Critical issues in the provision of youth work for young disabled people

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Critical issues in the provision of youth work
for young disabled people

• Discussion materials
• Issue 3
• Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
  achievement

Ofsteds discussion materials Youth work
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About this resource

• This resource is based on a thematic survey of
  the provision of youth work for young disabled
  people carried out in 2012. It contains summary
  findings of each of the four critical issues
  identified in the survey.
• Each of the four packs suggests specific
  questions for discussion. These are of course not
  exhaustive, but it is hoped that youth work
  commissioners and their partners will use the
  questions as prompts to evaluate the services
  they currently provide for young disabled people.
  This may lead to identifying and sharing good
  practice, as well as priorities for improvement.
• You can take the issues in any order and spend as
  long as you like on each one. However, we suggest
  that at some stage you find time to look at all
  four.
• Link to the key findings of the survey
  www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/130018.

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Overview of the discussion materials

• These materials look at the scope, reach and
  nature of the provision and the four issues
  considered in the survey
• Issue 1 Enjoyment and learning curriculum
  structure and design
• Issue 2 The benefits of youth work
• Issue 3 Managing disabled young peoples
  engagement and achievement
• Issue 4 Youth workers and other practitioners
  professional matters
• Link for the materials on the other three issues
  www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/130018.

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Scope of the survey

• HMI carried out visits to 18 providers of youth
  work that were specifically selected because they
  worked with young disabled people.
• Providers included local authorities charities
  voluntary and community sector organisations.
• These comprised
• projects with a specialist focus working
  primarily with
• young people with a particular disability
• clubs that targeted a broader non-specific range
  of
• disabled young people
• integrated provision where disabled and
  non-disabled
• young people met together.

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Survey findings
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Survey findings (1)

• Inspectors identified some very effective youth
  work for disabled young people. However, the
  quality of this work varied too much across the
  sample of local authorities visited.
• Inspectors found that the youth work offer for
  disabled young people was inconsistent across the
  sample of local authorities visited.
• The pattern of provision seen was largely
  historical, often including a portfolio of
  inherited clubs, centres and programmes
  originally founded by parents, support groups or
  youth workers.
• Overall participation rates were low and those
  young people not known to services, and who would
  benefit from the opportunities and support that
  youth work affords, were clearly less well
  served.

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Survey findings (2)

• There are no national data to show the extent to
  which disabled young people participate in youth
  work. A lack of regional or national comparative
  data inhibits planning.
• Disabled minority ethnic young people and their
  families accessed youth work provision less
  frequently than White British groups.

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Raising the challenge issues for consideration
by practitioners and managersManaging disabled
young
Issue 3
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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey findings strategic planning
(1)

• There was an obvious and collective desire on the
  part of the local authorities and their partners
  to extend and improve provision, but strategic
  oversight and planning were less evident.
• Targeting of youth work was giving work with
  disabled young people a level of priority, but
  the majority of local authorities visited
  struggled in relation to strategic planning as it
  affects youth work provision.

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey findings strategic planning
(2)

• There was often a lack of clarity about
  commissioning and, in a few instances fundamental
  decisions had yet to be taken about overall
  commissioning strategies.

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey findings building on
national policy (1)

• The Aiming High for Disabled Children policy
  had often enabled a growth of short breaks and
  respite care for disabled children and young
  people and strengthened parental influence and
  the notion of entitlement to services.
• In one area, the Aiming High legacy was in the
  form of a network which had a reputation for
  quality and enjoyed the confidence of parents and
  carers. The network was supported by skilled and
  specialist staff promoting a wide variety of
  sport, leisure and cultural activities
  one-to-one support to enable disabled young
  people to access services and training to
  enhance the skills of staff and volunteers within
  voluntary organisations.

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey findings building on
national policy (2)

• Despite the virtues of short breaks there were
  instances where programmes were put in place with
  too little choice, or consultation with young
  people.

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey findings partnerships (1)

• The most effective local areas visited were
  successfully capitalising on the differing but
  complementary contributions of statutory services
  and the more generic, non-statutory services
  provided by voluntary and charitable
  organisations or the local authority youth
  service.
• Good strategic arrangements between education and
  social care were also creating links to
  vocational and training opportunities and
  information, advice and guidance this meant that
  resources could be better deployed at points of
  transition in a young disabled persons life,
  such as when leaving school.

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey findings partnerships (2)

• Where contributions were being maximised, senior
  local authority managers communicated the impact
  of involvement in youth activities on young
  peoples well-being, and acknowledged the work in
  strategic plans. The effect of this was to
  encourage more meaningful and creative links at
  local level between various agencies and
  charities.

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey findings integration and
inclusion (1)

• Inspectors saw good examples of specific
  inclusion policies and where integration of
  disabled and non-disabled young people was based
  on self-referral and not upon the application of
  labels such as disability.
• However, a considered policy often oiled the
  wheels of the interlinked and increasingly
  interdependent roles of the voluntary, community
  and charitable sectors and mainstream
  employability programmes.

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey findings integration and
inclusion (2)

• Most of the providers of open access youth work
  seen claimed to accommodate the needs of disabled
  young people as part of their core work such as
  youth clubs, but few succeeded fully. Where this
  was more successful, staff had the specialist
  skills required to support the complexities and
  barriers faced by young disabled people.

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey features integration and
inclusion (3)

• Further features of effective planning and
  curricula included
• good integration where young people worked
  together on set tasks over a defined period
• unobtrusive support from specialist staff
• designing group work and other tasks which
  accommodated the learning needs of young people
  with particular difficulties and charted their
  progress
• regular attendance and managing the
  practicalities of travel to and from activities
  for disabled young people
• the full support of a host, for instance the
  young persons special school or indeed parents,
  to give the particular youth activity validity as
  a learning and social experience.

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey findings integration and
inclusion (4)

• Evidence gathered through survey visits pointed
  to the fact that minority ethnic groups accessed
  activities less frequently than White British
  groups.
• Moreover, there were too few examples where
  active consideration was given to the unmet needs
  of minority ethnic young disabled people. Many of
  the areas visited recognised weaknesses in this
  respect.

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey findings integration and
inclusion (5)

• In the more informed examples an Aiming High
  worker was linking with families with a view to
  understanding and tackling the factors that can
  militate against minority ethnic young disabled
  people accessing youth groups.
• Buddying and mentoring opportunities between
  non-disabled and disabled young people helped the
  latter develop greater confidence, eventually
  making the transition from targeted to integrated
  youth settings.

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey findings a planning role
for the local authority (1)

• External partners to youth services such as
  schools and colleges stressed the essential
  nature of the skills and experiences they
  witnessed young people gaining through their
  association with youth work.
• Examples of effective strategies employed by
  youth services and their partners to attract and
  engage disabled young people included a county
  policy which set a minimum level of service for
  youth work activities across each of seven areas.
  

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey findings a planning role
for the local authority (2)

• Further examples of effective strategies employed
  by youth services and their partners to attract
  and engage disabled young people included
• disabled young people having access to provision
  at set times in the week
• investing in youth workers located in special
  schools to strategically link and extend the
  school curriculum with good-quality
  community-based activities
• supporting young peoples voice mechanisms in
  local politics and government and in representing
  peers.

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey findings ensuring a role
for the voluntary, community and charitable
sectors (1)
Successful aspects of work supported by the
voluntary, community and charitable sectors
identified by inspectors included the business
planning and development capacity and expertise
seen in larger charities, which were able to
engage with local authorities in the scoping and
delivery of commissioned services.
Ofsteds discussion materials Youth work
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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey findings ensuring a role
for the voluntary, community and charitable
sectors (2)

• Further examples of successful work supported by
  the voluntary, community and charitable sectors
  identified by inspectors included
• the high degree of independence of the national
  charities, where youth work formed an element of
  their overall educational, support, campaigning
  and advocacy brief
• the opportunities that had been developed in
  supported employment, campaigning, foreign travel
  and bespoke training for adult volunteers that
  were also linked to relevant accreditation
  schemes.

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Survey findings ensuring a role
for the voluntary, community and charitable
sectors (3)

• Challenges faced by voluntary, community and
  charitable sectors involved in youth work for
  disabled young people included
• managing budgets and creating responsive
  governance arrangements
• strategic planning, especially for organisations
  with few partner agencies
• ensuring that the specialist expertise in
  disabilities offered was matched by sufficient
  experience in youth work to maximise young
  peoples learning, enjoyment and attendance
• ensuring that staff had sufficient skills in
  group work to provide an imaginative and varied
  curriculum.

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Overview
Despite, therefore, an overall positive picture,
inspectors found a number of critical issues
which shaped the nature and quality of young
peoples learning and engagement and affected the
reach of provision. In many cases the capacity
to tackle some of these issues is within the gift
of front-line workers and managers other issues
are strategy- , policy- and funding-related.
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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Critical issues discussion points
(1)

• The report highlights the need for strong senior
  strategic leadership in ensuring a role for youth
  work. It also states that improvement is within
  the gift of middle managers and practitioners.
  Are there good examples where this is the case?
• Are specialist workers being deployed to support
  youth work ?

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Managing disabled young peoples engagement and
achievement Critical issues discussion points
(2)

• What processes are in place to identify unmet
  needs, particularly in respect of minority ethnic
  young people?
• Does quality assurance help workers get better at
  what they do?
• How sensitive is your open access work to the
  complex needs of disabled young people?  

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Conclusion
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Conclusion

• We hope you have found this resource helpful in
  promoting improvement in youth work for young
  disabled people.
• Good practice case studies
• We welcome comments on this training resource.
  Please write to enquiries_at_ofsted.gov.uk and
  ensure that you put Ofsteds discussion
  materials Youth work in the subject box of your
  email.

Ofsteds discussion materials Youth work