Youth services
Preventing young offenders signing up for a life sentence
Steve Ainsworth explores alternative ways to engage young people and help them turn their back on crime.
Getting to the root of youth violence
Jenny Coles urges all parts of the public sector, including Government, to work in a co-ordinated way with the voluntary sector for a holistic public health strategy to combat violence among our youth.
Lessons from a year of challenges
As the first anniversary of ‘lockdown 1.0’ approaches, Beate Wagner reflects on how Wakefield Council rose to the challenge of supporting children and families, and looking after staff wellbeing.
Don’t forget our youth workers
Government needs to put as much focus on resourcing the children and young people’s workforce as it does on ensuring the sustainability of the of the sector in the short term, argues Jenny Coles.
Listening to and acting on young people’s lockdown stories
Innovation Unit has drawn up a set of recommendations for any local authority to build an ecosystem of support for the wellbeing of young people, says Daisy Carter.
Putting social value into procurement
Claire Preston hopes the Social Value Toolkit will promote a ‘whole council’ approach that encourages organisations to put helping care leavers at the heart of procurement.
Building back better services for children
Chief executive of the National Children's Bureau Anna Feuchtwang asks how local and national government can build back children’s services that are better equipped to meet needs in the ‘new normal’.
Keeping our young people centre stage
Jenny Coles talks to Ann McGauran about her early days as ADCS president and the work being done by councils and schools as they rise to the challenge of COVID-19.
Helping other care leavers in Hull during the coronavirus crisis
Mark Jones outlines how a group of Hull care leavers has set up a walk-by food hub to help others in their position, making more than 20 donations a day.
Local government are the systems thinkers and the time to act is now
Systems thinking - considering the whole, not just the parts, and how those parts interact - brings new rigour to identifying possible actions and their consequences for children's social care, says Tim Hobbs.
'Safe places' needed in Greater Manchester to divert youth from violent crime
Communities in Greater Manchester feel there is an urgent need to create safe places and strong relationships to divert young people from violent crime, new research has found.
‘Ten years or life’
New research aims to understand the drivers of recent hikes in violent crime involving young people in Greater Manchester as perpetrators and victims – and has come up with insights and recommendations. Ann McGauran reports.
Working with young people across Medway to reduce the number of NEET
Medway Council has achieved significant falls in the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET). Ian Sutherland explains how this has been achieved.
70% decrease in youth services funding
Local youth services have been hit by a nearly 70% decrease in funding in a decade, young people's charity YMCA has found.
Tackling youth crime: building the evidence for what really works
The Youth Endowment Fund is a bold attempt to put early intervention at the heart of efforts to keep children and young people away from involvement in crime, says Dr Jane O’Brien.
Putting a public health approach at the heart of the response
Waltham Forest LBC has had a longstanding commitment to tackling youth gang culture. But Heather Flinders says that in 2017, after four more gang-related murders, the council chose to boost its response within a ‘re-imagined public health approach’
Our Ofsted journey: from inadequate to good in two years
Turning round children’s services in Tower Hamlets in two years was a ‘mighty struggle,’ says Will Tuckley. Here he outlines how the council successfully addressed intervention.
Leader lobbies ministers over Youth Zones
Barking & Dagenham LBC’s leader, Cllr Darren Rodwell, has appealed to ministers to help provide a network of Youth Zones up and down the country.
The crisis in violent youth crime: evidence from local government
Trinley Walker says that on violent youth crime, the results of the New Local Government Network’s latest quarterly leadership index survey paint an alarming picture of how the issue is affecting the sector.
Crime-fighting funds in scarce supply - survey
Three out of four UK council chief executives and leaders do not have access to enough funding to tackle rising levels of violent youth crime, a survey has found.
