BY THE COMMUNITY AND VOLUNTARY SECTOR
IN THE KENNINGTON, OVAL AND VAUXHALL AREA
YOUNG PEOPLE
AS PART OF OUR COMMUNITY
A Discussion Paper
Preface
The purpose of this paper is to stimulate debate about the kind
of youth work and provision that should be developed in the KOV
area. We raise a number of issues that we think need to be thought
through without panicing in reaction to recent events. While we make
suggestions, recommendations for action must come from wide spread
debate and from the involvement of young people themselves.
Tim Saunders, Alford House
Sean Creighton, Riverside Community Development Trust (RCDT)
This paper has been prepared in discussion with members of the RCDT
Board
28 June 2006
Introduction
The murder of 15 year old Alex Mulumba on Black Prince Rd in
early June as the culmination of large scale mob activity by young
people in the area has shocked the local community. Discussions have
been underway among different statutory and community and voluntary
organisations, and with residents of Ethelred and Kennington Park
Estates, about what lies behind the events leading up to the murder
and what needs to be done.
Many of the young people involved in the events came from families
which went to local churches and had taken part in organised youth
activities.
It has been a tragedy for the parents of the murdered boy and for
the parents of those alleged to have knifed him. It will have been
traumatic for those who got involved in the heat of the moment
and now regret it and will have to come to terms with their role in
the affair. Many of the involved young people will now have a
heightened sense of fear as will their parents, who
will wonder whether they have failed to bring up their children
properly. There will be heightened fear in the wider community when
they see large groups of young people together. They will all need
support as they seek to come to terms with what has happened.
The ‘Happy Slapping’ Case
The end of the ‘Happy Slapping’ trial in January focussed
attention on the fact that the four young people involved lived in
or had connections with the area. These young people were known to a
number of local people and organisations.
The assault on 8 people and the killing of one of them was a
shocking event. Such behaviour is not typical of young people,
although there are sections of young people all over the country who
get involved in horrific attacks and beatings following
binge-dinking episodes in town centres.
At the time of the incidents (October 2004) the perpetrators were
between 14 and 19. The press have concentrated on the difficult
upbringings they had. They ‘graduated from playing truant to running
together on the streets of south London wearing hoods to cover their
faces’ (Guardian, 24 January)
· Chelsea O’Mahoney’s parents had been heroin addicts and she had
seen her mother inject. She had been left the wander the streets
unsupervised. She went into care and then was fostered. (Guardian)
The Sunday Times (20 January) gave a detailed portrait of her ‘feral
life in a moral vacuum.’
· David Blenman had had several convictions for street crime.
· Darren Case suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
and ‘a ”wretched” upbringing with no parental support’. (Guardian)
· Reece Sargeant suffered from learning difficulties and a speech
impediment. (Guardian)
There is no point trying to work out the degree to which the path
they followed was influenced by poor parenting or poor service
support, given the fact that as individuals they were responsible
for the decisions they took, including not taking advantage of, or
abusing, what was on offer.
However we cannot hide from the fact that as a community, residents,
voluntary organisations and statutory services failed them and the
man who was killed. Better tracking is now in place for such young
people but whether this would have worked is open to question. The
new Every Child Matters process may make a difference but that is
yet to be fully established.
The end of the trial and their imprisonment does not close the book
on these four young people.
· What support do the families want and need to cope with their
children being in prison and any social shunning by sections of the
local community?
· What will be the effect of imprisonment be on these young people?
· Will it harden them, or will they take the work and education
opportunities that may be available in prison?
· How can they be reintegrated back into the locality when they are
released?
While these four young people were not typical of the great majority
of young people, the trial does raise questions about society’s
attitudes and provision for young people, especially those who
experience difficulties.
Youth Violence
Moral panics over episodes of youth violence have a long history. There were the seaside battles between mods and rockers. In the second half of the 1980s it was group fights between Vietnamese refugee teenagers and others in the Stockwell area. Occasionally its attacks by pupils from one school against pupils from another. Among older groups of young people there has been a country wide drink fuelled violence at weekends in town centres. Without trying to minimise the seriousness of what happens, these episodes flare up and die down.
What Can We Learn from Past Events in Lambeth?
It is legitimate to ask whether anything is ever learnt from
previous ‘youth crime’ panics. There was a surge in knife carrying
and incidents in the second half of the 1980s across London,
including Lambeth, culminating in the fatal stabbing of a solicitor.
In consultation with the Community/Police Consultative Group for
Lambeth the Kennington Police developed a pilot project on combating
the growing culture of carrying knives through ‘street wise’
education activities, and persuading the script writers on East
Enders to include the issue as a story line. This led to a
Metropolitan Police knives amnesty. With other campaigners there was
tightening of the law on carrying offensive weapons. But the
educational preventative work was dropped.
In 1989 and 1990 Elizabeth Burney, a social policy researcher and
former Chair of Lady Margaret Hall Settlement, conducted some
research into street crime and its perpetrators for the
Community/Police Consultative Group for Lambeth. In a paper ‘Safer
Streets in Lambeth – A Youth Crime Approach’ at the Community
Safety. Local Perspectives Conference run by the Association of
Metropolitan Authorities and Local Government Drugs Forum in March
1993 (Sean Creighton (ed). Community Safety. Local Perspectives.
AMA/LGDF 1993) Burney reported on her main findings and the
initiative that followed.
· ‘Acts of delinquency may have common roots, but take a multitude
of forms. Some of these forms are patently more damaging and more
dangerous than others, both in their effects of society and on the
life of the young person concerned.’
· Although nearly all known street robbery offenders were black this
had ’to be viewed centrally as an issue of delinquency, and
therefore to be understood in much the same way as other forms of
delinquency such as driving stolen cars’, which is more a white
teenage crime.
· ‘Style, involving expensive dressing, and looking good, turned out
to be the key. A smart machismo, which in the classic sub-cultural
scenarios appeared to be a substitute for success and acceptance
elsewhere, and may help to explain the particular attraction of this
form of delinquency for some black youngsters.’
· Street style is also ‘a substitute for the offenders lack of any
real self-confidence. I was told that they see themselves as
failures not only at school but within relationships with their
parents. They are not robbing from poverty, but from emotional
deprivation.’
She found a strong link between street robbery and truanting from
school.
· The average age of streets robbers school leaving age was around
15, that is: ‘They stopped attending school at all before the
statutory school leaving age.’
· ‘The line between truancy and crime is not straight forward as
others have pointed out, and almost always other factors are
involved.’
The research also highlighted the importance of family tensions and
the interaction between that and absenteeism from school.
· ‘The syndrome describing the dual failure of school and at home
may lead to literally years of absenteeism, where the young person
simply drops out of sight of any helping agency.’
Following her research the Brixton Against Robbery project was set
up which attempted ‘to link the preventative work of the Juvenile
Liaison Team with a voluntary style initiative of one to one working
with at risk youngsters, and their families. It ultimately failed
due to inadequate management structure but in the course of about
two years some extremely effective work was done.’
It involved:
· a ‘ reformed black ex-con’ street robber acting as’ a minder to
some very difficult youngsters who did indeed return to education
and kept out of trouble’.
· another worker who ran a parents support group which was taken up
enthusiastically by several families, especially lone mothers.’
‘It was the first time that many of them could share their anxieties
about their seemingly uncontrollable children, and be helped to come
to a better working relationship with them, These were no uncaring
irresponsible parents, quite the reverse.’
Given that local authorities had a duty under the Children Act to
take reasonable steps to encourage children in their area not to
commit crime, Burney suggested that the kind of policies and
provisions that should be developed by the local authority should
include:
· ‘Schools need to encourage failures to become successes, to adopt
firm policies towards bullying, and to look for extra support not
rejection of disruptive pupils.’
· ‘Specialist services like Child Guidance and Education Psychology
should be readily accessible.’
· ‘Beleaguered families are supposed to be able to turn’ to Social
Services Departments, ‘ but the fear of a troublesome child being
taken into care often prevents this happening.
· ‘Voluntary agencies are almost always the best source of whole
family support and local provision should be viewed as a whole with
both public and private agencies playing their appropriate role.’
· ‘Perhaps above all the escape, excitement, achievement and
self-esteem which too many youngsters seek through crime, street
robbery, burglary or drugs needs to be available in other ways.’
· ‘The Youth Service has an important role but often it will be
unorthodox detached ways of working which will reach the most
needy.’
· Local government ‘can and should be open minded and supportive to
all types of solution to a common problem.’
Current Government Policy
There has been a fairly long wait but the Government finally
published its Green Paper - Youth Matters, in July 2005. A
substantial document covering services for young people, we can only
briefly share some of its background, vision and principles.
Youth Matters says Children’s Trusts, which is the arrangement
Government wants all Local Authorities to have in place to integrate
all key services for children and young people, including education
services, health services and social services, are to be responsible
for developing an integrated youth support service. Children’s
Trusts are to provide services ranging from universally available
activities to specialist and targeted support. This will be achieved
through each Trust planning and commissioning services from a number
of public, voluntary and private providers.
Youth Matters aims to build on the ambition of Every Child Matters,
a new approach to the well-being of children and young people from
birth to age 19. It promotes the idea that all children and young
people should achieve five key outcomes:
- Be healthy
- Stay safe
- Enjoy and achieve
- Make a positive contribution
- Achieve economic well-being
Youth Matters “aims to radically re-shape services for young
people”, states the Department for Education and Skills website. To
this end Youth Matters identifies four key challenges:
· engaging more young people in positive activities and empowering
them to shape the services they receive;
· encouraging more young people to volunteer and become involved in
their communities;
· provide better information, advice and guidance to young people to
help them make informed choices about their lives; and
· providing better and more personalised intensive support for each
young person who has serious problems or gets into trouble.
This approach is underpinned by the following key Government
principles:
· making services more responsive to what young people and their
parents want
· balancing greater opportunities and support with promoting young
people’s responsibilities
· making services for young people more integrated, efficient and
effective
· improving outcomes for all young people, while narrowing the gap
between those who do well and those who do not
· involving a wide range of organisations from the voluntary,
community, and private sectors to increase choice and secure the
best outcomes; and building on the best current provision.
Youth Matters can be welcomed but will need to be backed with
investment if it is to be made a reality. There is still much to be
done and discussed and as is often the case with Government
proposals the detail remains to be worked out locally. Locally,
Lambeth has established the Children and Young Peoples Services
Department. Many challenges for the Council lie ahead.
Youth Provision in Lambeth
Over a number of years ILEA supported the youth service and
nurtured a voluntary/ statutory partnership to youth work in
Lambeth. Since control passed to borough councils in 1990 the youth
service has been decimated in Lambeth. Voluntary sector youth work
organisations are struggling with lack of secure funding and
inadequate buildings. When the Lambeth Youth Council peer inspection
review of youth club/centres in North Lambeth highlighted a number
of things that needed to be done to support improvements among
providers in the area, the Area Committee allocated £20,000 money.
While welcome, this was by no means an adequate sum. Redecorating
one large hall can cost £12,000. This demonstrates that the sums
being invested are inadequate. It also shows that young people’s
views are not backed financially to a suitable level.
There have been a number of announcements about funding to refurbish
and build youth clubs/centres. There is a new £20 million capital
fund this year. Spread across the country, this again is nowhere
near enough. The Chancellor has pledged to use money obtained from
unclaimed bank accounts to invest in youth and community facilities.
It is as yet unclear exactly how much this will be, but it is likely
to be in the “hundreds of millions” and could be more. But how long
will this take?
The Purpose of Youth Work
The long established purpose of youth work has been distorted in
recent years by an over focus on the problems of juvenile crime, and
the crime prevention and community safety agendas.
Although described in a number of ways there is broad agreement that
Youth Work is about building self-esteem and confidence, developing
relationships and skills, and life-long learning. It seeks to help
young people cope more effectively with the transition through
adolescence to adulthood and to understand and act on the personal,
social and political issues which affect their lives, the lives of
others and the communities of which they form a part. It is about
the provision of activities and opportunities which will:
increase the ability of young people to identify, advocate and
pursue their rights and responsibilities as individual citizens and
group members
assist young people to develop their capacities - physical,
intellectual, moral, spiritual, social and emotional
enable young people to understand values in society and develop the
skills to focus and measure their own attitudes, judgements and
values
enable young people better to understand their physical world,
particularly in the context of their health and environment.
Youth work providers should be trying to reach these goals through
the following objectives:
by involving young people in designing and implementing appropriate
planned educational programmes
by developing youth work provision with young people in a variety of
outreach and community settings
by ensuring that young people have access to appropriately placed
information, advice and counselling services on matters which
concern them, and have the skills to use them effectively
by providing places and relationships within which young people can
feel secure and valued and learn to take proper control over their
own lives.
Activity can be divided under three headings:
Personal and Social Education (including Health Education).
Education in Personal and Social skills will assist young people to
understand better the process involved in physical, mental and
spiritual growth.
Education for citizenship. The aims of education for citizenship are
to:
- establish the importance of positive, participative citizenship
and provide the motivation to join in,
- help young people to acquire and understand essential information
on which to base the development of their skills, values and
attitudes towards citizenship.
Economic and Industrial Understanding. Education for economic and
industrial understanding aims to help young people make decisions
about how to organise their finances and spent their money
Youth provision through traditional approaches such as youth clubs
is successful in being able to have a good relationship and trust
with young people who use the service. Alongside club and centre
based youth work there is also detached youth work seeking to reach
those young people on the streets who do not come to clubs and
centres. It can be the bridge between young people and service
providers. It enables young people to gain information about
services within their area without being in a formal setting, and
within an area that they are used to.
However, due to the basis of this method being solely based in young
people’s “turf” it can be a daunting experience. Therefore where
possible, it is good practice for someone within the community that
is known to young people to be part of the outreach/detached team,
in order to build on links and for young people not to be too
hostile. Where this is not possible, it is essential to note that
the development of any relationship and trust may take longer
especially of there has not been a youth provision in the area
before.
Youth diversion from crime is just one beneficial outcome in
relation to some young people.
Community and Neighbourhood Renewal
The Community Strategy has objectives to:
· Deliver integrated services to young people through the creation
of a Children and Young Peoples Strategy Partnership
· Place the view of children and young people at the heart of
decision making
· Increase the number of pupils staying in education or moving into
employment or training at age 16
· Create more opportunities for young people in out of school
activities relating to education, leisure, sport, recreation and
culture
What has the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership
achieved in the way of improving the delivery of integrated services
and how will this be furthered through the Area Partnership that has
been set up?
· What role do public service agencies and community and voluntary
groups in the area have in helping engage and involve young people?
· How can youth issues be addressed through the work on the
community strategy and neighbourhood renewal through the newly
formed Area Community Strategy Development Partnership?
Youth crime is a factor in the complex interaction of problems in
‘deprived’ neighbourhoods, including the physical look and feel due
to vandalism and graffiti, and fear of personal attack. Disaffected
young people’s behaviour causes conflict with older people, and
other young people are often targets for attack and robbery. These
fears and the negative reactions to groups of young people on the
streets in turn feeds disaffection and conflict. This influences the
way in which the police treat young people, especially from BME
communities. Lack of jobs and future prospects feed low attainment.
Because of their fear of what might happen, lots of parents will not
let their teenagers out in the evening, and do not support them
taking part in organised youth activities.
Educational Attainment
The National Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy has a goal of raising
educational achievement in deprived neighbourhoods. In a local
authority area like Lambeth this is difficult to assess whether this
is being achieved once pupils have transferred to secondary school.
Secondary schools have not for many years had neighbourhood
catchment areas. Pupils living in deprived neighbourhoods travel
across the Borough to school, and many to schools outside the
Borough. Additionally some secondary schools have pupils coming in
from other local authority areas. It is therefore not possible to
utilise the overall GCSE examination pass rates as an indicator of
raising achievement among pupils from deprived neighbourhoods. Two
assessment approaches are needed:
· analysis by geographic area within the Borough to statistically
identify the pupils from the deprived neighbourhoods and assess
their attainment against the average for the school.
· analysis by geographic area within the Borough of pupils from
Lambeth going to out of Borough schools, and assessment of their
attainment against the average for Lambeth and if they live in
deprived areas against their peers in those areas going to Lambeth
schools
If the analysis shows that the attainment level being achieved by
pupils living in deprived areas is lower than the average for their
school or for Lambeth as a whole, then there will need to be
discussion:
· with their school about what additional measures may need to be
taken in the school
· about other additional measures that could be undertaken possibly
based in the neighbourhoods in which they live.
Influencing change in schools will of course be much more difficult
in out of Borough schools than Borough schools.
Once their children start going to secondary school, parents have
few opportunities to develop the social networks that are built at
primary school. At secondary school level they do not know who their
children are associating with; they do not know the parents of their
children's friends to talk to them. None of those informal social
watchfulness and 'controls' that operate at primary level usually
operate at secondary level.
The Issue of ‘Respect’
Another issue is that of ‘respect’. The Lambeth Respect
equalities consultation in January 2003 involved 120 local people
from all ages, backgrounds, nationalities, faiths and abilities
working together to decide what ‘respect’ meant, and what action
could be taken to treat everyone respectfully. The main conclusions
are set out in Appendix 1. The young people taking part indicated
that their peers felt excluded. They suggested the following ways in
which that the feeling of inclusion could be increased:
· youth centres and activities in schools and community venues –
these should be inclusive and accessible for all young people,
especially those with disabilities and others who find it hard to
get involved. Youth should be able to take more responsibility for
their clubs and centres.
· Opportunities for discussion – a chance for young people to talk
about what’s important to them and to educate each other around
issues like teenage pregnancy.
· Young people should be taught from an early age to respect people,
property and the community – adults should lead by example.
· Affordable housing – for everyone, but particularly young single
people and couples.
The consultation concluded:
· that young people starting out in the world of work need support
such as: modern apprenticeships, business advice, financial guidance
and grants, good vocational education, scholarships for further and
higher education.
Youth Provision Needs
Good quality youth provision depends on:
· Outreach workers to identify and engage with young people on the
street, particularly those engaged in vandalism, graffiti and street
crime, under-age drinking, drug and solvent abuse.
· Stable funding for existing provision
· New funding for new projects
· Youth surveys in every area to find out what young people want
· Funding and other support for ways to foster youth participation.
· Review of youth work training and remuneration.
· Review of how to devise a system which encourages part-time
seasonal workers to stay with the organization providing the
sessions
· Major expansion of holiday provision, with Schools make their
buildings available for use by community and other organisations
running schemes.
.Issues to be considered
As indicated above there are a wide range of issues to be
considered, along with the interaction between them. (See also the
list of issues to be considered and the analysis which is needed
attached as Appendix 2.)
Involving Young People in Decision-making
Children and young people’s view have never been valued in
Britain despite the Government being a signatory to United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 12 says that children
and young people have a right to say what they think about matters
that affect them and a right to have those views taken seriously.
The disaffection of so many young people from school and their
anti-social behaviour suggests that a wide range of institutions
involved in running children’s’ activities and youth groups for the
under 18s are not very good at listening to their users, nor
proactively engaging with non-users to ascertain their views and
involve them in decision-making on changing current and developing
new provision.
The following are principles behind the process of involvement:
· Treat young people honestly. e.g. develop their understanding of
any practical, legal and political boundaries to their involvement
· Use methods of participation appropriate to young people’s age and
maturity
· Take their views seriously and act upon them
· Develop staff skills and attitudes to engage effectively with
young people: e.g.
· Involvement should be based on equal opportunities and be
non-discriminatory
· Be proactive towards those facing the greater barriers to getting
involved
· Provide support and opportunities for training and development to
help young people contribute effectively. e.g. in listening,
presenting views constructively, researching information, briefing
on background d issues, contacting experts
· Provide relevant information in good time
· Use appropriate format - jargon fee, culturally appropriate and
accessible
· Have methods which recognise young people’s contribution
The following are policies needed to support the process:
· Objectives for involvement
· Criteria on rationale and success against which to measure
progress
· Young people involvement in reviewing lessons learnt
· Standards and codes of conduct for working with young people
· Handling of confidentiality issues.
· Handling of child protection issues
Methods can include:
· Ad hoc suggestion and positive and critical feedback schemes
· Formal surveys and questionnaires
· Consultation exercises, inc. Small discussion groups, use o drama
and music, games and activities
· Advisory and decision-making bodies
· Membership of adult-led advisory or decision-making bodies
· Projects in which young people produce information for other young
people inc. IT
· Involvement in assessing plans for implementing services and new
initiatives
· Involvement of parents and carers in supporting involvement
depending on age and characteristics.
· Many methods of community participation are appropriate, inc.
Planning for Real, Imagine
Obtaining the views of young people was a central feature of the
Government’s consultation ‘Building a Strategy for Children and
Young People’, which ended on 1 March 2002.
The consultation aimed to develop:
· a new vision and principles for the development of services for
children and young people - on which all future Government
investment will be based
· ways in which Government can work with organisations to develop
and assess services according to the real life outcomes for children
and young people
· simple planning arrangements for services for children and young
people which aim to put local communities in the driving seat in
designing and delivering services.
Key questions as part of the consultation were:
· What issues are most important to young people?
· What one thing would you change for young people?
· What should a strategy for young people include?
· Why are services not always able to help young person
· Has a service not helped you as much as you think it should have?
· How would you improve services?
· What do you think would make services work better?
· Is it right to measure whether services are working by what was
actually changed for young people?
· How should change be monitored?
The National Agency has developed a good framework for young
people’s participation ‘Here By Right’ that can be used in such
work.
Local Community Review
There is a growing recognition across a number of policy and
activity areas of the need for improved information sharing, joint
working and mutual co-operation, and the need for a common strategy
and agenda to use in discussions with Lambeth Council and other
public service agencies. It would be appropriate for community and
voluntary sector organisations, including residents’ organisations,
to consider developing a community initiated strategy on youth work
and provision for the area.
We think that the local community through its community and
voluntary organisations should carry out its own examination of the
youth service issues in the area in order to set a common agenda for
discussion with the Council and other statutory providers, to put to
the Area Delivery Partnership, and to find ways in which existing
community and voluntary sector provision can be better supported and
enlarged upon. An important element of this should be the
involvement of young people themselves in discussing the issues and
suggesting solutions. One approach might be to set up a Citizens’
Jury inquiry examining the issues and calling various people and
organisations to answer questions. The Jury members should include
young people.
Tim Saunders, Alford House
Sean Creighton, Riverside Community Development Trust (RCDT) (and
former Secretary to Community/Police Consultative Group for Lambeth
1984-89)
28 June 2006
Appendix 1
‘RESPECT’
The Lambeth Respect equalities consultation in January 2003.
Participants defined ‘respect’ as:
· valuing differences – different cultures, backgrounds, skills,
faiths, abilities and disabilities
· acknowledging and recognising people’s life experiences and the
choices they make
· sharing common bonds and working together on issues that concern
us all
· being accountable – politicians should be accountable for their
decisions. The council and other organisations that provide services
should respond quickly and politely when people need help.
Respect involves:
· treating other people as we wish to be treated
· leading by example
· being open and welcoming
· embracing other cultures
· giving thanks and positive feedback when these are due
The consultation concluded:
· That being in work makes people feel included and increases their
self-esteem
· that people should be able to find work, regardless of their race
or disability
Appendix 2
Issues and Analysis for the Review
(A preliminary list)
· Analysis of children and young people’s population and projected
age group population changes by as small as geographic area within
each ward as possible.
· Correlation of the population and location of facilities suggests:
Area Age 5-14 % Age 15-24 % Provision %
· There needs to be a discussion on the analysis of need, and what
the average ratio of provision to youth population should be.
· Analysis of Juvenile Crime and Victimhood
· Youth Unemployment
· Service provision, including threats to sustainability and
ambitions for future activity
· Assessment of progress made on implementing the recommendations of
the Lambeth Youth Council peer review
· Assessment of good practice and examples of good youth work being
carried out in the area and ideas that may be adapted from other
areas.
· Consultation with young people using services
· Consultation with other young people not using services
· Analysis of the informal networks of young people based on where
they went to primary school and where they now go to secondary
school
· Factors contributing to delinquency and crime