EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  The Foyer Federation is the UK's leading youth organisation providing the largest network of accommodation integrated with education and training opportunities for 16-25 year-olds in housing need.

  We welcome the opportunity to respond to this inquiry, which sets out the Foyer Federation's response to a number of proposals within Every Child Matters and the subsequent Children Bill. In particular, we have sought to highlight the challenges faced by Foyers as these changes roll out.

  Key recommendations:

—  Any future resourcing and organisational structure for Connexions must preserve the emphasis on partnership with the voluntary sector and meeting the needs of the most disadvantaged, but within a universal service. In particular, Connexions Partnerships should retain the target to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs).

—  We have reservations about Extended Schools being used as a panacea to address a plethora of issues. Inter-agency working focused around a school site will fail to reach the majority of the 10,000 young people Foyers work with each year - arguably some of the most in need of help. It is therefore crucial that Government looks creatively about ways of providing alternative hubs for young people to access support services, and this should include engaging with the voluntary sector.

—  We note with regret, the omission of housing from the Children Bill. Housing need has a fundamental impact on the life chances of young people, and must be addressed in any new joined up approach taken by local authorities and other agencies.

INTRODUCTION

  1.1  The Foyer Federation is the UK's leading youth organisation providing the largest network of accommodation integrated with education and training opportunities for 16-25 year-olds in housing need.

  1.2  Foyers provide accommodation with opportunity for young people, and a community in which they can grow towards independence and thrive. By integrating training and job search, personal support and motivation with a place to live, they provide a bridge to independent living, and a chance for young people to realise their full potential.

  1.3  There are around 130 Foyers across the UK supporting over 10,000 young people every year. There are various models, ranging in size from fewer than ten beds to well over 200. Foyers can be developed as new builds or as conversions from existing projects and services. All Foyers are independently developed and managed by local partnerships and/or Housing Associations, but the Foyer Federation and the Foyer Accreditation Scheme connect them all through shared values, operating principles and a quality framework.

  1.4  Foyers aim to meet their mission statement by providing affordable and secure accommodation with personal support and access to training and employment. Unlike other accommodation, the Foyer requires a two-way agreement with residents, so that in exchange for accommodation and use of the Foyer services, the young person commits to working on an action plan to move towards personal and economic independence.

  1.5  What therefore marks Foyers out from other solutions to housing need amongst young people is their holistic approach to breaking the no home: no job: no home cycle experienced by many homeless and marginalised young people.

  1.6  This submission outlines The Foyer Federation's views and concerns in relation to Every Child Matters and the Children Bill and developments that have taken place since the publication of the Green Paper.

THE FUTURE OF THE CONNEXIONS SERVICE

  2.1  The Foyer movement has developed a close working relationship with Connexions since its inception, at local, regional and national levels. Over the past three years, we have conducted an annual survey amongst Foyers which collates feedback on their experience of working with the service. This evidence highlights the steady improvement of the Connexions service, especially for hard to reach groups. For example, in 2004, only 14% of respondents judged the service to be poor, compared to 23% in 2003.

  2.2  The survey concentrates on the relationship between Foyers and Connexions services, the quality of service offered to young people in Foyers, and the involvement of young people in Foyers in the Connexions Service, for example through sitting on interview panels for Connexions staff.

  2.3  We believe that the 86% satisfaction rating highlighted in this year's survey demonstrates that the consistent emphasis on partnership between Connexions and the voluntary sector over the past four years is now bearing fruit. This partnership has taken time to build and it is vital that any changes in structure do not disrupt the working relationships on the ground.

  2.4  In the run up to this year's budget, The Foyer Federation, along with leading youth charities, NCVYS, UK Youth, the YMCA, Fairbridge and Rathbone, made a public request to Ministers to ensure that any future resourcing and organisational structure for Connexions preserves this emphasis on partnership and meeting the needs of the most disadvantaged, but within a universal service.

  2.5  Any new arrangement should meet the following tests:

—  Partnerships retain the target to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs).

—  Partnerships have explicit performance objectives in terms of partnership with the voluntary sector eg the percentage of Connexions sites in voluntary sector settings, and the involvement of the voluntary sector in governance structures.

—  Partnerships are able to demonstrate that advice is given from an impartial standpoint, not influenced by the institution in which the Adviser may be based.

  2.6  A great deal of resource has also been invested into setting up the service and promoting the Connexions brand, which is now well recognised amongst young people. However, continuing to use the brand for an entirely different service subsumed by local authorities would be both disingenuous and confusing.

  2.7  If the Connexions service was to be brought under local authority control, we would be concerned about how that might affect its spending priorities and its engagement with the voluntary sector.

  2.8  If, as early evidence indicates, the reforms resulting from Every Child Matters and the Children Bill means that Children's Trusts are dominated by education departments, we would be concerned about a return to the very problems that led to the creation of Connexions in the first place—and in particular a lack of attention to young people who need a second chance in learning and skills.

EXTENDED SCHOOLS

  3.1  We welcome the joined up, inter-agency approach around which the Extended Schools principle is based. However, we have reservations about them being seen as a panacea—addressing a range of issues, many of which may manifest themselves more fundamentally outside the school gates and may mean school is not the appropriate place in which to tackle them.

  3.2  Inter-agency working focused around a school site will fail to reach the majority of the 10,000 young people Foyers work with each year - arguably some of the most in need of help. These young people have the weakest links with schools, either because they have dropped out, have been excluded or indeed are wary about accessing services in a relatively formal environment.

  3.3  These concerns are supported by research conducted by think tank Demos in Extended schools: can health, social and education staff learn to work together?, which found that the best work was often not being carried out by official extended schools, but other schools where pupils and voluntary organisations helped develop new ways of working with health and social care services. The paper also goes on to warn of the danger that extended schools could "suck resources" from their local communities.

ALTERNATIVE HUBS FOR SERVICE DELIVERY

  4.1  It is crucial that Government looks creatively about ways of providing alternative hubs for young people to access support services, and this should include engaging with the voluntary sector.

  4.2  For example, health has become an increasingly prominent concern for Foyer managers and residents. Young people were either not accessing the healthcare they needed, or the support did not meet their specific needs. In response, the Federation set up a number of initiatives to support Foyers. The Foyer Federation supports health services in Foyers through a programme of sharing good practice and building links with statutory services, which is funded by a Department of Health Section 64 grant.

  4.3  In addition, a number of grant programmes have funded health activities in Foyers, notably the Gatsby Health Partnership grants, funding everything from a one-day health fair to a year's part-time health post in a Foyer. So far all these projects have led to work that has continued, usually with PCT funding, after the duration of the grant. This highlights the real added value the voluntary sector can bring as a neutral intermediary, helping the statutory sector reach out to the hardest to help in a less formal and intimidating environment.

  4.4  The Foyer Federation has also recently launched the national roll out of our homelessness prevention pilot, Safe Moves, attended by Homelessness Minister Jeff Rooker. Safe Moves, a national partnership between the Foyer Federation and Connexions, brings together a range of local agencies—local authority housing and social services departments, Children's Trusts, Connexions, YOTs, DATs, Community Safety Partnerships, schools, Foyers and the police—to co-ordinate interventions aimed at supporting young people who are experiencing family distress, have run away or are at risk of becoming homeless. The three main elements offered by the programme are peer mentoring, family mediation and lifeskills training.

  4.5  The Foyer Federation initiated the Safe Moves project after listening to the views and experiences of Foyer residents, and recognising that the expertise of the Foyer movement could be applied to prevention and early intervention. Peer mentoring has been a particularly powerful element of the initiative. In the words of a resident at Bradford Foyer: "If only someone had told me how hard it would be to live away from home—but it would have had to be someone like me."

  4.6  The programme has been piloted in four separate areas over the last 18 months. An evaluation of the pilot stage was conducted by the Centre for Housing Policy at the University of York and a toolkit has been produced as a "how to" guide for other agencies seeking to adopt the model. The Foyer Federation will offer national management support to agencies wishing to develop Safe Moves—so far around 47 have expressed an interest—and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has committed further funding to support the roll out of the scheme nationwide.

DATA SHARING

  5.1  The Foyer Federation's experience indicates that there is an inconsistent approach to information sharing between statutory agencies, with some far more willing and/or able to share information than others, particularly for those who are aged 13 and over. This is despite the guidance issued by the Information Commissioner to the Connexions service.

  5.2  For inter-agency and inter-sectoral working to be meaningful, a clear protocol and code of practice must be developed in relation to clients aged 13 and above, to which all agencies must adhere. This system would ideally be IT based, however, any new software system should not place undue burdens on voluntary sector partners, either in terms of cost, training or implementation.

ROLE OF THE CHILDREN'S COMMISSIONER AND THE VOICE OF YOUNG PEOPLE

  6.1  We are disappointed to note that the Government did not agree to include young people in the title of the Children's Commissioner, and that the powers do not match those of NI, Scotland and Wales, with there being no duty on the new Commissioner to investigate individual cases.

  6.2  We also note with regret, the omission of any reference to housing in the Children Bill. Housing need has a fundamental impact on the life chances of young people, and must be addressed in any new joined up approach taken by local authorities and other agencies. The Foyer concept recognises the interdependency between housing and access to education and training and the need for a holistic response to a young person's needs. We would hope that any guidance issued to Children's Trusts takes this into account in setting priorities for their working practices.

CONCLUSION

  Any future resourcing and organisational structure for Connexions must preserve the emphasis on partnership with the voluntary sector and meeting the needs of the most disadvantaged, but within a universal service. In particular, Connexions Partnerships should retain the target to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs).

  We have reservations about Extended Schools being used as a panacea to address a plethora of issues. Inter-agency working focused around a school site will fail to reach the majority of the 10,000 young people Foyers work with each year—arguably some of the most in need of help. It is therefore crucial that Government looks creatively about ways of providing alternative hubs for young people to access support services, and this should include engaging with the voluntary sector.

  We note with regret, the omission of housing from the Children Bill. Housing need has a fundamental impact on the life chances of young people, and must be addressed in any new joined up approach taken by local authorities and other agencies.

November 2004