As a showcase, they provide a catalyst for disseminating best practice and energising others through the ideas and methods deployed. As well as injecting a strong sense of pride, they will hopefully in time illustrate how a sector can pull together to become more than the sum of its parts - the shared learning made available by the awards serves as an aid to the advancement of working with young people.
The Department for Education and Skills' initiative to reward Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital Funds expertise, badged the Youth Challenge Competition, is in the same spirit (see p4).
But the two key planks of Youth Matters - the Youth Opportunity Fund and the youth opportunity card - have thus far experienced contrasting fortunes. As we reach the end of the first full year since the green paper's publication, the opportunity fund is getting into full swing, with local authorities already being encouraged to demonstrate their use of the investment. Pilots of the opportunity card, however, are still to begin, despite having been scheduled for the autumn. New IT consultants have been drafted in to deliver the smart card after ties with the original contractor were severed (see p3).
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