Youth4U - Young Inspectors

Youth4U - Young Inspectors was centred around the importance of youth participation in democracy and governance - specifically, by inspecting youth service provision and ensuring the transparency of their findings about those services. It supported adult support workers in local organisations to recruit, train, and support young people to investigate and assess how local services are doing and help them to improve things where they could be better. An inspection ensures that existing service provision is relevant, is reflective of the needs of users, and is able to improve uptake. The hope was that, in the process of participating in these inspections, young inspectors learned new skills and build their self-confidence. The young people were given the opportunity to achieve an accreditation through the programme.

Specifically, in each of 33 implementation areas, the programme was implemented and delivered by a local authority (LA) or a voluntary sector agency. Each of these was funded to staff a part-time local support worker (LSW) to recruit, train, and manage a cadre of 30 young inspectors (YIs). The LSWs were also responsible for negotiating, commissioning, and setting up local inspections. Initial and ongoing training and support for LSWs was provided by the Youth4U - Young Inspectors central team. This included an initial 2-day induction course and a series of skill-development sessions covering topics such as interviewing skills, report writing, and confidentiality. Further support around inclusion was available from KIDS. To read "best practice examples" - case studies from various aspects of the programme, click here.

In November 2011, the project held a 1-day training course on "How to Improve Local Services through Youth Inspection" in Birmingham. It covered the purpose and impact of youth inspection and focused on the 5 stages of running an effective youth inspection scheme. It also gave participants an opportunity to learn directly from a young inspector how to support young people in this role.

Also based on the learning from this programme is the Young Inspectors Package, which organisers developed through the Participation Works Partnership. This resource offers tailored suites of resources and training along with dedicated consultancy time in order for organisations to develop programmes that are suited to their needs. The package comprises a group of 9 "stand-alone" modules, each module consisting of an integrated package of information, resources, and defined consultancy support. The complete package develops local staff to support and train young people to conduct objective assessments of local services, make recommendations, follow-up, and then support recommendations for service improvements. To find out more about this modular package and how you can access it, please contact Nicola Murdoch: nmurdoch@ncb.org.uk (tel: 020 7843 6356).

Children, Youth, Democracy & Governance.

The programme sought to provide a mechanism for young people to have a say in the design and delivery of services in line with Article 12 of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that young people have a right to have a say in all decisions that affect their lives.