Participation Works

Participation Works is today launching a new Young Inspectors Package.

Following the success of the Youth4U – Young Inspectors pilot programme which was a partnership of British Youth Council, NCB and KIDS and was funded by the Department for Education - Participation Works have developed tailored packages of resources and training to help other local authorities and private and voluntary sector organisations commission or deliver service improvements which are directly informed by young people.

The Young Inspectors programme trained more than 1,400 young people with challenging lives to carry out inspections of local services in 33 areas in England.

The new package offers tailored suites of resources and training as well as dedicated consultancy time for organisations to develop programmes that are suited to their needs. The package includes nine stand alone modules. Each module is an integrated package of information, resources and defined consultancy support.

The complete package develops local staff to support and train young people to conduct objective assessments of local services, make recommendations, follow-up and support recommendations for service improvements.

Mandy Douglas, NCB’s programme director of participation and involvement, said: "The young inspectors programme was a great success and the young people involved experienced important benefits from moving away from criminal activities to accepting social responsibility, from low self esteem and feelings of worthlessness to increased confidence and securing employment, from failing at school to better attendance and achievements and from no involvement in local initiatives or activities to shaping, designing and supporting local services. With the evidence of impact and the analysis of cost benefits available, we thought this the perfect opportunity to roll out all we’ve learnt and pass on our knowledge and successes to other organisations through our new package."

For further details on the modules available see the document below.

Key facts

According to an evaluation of Young Inspectors by NCB’s Research Centre - over the past two years:

• 1472 vulnerable or disaffected young people were trained to work in their communities to improve local services.
• 537 services across 33 local authorities participated and worked with the young inspectors in assessing their provision.
• 485 of the services have acted upon recommendations of the assessments, they have recorded and evidenced improvements to their provision.
• Of the 1472 young people 80% report they have made a difference in their communities and will continue to support and participate in community based activities outside of the programme.
• 96% of young people stated that the Young Inspectors programme had made a difference to their lives and has improved their skills and levels of confidence.

Have a look at our Young Inspectors section for more information.

Fri, 02/09/2011 - 10:06