Principles of the network
Principles of the network
Our approach to collaboration and alliances with other organisations – June 2020
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The Network of Regional Youth Work Units: England brings together independent organisations working to support the youth sector at regional level in the English regions. At present our members cover 6 of the 9 regions and we aim to recruit relevant organisations to join the network and support youth work in the other 3 regions over the next 1-2 years.
Regional Youth Work Units act as hubs for developing and supporting youth work in their regions, working with commissioners, providers and young people themselves to ensure the sector is well-informed, skilled and responsive to changes in government policies and young people’s needs.
The Network regularly works with organisations with a national (and sometimes international) footprint and role in supporting aspects of the work of the youth sector, in order to inform policy developments, engage parts of the youth sector who may otherwise not be able to access national initiatives and knowledge, and provide regional intelligence to national organisations while informing organisations in the region of national developments that could affect their practice and environment. This role is recognised and valued by national organisations and government bodies, and has resulted in positive outcomes for youth work, youth workers and young people.
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Our approach to collaboration and alliances with other organisations – June 2020
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The Network of Regional Youth Work Units: England brings together independent organisations working to support the youth sector at regional level in the English regions. At present our members cover 6 of the 9 regions and we aim to recruit relevant organisations to join the network and support youth work in the other 3 regions over the next 1-2 years.
Regional Youth Work Units act as hubs for developing and supporting youth work in their regions, working with commissioners, providers and young people themselves to ensure the sector is well-informed, skilled and responsive to changes in government policies and young people’s needs.
The Network regularly works with organisations with a national (and sometimes international) footprint and role in supporting aspects of the work of the youth sector, in order to inform policy developments, engage parts of the youth sector who may otherwise not be able to access national initiatives and knowledge, and provide regional intelligence to national organisations while informing organisations in the region of national developments that could affect their practice and environment. This role is recognised and valued by national organisations and government bodies, and has resulted in positive outcomes for youth work, youth workers and young people.
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Latest News
The network has representation on the following forums and working groups:
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NYA/JCS’s Education and Training Standards Committee England
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National Youth Policy Advisory Group
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Youth Voice DCMS
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Institute for Youth Work
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Additionally, they are represented across a range of regional networks and strategic partnerships, please their websites for more details.
Youth Loneliness Resources
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The Government and the Co-op Foundation, through the Building Connections Fund, are supporting The National Youth Partnership to develop a range of resources to help workers and organisations support young people to tackle loneliness and isolation.
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The National Youth Partnership consists of some of the most experienced and knowledgeable youth work practitioners and managers in the country. Each member of our Partnership has many years’ experience in providing training, professional development and strategic support to youth sector colleagues across the whole of the country.
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The resources that have been developed are a starting point. We are keen that colleagues working with young people add their ideas, examples of projects, details of sessions, research and evaluation to help build a central repository of practice and information for the benefit of all.
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The National Youth Partnership consists of the following organisations:
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Youth Focus: North East
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Youth Focus: North West
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Yorkshire and Humber: Youth Work Unit
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Partnership for Young London
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National Youth Agency
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Youth Focus: West Midlands
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Youth Focus South West C.I.C
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Youth loneliness is widespread, but not widely understood. The understanding section is designed to support organisations and professionals in improving their understanding of youth loneliness and isolation.
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The information in this section includes a range of statistics, definitions and a number of research reports, which provide context about youth loneliness and isolation, and can be a starting point for developing responses.
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With support from funders, such as the Co-op Foundation, many organisations are taking steps to address youth loneliness and isolation. The 'Developing Responses' section provides suggested activities, and examples of approaches collected from a range of partners working on this issue. The more examples and ideas we have of ways to tackle youth loneliness and isolation the better, so please share your work by contacting us at mail@youthfocusne.org.uk
Young people with experience or feelings of loneliness and isolation must shape the work we do. It is obviously important that responses are not developed based on the views of just one or two young people, but young people with a lived experience bring an insight into this issue that the majority of workers may not have – regardless of how long we have been working on this subject or even if we have had our own struggles with loneliness and isolation. Involving young people in our work to tackle loneliness and isolation also gives them a degree of control, which is helpful in terms of their confidence in taking steps to improve their own wellbeing.
For more details and to get involved please see the website https://tacklingyouthloneliness.org.uk/about/a
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Young Inspectors Programme
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The Young Inspectors programme brings together 24 young people aged (14-25) from across England. The role of the Young Inspectors is to work in small teams:
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To visit online/in person and inspect organisations that receive funding from DCMS
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To meet decision makers and fund givers from Central Government, other fund giving organisations
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To check that they are involving the views of young people in determining what services and activities they want
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To ensure that the young people are consulted and involved in designing those services and activities
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To produce reports and recommendations
The young inspector role is a programme that was started last year with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and partners from the Regional Youth Work Units in the North East, North West, and Yorkshire & Humber. This scheme has been extended to the rest of England.
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Click here to read the National Youth Inspector Framework.
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We are now recruiting 24 new members for this group.
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Why youth inspection?
Youth inspection is a method of youth participation that is focused on giving critical feedback to projects, organisations, services, funders, institutions or other bodies that are connected to young people in order to improve the quality of their work.
These can be bodies that are directly delivering an offer of services to young people or those involved at arm’s length in policy, strategy or funding.
We call these bodies inspectees.
Youth inspection provides inspectees with the opportunity to listen to the voices of young people about their work in a manner which supports detailed and rich dialogue and highlights opportunities for development.
Involving young people in this way provides an opportunity to receive valuable intelligence and feedback on an inspectee’s work, to help improve what they do.
It also helps ensure inspectees are listening to young people when they make decisions that affect their lives, contributing to their rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
‘My confidence grew as I went on and I felt very welcomed and my ideas were listened to’
Young Inspector, 16
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‘Having the support of the same workers, made sure that I felt supported in and out if the inspection’
Quote from previous Inspector, 17s
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Youth Work Bursaries Scheme
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The purpose of the Youth Worker Bursary Fund is to provide financial assistance to those undertaking approved qualifications in Youth Work, by providing bursaries to those individuals. The fund was announced by the Minister for Civil Society on 12th September 2019 and is funded by Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The fund is distributed by the NYA in partnership with the Regional Youth Units.
The fund supports 450 practitioners across England to gain level 2 and 3 youth work qualifications, the pilot year is underway and all places have been allocated. Please get in touch with your regional youth unit for more details.
Events
We have events taking place across the different regions of England, palceholder etc etc