Perhaps our favourite youth work blogger, James Ballantyne asks, ‘When was the last time you had reflective supervision for your youth work? never? ‘
Yet good supervision can do a number of things (and supervision is different from management, or at least management can also include supervision, see my other posts on this topic for more) but good supervision as Joan Tash described in ‘Working with the unattached’ deems supervision to be an ‘experimental relationship’ in which the dreams and ideas of the worker have a space to circulate, fester and be talked through.
CYPN features a number of developments.
Give youth work remit back to DfE, children’s services leaders urge
Children’s services leaders have called for the Department for Education (DfE) to be handed back responsibility for youth work policy.
As part of an evidence submission to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Youth Affairs inquiry into youth work, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) said youth policy has been “cast adrift” from the rest of children’s services since moving to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Guides and Scouts unite for £2.4m expansion push
It would be interesting to see the funding bid and the accompanying definitions of ‘deprived’ and ‘diverse’.
Girlguiding and the Scout Association are seeking to open 200 new units in deprived areas of England by 2020 as part of a £2.4m joint project between the UK’s two largest youth organisations.
Council drops plan for youth services mutual
It would be revealing to hear more from the grass-roots about the Young Foundation model developed by the Lyon’s Charity.
A plan to create a mutual to run youth services at a local authority in the north east of England have been dropped.
Hartlepool Council has confirmed that it had been considering setting up a mutual to deliver youth services but decided not to proceed.
“There had been previous proposals to look at a youth service mutual as part of a review of youth service provision, however, the council has since decided to continue with the existing in-house youth service arrangement,” a spokesman said.
As part of its in-house provision, the council has set up a new partnership organisation, called the Hartlepool Young People’s Foundation, which brings the local authority together with local youth services providers to better co-ordinate support for young people.
YOUTH & POLICY carries a new article,
How does an international student influence youth work policy in Wales and England?
Ken Ebihara is an international youth and community student studying in Wales. He offers his perspective on youth work policies in Wales and England and suggests ways in which international students can influence both policy and practice.
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IN DEFENCE OF YOUTH WORK 