Programme Summary and Learning

The key learning is that regardless of these differences, effective projects should demonstrate specific characteristics: providing the appropriate breadth, intensity and adaptability of support in order to achieve positive outcomes; and should not underestimate how labour intensive working with children and young people with complex needs will be.

The Positive Destinations programme has funded projects working to ensure that children and young people achieve a positive and sustained future in their education, employment or training. The projects targeted different intervention points in children’s lives, focused on different aspects of the issue and worked with children experiencing a range of challenges in various settings. This report summarises the key learning from these projects in order to drive more effective practice and to inform policy development. The review is supported by cost/ activity analysis, detailed project level information and best practice summaries.

1. Overview

Project characteristicsProjects provided the building blocks to support critical transitions in children’s lives: settling into primary school; the move from primary to secondary school; leaving secondary school to pursue further learning, training or to find employment.

Ag

e

Ideal path

Interventions

Providing business and employment skills training

Building confidence and personal skills development

Building confidence and personal skills development

Building confidence and personal skills development

Stabilising chaotic lives

Stabilising chaotic lives

Stabilising chaotic lives

Stabilising chaotic lives

Providing support

at school

Providing support

at school

Providing support

at school

Young people 16+

Young people 11-15

Children 5-10

Children under 5

A Map of SupportAt different points in a child or young person’s life there are opportunities to have a lasting impact on their future destination (education, training or employment).

For young people, being out of education, employment or training is more a symptom than the problemPositive Destinations has demonstrated that young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) find themselves in that situation due to a host of complex, inter-related personal issues which can include lack of parental support, poor mental health, substance misuse, homelessness, poverty and disabilities.

The focus of the work is therefore not problem children but children with problem issues, the child may not be the only or right focus for the change.

The presenting issue is often just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and considerable work is required to identify root causes and influencing factors and provide appropriate support to begin to address these. Establishing stability in the lives of children and young people through a targeted approach based on the underlying rather than presenting issue and not seeing the child as the ‘problem’ has been central to achieving a sustained change for their futures (see diagram ‘A Map of Support’).

Needs should not be addressed in isolation from each otherIt is essential to look at children and young people holistically and, critically, to address the need to support parents and families to establish stability and achieve lasting positive outcomes. Projects found that engaging children, parents and families was often challenging due to a lack of basic literacy and numeracy skills, undiagnosed and untreated mental health issues and basic confidence. However, it is not a case of one size fits all; children have different levels of maturity, come from various backgrounds, school cultures and communities, all of which have a different impact on individual cases. Whilst acknowledging that the voluntary sector cannot address all the support needs of children, young people and parents, it is essential that these needs are not addressed in isolation. Instead, achieving sustained change requires a broad multi-agency approach which addresses the needs of children and young people alongside immediate family and social influences.

All projects have evidenced significant time spent on non-user facing activities; case specific research, signposting activities, developing partnerships and attending multi-agency meetings, which has been critical to achieving outcomes for children and young people. Even projects which present as completely user focused spent up to 40% of their time on these types of activities. Without these activities direct work (one to one and group) with children and young people and with their parents and carers is much less effective.

Outcomes are interlinked and interdependentThe outcomes achieved by the projects demonstrate the importance of addressing individual needs alongside immediate influences such as family support and home life. The achievement of many of these outcomes is

interlinked and interdependent (see diagram ‘Scale of Impact’).

2. Understanding the nature of the issue

Scale of ImpactWorking with children and young people has an impact far beyond that individual child or young person.

Children & Young People

Social and personal development

Improved life chances

Increased attendance and engagement in school, training and employment

Improved engagement in children’s lives

Improved family relationships

Improved engagement with support networks Building bridges

between schools, families

Linking support services, employers and the wider community

Influencing attitudes, practice and policy

Families, Parents & Carers

Wider Community

Potential SavingsTwo of the projects funded by Positive Destinations are given as examples to illustrate that the cost of intervention is much less than the cost to the public purse of doing nothing.

Project 1

Supporting a vulnerable primary school child in

school and at home

costs

£223a year

Child at risk of

non attendance

permanentexclusion

£1,200 a year

£20,110 a year

possible annualsavings

Project 2

Business skills trainingand one to one support

for a young o ender

costs

£553a year

Young person at

risk ofstruggling

to finda job

reo ending £60,000

£8,100 a year

£188,000 a year a year

possible annualsavings

leads to claiming benefits

(youth offenders institution)

(secure training centre)

Possible annual savings data taken from

Project 1 - DfE: Negative Outcomes Costing (2010), DfE: Improving Alternative Provision, (2012)

Project 2 - DWP Website (2012), Princes Trust: The Cost of Exclusion (2010), Foyer Federation Young offenders: A secure foundation

(2009), Hansard: Column 643W (22 May 2012)

Children and young people should be given ownershipProjects demonstrated that there is increased engagement when involvement is voluntary and children and young people have real ownership over elements of the project. For example: deciding whether or not their parents are contacted; where one to one meetings should take place; involvement in designing group activities and indeed whether or not they attend at all.

The work to keep young people engaged was often as labour intensive as the work to develop personal skills and work towards individual goals. Project workers needed to maintain positive expectations, not withdrawing support in response to poor behaviour or non-attendance, and allowing young people to make mistakes and to drop out and come back in their own time or with encouragement. A key strength of projects was their staff’s level of consistent support and commitment, seen as a unique approach by children, young people and families. Young people instigating contact with support workers was seen as a key turning point, demonstrating young people taking ownership of their development and progress.

Evidence suggests that group work is less effective than one to one activities and that one to one activities are particularly effective with younger children. Where group work has been a characteristic of projects, and particularly with older young people, this has been successful where group sizes have remained small (five or six in a group).

Children and young people should take a central role in reviewing their own progress. All projects reviewed progress regularly but more impact was observed where this review engaged children and young people, empowering them to set goals, define aspirations and develop ambition. This activity helped children and young people to acknowledge the need to change, to combat feelings of powerlessness, to monitor their own development and to address challenges which prevented progress.

Giving children and young people a sense that they can control their own destination, by giving them ownership and developing their confidence, is what makes the difference in the long term.

Involving and supporting parents and families is critical for lasting changeThe need for the engagement of families was evident in all projects: parents, carers and families are a part of the cause as well as a vital part of the solution. Lack of family support was cited as a significant barrier for all projects (and throughout the three years of delivery) in achieving their short and longer term outcomes with children and young people. Work with children and young people uncovered particular issues to address with parents and carers and projects were able to directly address these issues through one to one support meetings and group work with parents and carers. They were able to directly attribute this time to the achievement of positive outcomes with children.

Projects found that providing family support when young people requested it was most successful and the earlier this family support was provided and family problems could be addressed, the sooner progress could be made towards individual goals. Projects identified that problems stemming from family issues manifest early in life and that therefore family support is needed at an early stage to prevent these escalating into future challenges for children and young people.

The challenges of engaging parents were very similar to those experienced when engaging children and young people. Building a trusting relationship with parents was a key challenge but was considered essential and projects developed a variety of good tactics to work with parents. Projects demonstrated that the best results came when project workers provided a range of formal and informal activities to engage parents, bringing their service to parents (e.g. being available at school gates, running coffee mornings) rather than parents having to seek out support independently – something which many were unwilling or unable to do. This approach also enabled project workers to identify those children whose parents did not engage giving them an insight into the hardest to reach.

Working with parents and carers is labour intensive and leads to additional responsibilities but is critical in enabling effective work with children and young people. Projects have needed to address the support needs of parents, enable them to access professional support (e.g. for mental health, drug and alcohol dependency and domestic violence issues), build their aspirations, develop their core skills, and build bridges with social services, schools and health professionals in order to engage them in supporting progress in their children’s lives.

3. Key learning

Projects encountered a strong trend of parents with negative experiences of school and other statutory services themselves which meant they were unwilling to engage on behalf of their children. They therefore spent a significant amount of time working with parents to overcome this barrier and with agencies to ensure both parties understood one another’s perspectives. Projects challenged the administrative structures in statutory services which often don’t work for these families and project staff played a key role in bridging this communication gap in particular, accompanying families to appointments and using texts rather than letters as alerts and reminders of appointments. By transforming the mind-set of parents and challenging poor home and school engagement, projects were able to work more constructively with children and secure longer term positive outcomes.

Engaging and actively supporting parents is one of the single most important factors in helping children and young people make lasting changes to their lives.

Working in partnership is absolutely essential Children and young people with complex needs tend to be involved with a myriad of organisations and individuals, all projects worked in partnership with a variety of service providers and support agencies. The achievement of any sustained change for children, young people and their families was only possible when projects dedicated significant time and resources to identifying and building these partnerships: attending multi-agency meetings; developing joint working protocols; coordinating referrals; defining responsibilities and activities; ensuring appropriate signposting and maintaining a commitment to a holistic (multi-agency) approach.

The importance of playing a dual role of advocate and broker on behalf of children, young people and families has been demonstrated by all projects. Projects worked alongside schools, training providers, employers and referral agencies to: • actasanadvocateforchildren,youngpeople

and their families• actasabroker/conduittodeveloppositive

relationships• bridgethegapinprovision,understanding

and access between stakeholders; and• demonstratethebenefitsofpartnershipworking.

Working in partnership often presented more challenges, particularly where referral agencies expected projects to provide additional support or referred inappropriately.

However, establishing a good reputation for service delivery has enabled more effective partnership working and the opportunity for projects to demonstrate the effect of positive multi-agency working. Project staff have needed to challenge agencies in their judgement of families (parents, carers, children and young people), in their classification of need, in their referral criteria and protocols and in their failure to deliver. Projects have been able to establish a case for support and outlined the role that agencies could play to provide joined up support rather than compartmentalised provision. Projects have been able to highlight where poor communication or ill-considered decision making has undone the good work of projects with children and young people.

It is not always easy to develop and maintain strong relationships with other agencies, which are under their own, sometimes competing pressures, especially in the current economic climate. Some projects found themselves taking a coordinating role and thinking creatively about enabling engagement because of the direct implications any breakdown in this work would have for children and young people. All the Positive Destinations projects gained practical insights into how to make these partnerships work well.

Schools are a key partner in supporting children and young people and in engaging with parents and carers but also represented a key challenge for projects. Challenging school cultures, demonstrating the need for additional support for vulnerable children and young people to teachers and heads and creating a platform for enabling engagement of parents in schools were key activities for several projects. Projects have enabled schools to understand that to find lasting solutions they need to uncover the full reasons for a child’s poor behaviour or attendance.

Investment in assessment prior to starting to work together is critical and the child’s readiness for change is very influential. In ensuring children, young people and families are engaged appropriately and ready for their particular intervention, projects often identified additional support required for children, young people and families before they could be engaged appropriately or were ready for a project’s particular type of intervention. The right support for children and young people needs to be provided at the right time (see diagram ‘A Map of Support’). Projects recognised the need to know their limitations and link with the appropriate referral agencies to enhance their own provision.

In some cases projects were not best placed to stabilise chaotic lives but were able to refer users onto services which could meet their needs and enable them to return once they were ready. This meant that children, young people and families were not left without support but

projects were able to take their place in the jigsaw of provision and in some cases take the lead role and be the committed and consistent contact point. Some projects adapted their programmes significantly to meet specific needs which took a considerable amount of their delivery time. This flexibility and adaptability was a key strength of several projects.

The current challenging economic environment has led to a narrowing of service provision and left projects dealing with more complex issues and an increased number of users. Projects have needed to maintain a commitment to their core provision to avoid compromising their capability to deliver and strong partnership working has supported them in this.

Projects need to offer clear pathways and support through transitionsClear pathways out of the project and into new support where necessary or into education, training or employment are essential and these should be planned from the start as young people are particularly vulnerable during transition. Clear pathways and transition support involves parents, teachers, other support providers, training organisations and employers and must be underpinned by partnership working as outlined above. Projects have made schools more aware of the need for specific support during transitions alongside mainstreamed pastoral support for children in their final year of primary school and first year of secondary school. The gap in provision of support for the transition from primary to secondary school was highlighted by several projects, both the lack of services for children at secondary school and the higher threshold of need required before any intervention takes place.

It is important to recognise that success looks different for individual young people especially those with complex needs and that the journey travelled is as important as the end result. In fact these intermediate outcomes link to, and are an essential precursor to sustained impact. In every case, children and young people need to be aware of the options open to them and equipped to navigate the different pathways. This has required projects to be adaptable and flexible to the changing needs of children and young people. Project staff invested significant effort in identifying appropriate placements according to the aspirations and capabilities of young people and worked to prepare education or training providers and employers for individual young people. Through their commitment, perseverance and ongoing engagement staff achieved a familiarity for young people with both the pathway and people along the route which contributed to achieving smooth transitions.

Trust is the key to achieving building blocks of changeTrust is a theme which runs throughout all elements of project delivery and work with children, young people, parents, carers and partners.

Building a trusting relationship with project workers is incredibly important to children and young people with complex needs. This relationship needs to be of a personal, caring nature and involve parents and carers where appropriate.

In three projects, one to one personalised relationships formed the core element of project delivery. Children and young people had a friendly, consistent point of contact who was committed to their needs and persistent in their support, even when children, young people and families were slow to respond.

Involving children, young people and their families in monitoring their own progress and distance travelled was a key tool for developing trust, allowing encouragement and reinforcement of progress and aspirations at regular intervals as well as identifying challenges. This approach enabled children, young people and families to understand their own problems and what was needed to make positive changes as well as demonstrating how the project was supporting them to address issues appropriately.

Projects displayed patience, adaptability and flexibility when working with children, young people and families in order to build trust over time. Project workers needed to understand the challenges young people faced, often waiting for them to disclose issues and only approaching family members when invited. Neutral environments for conversations, meetings and contacts proved a success factor when building relationships and trust with children, young people and families. Having past participants as role models and hearing about service provision via local community networks also assisted projects in establishing a trusted reputation.

The independent nature of provision was also a strength in building trust when this had been broken down with schools, social services and other support providers. Families can find it easier to trust an independent voluntary organisation than statutory services. Organisations can build on this trust to help families establish independent, confident relationships with other organisations such as schools and social services - a lasting benefit for children and families.

BBC Children in Need 0345 609 0015pudsey@bbc.co.uk bbc.co.uk/pudsey

Positive Destinations, a partnership between BBC Children in Need and The Hunter Foundation, is a £2 million grant programme which aims to generate learning about what works in both preventing and addressing the issue of children and young people not being in education, training or employment, in order to inform policy, drive effective practice and effect systemic change.

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