"Youth Work Unit - Yorkshire & the Humber -Accreditation Network"





	> What is the Youth Work Unit? > Local Authority Youth Work > Voluntary Sector youth work > Training and work force development > Quality Assurance > Young Peoples' Voice and Influence > International youth work >Jobs > Latest News and events > Links > Contact Us

Voice, Influence, Participation (VIP)

in Yorkshire & the Humber

Voice, Influence, Participation (VIP) in Yorkshire & the Humber

One of the Youth Work Unit’s key objectives is to promote young people’s voice, influence and active participation in society. Various workers and managers networks have been supported and a range of focused work undertaken, e.g. on the Youth Opportunity Fund, and events are organised to promote and support the work across both the voluntary/ third sector and Local Authority.

Voice, Influence and Participation (VIP) work is a crucial part of youth work and all 15 LA youth services, as well as many third sector organisations, have considerable expertise and have developed an extensive range of VIP work. Examples would include parliaments/forums, campaigning, scrutiny, consultations, training, inspection and recruitment. The YWU has co-ordinated a 13 – 19 workers network for a number of years flowing information and good practice as well as organising meetings and events. More recently a VIP Leads group was brought together and two events organised to focus on the introduction of the Youth Opportunity and Capital funds.

In addition the YWU has two specific contracts within this area, with UK Youth Parliament and Participation Works.

From June 2007 the YWU has co-ordinated all UKYP activities in the region:

supporting members (MYPs) and deputies (DMYPs) of the Youth Parliament
liasing with their workers
organising regional meetings
ensuring and supporting the annual UKYP sitting, this year in Glasgow
supporting regional campaigns and
planning the regional Sex and Relationships conference being organised MYPs and DMYPs for 15th March 2008.

Currently 9 of the 15 Local Authorities in the region are affiliated to UKYP. It is hoped that the others may also become actively involved.

The YWU also works closely with UKYP nationally, attending staff meetings and ensuring a close relationship and facilitating involvement in national events and meetings. For example, on 25th October the regional co-ordinator will accompany two Y&H MYPs, to join with others across the country to meet and have discussions with Ed Milliband, Minister for the Cabinet Office, and MP for Doncaster.

UKYP More information

Participation Works is a Big Lottery funded project which offers resources, tools, training, consultancy and a web-based portal all promoting and supporting children and young people’s involvement particularly but not exclusively in the voluntary sector. The project is delivered by a consortium of six national children and young people’s agencies - British Youth Council, Children’s Rights Alliance England, National Children’s Bureau, National Youth Agency, National Council for Voluntary Youth Services and Save the Children.

The Participation Workers’ Network England (PWNE) is also part of the project and exists to enable practitioners to support one another and share best practice in involvement and active participation in 0-19 age range. Workers can join the network at http://www.participationworks.org.uk/PWNEHome/JointheNetwork/tabid/186/Default.aspx

The YWU has the contract to co-ordinate a regional network in Y&H - PWN-YH; and there are similar networks in the other eight English regions, together forming PWNE.

PWN-YH incorporates earlier YWU groupings, e.g. Voice and Influence (V&I) 13 - 19 network, V&I Leads but also includes colleagues working with children, e.g. from Sure Start, from Children’s Fund and also from other settings, e.g. health, housing. The network was launched at an event in March 2007 and training sessions were delivered by PW in the region in June on Ready Steady Change and in July on Building a Culture of Participation.

The YWU acts as an information hub regularly circulation information including the PW bulletin. In addition we also organise occasional meetings and events. The next event will be at the York CVS, The Priory Street Centre, York on 3rd April 2008. There will be input from PW nationally, as well as on Hear by Right both from NYA and from North Yorkshire. There will also be a range of workshops.

Involving Children and Young people in Workforce Matters

As part of the PW project the YWU was invited to bid and was successful in gaining funding from the Children’s Workforce Development Council’s (CWDC) Participation Fund. This will fund the development of a regional resource kit, with good practice examples from Y&H, promoting the involvement of young people and children in recruitment, selection, training and appraisal of the workforce.

The project began in December and is being steered by a steering group of practitioners from the PWN-YH. The resource pack is now available following the PWN-YH event and there was also introductory workshops and free training, during May and June, on the use of the pack and supportive mentoring for 10 organisations who wanted to commit to increasing children and young people’s involvement in workforce matters.