WIREDGOV

Blog posted by DANIEL BUTTON (30th September 2014)

NEF publishes a briefing outlining what they’ve learned from working with local authorities in Lambeth and Cornwall to co-produce youth services – and a set of resources to help more councils do the same.

Young people have been hit hard by austerity – and things could be about to get even worse. On Sunday 28th September 2014 David Cameron outlined his plan to strip childless 18-21-year-olds of their right to housing benefit, and remove their entitlement to jobseeker’s allowance after six months without a job.

It’s another chapter in the story of ever-deeper cuts to youth services and support. Over the last three years, NEF has worked with local authority youth service teams in Lambeth and Cornwall – during which time UK youth services have changed drastically. In the East of England, for instance, 82% of local authorities have cut spending on youth services and the overall budget for youth provision in the region fell by over 19 million from 2010/11 to 2011/12.

Co-production: unlocking value from scarce resources

These cuts mean that local authorities need to rethink the resources at their disposal. Through our work we’ve found that by working alongside young people to design and deliver services, councils can embrace the skills, time and energy of those who know most about youth services – the young people who use them. And in doing so, achieve real value for money by ensuring that services deliver what young people really want. Click here to download our new briefing on co-production in youth services.

Here are our recommendations for councils looking to unlock value for young people by working with them to commission youth services:

• You don’t need to be a youth worker to relate to young people. Commissioners who had not worked closely with young people in the past were wary before embarking on this process; however, once they had the appropriate training (for example in appreciative enquiry and creative facilitation methods) they became much more confident. We recommend starting small by using pilots to test out the approach before applying it on a larger scale.

• Work with young people to decide how to value and reward their input. The councils we worked with used cafés for planning meetings and organised meals and activities for those involved in designing youth services. They rewarded young people in a local currency and offered accreditation for training and skills development.

• Use the full range of young people’s networks. Go to where young people are – don’t expect them to come to you.Try to tap into as many different networks of young people as you can.  In Lambeth and Cornwall, commissioners worked with schools and pupil residential units, carers and people with disabilities as well as different faith and community groups.

• Understand the impact of the process of co-production itself. Young people in Lambeth, for instance, spoke of having greater confidence, a more positive outlook and greater awareness of their own skills as a result of designing services with their council.

To read the full briefing about how Local Authorities have been putting these ideas into practice, click here.

You may also be interested in reading about some of our previous work onco-produced commissioning and about our co-production practitioners’ network – a network which provides a forum for frontline practitioners committed to the principles of co-production to discuss their work, the approach they take, and the challenges they face.