Supporting Young People To Flourish

Anne Longfield, Chief Executive, 4Children

Helping young people through life - The starting point of a new and strengthened approach

• A holistic approach to the needs of young people and families

• A joined up approach based around the life cycle of the young person not the services

• Service design that brings in help early and at all stages• Understanding and supporting young people’s high

expectations and aspirations

Communities and families that

are great for young people

Early identification

and help if problems arise

Specialist help and

turnaround if things go

wrong

Helping Young People To Flourish

SkillsMentoring

Parents

Great times

Self esteem

University

Aspirations

Training

Fun

Meeting people

JobsRelationships Schools

Horizons

Health

College

Family

Being safe

Friends

Resilience

Apprenticeships

Identifying and reducing risk factors

Crime and anti-social behaviour

Young people leaving formal education without qualifications (educational underachievement)

Misuse of drugs, alcohol and other substances

School aged pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases

Identifying and reducing risk factors that result in:

Risk Factors Drug Use Youth Crime School age pregnancy

Educational underachievement

Family Poor parental supervision and discipline √ √ √ √Family conflict √ √ √ √Family history of problem behaviour √ √ √ √Parental Involvement/attitudes condoning problem behaviour √ √

Low income and poor housing √ √ √School Low achievement beginning in primary school √ √ √ √Aggressive behaviour, including bullying √ √ √Lack of commitment, including truancy √ √ √ √School disorganisation √ √Community Disadvantaged neighbourhood √ √ √Community disorganisation and neglect √ √ Availability of drugs √ √ High turnover and lack of neighbourhood attachment √ √ √Individual, friends and peers Alienation and lack of social commitment √ √ √Attitudes that condone problem behaviour √ √ √ √Early involvement in problem behaviour √ √ √ √Friends involved in problem behaviour √ √ √ √

Risk FactorsTable 1: Adolescent problem behaviours and associated risksSource: Communities That Care (2002): pp.7-8

Risk Factors Communities That Care report (2005)Commissioned by UK Ministry of JusticeRisk and preventative factors around youth crime in a UK context: pp. 127-128

• Family risk factors include poor parental supervision and discipline; family conflict; a family history of criminal activity; parental attitudes that condone anti-social and criminal behaviour; low income; poor housing; and large family size

• These risk factors can first be identified at the prenatal and perinatal stages and persist in influence throughout childhood and adolescence.

• Risk factors in the school context include low achievement beginning in primary school; aggressive behaviour (including bullying); lack of commitment to school (including truancy); and school disorganisation, all of which increase the likelihood that young people exposed to them will become involved in crime.

• Within the community, the risk factors identified by research are living in a disadvantaged neighbourhood; community disorganisation and neglect; availability of drugs; and high turnover and lack of neighbourhood attachment.

Risk FactorsDiagram: Youth focused systems approachSource: Australian Government Department of Health (2004)

Risk factors combine to reduce chances• Risk factors that predict youth offending and substance abuse are the same as

those that predict educational underachievement, teenage parenthood and adolescent mental health problems

• For many children from deprived backgrounds, multiple risk factors cluster together, making them between five and twenty times more likely to become violent and serious offenders

• Certain childhood experiences, such as abuse by adults, may also mean children are more likely to leave school without qualifications; become unemployed and young parents; and commit offences resulting in a prison sentence

• Some risk factors are both symptoms and causes; anti-social behaviour amongst young people, for example, can be both a cause and a consequence of heavy alcohol consumption

Protective factors linked to positive outcomes

 

• Strong bonds with family, friends and teachers

• Positive standards set by parents, teachers and community leaders

• Opportunities for involvement in families, schools and the community

• Social and learning skills to enable participation and devise solutions (confidence and resilience)

• Recognition and praise for positive behaviour

Early Intervention

• Early (effective) family-based interventions • Warm and supportive parents and relationship skills (between parents) are likely to

go a significant way to help moderate the negative effects of other risk factors amongst children (e.g. low family income; poor housing)

• Early attachment and support in the first 3 years set children up for life

• Intervention at key points of risk - including early years, transition etc

• Interventions that focus on strong (clear parenting role) parenting to manage poor behaviour

• Parenting classes for parents of teenagers - learning to listen, empathise and set boundaries

Why community based provision?

• The ability to bring services together to undertake preventative work: Links with

Troubled Families teams and Health Visitors already doing outreach work; providing advice and information; linking with social services and undertaking multi-agency work

• A neutral location for all young people and no stigma

• A trusting relationship with young people and families - particularly important to identifying needs and responses

• Broad and ongoing, enabling support for young people and families, which can be adapted/targeted to help young people/parents with additional problems

• There are already many examples of good practice and many are already gearing up for Early Intervention

Targeted turnaround help before crisis

• Identification of needs• Lead worker over a period of time• Intensive support and challenge - trust• Strengths based and empowering• Problem solving and risk reducing• Long term support through community based services

The Task – System and attitude change for young people

• Make young people and their families a top local priority

• Turn services inside out and join together

• Improve our understanding of the evidence and what works

• Improve understanding, skills and abilities on how we work with young people and families - taking a whole family, strength based approach

• Create the environmental conditions to enable prevention, early intervention and youth and family support to thrive – leadership, professional motivations and skills, funding, collaboration

• Move away from reacting and assessing

• Improve the inter-professional respect of young people, families and each other

The building blocks to making it happen Commitment from

the topTroubled families

programmeEvidence of

success Early Intervention

Children’s Centres 0-19

Young people and Families Parenting support Community based

support

Intensive turnaround

support for young people

Police, housing and social services

on boardCommunities Schools

The potential to lead and support change for young people, families and communities

Anne LongfieldAnne.Longfield@4children.org.uk

www.4Children.org.uk