CYWP - Cornwall Youth Work Partnership

The Young Foundation has today published ‘A Framework of Outcomes for Young People’, produced on behalf of the Catalyst Consortium and funded by the Department for Education.

The Framework:

• Proposes a model of seven clusters of social and emotional capabilities, such as ‘Communication’ and ‘Managing Feelings’ and uses an evidence base to demonstrate their link to outcomes such as educational attainment, employment, and health.
• Sets out a matrix of available tools to measure these capabilities, outlining which capabilities each tool covers, and key criteria that might be considered in selecting an appropriate tool – such as cost or the number of users.
• Outlines a step by step approach to measuring these capabilities in practice, that is illustrated in four case studies that exemplify how the Framework might be used by providers, commissioners and funders.

For further information and to read the document, visit: http://www.youngfoundation.org/publications/reports/framework-outcomes-young-people

Wesley Buildings, Wesley Street, Redruth, TR15 2EG

Jonathan Coleman, the South West Regional Foundation Manager for Sports Leaders UK, is delivering an information session for anyone who may currently be delivering Sports Leaders UK qualifications or who may be interested in delivering the qualifications in the future and would like to find out more.

Sports Leaders UK is an independent charity that works through over 3500 accredited delivery centres around the UK.  They provide nationally recognised leadership awards and qualifications.  All of the awards and qualifications are practical – learners learn by doing rather than through written work and assessment is made upon a learner’s ability to lead and demonstrate their leadership skills for a certain period of time, within a specific setting.  Learners don’t need to be sports stars or prima ballerinas – instead an interest in their chosen activity, a positive attitude and a willingness to volunteer are all that is required.  For many young people, a leadership role gives them recognition, a sense of self-worth and empowerment not otherwise available to them. For more information about Sports Leaders UK and the awards and qualifications on offer visit http://www.sportsleaders.org

• Funding for Sports Leaders UK qualifications
• The Free Sports Leaders UK resource to teach the values of the Olympic and Paralympic Games ‘Teaching Values Through Leadership’ Qualification  Credit Points related to Sports Leadership Qualifications
• The Pathway of Sports, Dance and Outdoor Expedition Leadership Qualifications
• New Qualifications including Level 1 & 2 in Sports Volunteering, Level 2 Award in Dance Leadership and level 2 Award in Assisting in Basic Expedition Leadership
• New initiatives including the Sports Leaders UK Membership Association Scheme for young people and Volunteer Recognition Scheme
• Sports Leaders UK National Tutor Training Program
• Sports England Sports Makers and Sports Leaders
• Sports Leaders UK Best Practice delivered by the Local Leadership Academy        

To book a place, email Helen Rundle at Cornwall Youth Work Partnership:  helen.rundle@cywp.org.uk

South West Forum held a conference titled ‘Proving Your Impact’, on 13th June 2012 in Exeter.  The links to the presentations from the conference are below:

Speaker presentations:

Impact measurement and Social Value – a Policy Context – Peter Bailey, Big Lottery Fund

Charlotte Hanson, Research Project Manager, South West Forum

Getting started and choosing an approach -  Nicky Stevenson, The Guild

The value of impact measurement - Julie Hawker, CEO Cosmic      

Workshop presentations:

Measuring Soft Outcomes – Peter Bailey, Big Lottery Fund

An insight into Economic Impact methodologies – Matt Hill, University of Bristol

Measuring the Impact of Infrastructure – Karen Bell, University of Bristol, and Ruth Pitter, VOSCUR

Moving towards an Outcomes approach – Jill Davies, South Hams CVS

A few points from the day:

• There was much said about the increasing importance of  measuring impact due to less funding being available, the increased competition for public sector contracts and the pressure to benchmark, compare and compete.
• Outcomes based commissioning – local authorities are working towards outcomes based commissioning which means services are paid for on the basis of a set of agreed outcomes rather than on units of service provision (numbers of service users, hours, days).  They are looking to commission effective and efficient services that are able to demonstrate their impact on outcomes for service users.  There was discussion around the cost of impact measurement being proportionate to a contract size, however, on a very small contract this may not leave enough to pay for any meaningful measurement.  A local authority commissioner stated that they are aware of the issue of ensuring smaller organisations can compete in the commissioning process and win contracts and there needs to be a dialogue between the VCS and commissioners so that the process works for the VCS and they can compete and survive.  A consortia approach to impact measurement was mentioned, although obviously VCS organisations are also competitors.
• There is often much discussion about the best way for impact to be measured.  There is not a one size fits all approach and there are many tools and methods available.  Organisations need to know the most effective way to measure their impact.  The Guild published a guide in 2010 titled ‘Getting Started in Social Impact Measurement’ which is for small or medium sized organisations who are new or fairly new to Social Impact Measurement. Read the report here.

On the 11th of July at Devonport Guildhall, Cornwall Voluntary Sector Forum, Casap, Devon Reform, DACVS and CVA Torbay will be launching the Home Office sponsored Safer Future Communities Network for the Peninsula. The Safer Future Communities Network hopes to pull together the VCS into a dynamic and vibrant group that can influence the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) but also act as a channel for communication between the Third Sector and the PCC. There will be considerable changes to commissioning arrangements and potential opportunities for the VCS, but we have to prepare now. The network will consist of all the VCS that have a role to play in working with offenders and wider community safety issues.

The aim of the launch is to:

• Inform and impart Knowledge about the role of the PCC and what the changes might mean. The first part of the day will bring together a wide panel of professionals who will give an overview of the changes from their perspective. These include Sue Howl , the Chair of the Police Authority Transition Group, Nicola Channon, Sarah Hopkins and Verity Bennett from the Community Safety Partnerships across the peninsula, the Network leads Ruth Walls, myself and Lydia Billson, Clinks to provide an overview of Safer Future Communities aims and objectives, Georgie Constable on Victim Support, Probation and the Police. This session and the whole of the days proceedings will be chaired by Robbie Nairn OBE, and an opportunity to ask questions will follow.
• What we do and how we do it. Through interactive presentations from a few VCS Organisations, we will showcase those that directly work with offenders, those that indirectly work on issues that impact on community safety and those that may not identify themselves as having a role to play; but do. The aim is to map what we are doing and to share good practice and to get the delegates thinking about what they add in terms of social value.
• Themes that are important to the PCC and the Priorities of the Sector. In the third part of the day, and within groups we will go further and look at themes that will be of concern to the PCC and communities in general, such as substance misuse and its impact on communities, anti social behaviour, diversionary activities, violence against women and girls and so on. It is in this part that we will gather and collate information from the VCS to feed into the Police and Crime Plan that will be put before the PCC Booking details: the event is free and refreshments/lunch will be provided.

Following voluntary inspection visits in May, Ofsted inspectors described CYWP member Active 8 as providing programmes offering “well-targeted and structured support” and went on to highlight “well-managed consultation and participation events and activities [that] have given young people access to senior decision makers in Cornwall and an increasingly powerful voice in shaping the services that affect their lives”

Josey Spencer, manager of the Cornwall wide organisation that works with young people with physical disabilities, was understandably pleased with the feedback, which can be viewed here.
“We worked hard to show how we work with young people, and are pleased that this has been recognised by national experts” she said. “We also have some areas we need to work on, and would like to build stronger links with organisations working in the same field that can help us to improve further our young people’s programmes”

Josey can be contacted on 07800 878 042 and Active 8’s website is www.active8online.org.uk

Involve was delivered by members of the Cornwall Youth Work Partnership (CYWP), which had contracted with The Learning Partnership. Nine members of the CYWP signed up to deliver the Involve programme.

Over a two year period, the Involve programme delivered a range of courses and ancillary support to 235 young persons not in employment, education or training, aged between 15 and 25 many of whom had multiple health and social problems.

Read the Foreword on the Involve Project here

Read the Involve Final Evaluation Report here