Agenda item

(a) That the Committee approve the decision to replace the QES system with Upshot, allowing for more efficient and effective data collation across all IYP programmes, thus allowing improved monitoring, evaluation and learning which would lead to improved service delivery;

(b) That the Committee endorse the facilitation of training for partner organisations, such as sports clubs and uniformed organisations, in order to grow the reach of youth work informed practice, further supporting the health and well-being of young people in Flintshire;

(c) That the Committee acknowledge that progress has been made against the plan and that future revisions to the plan should be carefully considered by the wider IYP team in line with feedback from young people; and

(d) That the Committee support the decision to begin the Quality Mark Accreditation process in the Spring, beginning at Bronze and following the key recommendations from this process, bring the action plan back to Cabinet to agree progression towards Silver and Gold. 

            The Chief Officer (Education & Youth) reported that the Senior Manager, Integrated Youth Provision had not been able to attend the meeting, but he had prepared the report and she agreed to provide feedback and questions from Members to him following the meeting. 

            The Chief Officer outlined the partnership working to support young people as detailed in the report.  She provided information on the support, development and training being provided to those partners to enable effective service delivery.  She explained that there were significant recruitment challenges for this service which had impacted on the service which could be delivered but explained that youth work was very rewarding and had to incorporate progression pathways for young people who use the service to consider developing a career in that service.  She referenced the Apprenticeship Framework partnership working with Adult Learning Wales and Glyndwr University to ensure there were qualifications available for those young people to undertake locally.  

The Chief Officer reported that the Senior Manager, Integrated Youth Provision was looking at how he could quantify, set targets, and monitor outputs for the service and the impacts on young people.  The changes he was proposing included changing the supplier for the electronic monitoring system to a more effective model and information on this was provided within the report.  The Senior Manager, Integrated Youth Provision also wanted to use all the information contained in the report and appendices to shape the services moving forward to support young people.  The Chief Officer said that by supporting young people’s emotional well being helped them engage more at school and had a positive impact on their lives. 

            In response to the question of clarity at point 1.03 of the report from Councillor Dave Macie, the Chief Officer explained that it referred to the Duke of Edinburgh Award which a significant number of schools had signed up to and which was very beneficial for young people.  The retiring Senior Youth Worker was also the Duke of Edinburgh lead and provided support to schools to run their own programmes and meet the accreditation processes.  She provided information on the open access centre in Mold and steps being undertaken to enable this to continue.

            Councillor Dave Mackie suggested that a workshop for Committee Members to outline how the objectives within the Delivery Plan 2021-2024 would be delivered.  The Chief Officer welcomed this suggestion and said that a workshop could be arranged for later in the 2023 year and that young people could be invited to the workshop to outline their perspective to the Committee.

            Councillor Paul Cunningham referred to the Apprenticeship Framework and said that this was excellent saying University was not for everyone. He was pleased that this was being put forward as a qualification for young people to join the Youth Service via the Apprentice Framework.

            In response to comments made by Councillor Bill Crease on the four recommendations and data management systems, the Chief Officer agreed that quotative data was very important for scrutiny to hold officers to account but was not the only way to evaluate outcomes.  She felt it was the voices of the young people who would be vital in demonstrating how the service was having a positive impact on their lives.

            In response to a question from Mrs Lynne Bartlett on the availability of a map of the County outlining the location of youth clubs, where partnership provision was located and how this linked in with anti-social behaviour, the Chief Officer confirmed there was such a map.  The GIS mapping system was used for many of the Councils provisions and was currently being updated by the Senior Manager, Integrated Youth Provision and the Senior Manager, Youth Justice Service.  She explained that mapping where the youth clubs were located and looking at the data for incidents of anti-social behaviour enabled the resources to be targeted in an effective way. 

            The Senior Manager, Youth Justice Service outlined the close working relationships with the Youth Services and partners in North Wales Police around issues linked to anti-social behaviour.  He explained how the IT department were linking the information currently held with the GIS Framework within the Council.  Both Youth Justice and Youth Services attended the Community Demand Reduction Partnership which was the Police led anti-social behaviour task group.  The information received from this Group together with the information received from the Youth Justice Team enabled work to be undertaken with Youth Services, Flintshire Sorted and Youth Justice to look at developing outreach models to target those resources where anti-social behaviour was located.  Monthly meetings were held with the community beat sergeants in Flintshire North and South with data received at those meetings included to target services to the areas that needed it most. 

            Councillor Carolyn Preece spoke in support of the Upshot System which would save the Council money over the next three years. 

The recommendations, as outlined within the report, were moved by Councillor Bill Crease and seconded by Councillor Carolyn Preece.

RESOLVED:

(a) That the Committee approve the decision to replace the QES system with Upshot, allowing for more efficient and effective data collation across all IYP programmes, thus allowing improved monitoring, evaluation and learning which would lead to improved service delivery;

(b) That the Committee endorse the facilitation of training for partner organisations, such as sports clubs and uniformed organisations, in order to grow the reach of youth work informed practice, further supporting the health and well-being of young people in Flintshire;

(c) That the Committee acknowledge that progress has been made against the plan and that future revisions to the plan should be carefully considered by the wider IYP team in line with feedback from young people; and

(d) That the Committee support the decision to begin the Quality Mark Accreditation process in the Spring, beginning at Bronze and following the key recommendations from this process, bring the action plan back to Cabinet to agree progression towards Silver and Gold.