto provide programmes of activity thanprogrammes of support and advice.Specialist services are tailored to meet

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particular needs, such as a drug andalcohol advice and treatment service anda sexual health, alcohol and drugoutreach project. The extent to whichthese services can join up with main-stream youth work provision ishampered both by the lack of suchprovision on a regular basis and also insome cases a lack of venues from whichto provide advice and support. Servicesfocused on effective interventions andsupport in relation to drug and alcoholuse, mental health problems or sexualhealth advice for example will often haveto cover a wide area. As such they cannotcompensate for the value of having alocal and trusted point of contact whocan spend time building up trust andconfidence over time and recogniseyoung people’s needs in the round.

The development of the Connexionsservice and its focus on the ‘Personaladviser’ role however had exactly thismodel of provision in mind when it wasdeveloped. Personal advisers are locatedin schools, colleges and communitysettings. There is a focus on one-to-onesupport, information and guidance.Advisers are expected to be able toassess need and opportunities, to main-tain contact over time and to work withcommunity networks and other agenciesto meet the full range of young people’sneeds. The personal adviser has becomea new profession, with a diploma for therole to match. A yearlong course trainsadvisers with backgrounds ranging fromcareers, housing, youth justice, healthand social work to NVQ level 4. Personaladvisers are expected to develop skills inworking with young people on issuesand projects from sexual health tobuilding confidence. In Tile Hill all of the

personal advisers are school based. Theirworkload is dominated by those youngpeople who are most excluded, oftendefined as those who are excluded fromor opting out of school.

The extent to which ConnexionsPersonal Advisers can match the visionof a rounded ‘one-stop’ service for youngpeople has still to be proven. The contentof advice and guidance is biased towardseducation, training and careers advicewith a much smaller billing for otherissues such as housing, bullying orsubstance abuse problems. This is truefor both for the content of the advicegiven and for the other agencies towhich young people in touch withConnexions are referred15. The servicehas grown primarily out of the old careeradvice service and in its developmentschools were keen not to lose the oldcareers service function that they reliedupon. The new, broader personal adviserrole will take time to develop and embeditself. There is a job to be done inmeshing together the different traditionsof the different types of workers: socialworkers, youth workers, career’s advisersand teachers. The bias of Connexionstargets however is also in favour ofeducation and work related outcomes.The focus is on reducing the proportionof 16 to 18 year olds not in education,employment or training and increasingthe numbers of teenage mothers, careleavers and other target groups who arein education, employment or training.Those targets that concern other issues,such as drug use, are more loosely based,for example, ‘to refer young people, witha drug related problem, to specialistsupport’16. Even if the more rounded‘personal adviser’ role is realised in prac-


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tice, targets still emphasise educationalachievement above all else.

There are signs to suggest that, evenwith time, the more rounded personaladviser able to respond and support thefull range of young people’s needs maynot emerge in Connexions. In addition toproblems around recruiting andattracting sufficient numbers of personaladvisers there are problems in the waythat the service has been configured. Thefirst is that the extent to which personaladvisers offer specialist or genericsupport is not resolved. The emphasisappears to lean towards the role ofpersonal advisers in referring youngpeople on to other, more specialistproviders, whilst at the same timeretaining contact with them themselves.This begins to tackle the issue of frag-mented services but doesn’t reallyanswer the need for services themselvesto be shaped round individuals ratherthan particular types of specialistsupport. The personal adviser becomesthe ‘youth broker’ (Bentley andGurumurthy 1999) and not necessarilythe trusted and knowledgeable youthworker who gains the confidence of ayoung person over time.

The second challenge for Connexions isits reach. The service tries to achieve adelicate balance between being auniversal service and a targeted one.The reality is that it can’t be both and the focus on those young people on theperiphery of society and at risk of exclusion become the main focus. This isthe right focus but it still leaves a majorgap in terms of providing the less inten-sive, more everyday support and guid-ance that young people need and want.

It is within the youth service that thisgap should be picked up but we havealready seen how this can be blighted inareas like Tile Hill by lack of staff, adivided community, poor local transportand lack of regular provision. Even thenew funding allocated by Government is unlikely to stretch to cover this.Another issue is how Connexions andthe national youth service can pulltogether. Both aim to bring disaffectedyoung people back into society, but theextent to which individual partnershipshave embraced the service varies greatly across the country17. Part of thechallenge is in breaking down professional boundaries and recognisingthe shared agenda of supporting youngpeople.

We know that workforce developmentamong those delivering services for children and young people is a priority.The Every Child Matters Green Paperproposes a Children’s Workforce Unit todevelop a pay and workforce strategy. In2002 Government announced fundingfor 450 places on the first nationalmanagement training programme forsenior youth service managers in thevoluntary and statutory sectors. Behindthis renewed drive to raise professionalstandards and develop skills amongthose working with young people thereis a need for professionals to have anuanced understanding of what under-pins problem behaviour and low expec-tations and the skills and expertise totackle them.‘Together Academy’18,launched as part of the anti-socialbehaviour action plan and with a focuson joint working and knowledge sharing,may offer some help here.

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4. Sooner or later? Not an either/orchoice

In part a response to the death of VictoriaClimbié and the subsequent Lord Laminginquiry the current Every Child MattersGreen Paper stresses the importance ofearly intervention and ensuring childrenand families receive help before it is toolate. Proposals include the integration ofkey services across education and socialservices for children and young peoplewithin ‘Children’s Trusts’, to be led by anew post – Director of Children’s Services.

There is consensus that support andservice provision in the early years of achild’s life can have a big impact on tack-ling poverty and boosting later life oppor-tunities. Parenting support, good qualitychildcare, creative play and enablingparents to access employment opportuni-ties are key components of the Sure Startprogramme for example. Plans are alsoafoot for Children’s Centres to be estab-lished in each of the twenty per cent mostdeprived neighbourhoods in England andWales.These would combine nurseryeducation, family support, employmentadvice, childcare and health services inone place.The Children’s Fund also takesthe preventative model and receives thelion’s share of the Children and YoungPeople’s Unit budget. It is targeted atproviding activities and interventions tosupport 5-13 year olds. Provision is oftenin the form of clubs and play schemes.

Our commitment as a party is socialjustice from cradle to the grave but weknow that the months that do most todetermine life chances are the monthsfrom the cradle to the nursery school

Gordon Brown, Labour Partyconference speech October 2003

In An Equal Start IPPR also identified thecrucial importance of early interventionand support to try and break the linkbetween children’s life chances and thecircumstances they are born into.

Even though they are of equal worth,children are not born equal. To a greatextent the trajectory of our lives is setbefore we are born. A child’s inheritance–the economic circumstances, health,cognitive ability, personality traits andparental expectations of each new-born– immediately place them on a hierarchy of life chances […] Achievingan equal start is dependent upon awillingness to prevent (or compensatefor) the disadvantage that begins wellbefore birth.Kendall and Harker 2003

Our focus in Tile Hill was on older youngpeople, those in their teens. Within thisage group there are big differencesbetween those aged 13 and 14 andthose aged 16 and 17 for example. Therewas a sense that those in their earlyteens would ‘graduate’ through differentstages of behaviour and activity. Those12 and 13 year olds who were on theperipheries of the group hanging out bythe shops now may well feel that theirplaces are reserved for them to be morecentral players in the future when theyare older.

The need for supportive, enabling services for young people in their teens,like the ones involved in Tile HillUncovered, is just as important as it is foryounger children. Early interventionversus later intervention is not aneither/or choice. The value of early inter-vention may be lessened if it is not builtupon and sustained over time. Sub-teens


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and teenagers now have also alreadymissed out on early intervention.

By the time young people reach theirteens the job of interrupting a cycle ofpoor attainment, problem behaviour andlow self-esteem is harder. At this age theinterventions on offer may appear tocome too late. In the long-term theestablishment of consistent andsustained supportive provision for chil-dren is vital in building the foundationsfor more effective youth work when theyget older. But it is also important tobelieve that it is never too late to changethe course of a young person’s life and toenable them to expect more for them-selves. There still remains however atleast one generation for whom thesupport offered by programmes like SureStart and the Children’s Fund was not inplace. This includes the participants ofthe Tile Hill Uncovered project. There arealso some young people’s whose circum-stances will change. The sense that inter-ventions by this age are ‘too late’ canlead to the default option for dealingwith ‘problem’ teenagers being in theform of interventions from the criminaljustice system.

We still have to do right by those whohave already missed out. They too needregular provision of engaging services.The sense of making up for lost timewith this age group and tacklingentrenched problems may hold lessappeal than a fresh start with youngerchildren but the task is no less important.

What role for parenting support?The focus on early years work and inter-vention is married with some willingnesson the part of the state to get involved in

the parenting role. Initially tentativesteps were taken to provide parentingclasses and advice for parents of youngchildren. Programmes like Sure Start canprovide a supportive environment inwhich parenting advice is more likely tobe seen as enabling and helpful ratherthan heavy handed and interfering.Positive progress is being made by SureStart in Tile Hill although they are onlyjust about to open a permanent base.

This remains however, sensitive territoryand many will still subscribe to the viewthat parenting is exclusively the job ofthe parent. Yet there is a need to be moreup front about the pressures ofparenting and the extent to which it canbe a difficult job to get right – not justfor parents in poor, rundown areas butfor all parents. Parenting is down to theparent but wider society also has a roleto play. The dilemma was recentlycaptured by Richard Reeves in the NewStatesman. He described the negativeimpact of the ‘privatisation of parenting’:

The insulation of children from broadersociety reflects and accentuates thedetachment of broader society from childrearing. Raising children is beingprivatised into the hands of their parents;it is seen as a job only for them, not for allof us. This erosion of collectiveresponsibility for children representsperhaps the gravest threat of all to ourhopes for a space for childhood.(Reeves 2003)

Part of the difficulty is that parentingsupport is most readily available inparticular types of areas, notably thosethat are poorest and most disadvan-taged. There is real danger that stateintervention in parenting is only consid-ered appropriate and necessary for those

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who live in such areas rather than beingseen as a universally needed and available resource.

Parenting support and advice is also onlygaining ground with parents of youngerchildren. The issue of what role there isfor parenting support for parents ofolder children and teens is not resolved.Interventions tend to be punitive ratherthan supportive by this age. The recenthigh profile example of a London motherbeing taken to court for her child’s non-attendance at school is evidence of thismore punitive approach.The Governmentalso recently announced plans to intro-duce on-the-spot fines for parents whoallow their children to skip school20. Fixedpenalty notices of between £25 and£100 would be imposed by council offi-cials, head teachers and police as analternative to taking parents to court.

There needs to be more on offer to theseparents than sticks to beat them whenthey do a ‘bad’ job. What form thissupport might take and how it should beframed requires further investigation. Asa starting point there should be a focuson involving parents in youth provisionfor teenagers in the same way that thereis when providing services for youngchildren through programmes like SureStart and the Children’s Fund. Thoseproviding services and support for teensmay view the parents as the cause of theproblem and as a result exclude them byoffering an alternative rather than anadditional form of support. Engagingparents with teenagers in a positive waymust be a priority. This is new ground to be explored but first steps need to be taken.

There may be some hope in the newParenting Fund announced in the 2002Spending Review. But it is unclearwhether it will be bold in offeringparenting support for those withteenagers – and indeed whether there isan appetite for such support. The fund isworth £25 million and will go directly tothe voluntary and community sector tosupport parenting and parenting organi-sations. Its objectives are to strengthenthe capacity and size of those organisations delivering parentingsupport and reach those who have leastaccess to support currently. The focusneeds to be on enabling and not instructive forms of support and advice.Equipping parents with skills and know-how rather than lecturing them orproviding them prescriptions for ‘good’parenting is the key.

5. Involving young people

The final and perhaps most importantlesson that can be learned from Tile Hillis the importance of implicating youngpeople themselves in the successfulprovision of services for young people.Young people need to feel part of theircommunity, to have a clear sense of thepart they play in it and own and takeresponsibility for its problems as well itsassets.

Young people in Tile Hill felt that thecommunity would be boring withoutthem. But they felt that others typifiedthem as a problem, a nuisance, or simplynot a priority. This may not be the realityof how other residents and serviceproviders view young people but theperception runs deep. Young people inTile Hill also had little sense of their


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capacity to improve their lot. Theylooked to service providers to take thelead and saw themselves as playing alobbying role rather than a delivery role.Some examples of more engagementwith young people in developing betterservices were evident. A number ofyoung people for example had workedwith the local area-co-ordination team todevelop funding bids for activities suchas paint balling and day trips. This wasthe exception rather than the rulehowever and there was no single routein for young people to play a more activerole in developing services.

The importance of giving greater voiceto young people and recognising therole and contribution they can play insociety is gaining ground. At nationallevel the Children and Young People Unithave established core principles for theparticipation of children and youngpeople and place a requirement on allgovernment departments to show howthey will fulfil them in their area of work(CYPU 2001). There is a growing move-ment of active Youth Councils at localauthority level and a range ofprogrammes seeking to network youngpeople nationally in policy debates anddecision-making, not least the UK YouthParliament. Coventry itself has a YouthService run Democracy Project aimed atinvolving young people in decision-making and citizenship programmes.

Such initiatives to involve young peopleare gaining momentum for a number ofreasons. There are fears that youngpeople are apathetic and need to beencouraged to participate in politics and,later in life, voting. There is a growingawareness and commitment the UN

Convention on the Rights of the Child,including pressure from some MPs andpeers to incorporate it into British law.More simply there is a pragmatic recog-nition that the delivery of public servicesworks best when service users areengaged in shaping how those servicescan best meet their needs. TheDepartment of Health Quality Protectsguidance for example requires localcouncils to listen to and involve lookedafter young people in the developmentof services. The Connexions service hasalso put considerable emphasis onengaging young people in the develop-ment of services. Young people, forexample, have sat on interview boardsfor regional chief executives andpersonal advisers and each partnershiphas a young people’s reference group.

There is a proliferation of requirementsand guidance now emerging on theparticipation of young people in policyand decision-making and in shapingservices. In Tile Hill this does not appearto be translating into something visiblydifferent on the ground. Young peopletend to feel on the peripheries of deci-sion-making and the receivers ratherthan the shapers of services. At timestheir opinions and ideas are clearly atodds with those of local serviceproviders. The most obvious example isthe mismatch between young people’saccounts of their behaviour and the waythat they felt that the police respond toanti-social behaviour such as streetdrinking and gathering in-groups. Ratherthan young people and the policetalking at cross-purposes there is a needto create spaces where they can talkopenly and honestly and agree a defini-tion of what problem behaviour is and

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how the police working with youngpeople can best tackle it. This conversa-tion needs to happen at national as wellas local level. A number of national chil-dren’s charities21 have suggested thatthere is a danger that the current focusof the debate on anti-social behaviour,whether it is taking place locally incommunities like Tile Hill or nationally,targets young people as the key perpe-trators. The reality is that the majority ofyoung people do not commit crime andare more likely to be the victims of crimethan the cause of it. A dialogue acrossgenerations on this issue could be thestarting point for a different type of rela-tionship between young people and thepolice in Tile Hill.

There is scope for much more, particu-larly in involving young people increating the activities and places foryoung people to meet, interact anddevelop that the residents of Tile Hill arecrying out for. There is good practice inthis area and projects that should inspireothers. The challenge is in creatingmechanisms to enable young people todevelop, manage and lead their ownyouth provision and initiatives, includingdeveloping bids for locally available potsof money and deciding how services canbest meet their needs and ambitions.This requires strong support and a localchampion who will encourage andsupport young people’s participationwork. To instil in young people a realsense of ownership also requires somerisk taking on the part of adult serviceproviders who may have their own ideasabout what will work best.

There are different models of engagingyoung people in shaping and delivering

services and giving them a sense thatthey have the capacity to change thingsin their area. Below are three models forinvolving young people in communitiesand examples of how they are used inpractice.

Young people shaping, overseeing andmanaging servicesThe best initiatives do not just consultyoung people about what they want, butlet them influence how a local service isprovided. Their involvement might relateto the development of a new youthcentre or rethinking a drug strategy thatisn’t working, for example. Young peoplecan help to identify and define theproblem and gain responsibility fordeveloping solutions and putting theminto practice. To do this young peoplemay form part of a governing body,steering group or managing body, over-seeing all aspects of a service. There isalso a strong argument for young repre-sentatives on many statutory bodies,including school-governing bodies.

This way of working demands a highlevel of commitment from the youngparticipants and from service providers.Service providers may be reluctant toinvolve young people in setting prioritiesand allocating budgets for local services.Schools for example tend to be guilty ofgiving school councils autonomy overonly small budgets. It is important thatyoung people are supported in their roleand given space and resources todevelop confidence and skills. Youngmembers of steering groups andmanagement committees also need tobe able to reflect and represent theviews of their peers in the wider community and attention needs to be


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paid to engaging with those who are‘hard to reach’. There should be opportu-nities for other young people to havetheir say and for new recruits to come onboard at regular intervals.

The idea for this young people’s sexual health centre emergedfrom consultation with more than a hundred local young peopleon how to deal with high teenage pregnancy rates. The youngpeople consulted were invited to join a steering group to makethe centre a reality. Fourteen young members have workedtogether over the past year, helping architects to design the lookand layout of the centre, and interviewing all staff, from GPs tocaretakers. They chose the name and designed the logo andposters. All records are confidential to ensure that young peoplefeel safe discussing very personal issues and there are large roomsfor group sessions and discussion. The young people’s steeringgroup gives young people ownership of the centre. It is run foryoung people, by young people, a factor that looks set to make it a success.

Case study:The Parallel,

BoltonPrimary

Care Trust

Lambeth Youth Council was set up in February 2002 to involveyoung people in improving Council services and policy. Themajority of its members come from black and ethnic minoritycommunities. There are now over 100 young people working withthe Youth Council on projects ranging from teenage pregnancy topolice Stop and Search practices. They have trained more thanfifty 16-19 year olds as peer educators to go into schools to talk tostudents about teenage pregnancy. They are now working on alesson plan for primary schools. Stop and Search is also a big issuefor young people in the area. The Youth Council developed newguidelines and trained a group of newly trained police officers onhow to conduct Stop and Search more sensitively. They arecurrently producing a video showing interviews with senior policeofficers and young people about the issue. The Youth Council isexpanding to form Town Centre Youth Forums in different parts ofthe borough. Members are supported as school governors and onthe Community Police Consultative Group. Lambeth Youth Councilwon the Young People’s Award in the IPPR/Guardian PublicInvolvement Award 2002.

Case study:Lambeth

Youth Council

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Young people as fundraisers and grant giversInvolving young people in fundraising,grant giving and managing budgetsgives them real ownership of initiatives.There has recently been an increase inthe number of grants that young peoplecan apply for themselves and a growingproportion of funding for youth projects

demands that young people are mean-ingfully involved in deciding how themoney is spent. Giving greater emphasisto ‘Children’s Voices’ is one of the fourpriorities of the £80m Local NetworkFund, for example. The Government hasalso launched a £0.5m Consultation Fundspecifically aimed at projects that allowunder 19s to have their say.


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YouthBank UK is a collection of young people’s grant makingorganisations. Local YouthBanks provide small grants to projectsled by young people who have ideas for projects to improve theircommunities. It is young people themselves who make decisionsabout how local YouthBanks are managed and run and theydecide which projects to fund. Each YouthBank decides its ownfunding criteria and application process, but many make itaccessible by allowing applications by video or storyboard. So far,more than £250,000 has been awarded in grants in the UK.Projects awarded grants are varied: £1000 was given to a youngpeople’s group in Northern Ireland to make a peace-buildingdocumentary video and £5000 to a Salford youth club based in aspecial needs school to support a theatre training programme forexample.

The Interchill project is an internet and drop in centre for youngpeople in Liverpool. Young people raised the money needed overa period of 5 years. They have benefited from several lotterygrants and in total have raised over £250,000. They own thebuilding in which the centre is housed and they employ theworkers in the centre. The centre offers access to an Internet suitewith 20 PCs and a drop in centre for young people with two fulltime workers. They have recently opened to the public and offer arange of courses for young people using the centre.

Case study:YouthBank UK

Case study:Interchill,Internet drop-in centre inLiverpool

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Young people as volunteersYoung people can be involved as volun-teers, playing an active role in changingtheir communities for the better.Volunteering has many potential bene-fits, both for young people and for thosethey are helping. They are likely todevelop new skills and an increasedsense of responsibility and under-standing. They may mix with new peoplethey might not normally encounter andstrengthen links between generationswithin a community. Volunteering canempower young people and demon-strate to them and others that they canmake a difference.

The value of volunteering has been longestablished through schemes such as theDuke of Edinburgh’s Award and ThePrince’s Trust. However, there is scope forextending the opportunities available toyoung people and expanding the defini-tion of volunteering to encompass abroader notion of ‘civic service’.Volunteering could be linked, forexample, to financial incentives andeducation. IPPR has previously suggestedthat higher education students could bepaid to act as student teaching assistantsin local schools. (Piatt 2002).

There has been recent interest from the Government inencouraging and formalising volunteering through schemes suchas Millennium Volunteers. Millennium Volunteers is a nationallyrecognised scheme which young people can include on their CVs.They gain an Award of Excellence if they complete more than 200hours of service. 20,000 young people are currently involved.Projects range from website design to sports coaching to helpingthe homeless.

The Department for Education and Skills is piloting the YoungVolunteer Challenge to allow young people from disadvantagedbackgrounds to take part in a ‘Gap’ year style volunteeringexperience. It is targeting those for whom financial hardship is themain barrier to volunteering and will pay £45 living expenses perweek as well as a £750 cash award at the end of the 9-monthperiod. At present 60 volunteers are participating. The scheme isexpanding and may well be a precursor for a much moreexpansive programme.

Case study:MillenniumVolunteers

Case study:Young

VolunteerChallenge

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Too much current provision is dependenton short-term and project basedfunding. There is a lack of investment inbuilding capacity to deliver good qualityyouth work and support services interms of developing modern youthspaces and attracting committed staff.Youth Service budgets have increased,but not enough and youth services maystill slip off the agenda at local level. Anational audit and evaluation of servicesfor teenagers is needed.

This report highlights the need to link upthe goals of education, diversion andsupport that currently segment differentapproaches to work with young people.Services are not yet good enough atmeeting young people’s needs in theround. This means recognising thatdifferent young people need differentlevels and types of support. For thosewho need most support, interventionsappear fragmented and often only kickin when it is too late.

Funding needs to start adding up.Service providers need to share acommon sense of what the needs andissues affecting the young people intheir area are. It is inevitable that fundingwill be available for different things butthe onus is on local partners to worksuccessfully together to deliver. The newChildren’s Trusts, combining health,education and social care services, maygo some way in achieving this. But theextent to which their focus will be onteenagers and whether the Youth Serviceand programmes like Positive Activitiesfor Young People will be incorporated isnot clear.

There is potential to develop a Sure Startfor teenagers: a ‘Sure Futures’ or ‘SureProgress’ programme. This would recog-nise the range of services and supportand teenagers, and their parents, mightneed to access and would bring themtogether within a single programme.

Conclusion

There is some way to go in developing policies and services that add up toa serious commitment to young people, not just in their early years butwell into their teens. The choice between earlier or later intervention is afalse one.

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The vision for youth services should beof integrated services and youth workerswho are able to respond to differentrange of needs rather than channellingyoung people into a single interventionroute. Joining up services is not the onlything that is important. New types ofworkers are needed too, similar to the‘social educator’ profession that is usedon the continent. The Connexions serviceneeds to prove that it is can be therounded service that it set out to be.Targets driving personal advisers shouldmore fully reflect the notion of meetingyoung people’s needs as a whole and notprioritise education, training and work tothe exclusion of other positive outcomes.These new targets must be meaningful,challenging and linked to hardoutcomes. They might include forexample: a percentage reduction in drugand alcohol use among young people; ameasured decline in the number ofyoung people saying that they arebullied; or a demonstrable increase inyoung people’s understanding of how toensure good sexual health. This type oftarget is necessary to avoid reverting toold-style youth work where evidence ofsuccess is anecdotal rather thanevidence-based. The shortage of quali-fied youth workers must also beaddressed. A starting point may be morework at community level to attract anddevelop youth workers who will committo an area over time.

Young people need to own both theassets and the problems in their commu-nity – and be part of the solution in tack-ling them. Young people described howthey were not respected by others andtalked about their behaviour at times asa response to what they perceived asnegative perceptions towards them.Service providers may well argue thereverse – that young people don’t gainrespect because their behaviour is oftendisrupting and they don’t take responsi-bility for their actions. The issue of anti-social behaviour, how to tackle it andhow to work with young people toreduce it has potential to kick start a newtype of dialogue between young people,the police and others working on theissue in communities like Tile Hill. Goodpractice and innovation also exists inenabling young people to get involvedin shaping and delivering excellentyouth provision.

Most importantly there is a need for astory about young people that is not justabout young people at risk, youngpeople in education or preparing forwork or young people being divertedfrom anti-social or criminal behaviour.The story of young people must add upto something more positive. It mustconvey that we are interested in youngpeople not just because they will beadults one day in the future but becauseit is important to do right by them now.

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References

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References

1 MORI, Quality of Life Indicators surveyconducted on behalf of the AuditCommission, 2002. 43% ofrespondents chose Activities forTeenagers as one of the mostimportant things to improve in theirarea, compared to 16% choosinghealth services and 7% choosingeducation provision. The next 3important things to improve werecrime, road and pavement repairs andpublic transport.

2 Office of the Deputy Prime Minister,Survey of English Housing 2002-2003,August 2003

3 In previous research for IPPR’scommunities programme, Canley(which neighbours Tile Hill), Hillfieldsand Earlsdon were used as casestudies.

4 Frontline AV is a youth artsorganisation based in Coventry thatruns programmes of activity andevents with young people includingDJ-in workshops, singing groups,graffiti, break dance projects, videoand photo projects.

5 Only 16% of 11-15 year olds buyalcohol from off-licences, a decreasefrom 26% in 1996.

48% said that they never buy alcohol,and 17% buy it from friends andrelatives. Department of HealthSurvey 2002

6 Tile Hill is not eligible forNeighbourhood Renewal Funding,European Social Funding or SingleRegeneration Budget funding.

7 The Positive Activities for YoungPeople programme is the mostobvious example here.

8 Transforming Youth Work: resourcingexcellent youth services (DfES,Connexions, 2002)

9 This point is highlighted by theNational Youth Agency in AnAdequate and sufficient youth service:the duties of local authoritiesSpotlight, Issue 10, January 2003, NYA

10 Investment for Reform, which set outeducation commitments followingthe Spending Review 2002settlement, said that extended

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schools would be created in the mostdeprived areas, and support localdelivery of extended services in manyother schools.

11 Connexions Customer SatisfactionSurvey: Phase 1 Partnerships, ResearchReport 463 (DfES 2003)

12 For discussion of the need to developmore diverse and good quality jobsin the regions see Adams, Robinsonand Vigor, A new regional policy for theUK (IPPR 2003)

13 Transforming youth work. See above.

14 See From victims of change to agentsof change: the future of the teachingprofession (Johnson and Hallgarten,IPPR 2002) for further discussion of

the development of teaching andrelated professions

15 See Connexions Satisfaction Survey.See above

16 Targets for the Connexions Service2003-2004, Self-Assessment Schedule,2003/2004 (DfES 2003)

17 National Youth Agency in Guardian,January 2003

18 Home Office 2003

20 ‘Parents of truants risk spot fines’,Guardian, 4th October 2003

21 see for example the NationalChildren’s Bureau and Children’sSociety

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Beinart S, Anderson B, Lee S and Utting D(2002)Youth at risk? A national survey ofrisk factors, protective factors and problembehaviour among young people inEngland, Scotland and Wales London:Communities that Care

Bentley T and Gurumurthy R (1999)Destination Unkown: Engaging theproblems of marginalized youth London:Demos

Boreham R and McManus S (2002)Smoking, drinking and drug use amongyoung people in England in 2002 London:Department of Health

Children and Young People’s Unit (2001)Learning to Listen: core principles for theinvolvement of children and young peopleLondon: DfES

Combe V (2002) Up for it: getting youngpeople involved in local governmentLondon: NYA

Corry D and Stoker G (2002) NewLocalism: Refashioning the Centre-LocalRelationship London: New LocalGovernment Network

DfES (2002) Transforming youth work:resourcing excellent youth servicesLondon: DfESwww.connexions.gov.uk/publications/uploads/cp/TransYouth.pdf

Every Child Matters Green Paperwww.dfes.gov.uk/everychildmatters/

Kendall L and Harker L (2002) FromWelfare to Wellbeing London: IPPR

Kendall L and Harker L (2003) An equalstart: improving support during pregnancyand the first 12 months London: IPPR

Joyce, White and Franses, BMRB SocialResearch (October 2003) Improving yourConnexions: qualitative research withyoung people London: DfES RB481

Madge Dr N (2003) Is England childfriendly enough? London: NationalChildren’s Bureau

Nash V with Christie I (2003) MakingSense of Community London: IPPR

Nash V and Paxton W eds (2002) Anyvolunteers for the good society? London:IPPR

Bibliography

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National Youth Agency (2002) England’sLocal Authority Youth Services – the basicfacts 2000-01 London: NYA

Nestle Family Monitor: Make Space forYoung People (October 2002) Available atwww.nestlefamilymonitor.co.uk

Piatt W (2002) ‘Student teachingassistants: setting an example’ in Paxton,W and Nash, V (2002) Any volunteers forthe good society? London: IPPR

Prince’s Trust (2003) Reaching the Hardestto Reach: Nowhere to turn? London:Prince’s Trust

Reeves R ‘The battle for childhood’ NewStatesman (October 20th 2003)

Taking a stand against anti-socialbehaviour Home Office White Paperwww.crimereduction.gov.uk/antisocialbehaviour13.htm

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