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

Discussion materials

Issue 3:

Managing disabled young people’s engagement and achievement

Ofsted’s discussion materials: Youth work

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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.

About this resource


http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/130018

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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 people’s 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.

Overview of the discussion materials


http://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.


Survey findings

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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.

Survey findings (1)


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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.


Survey findings (2)

Raising the challenge: issues for consideration by practitioners and managers

Managing disabled young

Issue 3

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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.

Managing disabled young people’s engagement and achievement: Survey findings – strategic planning (1)


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Managing disabled young people’s 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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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.

Managing disabled young people’s engagement and achievement: Survey findings – building on national policy (1)


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

Managing disabled young people’s engagement and achievement: Survey findings – building on national policy (2)


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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 person’s life, such as when leaving school.

Managing disabled young people’s engagement and achievement: Survey findings – partnerships (1)


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Where contributions were being maximised, senior local authority managers communicated the impact of involvement in youth activities on young people’s 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.

Managing disabled young people’s engagement and achievement: Survey findings – partnerships (2)


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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.

Managing disabled young people’s engagement and achievement: Survey findings – integration and inclusion (1)


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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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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 person’s special school or indeed parents, to give the particular youth activity validity as a learning and social experience.

Managing disabled young people’s engagement and achievement: Survey features – integration and inclusion (3)


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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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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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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.

Managing disabled young people’s engagement and achievement: Survey findings – a planning role for the local authority (1)


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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 people’s voice’ mechanisms in local politics and government and in representing peers.

Managing disabled young people’s engagement and achievement: Survey findings – a planning role for the local authority (2)


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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.

Managing disabled young people’s engagement and achievement: Survey findings – ensuring a role for the voluntary, community and charitable sectors (1)


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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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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 people’s learning, enjoyment and attendance

ensuring that staff had sufficient skills in group work to provide an imaginative and varied curriculum.



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Despite, therefore, an overall positive picture, inspectors found a number of critical issues which shaped the nature and quality of young people’s 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.

Managing disabled young people’s engagement and achievement: Overview


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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 ?

Managing disabled young people’s engagement and achievement: Critical issues – discussion points (1)


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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?

Managing disabled young people’s engagement and achievement: Critical issues – discussion points (2)


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 [email protected] and ensure that you put ‘Ofsted’s discussion materials: Youth work’ in the subject box of your email.


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Documents

youth work survey findings

youth work provision

youth workslide

effective youth work

young issue

youth workers

disabled children policy

ofsteds discussion materials