Nigel Rose, Strategic Lead (Commissioning) for Macc comments on the proceedings of Manchester City Council’s Valuing Young People Board.
Manchester City Council is facing unprecedented levels of cuts. Provision for young people is facing reductions in common with every other area of provision. Officers of the Council are in the process of developing proposals for the cuts which will then come to the Valuing Young People Board for discussion and then out for consultation.
Much more positively work is progressing on the implementation of the Youth Strategy. The first part of the discussion focused on a performance management framework, how to measure whether the strategy is having an impact. This is fraught with complications as it can be very difficult to assess what changes as a result of the strategy, and what changes because of circumstances beyond the scope of the strategy e.g.. a change in welfare benefits or worklessness. Either way the proposed measures will help the Board to understand what’s happening for young people in Manchester.
Another challenge in establishing a performance framework is obtaining data. Often the data is not collected and there are not enough resources, especially in these straitened times, to collect new data. Additionally, much of the data is focussed on deficits or lacks rather than on the positives and there is little data on wellbeing. There is work to be done over the next few years to bring together organisations across the city to share data.
The second part of the discussion focussed on publicising and marketing the Youth Strategy. People need to know about and feel part of the strategy for it to work. A high quality mock-up of a poster had been produced by a young volunteer which is going to be worked on with Manchester City Council’s Communication Dept.
Finally, there was discussion about the future direction of the work of the Valuing Young People’s Board, its business plan. Two proposals are being looked at, partly modelled on the work of the Valuing Old People Board. The first is a much broader stakeholder group with representatives of organisations all across the city who work with young people. The second is a research focussed meeting brining together a small number of local academics working on young people’s issues.
Nigel Rose, Strategic Lead (Commissioning) attends the Valuing Young People Board on behalf of Macc.
The Valuing Young People Board is coordinated by Elaine Morrison, Head of Commissioning 10 – 19 (MCC) “to provide the strategic direction that will inform policies and commissioning plans for all matters relating to universal and targeted services for young people aged 10 – 19 (and up to 24 for those young people with a Learning Disability and Care Leavers) on behalf of Manchester City Council and partner agencies.”
Its membership comprises: Executive Member for Youth (Councillor); 2 Representatives from the Manchester Youth Council; Senior Consultant from Public Health Manchester (MCC); Representative from MACC; Provider representative from the Voluntary Community & Faith Sector (VCFS); Senior police officer from Greater Manchester Police; Director of Education and Skills (MCC); Head of Community and Cultural Services (MCC)