BIG INTERVIEW: Youth participation society - Althea Efunshile, director, Children and Young People's Unit

The initiative, dubbed Str8 Up - Young People Speak, Ministers Listen and run by the Children and Young People's Unit, promises to give young people aged 14 to 19 access to all the key ministers in Government.

Up to 50 young locals at nine separate events will be able to exchange opinions and comments on local issues with luminaries such as education minister Ivan Lewis and arts minister Baroness Blackstone (YPN, 23-29 April, p6).

In line with the political participation and research project Yvote Ynot, originally launched by then youth minister John Denham in October 2001, Str8 Up is billed as a clear commitment by the Government to listen to children and young people. And not before time, according to Althea Efunshile, director of the unit.

"Young people consistently tell us that they are asked questions, but that people don't come back to them and that politicians only seem interested in them at certain times, for example, just before an election," says Efunshile. "Young people said they would like something with more sincerity in listening to and valuing what they say."

The unit, created in November 2000, is a curious animal. On a day-to-day basis, it works closely with current youth minister Hilary Benn and other departments in the interests of children and young people.

"We have quite a complicated cross-governmental architecture, which is supposed to prevent us from being seen as a departmental unit," says Efunshile. "That's very important, so that when we engage with officials in health, education or defence, they are seeing us from the perspective of what we need to do for children and young people. It helps us to play the role of an advocate working on their behalf."

The unit's main objectives include monitoring recreational services for children and young people, as well as keeping tabs on services such as family support and child and adolescent mental health services.

Efunshile is particularly proud of its youth consultation project, feedback from which will be included in the unit's youth strategy document, likely to be published this year alongside the Government's green paper on children at risk. The strategy will help to shape investment in public services for young people up to 2006.

The consultation process engaged with 2,500 children and young people in regional workshops to help determine what an "overarching strategy for children and young people" should be.

Efunshile is also proud of the Children's Fund. The 450m fund helps to fulfil the unit's aim of encouraging preventive antisocial behaviour strategies for young people. It is designed to help local projects target disadvantaged children aged five to 13, where there is a gap in provision, according to the director.

"There is that missing middle-year group, where policymakers' interests often focus either on the early years or on the later adolescent years," says Efunshile. "We are missing out that

middle group."

She is eagerly anticipating the impact of children's trusts, the three-year pilots that aim to join up and structure local services for children and young people, planned to be piloted from July this year (YPN, 30 April-6 May, p12).

"I think the potential of trusts is very good, as young people do fall between the gaps of services," says Efunshile. "We are not seeing sufficient pulling to-gether across schools, GPs and social services. A structural route is not always right, but where they've decided to respond this way, I think the potential is really exciting."

Going forward, Efunshile says the unit will address the themes coming from its consultation, and look at how it can implement and monitor a cross-government commitment to young people. The unit will not, however, take on a staunch audit role.

"I don't want to see us as a watchdog that sits apart from the rest of government because we need to work collaboratively with departments," says Efunshile.

Despite its successes so far, it seems there is still much work to be done. "I always say that government is silo-based," says Efunshile. "Like a compu-ter, if you turn it off, it will go back to its previous settings that you thought you'd changed. Our job is to work against the grain and look at the whole child, not just from the health, education, housing or youth justice perspective. And that's a challenging and rewarding job to do."

FYI

- The CYPU reports to a cabinet committee, headed by Chancellor Gordon Brown, which co-ordinates and monitors policies to prevent child poverty and underachievement. Its members consist of secretaries of state with an interest in policies for young people

- The cabinet committee was created in July 2000 as part of the Prime Minister's plans for more co-ordinated services for children at central government level, which also saw the creation of the first minister for children and young people.