Youth work changes

Story: Emily Haimeed

Youth work has undergone substantial changes in a move away from universal provision, for anyone, to a targeted approach.

Different services have come together to form new ‘Community Youth Teams’ including Sheffield Futures youth workers, Police Officers and Sheffield City Council Prevention and Children and Young Persons Officers.

The Burngreave area is part of the North Community Youth Team, which will now be working with 8-19 year olds, as opposed to the 13-19 age range that Sheffield Futures previously worked with.

All services in one place

I met with the Interim Chief Executive of Sheffield Futures, Andy Barrs, to discuss how Community Youth Teams will work.

“Our intention is to get the staff in one location so that we are better equipped to serve young people and support them. Sheffield Futures’ role is now more targeted towards young people who need our support, particularly our most vulnerable and hard to reach. The main responsibility for positive activities is now with Activity Sheffield. That said, we still have open access at all our centres, anybody is welcome.”

Andy talked about why changes to youth work are necessary and how the Teams will work with the voluntary sector:

“In my former role as a senior police officer, I was in Burngreave when Jonathan Matondo was shot dead at age 16. I went up to the scene and saw Jonathan there and it was probably the biggest challenge in my police career. Everybody that had access or professional relationships with Jonathan has some responsibility for what happened to him. It forced everybody, including me as a police officer and now as the chief executive of Sheffield Futures, to improve the way we support young people, particularly those at risk. I would like to think that Community Youth Teams are Jonathan’s legacy to this city; they represent a real move forward in partnership working. “Everybody needs to step up to the plate and help us provide this new service. We want to work with voluntary groups to get extra resources and funding for young people. We are also employing a volunteer manager who will recruit local people to help us on the ground.”

Working with the Police

The changes mean youth workers and police officers will now be working closer together. I spoke to members of the North Community Youth Team about whether this may deter young people.

“Generally, a young person is more likely to trust a youth worker than a police officer, that’s life. Many young people who say they don’t want to work with police officers may have had negative experiences with them or know somebody who has, but working together we can achieve positive outcomes. One young girl referred to us from the police was at risk of receiving an ASBO. The police officer within our team explained how she’d been doing really well since working with us and the ASBO was dropped.” Ronny Tucker (Community Youth Manager, Prevention)

“There are things said to youth workers that they can be deal with themselves without needing to breach any confidentiality and that’s important to maintain. All our staff are trained to know when to intervene.” Andy Barrs

Keeping out of trouble

Community Youth Teams will encourage teachers, schools and other professionals, to refer young people who are getting into trouble. Young people can also refer themselves. Members of the team stress that it is a positive and supportive service.

“Working together, we support young people to make the right choices, improve their self-belief and give them the resilience to cope better with the ups and downs of life.” Ronny Tucker

“Getting into trouble is a phase that young people go through and I think sometimes we forget that we were young people too. There are groups of young people that hang around together, but they’re not necessarily a gang or doing anything anti-social.” Sheila Waite (Senior Practitioner Sheffield Futures)

Members of the new Team also spoke about the advantages of the changes.

“It’s great that all agencies are involved as we can cover all angles. It saves us trying to find the right person or take on that job ourselves. Now all the contacts we need are in our team.” Steph O’Malley (Police Officer)

“It’s a good idea having a holistic approach so that a young person isn’t going to a number of different services. Instead they can go to one place and get their needs met and we can do it all on one piece of paper now.” Sheila Waite

What young people think

I spoke to young people at the Vestry Hall about the changes. All were unaware of Community Youth Teams. In general, they did not seem to mind the police working with youth workers.

“I think the police need to hear what young people have to say. They should give people more leaflets and tell people about these changes because I didn’t know about them.” Galal (16)

“They need a better marketing strategy, I don’t think they’ve got one. They should go into schools and colleges and tell people about it.” Hamza (18)

“It’s better this new way because going from one place to another is stupid, but they need to come here and tell us about what’s happening.” Amer (18)

Youth workers generally thought that agencies working together was a good idea, but nobody quite understands how it is going to work yet. One youth worker said:

“The important question is: Do people know what Community Youth Teams are about? If it’s confusing to me, it’s going to be confusing for a young person to understand. To build up a relationship with a young person can take six months, once they find out you’re working with the police it might start to deteriorate.”

The North Community Youth Team is based at the Millan Centre, 199 Longley Lane.

Telephone 0800 138 8381 . E-mail cyt@sheffield.gov.uk

Website: http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/cyt/