Co-production : a defence of young people

Recent years have seen fundamental and challenging changes in the delivery of services for young people. Outcomes, outputs and interventions have become the language of service evaluations, and allocation of funding creating an instrumental environment poorly equipped to respond to young people’s developmental needs. At the same time, little progress has been made since Innocenti’s 2007 State of the World’s Children Report, placing the UK firmly at the bottom of a table focussed on children and young people’s well being indicators. Whilst recent reports seem to indicate some improvement, both the measures and list of comparator countries have changed, and the UKs young people remain more tested, more anxious, less listened to, less healthy, more likely to engage in excessive risks, and increasingly affected by than most other developed countries. The UN Commission on Human Rights has long been critical of the UK’s approach to children and young people’s rights and the June 2016 country report quite clearly identifies austerity measures as the cause of a number of breaches against the Human Rights Act, recommending that: “the State party revise its policies and programmes introduced since 2010 and conduct a comprehensive assessment of the cumulative impact of these measures on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights by disadvantaged and marginalised individuals and groups, in particular women, children and persons with disabilities” Further examination of policies implemented since 2010, and indeed before, reveal a slow ‘privatisation’ of schools and colleges and consequent removal of directed use lettings arrangements. This, together with the demise of community venues has led to the diminution of safe developmental spaces for young people to meet. At the same time, the refocus of the equivalent of the entire statutory Youth Services Budget into the cost selective , business model of the 3-4 week National Citizenship Service has enforced a professional discourse much more focused on intervention than development, - paradoxically, the lack of developmental support, creating greater need, and, in today’s context, market, for intervention services. The concept of co-production is not new, and it could be argued it is a metaphor for a range of youth work processes, but the increasing popularity of the term does offer an opportunity to refocus on empowering, rights – based work with young people and responses to developmental need. Drawing on the history and core values of Youth Work, current research on the status of young people, and previous work using biographical research methods for service evaluation, this paper will explore this opportunity.   References: E/C.12/GBR/CO/6 UN Periodic Report on Human Rights In the UK 24 June 2016 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland https://www.scribd.com/document/316993267/UN-Report-UK-Human-Rights INNOCENTI Report Card 7 2007 Child Poverty in Perspective, An Overview of Child Well Being in developed Countries https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc7_eng.pd

See Me! Biographies of the Hidden City Proposing Research as Advocacy (abstract only)

Cooper and Whyte (eds. 2017) outline the violent and isolating impact of austerity policies on increasing numbers of vulnerable people across the UK. The concerns outlined are reinforced by an increasing body of research, providing further evidence of the factual basis of the damning country report by the United Nations Human Rights Committee (2016). This undisseminated report listed 73 action points related to the planned replacement of the Human Rights Act with a diluted Bill of Rights against a backdrop of issues relating to poverty, food insecurity, rising homelessness, increasing insecure work contracts and diminution of workers’ rights, lack of parity between mental and physical health in service planning, limited support for refugees and asylum seekers, limited childcare, removal of housing benefit to under 21s and failure to ensure payment of the minimum wage to under 25s causing poverty and homelessness, failure to regulate corporate tax and ensure income to support the population. In October 2016, in the aftermath of the BREXIT referendum, the EU Commission on Racism and Intolerance (2016) Report on the UK highlighted the role of press and politicians in normalizing overtly xenophobic and racist behavior. Despite the increasingly compelling body of evidence, and an indictment of the policy focus delivered in the results of the 2016 General election, there are only the smallest of changes to national policy, and the people affected most ‘denied recognition’, (Honneth 1995), disconnected at a structural level, socially invisible, prey to stigma and disdain. This paper represents an attempt to overcome that disconnect and link the hidden narratives of austerity across a city with those able to effect local change. It will more fully analyse the impact of, and responses to, austerity at a local level across one industrial northern city. Using established local professional networks, the paper will initially provide results from a research pilot recording the biographies of one group of those ‘unseen’ lives touched by austerity, and seek to reconnect those biographies with policy makers, and social change agents, at least at a local level. The aim of the pilot will be to trial approaches to supportive, research conversations which extend the concept of intersubjectivity to ‘recognise’ individual participants, and enable a ‘forum of participation’ (Delcroix & Inowlocki, 2007). In empowering people to co – produce local solutions to local issues, it is hoped that the research process will be a process of reconnection, rekindling a sense of control, ability to exercise influence over individual and community lives and, as a consequence, well being. The research design will seek to identify pressure points, points of disconnection and potential connection, points with the potential for support, (re) actualisation and change, with a view to helping identify specific issues and solutions

Disconnected Biographies: : An exploration of the challenges inherent in balancing paradoxical discourses borne of both growing individualisation and dominant global constructs.

“Needing to become what one is is the hallmark of modern living” (Baumann 2001) – prophetic words introducing Beck’s study “Individualization”. Beck raises a number of points which, accelerated by the advance of media technologies have since come to characterise society in 2016. Rather than achieving a ‘reflexive modernity’, the ‘risky venture’, which characterises Beck’s concept of biography, the removal of certainties in terms of employment, geographical location, family, leaving everything subject to decision – making, on an individual and immediate level, without considering the consequences has become even more risky, and the potential for globalisation to divide rather than unite is demonstrated in global conflicts, extreme levels of income inequality, displacement of millions, increasingly violent crime, and media – fuelled xenophobia. ‘Social crisis phenomena’, focusses blame on the individual, and the markets create ‘atomisation’, for Beck the Biography is a lifetime study adapting to rapid and enforced change, but too often in isolation, an isolation clearly identified by Putnam in recognising the demise of social capital in “Bowling Alone” (1999). The isolation created by this focus on the self as the main project is unhealthy, both for the individual and society. Prilleltensky is very clear that connectedness is a source of well being, and that this connectedness should be present at a personal, community and professional level. Prilleltensky cites studies conducted by Marmot over a 25 year period which quite clearly demonstrate that both individual autonomy and connectedness are vital elements of well being. This balance is not only absent in current society, but, conflated with ‘cultural products’ (Bourdieu) related to the acceptance of celebrity and media success as concepts of power and personal power, this imbalance has created the social conditions which support the rise to power of the narcissist, the obvious example being the Trump presidential candidacy giving rise to an unprecedented public diagnosis by American psychologists including Gardner. Such social conditions have nurtured the creeping acceptance of speeches expressing hatred for specific groups. In short, the biography of ‘the other’ has been displaced and even negated, and the disconnected biography has become a source of opinion not discourse. The very real challenge, for educators, social workers, psychologists, politicians, indeed anyone working with people, explored in this paper, is to find a means to create a more enlightened environment to promote open discourse, to redefine concepts of individual and societal success within current systemic and institutional constraints and their global drivers. To revisit existing concepts of self and our stories in a more connected way, identify means of being rather than having, (Fromm). To develop and explore the need for interpersonal connections in personal and social well – being. A focus on celebrating existing biographies and stories of hope and humanity, of connecting with local and global communities in reflective discourse, as a means to develop new ‘connected biographies’. References: Beck, U Individualization, Sage London 2001 Bourdieu (1987) Distinction, Harvard University Press, Boston Fromm, E (1993) To Have or To Be Continuum, London Gardner, H (2016) https://howardgardner.com/2016/01/28/is-donald-trump-a-narcissist/ Prilleltensky, I & O (2006) Promoting Well Being Wiley, NJ Putnam, R (2001) Bowling Alone, Schuster and Schuster, NY

An evaluation of The Home Office funded CHOICES Programme delivered by COMPASS

In 2012 the Home Office closed the last remaining residential rehabilitation unit for under 18s with habitual or addictive drug and alcohol issues. The CHOICES programme was designed to offer individualised programmes supporting young people in future planning. This report is the evaluation of the programme delivered by COMPASS in three areas submitted to the Home Office in July 2013

Choosing the ending, evaluating the process: biographical approaches to evaluating interventions with young adults at risk of substance abuse.

In 2011, the UK Government closed the last remaining residential rehabilitation centre for young people under 18 suffering from issues related to substance misuse. Instead, Choices, a short term programme of holistic, personalised interventions was introduced. Choices was a £4 million grant programme for 2011-12 funded by the Home Office. It was aimed at the voluntary and community sector to help them prevent and reduce substance misuse and related offending by vulnerable groups of young people aged 10-19 years. The funding was made available to national voluntary and community organisations to support the delivery of targeted prevention and early intervention programmes as well as the transfer of skills, expertise and knowledge to other providers through dissemination activities. Whilst this represented a significant cut in funding, the commitment to evaluation offered an opportunity to build on the ‘multiple vulnerability’ approach used by national charity Compass, and develop an biographical evaluation method. By evaluation partners Sheffield Hallam University. This method was centred around in – depth one to one semi structured interviews with 20% of participants in the programme, at the beginning and end, and commitment to representing the life stories behind the life choices, and any subsequent change. In line with COMPASS’ commitment to focus on young people’s journeys, this evaluation was designed to concentrate on young people’s experiences, their perceptions of substance misuse, why and how it became part of their lives, and those factors which prevent or help them in taking control of their own futures, and a biographical interview was undertaken with over 20% of the participants at the beginning and towards the end of their involvement in the programme. Interviews used a series of open – ended prompts which were developed following an initial analysis of COMPASS’ innovative Multiple Vulnerability approach and data. Interviews were recorded and analysed using computer software. Trends from the first interviews were identified to inform the design of second interviews. Young people involved in the evaluation were very open and honest, and although experiencing serious problems and challenges in their lives, they demonstrated a great deal of resilience and willingness to share their experience in the hope that it will serve to help others. The multiple vulnerabilities of lives outlined in the report is often out of the control of the young people affected, substance use often the by-product of early exposure, or as a perceived antidote to other issues. These are complex lives, with a range of challenges, and the authors hope that the detail included in the main report will support services and policy makers in formulating successful strategies for future interventions, and demonstrate the value of the biographical approach. Challenges related to the design, acceptance, rigour and value of a fundamentally qualitative approach in an environment focussed on quantitative analysis., will form the basis of this methodological paper, and represent a further development of the evaluation report. Published Conference Proceedings. Methodological article based on funded evaluation of CHOICES programme of interventions for young people with category 3 drug and alcohol use

Research in a stakeholder society : demonstrating impact across sectors

An analysis of the role of research as a learning process in developing civic engagement