Introduction to youth policy
Wednesday 26th March
11:30-1:15pm
What defines “youth”?
Political Squares
Key Factors in defining “youth”
Concepts from Roche et al (2004) “Youth in Society” ; Supporting Evidence from
various sources
• Education:
o
o
o
In the mid 70’s about 70% were working and earning,
now the figure is 5%
The drive to keep everyone at school means that we
have effectively narrowed our definition of
‘achievement’ for young people to one option –
academic success
Expanded access to university
• Family dependence:
o
Individual benefits for young people removed and
introduction of student loans means longer period of
dependence on families
Key Factors in defining “youth”
•
Concepts from Roche et al (2004) “Youth in Society” ; Supporting Evidence from
various sources
“Can Do” ethos
– Anyone can make it if they try hard enough.
– Has led to a sense of individual blame for failures
• Dependence to Independence
– Most white, non-disabled, and middle class young people face a
relatively smooth pathway
– More disadvantaged young people struggle more and more with
this
• “Uneven” and “Fragmented Transitions”
– “uneven because different groups of young people have very
different experiences of the transition to adulthood.
Fragmented, because the different markers of adulthood are
increasingly uncoupled from each other” (p xiv)
• Information Age
Key Factors in defining “youth”
• Young People in Northern Ireland have faced
additional challenges over the last two decades
• Conflict/Post-conflict Society:
“The effects of the Troubles seem to be associated
with problems relating to underachievement and
behavioural adjustment.”
http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/conflictchildrenyoungpeople.pdf
• Segregation:
“Segregation and sectarianism are a continuing legacy
of the Troubles”
http://www.conflictresearch.org.uk/cms/images/stories/Segregated%20Lives.pdf
SOME KEY CULTURAL
CONTEXTS THAT
IMPACT YOUNG
PEOPLE’S SENSE OF
IDENTITY
MOBILITY
Average Person per year:
•take 1000 journeys
•travel over 7000 miles
2001 1.5 Million House
Transactions
•Lesser links to the wider family
•Generation Gap
GOING OUT TO WORK
Both parents out to
work…
…Less direct contact
time with parents…
…Unsupervised access to
media in the home…
…TV becomes the live in
Nanny!!!
CONSUMERISM
‘We don’t influence teenagers we
own them.’ Managing Director of MTV
LEISURE / SPARE TIME
The average family in the UK
watches 27 hours of TV
each week.
The Internet
global village
91% of 12 year olds in the
UK own a mobile phone
Youth Policy
Youth work’s collaborative, cross-disciplinary
approach is both a strength and weakness of Youth
policy.
A strength in that it enables youth advocates to work
with cross-disciplinary organisations to foster links.
A weakness in that within a formal academic system
its status is considered subordinate to ‘pure’
subjects. This situation poses a range of challenges
for youth workers who can often underestimate the
role of social/youth policy in their profession.
Youth Policy
• "It does seem an extraordinary failure that you
[the youth sector] can’t make a better fist at
• explaining the difference you make" (Children
& Young People Now; 2011).
“… The main objective of youth work is to
provide space and opportunities for young
people to shape their own futures…” (Lauritzen;
2006).
Bessant (2005) 10 principles of
youth policy
1.
2.
3.
Ensuring the means is available to live a human life of normal length
Guaranteeing good health
Ensuring ‘non-beneficial’ pain and suffering is minimized and happiness
and pleasure maximized
4. Guaranteeing young people are able to use all their senses
5. Ensuring an ability to form and maintain a range of attachments and
identity.
6. Enabling young people to form a conception of good, to engage in critical
reflection and to be able to plan one’s own life
7. Facilitating young people’s social being
8. Environmental ethics
9. Guaranteeing an environment that secures the ability to laugh, play and
enjoy recreation
10. The principle of non-interference
Key policy Drivers
•
•
•
•
Review of Public Administration
Children (NI) Order 1995
Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act (1998)
UNCRC
Responses to Youth
• Model for Effective Practice
• Strategy for Children & Young People
• Lifetime Opportunities/Anti-Poverty & Social
Inclusion Strategy for NI
• CRED policy
• Entitlement Framework
• Strategy for delivering youth work in NI 05-08
• Priorities for Youth
Group WORK:
“located within an understanding of
the social and political context”
Stage 1: What are the agendas in youth policy and
in wider government in Northern Ireland?
(Consider extract (p. 13-24) from Strategy for
Delivery of Youth Work in NI 05-08)
Stage 2: Think critically about the agendas. What is
the historical background to these agendas?
(Consider Sam McCready’s lecture notes entitled “A
living democracy”)
Where is policy happening?
Your Personal and Social Context
Stage 3: How does social
policy impact:
o Your work in PPA?
o The life of young people
in PPA?
o Your youth work
practice?
o Future employment
prospects – self & YP?
o What policy comes to
mind in your local
community/PPA?
Key Policy Drivers
Key Policy Drivers
• Better Government: A Review of Public
Administration (2006)
– move towards a more effective system of governance and a more costeffective, coordinated organisation of the Government and the services it
provides.
– re-structuring of health trusts, social services boards and the Department of
Education.
– Local and district councils, which previously numbered 26, will reduce to 11,
the current timeline for this are the May 2011 local government elections.
– This is leading to a restructure of organisations such as the Youth Council for
Northern Ireland, as well as the Education and Library Boards who will be
subsumed into the new Education and Skill Authority
Key Policy Drivers
Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995
• emphasis on safeguarding children and young people,
protecting them from the negative consequences of
intolerance, inequality and disadvantage, sought to
identify mechanisms for championing the cause of the
young
• This commitment led to the OFM DFM to establish the
Commission for Children and Young People
• one of the Commissioner’s primary duties is to ensure
the promotion of children and young peoples’ rights
• The Children (Northern Ireland) Order enshrines in
legislation a requirement for children and young
people to have opportunities to participate in decisionmaking processes
Key Policy Drivers
• Northern Ireland Act 1998 (Section 75)
• the Government has sought to ensure that
those from all sectors providing services for
children and young people rigorously adhere
to Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act
• Section 75 addresses issues of equality, equity,
interdependence and the challenging of
discriminatory practices.
Section 75 of the GFA 1998
A public authority shall in carrying out its functions relating to Northern Ireland
have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity (a) between persons of different religious belief, political opinion,
racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation;
(b) between men and women generally;
(c) between persons with a disability and persons without; and
(d) between persons with dependants and persons without.
Section 75 (1) advanced beyond any
other equality legislation and amount to
“the fourth generation equality laws,
based on a positive duty to promote
equality, rather than simply to refrain
from discriminating”
(Fredman, 2002: 122)
Equality and Human Rights were central to
negotiating the Belfast Agreement and the
advancing the peace process in Northern
Ireland. Core principles of the Agreement,
enacted in Section 75 of the Northern
Ireland Act (1998) were the duties to
promote equality and good relations.
“good relations cannot be built on basis of inequality and disadvantage”
(McCrudden, 2004: 72)
Policy Responses to Youth
Policy Responses to Youth
• Model of Effective Practice (2004)
A non-statutory curriculum framework for the
planning, delivery and evaluation of youth
work programmes in Northern Ireland.
Policy Responses to Youth
Better Government: A Review of Public Service
Administration (2006)
– outlines significant changes for the organisation of and
responsibility of youth service provision.
– newly created Education and Skills Authority (ESA) will
assume responsibility for operational delivery,
coordinating and building partnerships across all sectors
with the aim of achieving a joined-up approach to delivery
– ESA will take on functions and responsibilities previously
performed by the Education and Library Boards and the
Youth Council for Northern Ireland (YCNI).
– It will also introduce a new body called the Northern
Ireland Network for Youth (NINFY), with an aim to ensure
that young people’s voices reach government departments
and the youth service as a whole
Policy Responses to Youth
Our Children and Young People – Our Pledge(2006)
– calls for an improvement in outcomes for all children and
young people.
– suggests that those experiencing severe disadvantage, or
whose needs are complex and varied, will benefit from
targeted interventions.
• Success will be measured against outcomes in six
areas:
•
•
•
•
•
•
being healthy
enjoying, learning and achieving
living with safety and stability
experiencing economic and environmental wellbeing
contributing positively to community and society
living in a society that respects their rights.
Policy Responses to Youth
Our Children and Young People – Our Pledge(2006)
– Pledges include an emphasis on preventative and early
intervention approaches, taking an holistic view of the
child or young person, and a respect for rights and working
in partnership.
– awareness that the community is still emerging from
conflict and that whole communities need to be involved
in the support of the young
– prerequisite of success that young people are integral to
the strategy’s development, implementation and general
governance.
– Participation Network, operated through the Northern
Ireland Youth Forum
Policy Responses to Youth
Lifetime Opportunities: Anti-Poverty and Social
Inclusion Strategy for Northern Ireland (2006)
– This introduces measures to join up departments,
sectors and providers to better achieve social
justice
– The strategy is in response to an evaluation of the
New Targeting Social Need (New TSN) policy of
2001
– found that tackling poverty and social exclusion
needed a more coherent and strategic approach
Policy Responses to Youth
Lifetime Opportunities: Anti-Poverty and Social
Inclusion Strategy for Northern Ireland (2006)
– eliminating urban and rural poverty and social
exclusion
– tackling area-based deprivation
– promoting respect and tolerance between the
country’s two main communities
– tackling inequalities in health and the labour
market
– ending cycles of deprivation.
Policy Responses to Youth
Lifetime Opportunities: Anti-Poverty and Social Inclusion
Strategy for Northern Ireland (2006)
– acknowledgement in Northern Ireland that a sustained
period of conflict has resulted in too many young people
suffering negative consequences of societal stress
– development of education, learning and skills is promoted
as the most influential mechanism for lifting young people
out of poverty, reducing exclusion, breaking deprivation
cycles and ensuring their engagement with the labour
market
– every intervention pertaining to this group must encompass
opportunities to develop knowledge, skills and experience
Policy Responses to Youth
Delivering the Entitlement Framework (2006) –
The Big Picture
– Curriculum Entitlement Framework aims to ensure
greater choice and flexibility in education and learning
for all young people
– Tailored learning opportunities will be available,
matching programmes and pathways to the needs,
aptitudes, interests and motivations of the individual
concerned
– more joined-up and holistic approach, while laying
greater emphasis on developing knowledge and skills
in relation to ‘learning for life and work’.
Policy Responses to Youth
Delivering the Entitlement Framework (2006)
• Youth services and youth workers play a critical role
• expected to support young people, helping them to
engage fully with the new developments and to reach
their full potential
• recognition of the importance of detached youth work
to engage those who are hardest to reach
• Also includes mentoring, generic support services,
participation work, informal, accredited group work
and programmes that challenge intolerance and
discrimination
Policy Responses to Youth
Strategy for the Delivery of Youth Work in Northern Ireland
2005–2008 (2005)
– In 2003 Youth Service Liaison Forum established, assisting
Department of Education in development and implementation
of Youth Service policy.
– the first country-wide strategy, and it has been developed,
endorsed and implemented by those from the statutory,
voluntary and community sectors.
• specifies a clear vision for the service, one in which young
people:
– enjoy themselves
– realise their potential and participate as active citizens in a
secure and peaceful society
– know their rights and responsibilities, and have these protected
and promoted
– are valued, understood and involved
– feel safe and supported.
Policy Responses to Youth
Strategy for the Delivery of Youth Work in Northern Ireland
2005–2008 (2005)
– underpinned by a strong value base -‘the seven P’s’: personal and
social development, promoting rights, protection, participation,
peace-building, people, and partnership
four aims, organised into central operational themes:
–
–
–
–
effective, inclusive youth work
participation
resources and funding
implementation.
• delivery focused, and takes an holistic approach to youth work
and young people’s development
• In October 2008 the Department of Education completed a
consultation process in which it sought to establish what the
sector considered to be the priorities for youth. This will form
the new strategy
Delivering Social Change
• In small groups:
• Respond to the
OFMDFM
Consultation on
Delivering Social
Change for
Children and
Young People
Evaluation of lecture
• Returning to the baseline questionnaire:
• Please mark if there has been any change in
your understanding of learning after today’s
session.
Policy Responses to Youth
• CRED policy (Jimbo McDowell focusing on this
on 9th April)
• 30th April UNCRC (Chris O’Donoghue)
• Exploring Priorities for Youth (7th May)