Innovation in youth services The Quality Leaders Project Youth empowers young people

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Innovation in youth servicesThe Quality Leaders
Project (Youth) empowers young people

• Shiraz Durrani Elizabeth Smallwood Hannah
  Richens Catherine Lusted
• 2008 EFMD Conference on Public Sector Management
  Development
• "Empowering the Public Management Development
  Implications of Further Public Services Reforms
  in Personalising Services, and Applying New
  Management Tools to Create Public Value
• Irish Management Institute, Dublin, Ireland
• 29-30 May 2008

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Need for change and innovation

• Global changes globalisation, technological
  developments and rise of BRIC countries
• National laws and policies change with times
• Services to young people often marginalised,
  traditional models have not worked
• Thus urgent need for change and innovation
• All these have implication for management
  development QLP-Y a possible way forward

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UK Governments vision for public servicesPublic
value

• Value created through public funding that
  requires managers to interact with public to
  design, plan, provide evaluate service
  provision to ensure that services are responsive
  to citizens needs
• Services need to seek ways to better engage and
  discuss with the public about outcomes citizens
  want and thus create services that respond to the
  real needs of citizens

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User-driven services

• Unlock talent in local communities by giving
  citizens more power over decisions services
• 2009 local authorities statutory duty to inform,
  consult, involve local people in running services
• User-driven services go beyond user consultation,
  user representation they actively involve people
  in service design and delivery

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Personalisation of services

• Move beyond choice in service providers to
  involvement by citizens in design of service
• Shift from service provision (e.g. performance
  against targets) to deal with needs of people
• Thus move toward personalised public services
  requiring service transformation (1)
• Requires fundamental shift in the way services
  delivered

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Co-production

• Service users work with practitioners and
  professionals to co-produce desired outcomes
• Successful public services will both enable and
  engage people they serve
• Better value for money will hinge on improved
  outcomes that can be expected from increased user
  involvement in service provision

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Managers professionals

• Move out of traditional roles as experts and
  providers into partnership models that work
  with clients and communities
• Find a solution together to the complexity of
  their problem redefine the problem
• Move from being fixers who focus on problems to
  catalysers who encourage peoples abilities
  (1)

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Roles for service professionals

• Advisers helping users to assess needs
• Navigators help users find services
• Brokers helping users to put together a package
  of services that meets their needs
• Service direct service provision
• Risk assessors auditors helping users assess
  risks that may arise (1)

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Managing resistance to change

• Service professionals likely to be wary about
  perceived threats to their autonomy and
  expertise might resist giving users a bigger
  role
• Government has a key role in changing culture of
  public service programmes for public service
  skills, e.g. Professional Skills for Government
• Public service staff should be driven by strong
  belief in public service and personal commitment
  to people they serve (1)

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The Quality Leaders Project (Youth)

• Barnet, Haringey, Lincolnshire, Portsmouth
• Provide Quality Leader (QL) for 2 days per week
  and a QLP-Y team led by QLs
• Also provide mentor sponsor for QLs
• Project Group (London Met.) provides vision,
  academic input, support and co-ordination
• QLs consult young people and develop service
  development plans implement the plan over 2
  years
• Project independently evaluated
• Funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation

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The Quality Leaders Project (Youth) offer

• Knowledge policies laws greater awareness,
  innovation equality justice communities
• Skills strategic management leadership
  consulting empowering young people editing,
  writing research change agents
• Experience prepare implement service
  development proposals lead teams
• Learning outcomes academic credits

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Learning

• Expand horizons, widen perspectives, broaden
  outlook global, national, local
• Respond to trends, laws and policies
• Learn by doing work based learning activist
  approach theory to practice back to theory
• Critical reflective practice time and space to
  think express views and question policies
  practices that deaden

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Developing understanding

• Role of information in ensuring social justice
• Analyse political, social and economic context of
  information
• Co-production partnerships between within
  local authorities young people service
  professionals
• Connect academic world with workplaces
  professions local government communities

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QLP-Y in Barnet

• Following consultation with young people, QL
  initiated supported a film by young people
• Im Lovin the Library library from their
  eyes, telling us what they want from the service
• QL organised Playstation competition
• Reached 131 young people in three days
• 70 were male included high proportion of BME
• 3 disabled 2 asylum seekers or refugees

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QL leads on Library Youth Board

• Liberation (slavery) dance skills, lyric and
  poetry writing skills, music composition
• Drama gangs bullying as requested by young
  people. Drama filmed edited by young people
  premiere held
• Next residential weekend for youth core group,
  develop team skills for a formal Library Youth
  Board QL leads on this

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QLP-Y develops QL and service

• Challenges library stereotypes, encourages the
  socially excluded into libraries
• Increases membership visitor numbers
• Develops sustainable relationship with Youth
  Service, charities, businesses and young people
• Breaks staff stereotypes of young people leading
  to a more welcoming, positive attitude
• Peer recommendation for service
• QL leads, and learns from, this process

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The QLP-Y ethos

• Give up power to gain greater strategic power
• Bring justice to workplace empower users
• Activist managers on the side of citizens
• Show there is an alternative to the normal
• Break barriers hierarchical, cultural, silos
• Create time and space to think share ideas
• Manage resistance, take risks, change cultures

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QLP-Y empowering the public

• QLP-Y is a comprehensive model that addresses
  personalisation of services and the creation of
  public value by an innovative management
  development programme that empowers managers
  themselves with new vision, knowledge, skills and
  experiences

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Personal testimony - 1

• Participation in QLP has changed my life by
  enabling me to see clearly the bigger picture.
  It has been an intellectually stimulating, and
  frequently a challenging experience. It has
  provided first hand evidence of how libraries
  really can change the lives of some of our most
  vulnerable and needy young people Quality
  Leader (1)

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Personal testimony - 2

• As QL, I have had opportunities I would never
  have been offered otherwise. By working in
  partnership with agencies and council departments
  I have developed my negotiating and networking
  skills. My ability to work with young people has
  improved, I now feel confident talking to them
  outside of a teacher/student role. My confidence
  has grown enormously. Seeing my achievements in
  action is so rewarding and my lifetime fear of
  public speaking is reducing. My project
  management skills have progressed hugely. By
  always finding a solution to problems that arise,
  I am beginning to feel less anxious when things
  go wrong QL (1)

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Personal testimony - 3

• What makes QLP-Y different is the conscious link
  made between the development of services and the
  development of staff. Participation in QLP-Y has
  taught us the value of using initiatives such as
  the film project, not simply to improve services,
  but also as a tool to develop key leadership
  skills within our staff. Through the experiences
  afforded by leading the QLP-Y project, which are
  beyond those inherent in her day to day role, the
  QL has developed considerable confidence and
  management skills which will benefit the long
  term development of the library service. She has
  become an ambassador for young people and her
  influence is contributing to service-wide
  cultural changeMentor (1)