Agenda item

Derbyn adroddiad gan y Rheolwr Gwasanaethau i Blant a Phobl Ifainc

Members of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee received an overview of the support and provision carried out by the Youth Engagement and Participation Service (YEPs) during the Covid - 19 pandemic.

With the aide of a Power- Point presentation the Youth Service Manger explained that on the 23^rd March 2020, the YEPS suspended all face to face work with young people and colleagues as a direct result of the country entering lockdown. Members acknowledge the resilience of staff within the service to adapt to the fast changing situations and to ensure that young people’s needs were met.

The Officer continued to inform the Committee with an overview of activities during Covid- 19 some of which can be found below:

·         Referral work:

·         Mental health and wellbeing work work:

·         Wellbeing packs:

·         Reflective practice sessions:

·         Emergency childcare hubs:

·         School based support;

·         Summer holiday childcare:

·         Tacking youth homelessness:

·         Street –based youth work: and

·         Virtual youth offer along with many more provisions.  

The Youth Service Manger also present data on the impact of the service to data. It was explained that over the course of the year 2020/21 the service has provided targeted support to:

o   1035 individual young people on a 1:1 basis through its referral work which includes 784 new referrals accepted during the year. The number of referred open cases peaked at 504 in November 2020.

 The Officer continued an highlighted that the service has provided open access opportunities to young people to the level of:

o   250 exciting virtual activity programmes for young people to take part in during lockdown, totalling 708 individual sessions;

o   1,521 individual young people attended these sessions over the year;

o   124 street based sessions in the Autumn 2020 (the were not introduced until October 2020 and had to be suspended in December 2020) and during those sessions officers made contact with 2785 young people on the streets of RCT.

Members also considered the response of the consultation with young people in response to the pandemic along with staff feedback and explored the recovery planning and next step that the service aim to have in place.

The YEPS provided Members of the Children and Young People with a video which captured the work of the service and the interaction staff had with young people across the County Borough which was very humbling to see and Members congratulate the staff for some working with some very inventive ideas which made the young person’s experience during te pandemic a less frightening experience.

The Chair thanked the Youth Service Manager for an extremely comprehensive report and opened up the meeting for Members questions.

A Member wanted clarity in respect of the views of the young persons and asked various questions in relation to the demographics of youth services, and asked if young people across Rhondda Cynon Taf will be able to access a safe place to meet with friends without having to go back to an education setting. Along with provision for young people during the summer holidays.

In response the Youth Service Manager explained that some education settings work well as youth club settings and where this hasn’t worked the service has aimed to move to a community setting. Covid hasn’t allowed to have an open access service and the street- based setting has allowed the service to travel around which has provides the provision further afield, street shelters are being considered as a work for the future.

Another Member asked a question around the community provision and asked if the service is aware of where the gaps are and how are addressing disengaged young people. In reply the officer explained the work that is being carried out.  The Officer continued to explain the work with is being done with disengaged young people and highlighted that this cohort of young people will have the first opportunity of all provision and will be monitored very closely.

Another Member wanted to thank the service for all its hard work in her community and wanted to praise the staff and young people who have taken part in the provision.

Members request information of services to be distributed to the Committee to enable them to direct young people to the services and activities such as poster, web pages etc.

The Chair asked for figure of young people who have been referred to the service for mental health issues and requested that this be sent to the Committee for future reference.

After further discussion Members RESOLVED to:

·         Acknowledge the information contained in the report and to receive further updates at a future meeting:

·         Receive any promotional content which will allow Members to promote the Service within their communities.