Youth services told to improve

The watchdog evaluated integrated youth support services in 11 local authorities and published the findings in Supporting Young People, out today (20 July).

"Even in the better performing areas, progress in commissioning provision from the private, voluntary and public sectors was slow," the report claimed.

It highlights a lack of understanding among statutory and voluntary service providers regarding the nature of each other's work. In some areas, youth service managers had failed to establish "constructive relationships" with the voluntary sector or put in place support arrangements for voluntary groups.

Local authorities were also criticised for not monitoring the quality of services and focusing on targeted support at the expense of universal services.

David Wright, chief executive of the Confederation of Heads of Young People's Services, maintained that local authorities were best placed to lead youth services, but added: "The findings set a challenge to ensure that informed commissioning needs to be developed, one that seeks to encourage quality outcomes for young people and not be driven by cuts." He also urged councils to ensure they offer a "mixed economy" of services, rather than focusing on targeted support.

The report stated that some local authorities had made good progress in increasing youth participation, while eight of the 11 areas reported a drop in the number of first-time entrants to the criminal justice system since 2007, when the Labour government published Aiming High for Young People, its 10-year strategy for youth services. Progress in reducing the numbers of young people not in education, employment and training had been made in five areas.

A Department for Education spokesman said the findings confirmed junior children's minister Tim Loughton's uncertainty over the role of local authorities as leaders of youth services.

"These youth services are not working well enough and there needs to be wider engagement with the voluntary sector," she said. "But we need to look to the private sector to see how we can spread the load in terms of funding."

She confirmed the government is looking at how it can expand corporately-funded programmes such as Vinspired and O2's Think Big to see how they can meet more young people's needs.