Agenda item

[Andrew Wolverson, Deputy Director of Commissioning and Transformation of Children Services, to present report.]

The Chair invited Andrew Wolverson, Deputy Director of Commissioning and Transformation of Children Services, to present the report. The Deputy Director introduced Jackie Redding, Chief Executive, The Way Youth Zone, to the meeting who would also be contributing to the presentation.

The Deputy Director gave an overview of the universal youth and holiday offer in the City provided by the Council and by other partners such as The Way.

The Deputy Director advised the panel that the Youth Engagement Strategy underpins the approach taken to developing the offer.

The Deputy Director commented on the three key themes of the Youth Engagement Strategy and gave details of progress and successes of the work done to engage with children and young people.

The Deputy Director highlighted the work of the Youth Engagement Participation Board. The members of the Board have allocated grants of £500,000 to local and voluntary organisations to deliver activities for children and young people during the school holidays.

The Deputy Director gave an overview of the activities and opportunities for children and young people during the summer holiday programme and commented on the successes when compared to the summer period of 2021.

The Deputy Director invited Jackie Redding to brief the panel about the work of The Way Wolverhampton Youth Zone during the school summer holidays. The Way is the flagship universal provision offer within Wolverhampton.

The Chief Executive advised the panel that she was appointed five months and commented on the range of activities offered to young people aged from 8 years to 25 years, if they have additional needs, at The Way. The Chief Executive commented on the philosophy of the centre which aims to create a fun, safe and welcoming place for children and young people. The youth workers at the centre encourage and support young people to try the different facilities available at the centre, ranging from football, rock climbing, cooking, and music lessons.

The Chief Executive commented on the increasing numbers of young people who attend the centre but cannot afford to pay the £1 entrance fee. The panel were reassured that young people would not be prevented from either using the centre facilities or having an evening meal in this situation.

The Chief Executive commented on the impact on families of the current cost of living pressures and how this affected the behaviour of young people who attend and highlighted increasing numbers wanting to learn home cooking skills as an example.

The Chief Executive commented on the huge amount of work done to improve the food and catering offer at The Way and to encourage young people to think about healthy food choices. 

The Chief Executive invited panel members to visit the centre to see the activities and meet the young people.

The Deputy Director commented on the plans for supporting and building links with uniformed organisations within the city. The work builds on a project developed by the Lord Lieutenant's office.

The Deputy Director commented on workforce developments and the work done with voluntary sector to offer young people different learning opportunities.

The panel were invited to comment on the report.

The panel congratulated the presenters on the success of the programme of holiday activities and the opportunities given to children and young people.

The panel queried the allocation of funding across the City and highlighted concerns that some wards in the City which had smaller areas of deprivation were not getting the level of support needed. The panel also queried the work being done to engage with community and voluntary organisations in these areas that could help deliver the aims of the programme.

The Deputy Director accepted the gaps in provision of holiday activities across the City and commented on the work being done with providers to improve the situation. The holiday programme is funded for three years but the funding is allocated on a yearly basis.

The Deputy Director added that work has begun on commissioning activities for the Christmas and February school holiday period and providers are being asked to considered extending their offer to other areas. The Deputy Director commented on the financial challenges facing providers in extending their services to other areas and the different options being considered to support this change, for example moving from grant to a commissioning basis.

The Deputy Director encouraged panel members to refer any local community organisations to the service if they wanted to bid for funding from the holiday activities programme. The Deputy Director commented on the support available to local groups to prepare bids and the benefits of getting them involved in delivering activities.

The Deputy Director commented on plans to provide support outside the main school holiday period in response to feedback from providers and that there were discussions to review changes to criteria used to fund places so that more children and young people can get involved.

The panel discussed the reference in the report to the numbers of young people involved in the summer programme activities this year when compared to the same period and asked for further details. The Deputy Director agreed to review how the information is presented in future reports.

The panel highlighted the issue of increasing levels of child poverty and the challenges facing parents who are finding it difficult to pay to use the facilities at The Way. The panel queried if information could be sent out to parents to explain that young people are welcome to attend even if they don’t have the money to pay the entrance fee.

The Chief Executive The Way reaffirmed the position that young people wanting to use the facilities will not be refused entry if they could pay the entrance fee.

The panel commented on the importance of improving the local offer and queried if financial support could be given to community groups to help them provide activities to meet the needs of young people.

The Deputy Director acknowledged the range of activities offered by local community and church groups and advised the panel the Yo Wolverhampton website is being used to promote different activities and to give information to parents and young people about the offer. Wolverhampton Voluntary and Community Action has been funded by the Council to provide support and advice to existing local groups wanting to set up activities for children and young people.

The panel queried the concerns about gangs and use of drugs expressed by parents about The Way. The panel also queried the support available from workers at The Way to help vulnerable children that may attend.

The Chief Executive accepted there were concerns from some parents about the issues highlighted and outlined the range of measures taken to tackle them and to reinforce the message to young people about what is acceptable behaviour.

The Chief Executive advised the panel that The Way offers a mentoring support service as part of the universal offer and works with local partnerships to provide specialist support on issues such as sexual health and substance misuse, where needed. The Chief Executive reassured the panel that issues about cannabis use outside the building are not ignored by the staff and action is taken.

The panel queried that given increase in cost-of-living what action was being taken by The Way to help ensure that young people are not embarrassed to say that they are unable to pay the entrance fee and supported to use the facilities.

The Chief Executive further reassured the panel that The Way does not want the issue of the daily entrance fee to be an issue, whilst acknowledging the importance of explaining that the services provided have a value. The Chief Executive added that work is being done to update the website and there will be a section about the policy which makes clear that if someone cannot pay then this will not be a problem.

The panel queried when the changes would be made to the website. The Chief Executive advised the panel that a new content marketing manager has been appointed and updating the website would be a priority.

The panel queried if Government funding covered all the school holidays periods, the work being done increase the uptake of free school meals, and details of the number of children in receipt of free school meals who took part in the holiday activities programme as proportion of the total.

The Deputy Director advised the panel the programme is funded for 10 weeks which covers the school holiday period, but the Council has the flexibility to change the periods covered. The numbers of weeks covered was changed in response to comments from parents who did not want the two weeks of activities during the Christmas holiday period covered.

The Deputy Director advised the panel that there was about 16,000 young people eligible for free school meals in Wolverhampton. In addition, children, and young people on EHCP are also eligible to attend the holiday sessions.  The Deputy Director outlined action taken this year to encourage more eligible young people to take up the offer to attend holiday scheme activities.

The panel discussed the numbers of young people attending holiday activity sessions and the opportunity to attend as many different activities as they wanted from range of local providers in the area.

The panel queried the support available to young people with smoking or substance abuse issues and the work being done to encourage them to get specialist help if needed. The Chief Executive of The Way reassured the panel about the current support on offer to young people.

The panel discussed the possibility of visiting The Way and having a meeting at the venue.

The panel suggested to the Chief Executive about using the Yo website to engage with young people about developing facilities and to listen to their views on the current offer.

The panel discussed ideas for encouraging other local providers to submit bids to holiday activities fund and for organisations to deliver services at The Way.

The panel thanked the presenters for the report.  The panel congratulated the presenters on the success of the summer holiday activities programme in reaching so many children and young people.

Resolved:

1.    The panel agreed to note the findings in the presentation.

2.    The panel comments on the presentation to be actioned where appropriate.