Chapter 25

Cross-Departmental Review of young people at risk

Scope

This review sought to identify cost effective policies for helping young people between the ages of 5 and 19 to make the transition safely and successfully from childhood to adulthood.

Background

25.1 Support for vulnerable young people is a vital component of the Government's strategy to tackle child poverty and ensure opportunity for all. A minority of young people experience a wide range of problems such as drug abuse, youth crime, school failure, mental health problems and homelessness. The Social Exclusion Unit's Policy Action Team report on Young People made clear that the UK's record has in many ways deteriorated over recent decades and compares poorly with other EU and OECD countries.

25.2 The Government has launched programmes such as Sure Start, Quality Protects, Connexions and the reform of youth justice in order to address these problems. This review aimed to build on those initiatives.

Outcomes

25.3 The review concluded that money needs to be targeted on those most in need. In addition to effective support in times of crisis, more needs to be done to prevent problems occurring in the first place. To achieve this, a new way of working is required across traditional institutional boundaries, involving the voluntary sector, community organisations and statutory services.

25.4 As a result of this work, over the next three years the Government will take the following steps:

the Connexions personal adviser service will be progressively introduced, encouraging all those aged 13-19 to stay in education or undertake training. This will deliver a universal service while focusing the most intense and sustainable support on those who most need help. Connexions will be coordinated with other services for vulnerable young people, including mental health services, supported housing and drug treatment. There will be increasing co-location of these services, better systems of referral between them and greater sharing of data;
a Children's Fund will be established as a new part of the Government's strategy to tackle child poverty and social exclusion. The Fund will support services to identify children and young people who are showing early signs of disturbance and provide them and their families with the support they need to get back on track. Its aim is to prevent children falling into drug abuse, truancy, exclusion, unemployment and crime. The Fund will be worth a total of £450 million over three years and will support two programmes:
- a £380 million programme of preventive work with children primarily in the 5-13 age group to bridge the gap between Sure Start and Connexions, helping children before they hit a crisis. The fund will work in partnership with local authorities and others, including the voluntary sector delivery, dove-tailing with other initiatives such as Excellence in Cities; and
- a £70 million network of local children's funds, as announced in the Budget and developed in consultation with the voluntary sector. This will be administered by the voluntary sector itself, for children of all ages, and will focus on helping local and community groups to provide local solutions to the problem of child poverty. It will include a strong emphasis on children and young people's own aspirations and views.

25.5 These programmes will be overseen at a strategic level by a new Cabinet Committee on Children and Young People's Services, and will be administered by a new Unit. There will be improved local coordination through local authority level partnerships that bring together the main public services and the voluntary and community sectors.

25.6 Targets will be set in departmental Public Service Agreements for reducing crime committed by young offenders; improving the service for children in care; and raising minimum educational attainment. Better coordination arrangements will be set in place with a view to reducing the incidence of multiple disadvantage; and tracking children and young people's opinions of public services.

Box 25.1: Key PSA targets - Young People at Risk

The Home Office PSA will include a target to deal with 80 per cent of youth court cases within their time targets; halving from 142 to 71 days the time taken from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders; and reducing the rate of re-convictions for young offenders by 5 per cent by 2004.
The Department of Health will set a target for narrowing the gap between the life chances of children in care and their peers.
The Department of Education and Employment will set targets for raising minimum educational attainment, including increasing the percentage of 11 year olds and 14 year olds at or above the expected standards of literacy and numeracy for their age; and narrowing the attainment gap between poorer performers and the average.

Spending plans

25.7 Spending plans for the new Children's Fund are set out in Table 25.1.

Table 25.1: Key figures

£ million
	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Children's Fund	n/a	100	150	200