Catalyst group bids to be source of strength for the youth sector

When the Catalyst consortium was formed to help the youth sector adapt to a rapidly changing policy environment, its remit was ambitious.

With just £2.6m in funding over two years, the strategic partner to the Department for Education was tasked with supporting the creation of a “vigorous and responsive sector, freed up from dependency on grant-based funding and better equipped to operate within a payments-by-results environment”.

Led by the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS) – and supported by the National Youth Agency, Social Enterprise Coalition and The Young Foundation – the consortium has marked the halfway point in its three-strand programme with a progress report.

So what has been achieved so far?

1. Strengthen the market
The aim of strand one is to develop social finance and social enterprise opportunities in light of reduced funding for the youth sector.

A “mapping exercise” to assess the sector’s readiness for social finance has been completed, and an outcomes framework linking young people’s personal and social progression through youth work with resulting outcomes, will be published imminently. A business plan for the creation of a youth sector “social finance retailer” to oversee distribution of social investment in the sector has also been prepared.

Susanne Rauprich, chief executive of NCVYS, is hopeful £5m will be raised from investors to kick-start the venture.

However, while some NCVYS members – notably St Giles Trust and Catch22 – are already involved in payment-by-result trials, Rauprich concedes that many organisations are not ready, and will not be for some time.

“It’s a relatively new area for the sector, so it is not something that organisations are familiar with,” she says. “A lot of people think it will be the answer to the loss of revenue they are facing. For some organisations it will work well, but that will not be the case for others.”

Acknowledging more work needs to be done, Catalyst is in discussion with organisations including the Social Investment Business, which has just launched a £50m social investment readiness programme to “unlock further opportunities”.

“Catalyst can address a small part of the need – we are very much a small-scale player,” Rauprich says.

“There are not that many organisations that are able to forward plan and look around the corner to what is coming and have robust plans in place.

“Many are living hand-to-mouth, which isn’t a criticism, but it is not a situation where you can be investment-ready. Ordinary community-based organisations are not ready and won’t be for a long time.

“Catalyst is a two-year programme, but organisational and sector change will probably take five years or more to really transform the sector, so it is robust enough to cope with the challenges we face.”

2. Partnership working
Historically, NCVYS has acted as a link between the voluntary sector and the government.

Through Catalyst, NCVYS provides the youth sector with regular briefings in the form of email policy bulletins on particular initiatives and events, and “facilitates dialogue” between the sector and government with the hope of making policy more responsive.

While it is arguably the least controversial aspect of Catalyst’s remit, there are questions as to whether the government is listening. “On the one hand, it is about making the sector confident to engage with policy development and, on the other hand, it is for government to listen to the concerns of the sector,” Rauprich says.

“We were very involved with Positive for Youth – it was a very engaged process and a great deal of NCVYS members were able to participate. Whether it addresses everything is another matter, but the process worked well.

“You need to be clear that government has its agenda and you can influence that, but there are limits. Positive for Youth isn’t very controversial and the reason it isn’t is the process that led to the publication.”

Brian Willmore, who runs a public sector consultancy and is the former head of youth services in Croydon, says that while children’s minister Tim Loughton is willing to develop policy in conjunction with the sector, the situation is limited by funding.

“The commitment is there from ministers and the department, but it is a balancing act in terms of budgets,” he says.

Catalyst also runs youth strategy boards – bringing the voluntary and community sector together on issues around monitoring youth unemployment, safeguarding and supporting members in their policy work.

3. Skills development
The third strand, led by the National Youth Agency (NYA), involves two areas. First, by encouraging collaboration – namely investigating the establishment of an Institute for Youth Work. And second, the development of a “sector skills pathway”, or a clear route to appropriate skills and qualifications.

The NYA is conducting the second phase of a consultation into an institute after an initial consultation revealed support for the concept. However, despite on-going work, some in the sector believe progress has been sluggish. Kevin Ford, an independent member of Catalyst’s support and challenge group for the institute, warns that Catalyst could miss the boat by the time funding runs out.

“We need to launch an institute and seek to get members,” he says. “If the offer is right, people will join because it will be in their interest. Until then, there is a real danger that it is just a talking shop.”

Unlike the other two strands, which have funding until 31 March 2013, the skills and workforce strand’s funding only extends to 31 October this year.

Rauprich says the intention all along has been to find another “host” to continue the work, and to this end, a bid application process is being readied through the Department for Business Innovation and Skills’s Growth and Innovation Fund.

A website is due to launch to help those working and volunteering with young people to consider their career and progression options from Level 1 to Level 4 qualifications.

Meanwhile, two new Level 2 qualifications for the young people’s workforce have been developed as an entry point to the sector, with a Level 3 qualification set to follow.

However, Ford has suggested a thoroughgoing look at workforce qualifications, calling for the relationship between various disciplines of youth work, such as work in a sport environment or work with police, to be explored.

“In five years’ time, we could be in the situation where a tiny minority of youth work is delivered by local authorities, but the work of Catalyst doesn’t seem geared to that. The need for change feels more urgent than I get the impression things are moving at.”