Gill MillarSouth West Regional Youth Work Adviser

Commissioning and the Youth Offer:

a South West perspective

Commissioning and the Youth Offer

Issues to consider:

Why commission? (What are the benefits)

What should be commissioned? (All or parts of the offer)

Who should deliver? (The state of the market)

Ensuring quality

Young people’s role in commissioning

Commissioning as a tool for innovation

Why commission?

Cost benefits

Building social capital

Transparency and contestability

Encouraging innovation

Engage a wider range of providers

What to commission

Currently inconsistent across the Youth Offer

Need clear analysis of need/aspirations of young people

Standards against which to benchmark specifications

Factor in development and response to changing needs

What functions need to stay in house?

The state of the market

Price Waterhouse Cooper report (2006): need for market development in positive activities

Long standing grant aid relationship with small scale local voluntary youth organisations: can this continue? Is there a dependency culture?

Growth of private sector provision and large national voluntary organisations: could see ‘Tesco effect’

Audit Commission report (2007): many VCOs unable to explain value for money: same applies to many LA providers

Building social capital: supporting local engagement

Ensuring Quality

More providers + more variety = less uniformity: how can we ensure consistent good quality?

Clear standards required, understood by commissioners and providers National IAG standards RYWU standards for youth work

Too many Quality Marks: need clarity about comparability and relevance

Effective contract management

Young people as commissioners

Aiming High’: young people to control 25% of positive activities budget: how are we preparing for that?

Experience of Youth Opportunity Fund/Youth Capital Fund

Involvement of young people in commissioning decisions strategically and in localities

Development of roles for young people in commissioning teams

Building a culture of innovation

Youth workers have a strong sense of entrepreneurship: so commissioning should support, not smother this

Build in capacity to innovate at project level, by leaving the inputs ‘loose’, while outputs are ‘tight’

Ensure innovative practice is shared and celebrated, and not kept inside projects and providers

Workforce development and CPD should promote, not stifle innovation

Making commissioning work for young people

Need ‘intelligent’ commissioners, informed directly by young people, who understand what is possible and what can go wrong

A transparent process for determining the ‘Youth Offer’

Providers who know the value of their offer, are sustainable in the area, and can show how they help to build local social capital

Clear quality standards for all aspects of the Youth Offer

Sufficient funding, equitably distributed to maintain a high quality offer for young people

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www.learning-southwest.org.uk