Shaping the ‘new normal’ for youth services

We see them as part of our family of youth support. That’s why when the Covid-19 pandemic struck and lockdown happened we wanted to find out how it was affecting them.

We wanted to listen to their concerns and see how they have adapted, so we sent a brief survey to all the key contacts who run our achievement award scheme. The aim was to help guide us on how we can best support them in the coming months. An incredible 462 responded representing schools and youth organisations collectively supporting thousands of young people.

Unsurprisingly most of the schools and youth clubs responding had been affected by the Covid-19. This has resulted in 73 per cent being closed to the public and 52 per cent unable to support young people.

Organisations were also concerned about the risk to their survival. Of those responding 57 per cent said there was a moderate and 12 per cent a high long term risk to their organisation. Nearly a third said they could only continue for one to six months and about the same number thought they could survive six months to a year based on their financial reserves if current restrictions continue. Alarmingly at the time of responding to the survey 37 per cent of organisations were unaware of government support packages.

A number of organisations have adapted, however 29 per cent were unable to deliver any services. This affects young people who rely on these services. When asked how organisations were still supporting young people 68 per cent were using online resources and 73 per cent social media. The Jack Petchey Foundation has set up a dedicated section on its website for young people’s resources and 71 per cent of organisations were aware of this.

Most schools (77 per cent) were still open for children of key workers and students with particular needs. However, around 77 per cent said take up of the key worker spaces was low.

Schools were engaging with young people not attending school through online means (86 per cent), email (74 per cent) and online portals (56 per cent). While less than half had weekly online learning schedules for all students. At the same time only 42 per cent felt students had sufficient access to equipment, data and digital technology to be able to engage with the school sufficiently.

Staff absence due to self-isolation had a moderate impact on nearly half of schools. But 77 per cent said staff had sufficient equipment to work remotely.

The coronavirus has impacted us all, but young people and those who support them have had to make significant adaptations. At the Jack Petchey Foundation we are committed to supporting existing grantees by being flexible and supportive with reporting deadlines and requirements as well as spending guidelines. We have reassured our groups that we understand what they are going through and have written to them several times changing our normal processes to take into account the lockdown and pressures schools and clubs are under. In the longer term we will monitor the situation to see how services need to diversify, adapt and respond to the changing environment. We do all this so that young people will still be able to access services and provision in the “new normal”.

In the meantime the foundation has brought together a selection of online resources for youth organisations on our website.

To recognise the incredible things young people are doing for their communities right now we have also created the Jack Petchey Community Awards. With over 350 nominations already, we have recognised young people for a variety of activities from making PPE equipment for the NHS to becoming pen pals with older people in care homes to keep them company. Visit our website to see how you can nominate someone.

The impact of Covid-19 is going to be long-lasting and significant, especially for young people, so in this our 21st year , we are already beginning to think about what funding will be required in order to support young people for the future. We are just putting the finishing touches to a major survey of young people to find out what they think about the impact of this crisis on them. We hope it will enable them to express their views, hopes, ambitions and ideas on what support they will need in order to achieve in the future. This in turn will help us to shape our grant programmes for the years to come.

We will all have to keep looking at new ways to engage, adapt for the future and here at the Jack Petchey Foundation we are absolutely committed to doing all that we can to support organisations in ensuring that young people can play a full role in society and achieve their potential.

Trudy Kilcullen MBE is the chief executive of the Jack Petchey Foundation.