Janette Fullwood Senior Youth Connexions PA

SCRUTINY PANEL PAPER 14th December 2009

YOUTH CONNEXIONS HERTFORDSHIRE

Casework with an individual

An example of work with a young woman aged 15 currently in year 11 including:  How the work came about and the young person’s issues  The support, guidance and advice offered.  Areas of integrated working and key partners involved.  Outcomes for the young person that have resulted from YCH intervention and support.

How the work came about: Shelly was referred via her school in Welwyn Garden City. The issues Shelly needed support with included:

 Disengagement with school – truanting and poor behaviour resulting in underachievement  Lack of direction and future plans with low aspirations  Behaviour outside school – binge drinking at weekends and also concerns about antisocial behaviour.  Poor family relationships – mum had previous alcohol misuse

What work was delivered?

One to one support within school, assessing Shelly’s needs

The first few sessions in school focused on assessing Shelly’s needs and getting to know her. Shelly engaged well and was open about many of the issues the school had identified. In order to give my support some direction, Shelly and I worked together to prioritise the issues she required help with.

Positive activities with Make it Happen in Sport, a Youth Connexions Project

After seeing Shelly for 5 sessions. I set up, coordinated and helped deliver a kayaking group in partnership with Make it Happen in Sport, a Youth Connexions Project. Shelly took part in this project.

Accessing partner agencies, Social Care

Towards the end of this group things outside school started to deteriorate. Shelly revealed that mum had started drinking heavily again. As a result, I involved Social Care and Shelly was placed in a temporary foster care placement.

Positive activities during summer and links with the Youth Work Team

During the summer Shelly remained in her temporary care placement and attended a number of activities on our Youth Connexions summer programme including horse riding, a motorbike project and street dance.

Continued one to one support to explore post year 11 options Through my support, Shelly and I have now started to explore post year 11 options. I have taken her to two different college open evenings and she has applied for a place to study beauty in September 2010.

Outcomes:

Access to positive activities through Make it Happen is Sport

Outcomes: The ‘Make it happen in Sport’ group helped build the relationship with Shelly. It gave Shelly something positive to do in her free time and something she had herself never thought of trying. Shelly received an AQA certificate which helped her self confidence. Shelly’s achievements were also reported to the school for them to see her progress.

One to one support in school

Outcomes: This ran alongside all of the other areas of work and helped Shelly to build a trusting relationship with me within the context of supporting her to remain in education. At the time when she was faced with a very difficult situation of being placed in care, Shelly trusted and remained confident in my support.

Positive activities during summer and links with the Youth Work Team

Outcomes: Taking part in a number of activities on the summer programme allowed Shelly to come back to the area, (she was accommodated away from the Borough) and meet up with friends in a safe environment. Two of the activities were on Friday evenings which helped to provide a diversion from binge drinking; helping her to see that she could spend her free time doing other things, rather than drinking.

Partnership working

Outcomes: Joint working with Social Care, Make it Happen in Sport, local colleges and the Youth Work Team has allowed a more co-ordinated approach to support. A co-ordinated programme enabled Shelly to realise that she is now not alone and meet a range of her needs.

Shelly’s current position

Shelly is still in temporary care but will eventually move back home in the near future. Although there are many positive outcomes there are still some issues that we need to address, which are mainly around social skills.

How did being part of Youth Connexions make an impact?

 It has enabled a more joined up approach to support Shelly  Increased awareness of the range of positive activities on offer  Better access to the expertise of Youth Work colleagues  Easier access to youth work provision and positive activities  Opportunities for joint working to deliver positive activities  Opportunities for accreditation through youth work provision  Enabled my role as a personal Adviser to now focus on raising aspirations and transition from year 11

Janette Fullwood Senior Personal Adviser