Name: Raising Aspirations

Start date: 2008

End date: ?

Project Lead: CWSP

Project description / summary: 

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to raise the aspirations of young people aged 11-18 (up to 24 with learning difficulties and or disabilities (LDD)) and empower them to access employment or training opportunities and for those of statutory education age to re-engage with learning. Current statistics show that there are 203 individuals aged 16-18 who are not engaged and classed as not in education, training or employment opportunities (NEETs (NI117)) based on the average year 11 cohort from the NDC area being approximately 850, 23.8% of last years school leavers are now NEET and the remainder are long term NEETs (NI117). On review of why the 23.8% year 11 leavers are NEET a high proportion had dropped out of there chosen destination following school and were reluctant to re-engage. Connexions undertake a September guarantee through which all year 11s have an offer of education or training which is successful but it is evident that the retention is a bigger challenge. The Year 11 cohort for 2008 is 837, if we encounter a similar percentage this year that drop out of provision another 200 could be added to the NEET register from the NDC postcode area.  In April 2008 we surveyed young people across the city as to why they are NEET and what would it take to engage them into a positive outcome. There main aspirations were earning money, need assistance and advice from a qualified adviser for job support skills and job matching which fits their individuals skills and requirements rather than being encouraged to the nearest job available. Further findings were a need for current work experience and appropriate travel support to get to employment opportunities. Reducing these NEETs (NI117) by delivering the service they need will meet the objectives in the ‘Children and Young Peoples Plan’, Local Area Agreement in addition to meeting the deprivation index and ultimately meeting the objectives of the NDC strategy

Project delivery

There will be a team of experienced and qualified personal advisers who are responsible for the day-to-day delivery ensuring Equal Opportunity principles are embedded and effectively managed and they will act as key communicators of the project to managers, partners and colleagues, providing reports to the NDC, relevant stakeholders and partners.  All advisers are police-checked and trained in Child Protection, risk management, equal opportunities, CAF and health and safety. The present staff is match funded to the NDC until the 31/3/2009 after which we will have to review the level of staffing. We will ensure that any activities used to support the programme are risk assessed and in line with health and safety requirements.

Together the team will work with young people aged 11-16 in schools and will work with the wider age group 16-18 (up to 24 with a LDD) in conjunction with key services across the NDC area such as the Youth Service at the Venny Youth Centre, Pertemps, Henley College, Virtual Head, NDC catchment schools and will proactively work with the Youth Service led provision for PAYP which also partners the sports development project within Coventry City Council. This application complements and supports the application made for youth diversionary services by PAYP and partners.

The work delivered by our team with the NDC has been innovative and successful in capturing those who are hard to reach by offering an alternative to traditional mainstream support to approximately 300 young people.  The team is ideally placed to support individuals and as they have a presence in the NDC area are on hand to support young people as needs arise.

Proactive work will be continued with young people in years 7,8 and 9 who have a lack of motivation, at risk of exclusion and/or low level aspirations academically who are at risk of becoming future NEETs (NI117). The team will work with schools and engage with individuals using a motivational training tool called Its in U2. The team are based at the study support centre and will engage with young people who are accessing the centre for educational support along with other services such as careers information, drugs advice, sexual health, the youth forum and access to provision running across the NDC area.

CSWP has recently secured a project called E-factor which is a digital technology project and includes a community television channel entitled centralvision.  We would look to recruit positive role models from those supported in the NDC area and maximise this new technology to record their experiences and would use this to share their experiences via community television or a DVD to show what its like to live in the NDC area, what agencies offer support, experiences of other young people in the NDC area, and demonstrate solutions problems faced i.e employment. This will also act as a communication tool to parents, carers, young people & strategic partners including the NDC successor body ‘Moat House Trust’. The TV channel will be streamed in a variety of places and will also be available on the internet. 

We did a brief pilot in the NDC using arts as a medium for engagement; this was very successful although limited.  This led to one of our specialist advisers securing a small grant from the children’s fund to work with young mothers and there children using arts as a medium for engagement.  We want to widen this further and support the NEETs (NI117) in the NDC area and also offer an alternative to those programmes offered within the youth diversionary pot as we are mindful that not all individuals express there creativity through sports or mainstream provision

Findings from the ‘why we are not working survey’ (April 2008, CSWP Ltd ) outlined many young people face problems with travel, despite being an urban area many are faced with unreliable services, unsuitable transport times and high costs which preclude them from accessing opportunities. The project will offer a travel planning service to individuals exploring opportunities for employment and will look to provide support to overcome the barriers faced. They will hold information on travel support provided across the city i.e. through job centre plus, wheels to work, public transport. CSWP is also trying to secure funding for a work wise project in the city which will provide travel costs to employment and interviews for 2 months.

We will look to work proactively with provision in place to support NEETs (NI117) or those at risk of becoming so but are mindful that good information sharing will be required to support those who are dropping out of support. Maximising linkages with the youth support officers and young advisers.

The advisers will work closely with health support services across the NDC area and will support young people supported with advice around contraception and safe sex. The project will be open to all young people in need of support and we will work proactively with young mums and dads to support them in accessing opportunities.  The project we are partnering under youth diversion with PAYP will also issue contraceptive support and advice as part of the activities delivered. Our advisers are SRE trained and are able to issue contraceptives and advice to young people accessing support.

Whilst the team is based at the study support centre there are facilities for young people across the area to access such as job clubs, benefits advice, IAG services and a careers library. The youth forum is also based at the same centre.

CSWP run a support programme to individuals accessing college, are at risk of dropping out, or are those who have disengaged from college, it is called chillout and offers a range of sessions to support integration and sustaining their college place. The project will work proactively with chill out and will ensure that appropriate referrals mechanisms are in place to refer NDC clients. Another gap identified in the survey was the lack of relevant skills for employment. The project has piloted some paid work placements with a small number of young people form the ndc area which has proved successful and we will expand this as part of the project.   Young people will under take a 12 week work placement through which they will receive a weekly attendance allowance to support there travel, clothing and subsistence needs whilst also giving them the skills and experience of what real work is like within and outside the NDC area. For many there only experience of work is the mandatory placement during years 10 or 11 which does not give them the relevant skills or understanding to access a real job after school. For those benefiting from the state for living costs there needs to be a benefit for going to work, having paid work experience allows them to adjust to getting to work for the same time each day, doing the hours required and gaining a sense of achievement for which they get paid.  During the placement it is hoped that they will secure employment at there placement, all young people on placement will maintain regular contact with there adviser and if not will be supported to find a job with training or general employment.

CSWP proactively work with young people across the city in shaping services provided to them.  CSWP have acquired funding from the children’s fund to extend this work by working with agencies, children and young people.  Agencies will be supported to achieve the ‘Hear by Rights’ standard which shows involvement and that they listed and respond to the views of the service users. The children and young peoples plan cites involvement as one of its key indicators with all services across the city achieving ‘Hear by Rights’. Current focus groups within the NDC area will be invited to participate in this project. As part of our standard working practice all advisers capture feedback from individuals, parents and carer’s and this is used to shape provision and make it better for all.

There are currently 203 young people aged 16-18 who are neet from the NDC area in line with the tender requirements we will seek to reduce this by 20%, moving 41 hard to reach NEETs (NI117) into positive career pathways.

Although CSWP receives a core grant for Connexions Services this allows no scope to work with all of the priority groups, as a company we proactively source funding to work with at risk groups and those which are emerging. Work with schools and colleges in the NDC are funded as part of our grant on a restricted level.  During the life of the project we will seek funding to continue the provision offered in the NDC working with the, NDC community and the Moat House Trust.