Report of the Strategic Director of Neighbourhoods

This report follows on from the update on the Youth and Play Commissioning Arrangements which was presented to Executive on 20 October 2021. The report to Executive set out an alternative delivery model to be designed and developed following the decision to transfer responsibility for commissioning from Young Manchester. The purpose of this report is to provide the Committee with the outcome from the design and development work and to set out the proposed Youth, Play and Participation Service’s commissioning process and framework including timescales for the implementation of the proposed new arrangements.

The Committee is invited to comment on the report before its submission to the Executive on 14 December 2022.

The Committee considered the report of the Strategic Director of Neighbourhoods which followed on from the update on the Youth and Play Commissioning Arrangements which was presented to Executive on 20 October 2021. The report to Executive set out an alternative delivery model to be designed and developed following the decision to transfer responsibility for commissioning from Young Manchester. The purpose of this report was to provide the Committee with the outcome from the design and development work and to set out the proposed Youth, Play and Participation Service’s commissioning process and framework including timescales for the implementation of the proposed new arrangements. The Committee was invited to comment on the report before its submission to the Executive on 14 December 2022.

Key points and themes in the report included:

• Strategic national and local context;
• Principles of investment;
• Governance and decision-making processes;
• Funding;
• Timeline;
• Service requirements;
• Quality assurance, impact and monitoring;
• Other considerations; and
• Next steps.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• Support for this approach;
• How would it be ensured that the young people’s advisory panel was representative;
• Suggesting that schools and parents could be engaged with to reach young people whose voices were not currently being heard and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND);
• Ensuring that families and young people were aware of the activities which were available for them;
• Communication between the Ward Councillors selected to be part of the district Members’ Advisory Panels and other Ward Councillors in the district; and
• Smaller community groups who did not have experience in or confidence to bid for grants but who were doing good work in their local community and how they could be supported to bid for funding and to adapt and grow to meet the needs of the area.

The Head of the Youth, Play and Participation Service reported that work was taking place to develop and expand young people’s participation, including around decision-making and service provision, by his own team, working with Children and Education Services colleagues, and by upskilling the sector.  He stated that, when decisions were being made about district-based youth provision, young people from that district should be involved in the decisions.  He advised that the details of how this would work were still being fully developed and that more information would be provided in a future report.  He reported that there had been a good uptake of the Youth Investment Fund from small grassroots organisations, including ones which were Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME)-led, and that officers would be looking at how this could be expanded.  He stated that they would also be looking at how smaller organisations could access the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme funding.  He agreed that communicating the offer to children and young people was important and advised that funded projects would be expected to publicise their offer and that his team would be working with neighbourhood teams, and with other colleagues and partner organisations, to communicate what was available in the local area.  In response to a Member’s question about opportunities for new Councillors to learn more about what was going on in their ward and to engage with this work, he advised that he would be open to any invitations to meet with Ward Councillors in their ward.  He asked Members to let him know of any local groups they were aware of which were doing good work with young people in their area and to help to promote initiatives that they could be involved in such as HAF and workforce development opportunities.  In response to a Member’s question about the statistics from the census, he advised that they were looking at this and would provide an update at a later date.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services referred to areas of the city, particularly in north Manchester, from where fewer applications for funding were received and work which was taking place to address this.  He advised that Member involvement would be an important part of the new process as he felt that this had been an area of weakness previously.  He asked Members to let him know if they were interested in being on one of the district Member panels and advised that he was also arranging meetings for all Ward Councillors to enable them to give their views.

The Chair advised that it was important to audit this work very quickly, including identifying any gaps, for example BAME-led groups.  She expressed concern that applications would be predominantly for youth provision rather than play activities for younger children and advised that it was important to encourage groups which provided play activities for younger children to apply for funding and to ensure that any gaps identified were addressed.  However, subject to these comments, she reported that she was happy with the direction that this work was taking.

Decision

To support the direction of the work taking place, subject to Members’ comments.

[Councillor Alijah declared a personal interest as the Chair of the Hideaway Youth Project]

[Councillor Reid and Councillor Lovecy declared a personal interest as members of the Members’ Advisory Panel for their district]