Project St Helens Youth Service
Funding About £2m a year
Purpose To make the best use of youth service resources and improve the effectiveness of services
Background In 2009, St Helens Youth Service underwent a major restructure designed to improve services on offer to all young people in the large Merseyside town. As part of the changes, managers were keen to develop robust ways of measuring performance to ensure services were meeting young people's needs and making a real difference. "It was about getting the best value for money and maximising impact," says head of the youth service Nicole Joseph.
Action
The service has introduced a quality assurance scheme in which senior youth service managers visited provision such as youth clubs for unannounced inspections. "Every night we deliver, we have a senior manager out on a visit," explains Joseph. "We run services from Tuesday to Sunday and have a rota of inspectors." Each service gets at least two visits every 12 months and some – where there are concerns or issues that need to be addressed – get more.
Register Now to Continue Reading
Thank you for visiting Children & Young People Now and making use of our archive of more than 60,000 expert features, topics hubs, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:
What's Included
-
Free access to 4 subscriber-only articles per month
-
Email newsletter providing advice and guidance across the sector
Already have an account? Sign in here
