Children and Young People Directorate Directorate Support Participation and Citizenship Service HYPE! Young People’s Website Neil McCaffery - Youth Support Services Officer

Policy Context Publicising Positive Activities - The Duty on Local Authorities DCSF placed a duty on Local Authorities to provide access to positive activities for young people. Part of the duty is a requirement to publicise and keep up to date information on our positive activities. The duty was introduced in response to evidence that a lack of information and transport are key barriers to participation. Statutory guidance on this duty was issued in March 2008 (Section 507B Education Act 1996).

Policy Context Aiming High for Young People: A Ten Year Strategy for Positive Activities Significant strategy recognising the importance of the experience of youth. Participation in education and activities improves chances of successful transition to adulthood. Covers 55 commitments and 6 key objectives -

Policy Context : Aiming High Key Commitments Key Commitments Include -  Rebalancing the public narrative about young people.  Empowering young people to increase their influence over service design and delivery.  Increasing the number of local places for young people to go to.  Removing barriers - supporting young people to access local opportunities and services.  Improving the capacity and quality of services.  Supporting and developing the youth workforce.

Publicising Positive Activities in South Tyneside In South Tyneside there were several examples of good practice for publicising and promoting Positive Activities, but there was not one central data source for gathering and publicising positive activities therefore we needed to decide on our best way forward to meet our statutory obligations. To ensure a long term sustainable approach to this work we decided to develop a council led events management system to bring together information on positive activities. This was approved by the Integrated Youth Support Service Executive group. Through partnership work with the council’s web development team we have developed an events management system that is now up and running but is always being further developed with other features, events and activities. The events management system we have developed and hosted on the Council’s Youth website is called - HYPE!

Local authorities are also responsible for assuring the safety of their own activities and facilities, similarly for the safety of those commissioned from third parties. There is no requirement to inspect activities or facilities offered by independent providers, but local authorities are also not required to, and should not promote activities or facilities which they believe to be inappropriate or unsafe. (Source: Non-statutory Guidance for the Data Collection Exercise on Provision of Positive Activities) Safety and Safeguarding The ‘Youth Offer’

Our ‘Youth Offer’ We have big hopes for what the ‘Youth Offer’ will mean for Young People in South Tyneside. It should: Help Get Better Information: Let Young People know what’s out there, and inspire them to Get Involved! Give Young People lots of up to date information about what’s going on near to where they live! Get more Young People Involved in Positive Activities: Bring Young People together from all over the borough who have common interests. Make sure there’s always something to do that Young People would want to be involved in. Help Young People develop their skills and potential. Help Young People find out more about themselves by getting involved in new experiences with different people. Make sure we improve what Young People want: Put Young People at the heart of the decisions we take. Get Young People’s involvement and achievements recognised and respected.

For Further Details Contact: Neil McCaffery Youth Support Services Officer

HYPE Young Persons Web site!