Children & Young People Now

Unemployed for a day

Adam Nichols — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:48:00 GMT

I'm excited and slightly apprehensive about giving up my job on 7th November 2008. Not permanently you understand, simply as part of the second 11 MILLION Takeover Day. My job is going to be taken by a young person for the day. The previous Takeover involved 400 organisations, giving 10,000 children the chance to work alongside decision makers. Our meeting about getting involved came after a discussion we'd just had in the office. We were trying to work out how to present the case studies of the young people we represent. We went through every permutation and then came to the conclusion that basically, we needed to keep out of the way and let the case studies speak for themselves. What we do best as an organisation, and what has brought us the most success, is to stay backstage and let our young people take the spotlight. This is why Takeover Day appeals to me as a concept, why it appeals to our young people, and also why I am feeling slightly anxious that I'll be permanently done out of a job on 8th November!

Claire prepares for her next move

Social Claire — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:39:00 GMT

The world of work is turned upside down for me at the moment. I’ve been offered a new job in a new county and have accepted it, albeit subject to not the usual round of CRB checks and references that my new employers will be chasing; but more centred around my own thoughts, feelings and ultimate decisions to make the break.

It’s funny how you can live somewhere for years and not really appreciate the roots that you put down. I now properly understand the theories around attachment.

The people you meet, the trials and tribulations that you face along the way and the sense of belonging that on one hand feels almost transient in the ever changing face of the world of working with children and young people. And yet you suddenly realise that you too are part of the fabric that yields and shapes the way that the services develop.

I feel like I have been here for five minutes, but my cohorts and I have spent fifteen years together and during that time I’ve had seven different jobs! I’m a great believer in ringing the changes, and more importantly seizing opportunities when they arise. I’ve worked in sexual health, local democracy, for two national voluntary organisations and a local authority social care department and in all that time there has been one common factor – children and young people in care.

I remember as a health worker approaching a social care manager to talk about how we could work together. And the more I learned about children in care, the more passionate I became about the need to highlight the reality of their lives.

And over the years, in various settings I’ve watched our kids grow into adolescents, struggling with the changes and experiencing the same growing pains that we all do.

Many have extra struggles due to the reasons that they came into care in the first place. They struggle with attachment as people in their lives come and go, placements break down and workers change and change again. We’ve tried to hang onto them, albeit with an invisible and sometimes not so invisible safety net to try to keep them from falling.

We had the Laming report, now we’ve got Every Child Matters, and we’re reminded what happens when the safeguarding isn’t there every time we hear something new about Jersey.

I heard one prominent Children’s Services Director speak at a conference the other week about how care isn’t as bad as it’s made out, and he’s right in lots of ways, but there is still always room to get it better.

He needs to meet the local residential unit manager who will barely let me through the front door in case I ask too many questions!

He needs to meet the service manager that agreed that it was acceptable for a lad to return from school to his foster carer to find his bags packed and his social worker there telling him he was going into a residential unit that same night with no warning.

He needs to meet the young woman who was moved twenty times in three years. These situations still make me question – does every child really matter? Are the needs, wishes and feelings of our children being met and their rights upheld? Or does the needs of the system come first?

I will always believe that we need to take the needs of ALL our children seriously, and act to make sure that they are as fully met as possible. My new job will still entail doing that, but from a different perspective.

I’ve been thinking a lot about attachment theories these last few weeks and find myself needing to let go of my life as it has been, my job, my comfort zone and the children I have worked with.

And do you know what? I’m really looking forward to the changes. But it won’t be as easy as I thought.

Votes at 16? It misses the point...

Adam Nichols — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:51:00 GMT

At its policy forum last weekend, Labour joined all the other mainstream British political parties in committing to lowering the franchise to 16 in its next election manifesto.

All to the good you might think. Surely fostering young people's civic engagement is what all of us are aiming to do? But I have always had serious concerns about this proposal.

Politicos of all colours believe that the way to switch young people on to civic and civil engagement is through voting and formal political structures. This is because these same structures were what got them involved back in the day. But the vast majority of young people (and indeed the population in general) are switched off by the existing structures and choose to engage in different ways (volunteering and single issue campaigns are both extremely popular with the 16-25 age group).

Introducing votes at 16 merely addresses the symptoms of political engagement, not the cause. And it is also guaranteed to fail - every survey that has ever been done of under 18s demonstrates conclusively that they don't want the vote. Similar 'eye catching' initiatives like entering people into a lottery if they vote in local elections suffer from the same misconception.

What we need to do is to look more fundamentally at why people aren't interested in mainstream politics anymore. The 2006 Power Inquiry provided an excellent roadmap for how this trend should be reversed, but now seems to have been largely forgotten. We need to start with 'civil' engagement and gradually introduce people to the concept of 'civic' engagement. There is no doubt that the former can lead to the latter, if correctly nurtured.

Votes at 16 will merely extend the reach of our political class, one of the main causes of disengagement and cynicism, to a younger age group.

PS Michael White wrote a very entertaining article on this in The Guardian earlier this week which has stimulated much impassioned blog debate.

Chain Reaction: an opportunity for young social innovators

Tim Davies — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:54:00 GMT

(First posted over on Tim's Blog)

Chain Reaction is a conference/collaboration/networking event taking place in London from the 17th to the 18th November this year - part of the Prime Ministers Council on Social Action. It's aiming to bring together people with ideas for positive action on social change to 'Connect', 'Collaborate' and 'Commit' to action.

And I was rather encouraged to see that in response to the question 'Who should come' they make explicit that this isn't just for the established great and good of the emerging social innovation conference circuit.

Chain Reaction is for social leaders — people who, regardless of where they work or live or how old they are, see a social problem and do something about it.

But not only that - they back it up with the fee structure. Take a look at this:

Category	1 day	1 day (inc. VAT)	2 days	2 days (inc. VAT)
Business	£397	£466.48	£715	£839.66
Government / Public Sector	£247	£290.23	£445	£522.41
Third Sector	£97	£113.98	£175	£205.16
Under 21	£10	£11.75	£18	£21.15

£18 for a ticket if you are under 21 - as opposed to £715 for a business. That is getting the incentives and the priorities right!

So if you know young people who have been exploring positive ideas for action on social change - whose energy, enthusiasm and insights are much needed by events like this - let them know about it. With the wealth of experience in running projects and taking action being built through the Youth Opportunity Fund and Youth Banks, and through many other youth led projects - there are plenty of people out there who the PMs Council on Social Action really need as part of their Chain Reaction...

The Credit Crunch will further undermine our failing efforts on Child Poverty

The Leveller — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:07:00 GMT

In the last few months the Leveller Children’s Centre has seen a steep rise in parents admitting to experiencing debt problems. Things are undoubtedly tightening up considerably, and the poorest families are certain to be hardest hit as prices for household basics such as fuel and food rise steeply. Recent data released by DSCF confirms that the national front on child poverty is being lost. After considerable progress in the first few years of the Labour government the numbers of children living in households below the poverty line has increased by round about 100,000 per year. I’ll be prepared to bet my 2% pay rise that this year’s rise in children in poverty will be the steepest yet. Children’s Centres have a woeful record on combating poverty. A NESS evaluation in 2004 of the efforts of local SureStart programmes in combating poverty through training and employment found a very mixed picture with little evidence of a concerted effort. True, in many areas Centres have not been helped by the mostly pathetic efforts of Job Centre Plus. The credit crunch and inflation combined may have a devastating effect on families using Centres as they struggle with the impossible task of raising kids on a pittance. Unemployment too has begun to rise steeply, more children are certain to become reliant on the state to provide the basics rather than their parents. This isn’t a short-term problem. There is a clear link between child poverty and poor educational outcomes which means more child poverty today is greater adult poverty tomorrow, and tens of thousands of children whose potential will not be fulfilled.

So what can be done?

All is not lost; government seems to be upping its game in responding to the challenge. The Leveller understands that DSCF will be launching a scheme next week to seek and evaluate successful innovation in combating poverty. In addition they are currently consulting on a scheme to revise the payment of childcare tax credits so that they are more likely to reach childcare providers. I for one have seen too many parents turn their back on work as they have got themselves into a terrible mess financially through spending the money in the bank before paying their bills. However, Centres urgently need to begin to focus on providing quality services that support parents back into training and employment before another generation is lost. Concerted effort to work with local schools and colleges would be a place to start.

The new folk devils

Cathy Wallace — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:59:00 GMT

Where the national media lead, the rest of us tend to follow.

The publication of the government’s Youth Crime Action Plan has seen a fresh resurgence in stories about broken Britain, complete with horror-packed editorials bemoaning the lawless nature of today’s youth.

Campaigns, demands to “crack down on knife thugs” and detailed commentaries on the state of today’s society, with its Asbo-wielding hoodies and threat of a stabbing on every street corner, whip up further furore on a daily basis.

Sociologists call this a ‘moral panic’. Young people have become folk devils - absurd caricatures of terrifying threats to society, to the point where every isolated incident becomes a matter of national importance.

Into this melee comes a report from the Home Office looking at crime and antisocial behaviour among young people which finds, surprise, surprise – the majority of young people are good law-abiding citizens.

Furthermore the vast majority of youth crime is pretty low-level.

It’s easy to forget this – so easy, when the flow of commentary and debate, spurred on by the national media, is only ever in one direction.

Lets try not to forget it though, or we’re doing the vast majority of young people a great disservice.

Do they really have a lot to learn about the world?

Social Claire — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:49:00 GMT

Hi there folks, how are you all doing? Hope all is good in your worlds.

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, running around all over the place training and attending meetings which so often seem to be held for the sake of holding them, rather than actively working towards or demonstrating any real or tangible outcomes for children and young people. Maybe I just should call them what they are – talking shops?!

I head counted last week at a seminar I attended – there were forty people there all on middle to senior management salaries. It must have cost a good couple of thousand pounds for us all to sit there hearing what we had heard before and enjoying a good lunch afterwards. But hey, it ticked someone’s box.

Talking of which, I recently attended a conference where some young people spoke about their experiences of being looked after. Unlike previous experiences, this wasn’t just a box ticking exercise – the young people were on after the morning break, and not at the end of the day when everyone was rushing for trains. Fair play to the organisers.

Now I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – I truly believe that adults need training to work with young people, and not always the other way round. And on this occasion I was proved right yet again.

The youngsters sat at the front of the auditorium among the great and the good, looking nervous about their imminent presentations.

‘What brings you here then?’ enquired one bouffanted doyen. ‘Are you doing this as part of your school work?’

‘No’, replied one the young people, ‘We’re working today.’ The woman hooted loudly. ‘Oh, you call this work do you?’ The young people looked at her incredulously. ‘Yes, it IS work – we’re here to give a presentation.’ ‘Oh, bless’ she smiled indulgently, then turned to the person next to her and started another conversation. The young people looked nonplussed.

When they were introduced, the audience broke into applause. The woman turned to the person next to her and smirked ‘They may consider this work, but they’ve a lot to learn about the world.’

What she didn’t understand was that the young people had taken part in intensive training on presentation skills and public speaking and that they were part of a properly funded children in care council which, among other tasks enables young people to interview staff, attend meetings and mentor younger children in care.

The young people were fantastic and really spoke from the heart about their experiences of being looked after. As they left the stage and took their seats again, I could see the woman had been taken aback by their stories, but also by their skills and confidence. It takes a lot for anyone to get up and speak in front of an audience, especially when most members of that audience have probably never been near a child in some time.

It reminded me that young people are to really feel valued then we have to find ways of working with them that makes them feel like their input and views are taken as seriously as those of a head of service. That way we could hold our heads up and honestly state that every child does matter.

Feeling sorry for Bojo

LINDA JACK — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:55:00 GMT

OK, there goes me street cred (if I ever had any, tho I did get asked the other day if I worried about such things at my age!).......but I found myself feeling a little sorry for Boris today. I suppose my unexpected feelings spring from an appreciation of how being well meaning can sometimes end one up in the soup.

Boris's decision to appoint Ray Lewis as one of his deputies I saw at the time as a sound move and if nothing else I was delighted that he had recognised that a youth worker rather than a police officer could offer more in the fight against youth crime. So far from crowing I am rather disappointed that he hasn't had an opportunity to even begin to get to grips with a serious problem that is destroying lives on almost a daily basis. This is not to condone any wrong doing if it is proved, or to excuse Boris for his lack of judgement, but to put what has happened (in which as far as I know nobody died), in the context of the far more serious problem in which many young people are dying and families (of victims and perpetrators) are being devastated. Do we want to take the risk of involving those who may have answers but don't tick all the boxes, or maintain the status quo with those who tick all the boxes but never get beyond the questions? This morning we have heard the news that Martin McGuinness and Lord Alderdice are going to Iraq to try and help them move forward in building a peaceful and cohesive future for that country. I don't hear anyone disqualifying Martin McGuinness from that vital task because of his past? I know I am venturing into dangerous waters, we expect our public servants to be beyond reproach, but sometimes they don't have the answers for that very reason. Frankly if we want to resolve any problem we surely have to involve those who understand, are affected by, or part of the problem. Anything less will lead us back into the vicious circle, the blind allies, the mealymouthed words that have failed to even come close to changing things.

When I grow up, I want to be....

Cathy Wallace — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:21:00 GMT

Hands up who wants the children and young people they work with to grow up to be like Amy Winehouse.

The “troubled singer” may have a voice to die for, fame and fortune but is she a good role model for young girls?

A while ago a poll by Girlguiding UK found tabloid favourite Wino, along with fellow party animal Kate Moss and professional thin person Posh Spice, to be the celebrities with the most influence over young women.

Now the Children’s Society has said shows like X Factor and Big Brother are eroding children and young people’s community values, and that materialism and celebrity culture are making children less resilient than they used to be.

The charity’s survey of children’s professionals, carried out as part of the Good Childhood Inquiry, has raised a few questions about our celeb-soaked society and the impact it’s having on young people.

But love them or loathe them, celebs like Wino and her ilk seem to be here to stay. Should we be worried?

If idolising dubious celebrities helps young people realise if they are good at something, following their dreams can be a valid career choice, then there’s a place for Kate and co.

If however the effect really is to erode the strength and inherent self-belief of young people, especially girls, in favour of seeking to be thinner, cooler and richer, then we’ve got a problem.

Who was your role model when you were young? Mine was International Velvet, which doesn’t explain why I’m now online editor of CYP Now, but possibly does show that young girls choosing peculiar role models doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to turn out just like them.

What is youth work anyway?

Tim Davies — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:48:00 GMT

(If you only click one link in this blog post - click this one...)

I've had a pretty exciting and intense couple of days at the 2gether08 festival of ideas and action in Shoreditch in London.

You can read a bit about what I was up to exploring models for Youth Work 2.0 over here, and creating a pitch for Detached Youth Work in the online social networking space here (all things arising from the Youth Work and Social Networking Research Project).

But rather than tell you all about the amazing potential of social technologies for youth work, I wanted to ask for your help. Your help in finding resources which offer an audience who've never knowingly encountered Youth Work before a sense of what it is about.

I've only really become familiar with what makes Youth Work what it is through my research over the last year - but I find I'm almost always having to spend the first five minutes of any conversation on 'Youth Work 2.0' going round in circles to explain Youth Work as it is now. And right now I can't invite people to search the web to find out more, because frankly, there appears to be a real lack of clear resources presenting what youth work is.

That's why, in the 'just sort it out' spirit of 2gether, I've stared this discussion over on UK Youth Online to invite you to help out and share your resources that tell an audience who have never knowingly come into contact with Youth Work what it is all about.

You could share a video, a presentation, a leaflet - anything that helps tell the story of youth work more...

How well is the expansion in Early Years provision serving hard to reach families

The Leveller — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Each week on a Tuesday we have a baby sensory group at the Leveller Children's Centre. Its popular and at least twelve parents regularly attend alongside their babies.

It's a stirring experience watching the group of babies crawling around in almost darkness exploring the lights, sounds and fabrics whilst normally stressed out mothers visibly relax, on occaision some have fallen asleep for the hour.

This is an undeniably great SureStart experience epitomising all that is good about the programme. It's new, stimulating, led by a fantastic practitioner who has grown wings as a result of the freedom that working in Centre has given her. Best of all it is designed to reach out and strengthen bonds between mothers and babies in a disadvantaged area.

So why am I frustrated? Simply because every Monday at least two of the mothers drive up to the Centre in a new BMW or Range Rover. Thankfully these parents are in the minority and we work hard to market our Children's Centre and nursery services at those that need them most.

To me this exemplifies one the persistent issues faced by the Children's Centre programme, and wider the early years strategy. How to ensure that our services are effective in reaching those families that need them most.

Research into the impact of the Ten-Year Childcare Strategy published by the DCSF earlier this month seems to suggest that despite its continued expansion early education and childcare take up by parents is at best static and at worst slightly decreasing. Even the easy to access free nursery sessions for all three and four year olds is not fully taken up. According to figures in the report roughly 5% percentage of children have not accessed free early education in the last two years. In addition the take up is lowest amongst ethnic minority,low-income and lone parents: in other words those families that the policy is primarily intended to reach are the lowes users.

In the round whilst 95% of three and four year olds accessing provision is an excellent achievement by the government it is a concern that the remaining 5% that do not may include a sizeable number of children that really need the additional support. Of course there are always refuseniks, home educators and so on: those for whom the terms 'childcare' or 'early education' result in hives. Good luck to them as long as they don't smother their children. However, parents such as these are very much a curiousity and a real rarity.

Much more common of course are parents that are really grateful for the free entitlement whether its used in maintained, private or voluntary sector. So where are these missing children. Could it be these are still the 'hard to reach', unable or unwilling to get their children to nursery? If these are indeed the missing children it seems likely that unless we can work more effectively together to identify and entice the most deprived children into early education that the whole policy will be deemed a failure.

Might it be an idae for an element of Nursery Education Grant to be allocated on the basis of how inclusive settings are and how hard they try to reach lone parents, workless households, teenage parents etc.

Claire's back!

Social Claire — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:35:00 GMT

Achoo! Excuse me whilst I sneeze. Just blowing the dust and cobwebs off, as I stir from my silent Miss Faversham statue pose.

Hello again my darlinks, Social Claire is back in business, wired for sound as Cliff used to say and raring to go. Since I put my pen down those long nine months ago, I’ve been gestating away and now I’m ready to burst forth once again with the pattering, not of tiny feet, but of my laptop keys as I get ready to set up my new blog.

So here we are on the internet then, and who’d have thought it! The age of technology finally hits an old croc like me. I can do a nifty email, and I’m a bit of an E Bay queen but that’s about it. I’ve dabbled in MySpace but the only people who want to be my only friends are people I’ve never clapped eyes on, and would probably never want to.

The whole concept of blogging is a new one for me, but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it and am looking forward to hearing from you too – unlike writing in print, we actually get to talk to each other!

Since Children Now joined forces with Young People Now, I’ve regularly scoped the back page with a mixture of envy, nostalgia and not a little bit of competitiveness, sighing ‘It was never like this in my day; we’d have done it this way, I’d have said…’blah blah.

Having said that though, I have enjoyed the variety of writers and have been surprised and not a little impressed as to how varied people working with children and young people’s week seems to be.

The new writers all seem to be senior bods as well, which is a bit intimidating for a ground floor kinda gal like me but hey, we’re all the same at the end of the day. Aren’t we?

So what’s been going on in the world of children and young people since I last wrote? Hey ho, same old. We’ve had the continued vilification of young people in the press, with all of our kids being portrayed as a nation of feral, fat, boozed up, violent thugs who are either pregnant or on an ASBO by the time they’re fourteen.

And of course, we know that those stereotypes are exactly that – minority, exaggerated views of young people.

Strangely enough, I continue to work with children and young people in care and have yet to come across anyone fitting this description.

So Social Claire is here to put the other side, to celebrate the achievements of so many of the young people I work with, to question, argue and take a wider view and to reflect when it all goes sadly wrong.

Get in touch, tell me what you think, join the debate. I’m looking forward to hearing from you. It’s great to be back.

Poverty of thought?

Adam Nichols — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:41:00 GMT

The child poverty issue has raised its head again, and brings with it the familar feelings of guilt, hopelessness and frustration. Unless you're Gordon Brown or (hopefully) Barack Obama there's very little you can do. But it made me think about poverty of thought.

In the meritocracy that we are fortunate enough to live in it is possible (although unfortunately not likely) that a child's poverty-stricken upbringing need not necessarily affect the rest of its life. However, poverty of thought can blight someone forever. The young people that slip through the educational or social care net may never get the chance to view their own lives objectively. If you feel restricted and limited by your situation then you are not able to gain any perspective on the changes you could make.

The danger in talking about this is it is a very First world issue. It is so easy to lose sight of the fact that having the luxury of addressing the issue of poverty of thought, rather than simply life-sapping poverty, puts us in the top 10% of the world's population.

A spoonful of Sugar...

Cathy Wallace — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:18:00 GMT

CYP Now isn’t afraid to get controversial, no sir. This year’s Positive Images awards saw a slightly surprising winner – a teen girls magazine.

These mags get brought up again and again as being negative influences on young people – especially young girls. They’re almost universally panned in certain circles (my dad, for one) for encouraging teenage promiscuity, frivolity, and wrecking young girls body image by bombarding them with photos of skinny models and celebrities.

They’re labelled vacuous. They’re accused of promoting negative behaviours like dieting, keeping up with fashion, relationships, sex….always back to sex.

But hang on. Don’t teenagers already have sex? With or without the aid of Sugar magazine and it’s ilk?

A second winner in the Positive Images awards was the UK Youth Parliament’s (UKYP) excellent campaign on sex and relationships education.

You may remember their study hit the headlines late last year when, after surveying more than 20,000 schoolchildren, the UKYP revealed sex education in schools was so bad half the teenagers surveyed were left in total ignorance.

Furthermore, it’s universally known and proved that countries with low rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) and teenage pregnancy, adopt the attitude that guess what? Sex among teenagers happens, and depriving them of information and advice about it is counter-productive.

What a contrast to the UK, where our continually worrying rates of teenage pregnancy and STD’s among young people go hand-in-hand with ghastly rants from the right-wing press about the scandal of some (not nearly enough) teenagers being able to get condoms at school and other such chuntering.

CYP Now rightly salutes Sugar magazine for its wise, warm and inspirational way of connecting with young girls. In fact CYP Now salutes all its Positive Images Award winners and hopes you’ll log in over the coming weeks to read more about these wonderful projects, publications and campaigns that help celebrate our young people for what they really are – the future.

A youth work innovation lab session at 2gether08?

Tim Davies — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:03:00 GMT

(Cross posted from Tim's Blog)

[Summary: seeking youth workers and young people interested in developing ideas at 2gether 08 on an innovation lab for youth work and digital technologies]

I've just been putting together a pitch for a session at the 2gether 08 social innovation event. 2gether describes itself as:

A festival of ideas and action. On July 2-3 in London more than 300 people will gather to explore how digital technologies can bring us major social benefits.

The festival organisers have invited participants to suggest ideas for sessions and conversations at the event, and I've suggested a session called:

Towards an innovation lab for youth work 2.0 - Informal education and work with young people in a digital age

Here's what I've put down as the session objective:

To sketch out what an innovation lab for youth work and informal education might look like.

Young people (13 - 18) face more challenging transitions and challenging environments in their lives than ever before. Youth work should be there supporting young people's personal and social development in the digital realm, and using digital tools. This session is about creating a vision, and identifying next steps, to bring greater use of social technology into work with young people outside of school settings.

The session will involve some inputs about current youth work challenges (video/stories etc.) and will facilitate idea exploration around youth work 2.0.

It would be great to see this help in the development of some sort of Futurelab for Youth Work. However, if this sessions does get the green light in some form, I'm going to need some help. I'm not, after all, a youth worker. After spending the last six-months spending time in youth centers and with youth workers I'm convinced that, when it's well resourced and supported, youth work has an amazing amount to offer. But for a youth work innovation lab to really work it's going to need both young people and youth workers directly involved - those who understand the territory from working in it every day.

So - if you're interested in exploring youth work 2.0, you could spare some time on the 2nd or 3rd of July, and could get yourself along to 2gether 08 - get in touch and lets see what ideas we can weave into, and bring out of, this rather innovative looking festival...

I've started a thread over on the UK Youth Online network for anyone interested in exploring this more, even if you can't make it along to 2gether (or this pitch doesn't end up in the final festival...).

Lessons you can't learn from My Little Pony

Cathy Wallace — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:56:00 GMT

The RSPCA wants to ban animals in the classroom, urging teachers and nursery workers to instead get children to play with soft toys or use role play and drama.

Furthermore, the animal charity continues, instead of helping care for the school hamster, children should be observing animals’ behaviour in their natural habitat.

How that includes the millions of children growing up in inner cities hasn’t really been addressed. Apart from pestilent wild foxes and the odd rat, how exactly is your average London pupil supposed to observe animals in their natural habitat? Last time I checked there weren’t that many hamsters and rabbits hoppity-hopping down Upper Street.

OK there are green spaces in the city and yes a lot of nurseries and schools could, as the RSPCA suggests, create a wildlife area in their gardens, assuming they are lucky enough to have a garden and the local council hasn’t flogged it for flats.

But how are children going to learn to respect, handle and care for animals if they’re not allowed anywhere near them?

A hamster, rabbit or a couple of guinea pigs is as much a staple of nurseries and schools as milk and cookies.

Children can learn so much from these little creatures. They can learn respect for other life forms. They can learn that in order to care for an animal, one must be responsible and unselfish and consider the animal’s needs before their own. They can learn how it feels to have another creature totally dependent upon them for food, water, warmth and companionship, and these are lessons no amount of role play or My Little Pony can drum home.

Where better for children to learn about the creatures they share the planet with but in school or in a nursery? Where else can they learn that to care for an animal is a privilege – to take Hazel the hamster home for the school holidays is an honour – and to be a responsible and caring pet owner they must consider the needs of the animal on a daily basis? And where else can they do this under proper adult supervision?

If the RSPCA succeeds in removing animals from school and early years settings, it will have taken away one of the immeasurable delights of childhood – an invaluable learning opportunity wrapped up in a cute, fluffy, appealing package.

I once took Hazel the hamster home for the summer holidays. I wanted my own pet and my parents quite sensibly wouldn’t allow it until I had proved I could be trusted to care for one.

After six weeks of lovingly tending to Hazel’s every need, I was taken to a garden centre where I picked out a little chestnut-and-white ball of fluff all of my own.

By then I had learned animals weren’t a novelty. A dog (or hamster) wasn’t for Christmas, it was for life. I don’t think pretending to be a rabbit at nursery school or playing with soft toys really could have prepared me for that.

Towards Youth Work 2.0: youth work for a digital age

Tim Davies — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:28:00 GMT

Summary: New mini-social network for exploring youth work and new technology launched. Join here...

I've just been watching a fantastic presentation by Ewan McIntosh on how teaching should engage with social media and it provides yet another reminder of the need for informal educators to be developing a clear vision and idea of what work with young people should look like in the digital age.

What new ways of working are needed to engage with the 'constantly connected' generation of young people who are using digital devices to be in touch with friends and other peers almost every minute of the day? And what should we be doing to support the young people who remain disconnected - the wrong side of a new digital divide and excluded by lack of access to technology?

How can we harness new tools to support young people's creativity and exploration if ideas and identities? How can positive activities and developmental projects 'compete' with the many commercial media and entertainment opportunities open to young people? And how can youth work that involves digital media use it to contribute to young people's positive development - rather than falling into the trap of seeing media as an ends in itself, or casting projects as preparation for a career in the mainstream media?

How in a 'red button' culture of interactivity and participation can youth work offer participation that really means something - and leads to true empowerment and change for young people?

These are big questions (and there are many more questions to be asked). But - as the Youth Work and Social Networking research has been showing me - the answers are already out there in projects being run, ideas being developed, and conversations over coffee in youth centers between sessions. The challenge is in bringing those answers together.

And what better way to try and do that than with the new media technologies we're talking about. So - if you're interested in any of these big questions - and in working out what Youth Work 2.0 could be all about - come and start or join the discussions in the newly created UK Youth Online network.

How Youth Work inspired a future MP

LINDA JACK — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 12:01:00 GMT

Today, with my Lib Dem hat on, I have been with a bunch of bloggers to Henley to interview our candidate in the by election, Stephen Kearney. I was privileged to get to ask the first question, what had motivated him to want to be involved in politics? His answer was unexpected, but music to my ears!

Stephen told the story of how as a teenager he had got involved with a project called Focus. He and other young people had been hanging around on the streets and got to meet a youth worker, one committed to experiential learning - who worked with the young people to develop a Cafe and Theatre and other groups from a building they took over. He reflected that the young people themselves were empowered to run everything, they became directors, managers, developing a huge range of skills in the process. And then as the youth club fell into disrepair the youth worker worked with them to reflect about what had gone wrong and what they needed to do to resolve the problems - linking what we do to the impact it has and making the link between personal growth and actions. This learning had influenced the rest of the course of his life. Learning how you influence policy, support communities and encourage them to take action.

Stephen is CEO of Regenerate Trust and over the years has worked to empower community based organisations to make a difference. His comitment to young people shines through everything he says, he was involved in setting up the UK Youth Parliament and sees engaging young people within their communities and empowering them to take action as being key to responding to so many of the issues that impact upon the electorate.

Whether or not Stephen is elected in Henley on 26th June I have no doubt it will not be long before he is an MP - and one who will be a real champion for young people and youth work.

Why did the Credit Crunch?

Cathy Wallace — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:02:00 GMT

A couple of weeks ago I got interviewed about the credit crunch by a journalist from the New Statesman I am quoted in this article "Drowning in Debt" pontificating on one of my favourite subjects, passive consumerism and its impact on young people. A comment left on the article by a young person reinforces my point:

"I currently find myself staring down the barrel of £18,000 worth of debt; £13k student loan and the rest in overdrafts, credit cards and bills. I, like many my age, have consigned myself to a lifetime of debt in an almost fatalistic fashion; without the means to own anything of real value privately and with a collapsing economy there seems little reason to care. Despite having an excellent credit rating still I cannot help but toy with the idea of declaring myself bankrupt as to allow myself a clean slate for my future. Again, many my age also feel like they have been forced into this situation. We are products of our time; with little depth to the world past the consumerist façade we find ourselves living in and stuck in a quagmire of insurmountable debt that we will realistically never lose there is little hope left for the generation that will soon be in charge."

The position many young people find themselves in, particularly those who are most vulnerable, arises from a number of reasons. Not least that the benefits system often leaves them destitute and unable to meet even their most basic needs. But that is not the whole story as the quote from the young person above indicates. Our young people are growing up in a very different landscape, certainly from the one I did. Not only has consumer choice exploded, but so also has the availability of credit. Young people are starting out in life often saddled with student debt, in a housing market that virtually excludes them and a looming pension crisis. In such a climate, credit (which research shows many young people do not regard as debt so long as they pay their minimum payment), appears a seductive solution. Centrepoint (the youth homelessness charity) published a report a couple of years ago "Too much too young" criticising the targeting of young people with credit offers, of most concern was that a significant number of young people had been targeted after they became homeless and were living in hostels. And the peer pressure young people face also contributes to their need to be seen to be wearing the "right" trainers for example, regardless of other financial commitments.

A couple of years ago I was at a Foyer in East London, involved in a session on money management. I had said how much I resented buying something and then going into the shop a couple of weeks later to see the same item reduced. One of the young women said that didn't bother her, when I asked why she said "because I would have had it first".

The reasons for the credit crunch are multiple, but no-one can surely deny that an I want it and I want it now - throwaway consumerism contributes to over indebtedness. I am old enough to remember the days when a designer label was something you only saw in Vogue and shops had at most 4 changes of clothes collections a year - now it is every couple of weeks!

In my work on the FSA Financial Capability Strategy, we are training those who work with young people to support them to be more financially capable. Like trying to deal with teenage pregnancy the greatest challenge is that of changing behaviour, you can know everything, have the skills to do everything, know why you should....but if that doesn't result in behavioural change it is meaningless.

Can fining parents help stop truancy?

Cathy Wallace — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:54:00 GMT

This week on www.cypnow.co.uk we ran a story about a north of England council which has been fining parents for their children’s truancy.

You’d hope the fine was the last straw and that the council has been meeting with parents to discuss their children’s absences, and the way forward, before hauling them into court and demanding money.

But will a fine really work? I’m thinking a resounding no.

Fining parents means we think it’s their fault. We’re saying if your child doesn’t go to school, you’re a bad parent and you’ll get hit in the pocket. Is that fair? Truancy is notoriously more common among children from more deprived backgrounds. Such as single-parent families where mum or dad doesn’t have enough hours in the day to work to make a living, look after the young ones and make sure little Johnny goes to school. What use is a £200 fine in that situation?

You can’t discount what Bob Geldof referred to in a CYP Now interview as ‘feckless parenting’ but I would imagine a very small proportion of truancy is due to this phenomenon and furthermore is any ‘feckless’ parent going to pull their socks up because of a fine?

There are other ways. Schools and authorities should be working with parents, not against them. If a parent knowingly allows their child to truant, it suggests that parent doesn’t have a high opinion of the value of school and probably had bad experiences at school themselves. The local authority coming down on them like a ton of bricks and demanding cash compensation isn’t going to change that opinion of school and authorities in general.

And if a child is truanting without parental knowledge all the more reason why that parent needs help and support, not a stinging fine and an even more stinging sense of failure.

Why New Labour blew it with Sure Start

The Leveller — Sun, 18 May 2008 08:12:00 GMT

I have met Gordon Brown, quite a thrill in those days. He is a sincere and, in the flesh, a likeable man. I feel I know that the Prime Minister really champions Sure Start. After all Sure Start came out of the Treasury in the early, bright days of the New Labour government.

So why has New Labour blown it with Sure Start?

1) Meddling - Sure Start began life as an ABI, area based initiative, to support the poorest families in the 250 identified poorest communities in England. In the early days there was little mention of daycare, sure it was related, but certainly not integral to the programme. The programme began as holistic - health, early learning and community regeneration targets in equal measure, but slipped into responding to one minister's hobby-horse after the next.

Sure enough as each priority target was tested and ultimately failed it was turned on its head and the counter-point became the imperative. First, programmes were urged to 'reach' as many children as possible, but latterly numbers weren't important and it was all about quality interventions even if only with very small numbers of children. Likewise, at the beginning daycare wasn't even in the programme then it became almost the sole focus for a while overshadowing issues such as outreach work. Consequently daycare isn't the priority anymore the focus is the 'hard to reach' children.

2) Too much emphasis on buildings - Infrastructure is important, but why is it that minsiters, MPs, senior civil servants all fall over themselves to come to open a new Children's Centre, showing little interest in what actually happens inside? Many buildings constructed by the state, academies etc are the ultimate vanity projects, proof that the initiative must be working. There has been too much emphasis and energy wasted on having x number of Centres built, open or whatever and too little realisation that the most disadvantaged parents don't want some enormous edifice at the end of the road which costs a small fortune to staff and maintain, what they need is a warm and friendly place to go, this could be a terraced house or even a tatty portacabin. Sadly I've been to too many pretty Children's Centres that have very few parents in them.

3) Not radical enough - All over the place, even in relatively high achieving places there are many examples of Health Visitors are still working under the direction of GPs and daycare nurseries being built down the road from existing nursery schools. Government should have legislated to force existing services to come together around families with young children, taken the initial unpopularity hit from unions and professions instead of leaving itself open to the charge of services being duplicated and money being wasted.

4) Loss of local accountability - In the early days government was brave, insisting that local parents drove the design and commissioning of services, now this is unimportant just gets the odd mention in passing. What people forget is that if you ask people what they want you might not like what they say. So now we have the dreadful Together for Children banging on about the number of centres open this week, and who are they - consultants dashing about in Serco cars accountable to no-one but shareholders and haranguing local authority officers to get centres opened regardless of the quality.

Unfortunately, New Labour, particularly under Brown, has developed a great mistrust of the public and thinks it knows best. This is exemplified by its intolerance of all things bad for you - sex, drinking, smoking etc, but also by its abandonment of ABIs such as Sure Start and its top-down imposition of targets from the centre regardless of whether they are enthused over by local families or not. Sorry, Gordon, you've blown it, please get back to listening to the people.

Boris confounds the doubters

Adam Nichols — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:23:00 GMT

Boris Johnson has confounded doubts about his capability to be London mayor by making some interesting appointments in his first couple of weeks. In particular he has recruited Ray Lewis as deputy mayor with responsibility for young people. Ray is a former prison governor and founder of the East Side Young Leaders Academy and clearly has a track record in empowering and raising the aspirations of young people from marginalised backgrounds. He also challenges all the stereotypes you might have about the sort of person that might hold high office for the Conservative party.

I had the opportunity to meet Ray a few times when doing some work for the body created to advise David Cameron on Youth Policy . He is clearly a man of great integrity and I am sure that his no-nonsense and challenging attitude will inspire young people who might otherwise drift to the margins of society. It will be interesting to see how he shapes the brief over the weeks and months to come.

A new push for innovation

Adam Nichols — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:19:00 GMT

Yesterday I attended the Innovation Exchange Festival of Ideas. The Innovation Exchange was set up by the Office of the Third Sector to stimulate new ideas and approaches. It has identified two areas to focus on initially: independent living and disadvantaged young people, the second of which has an obvious interest for Changemakers. The event was unusual in that it brought together funders from the private and trust sectors, public sector commissioners and third sector innovators. There was an open exchange of views and, whilst it was good to see organisations putting aside their normal sectoral barriers, it was also interesting to note that at coffee breaks and over lunch people tended to congregate to their colleagues from similar backgrounds! There is clearly still some way to go if our ambitions of truly integrated working are to be realised. Nonetheless the event threw up some very interesting ideas, from an organisation hiring scooters for young people from rural areas of Norfolk to enable them to better access services and facilities, to the efforts of the David Beckham Academy to use his obvious appeal and role model status to raise young people’s aspirations in east London. In John Craig the Innovation Exchange has an excellent leader and we are looking forward to working with him over the months to come to stimulate some exciting new ideas.

MyPlace or MyPeople?

Adam Nichols — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:49:00 GMT

Last week I attended a briefing on the government’s new MyPlace programme, a £190m investment in youth facilities across England. It is clearly very exciting that the government is making this kind of commitment, and there is no doubt that the youth building stock is in dire need of revitalisation. However, there are a number of pitfalls that I feel ought to be avoided in order to ensure that this project is a success. Firstly, there is an assumption that local youth organisations have the capacity to develop and manage large scale capital projects. Talking to colleagues around the sector, there is widespread concern that this capacity does not exist and that some organisations may overstretch themselves or that the opportunity cost will simply be too high for them to take advantage. Secondly, the funding is ringfenced for bricks and mortar but, as we have seen with the Building Schools for the Future programme, erecting a beautiful building does not in itself transform a young person’s experience. What really makes centres like Bolton Girls’ and Lads’ Club and the Salmon Youth Centre in Bermondsey successful is high quality leadership and strength of the relationships they have with their young people. We would like to see MyPlace to allow and encourage its funded projects to invest in the human dimension of the facilities. Finally, there is a danger that these new facilities are unsustainable in the medium to long term; both in terms of funding and having talented people available to run them. Therefore, MyPlace should consider increasing its investment in the ability of organisations running these new facilities to create sustainable income after their financial commitments have finished.

There is always a tendency for the voluntary sector to respond with cynicism when exciting new initiatives like MyPlace are launched. My observations are therefore meant as a constructive critique of MyPlace’s initial plans. We remain hugely supportive of this initiative.

UK Youth Online: unconference on the 17th May...

Tim Davies — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 14:02:00 GMT

Should youth workers be using MySpace and Bebo to communicate with the young people they work with?
How can PodCasts provide a platform for young people's voices?
What role have multiplayer online games and virtual worlds got in work with young people?
How can youth work support young people online?
How could viral videos help promote a skate park revolution?
What's the role of the web in helping young people find places to go and things to do?

Hopefully, those, any many other things, will be topics of discussion at BarCampUKYouthOnline - an informal participant organised conference on the 17th May 2008.

And you're invited to take part.

A BarCamp is a particular style of informal conference/gathering where everyone can be part of setting the agenda and leading sessions on the day. It provides a way of having the discussions you really want to have around the topic of young people and the web.

There are more details over at the event website where you can also sign up or just drop me a line if you would like to know more.

And if you can't make it - you can still share the questions you would like to see explored. Drop your thoughts in the comments below...