PA Bulletin 26th January 2010

2. Connexions Training Programmes

To register for any of the following courses:  Please complete the attached application form and email it to Corinne Ford at corinne.ford@surreycc.gov.uk and cc your line manager and if from VT helen.coomber@vtplc.com

Introduction to ADAPT

Aim - To provide training on the use of Adapt and obtain a good understanding of the system. As a result of the course participants should have a good understanding of Adapt and be able to record work with clients.  The course covers:

• Adding and amending records for clients
• Recording contacts/plans
• Recording letters and telephone contacts
• Joining and leaving clients to NEET
• Recording a Potential/Actual Endorsement
• Recording Group Sessions etc
• Be able to record work with providers/opportunities
• Adding new providers
• Amending records
• Recording a visit
• Adding and submitting an opportunity
• Recording the outcome of a submission
• Putting an opportunity on HOLD and then back on to LIVE & Cancelling an Opportunity

ADAPT Workshop

Aim: To provide training on the use of Adapt and obtain a better understanding of the system and to:

• Manipulate data in a record card
• Manipulate data in the daily planner
• Run both formal searches and a magic search
• Manipulate search result
• Print search results
• Run a report to obtain statistical data

Introduction to Connexions

Aim - To give all Personal Advisers who have either been working less than 9 months as a Connexions PA or are new in their role, an understanding of:

• Connexions, agencies associated and “What is happening in Surrey”
• An introduction to the PA handbook and identification of how it should be used by PAs
• Multi-agency working and implications on the “wider perspective”
• “Principles and Values” that all PAs should adopt
• The Professional Development that should either be completed by all PAs or is available as additional optional training
• The booking procedures for individual training courses or workshops

Student Loans Company Finance Presentation

This is an opportunity for PAs to learn how to signpost to resources available by the Student Loans Company that can be used to inform students who are applying to HE. Although this course is primarily for heads of sixth form and student service advisors in sixth form and FE colleges, PAs are also welcome to attend.

Please complete the attached application form and email it to Corinne Ford at corinne.ford@surreycc.gov.uk and cc your line manager and if from VT helen.coomber@vtplc.com

3. Surrey County Council Courses  - The following courses are available to all Connexions Personal Advisers. 

Identifying young people's drug/alcohol related needs: Half-day course.

Learning outcomes - By the end of the course participants will:

•    Have refreshed their understanding of young people's drug and alcohol use

•    Looked at ways of assessing a young person’s drug/alcohol use in terms of the harm it can cause the user, their family and the community

•    Be able to use the Tool to Identify Young People’s Drug/Alcohol Needs (which is part of the Common Assessment Framework)

•    Be aware of drug and alcohol services for young people and how to refer to them.

Responding to young people with drug/alcohol needs- Half day course.  

(This course follows on from the Identifying young people's drug/alcohol related needs course or can be completed as a stand alone course). Learning outcomes - By the end of the course participants will:

•  Have explored the reasons why young people use drugs and alcohol and role drug/alcohol use can play in young people’s lives;

•  Have explored evidenced based interventions for working with young people, including brief interventions;

•  Have gained an understanding of the key components of confidentiality and child protection in relation to young people's drug/alcohol use;

•   Be aware of drug and alcohol services for young people and how to refer to them.

Working with Children of substance misusing parents- One-day course.

Learning outcomes - By the end of the course participants will:

• Be more aware of the impact that parental substance misuse can have on the various stages of the child’s life (including the unborn / new born baby);
• Have explored ways of talking to children about their parent’s or their own substance use;
• Looked at how to identify the needs of these children using the Common Assessment Framework;
• Have identified their role in supporting children of substance misusing parents in the context of their own professional role;
• Have a range of tools for working with this client group.

These courses are free and available to all Connexions Personal Advisers but there are limited places available. Please book on by completing a SCC nomination form SCC training form.doc and send to corinne.ford@surreycc.gov.uk. Please ensure you copy in your line manager and if from VT helen.coomber@vtplc.com. SCC nomination forms should not be sent by post as this will delay booking and will be more difficult to process.

4. Surrey V-Involved

Surrey Vinvolved is part of the national youth volunteering initiative, which was originally conceived by the Russell Commission on Youth Action and Engagement in 2004. Funded with £75 million of government money, the national charity “V” was set up in 2006 to administer the initiative on a national level, and in 2008 teams and projects around the country were selected and funded to engage young people between the ages of 16 and 25, and encourage them to take part in volunteering and community action. Open the following documents to read more.

http://www.surreyvinvolved.org/#/become-a-volunteer/4537216736

Newsletter 

Presentation

5. Fresh Trax - Supporting young people at risk of exclusion from school

Fresh Trax is a Surrey Youth Development Service project, which aims to support young people who have been permanently excluded or who are at risk of permanent exclusion from mainstream school. Young people from across the borough of Reigate and Banstead are referred to the project, through schools working in partnership with the project or from other service providers working with young people.  Parents and young people are also welcome to apply to the project.  The project is free and transport to the project is provided where necessary. Fresh Trax is passionate about working with young people in a creative and exciting ways.  Youth workers get to know each young person and will build professional and supportive relationships with them.  Through this process youth workers are able to identify the needs of each group and where appropriate, address these issues through the Fresh Trax programme.  This can happen both inside and outside of the school environment.  In both cases, 2-3 youth workers work with a closed group of approximately eight young people.  Activities over the last year have included a trip to Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial Museum in Poland, Duke of Edinburgh Award Expeditions, and many other outdoor activities.  Fresh Trax also provides a variety of accredited workshops ranging from ‘independent living’ to ‘anger management’.  

Lyn Nunnerley (youth worker) said,

“The start of a new term is always an exciting time for us.  We are continually evolving the programme depending on the needs of the young people.  Last term we introduced the Duke of Edinburgh Award and the National Open College Network accreditation scheme.  This term we are looking forward to developing the programme even further and hope more young people will be able to access the programme”

To find out more about Fresh Trax or to make a referral, please contact:

Lyn Nunnerley (Fresh Trax Project Coordinator)

07968 832435 or 01737 643468

email: lyn.nunnerley@surreycc.gov.uk

Fresh Trax Referral Form

Fresh Trax Further Info

6. East Surrey College – Taking on Learners year round

If you have a client looking for a route into university or preparing for the world of work, ESC has hundreds of courses to help young people become whatever they want, just encourage them to have a look around the college website http://www.esc.ac.uk/index.aspx. There's something for everyone at ESC and a great mix of people, from aspiring artists to eventual engineers, and blossoming beauticians to future filmmakers. Whatever your client may want to do, we'll help them get there, with a range of courses starting at levels to suit individuals .

7. Addition to the Central Support Team – Samena Mehmood

Samena Mehmood has joined Connexions Surrey as NEET Prevention Coordinator. Samena’s role is to promote and implement NEET Projects and Programmes in partnership with relevant delivery organisations, including education and training providers, in order to increase the proportion of Young People progressing into education, employment or training.

Samena has come from Slough Borough Council were she was employed as a Senior Youth Worker, Samena set up and delivered NEET reduction projects in this role. During her time in Slough she was seconded into an Operational Management role to manage the West of Slough so has an over view of the needs of both frontline teams and management teams.

Samena has also worked previously as a Personal Adviser in Surrey within the voluntary sector. Samena will be coming along to meet everyone during the coming months and would like to find out your views about promoting NEET Activities and will be supporting all in the reduction in NEET in Surrey. Do we need to circulate NEET Activity information specifically or is the PA Bulletin and NEET Activity Calendar on the website sufficient?

Contact Samena:

01483 519344 or 07968 832364

samena.mehmood@surreycc.gov.uk

8. Young people stand up to recession - Children & Young People Now - 19 January 2010

A survey shows young people are finding strategies to cope with the downturn but more help is needed. Joe Lepper reports. Young people are remaining surprisingly resilient in dealing with the recession, in spite of mounting debt, lack of money for leisure and fears over career prospects. According to the latest British Youth Council (BYC) report about young people's attitudes to the recession, just under two-thirds said they are still managing to save regularly. A similar proportion of the 485 12- to 25-year-olds surveyed have an ideal career in mind and three-quarters said they are happy with their current situation, such as a job or course. But the report, entitled Weathering the Recession, says young people are finding it increasingly hard to remain this optimistic. Concerns about job security are leading to just under half of respondents who are employed to work beyond their basic job description. One in 10 young workers are not taking their full holiday entitlement. Unsurprisingly, the most despondent were those not in employment, education or training (NEETs). A third of this group said they were pessimistic about their chances of getting work. Lack of experience was cited as a major barrier to work for around half of NEETs. BYC chair Alex Delaney says: "Employers can do more to help. There is a lot of talk about equal opportunities for older workers. That should apply to young people as well." Ginny Lunn, the Prince's Trust's policy and development director, backs the BYC's focus on the resilience of young people. But, she says, "that strength gets eaten away the longer a person is out of work". She welcomes recent government policies to prioritise support for the long-term unemployed, such as December's white paper Building Britain's Recovery: Achieving Full Employment, which pledged to create 100,000 work and training opportunities.

Lunn adds though that young people can do more to help themselves. "Our message is that there are jobs and support out there, through organisations such as ourselves or the volunteering group V. It is a question of finding out about them." Debt is another major concern raised in the BYC report. Just over half of respondents said debt was part of their or their families' lives and around half said that they had an overdraft.

Neil Munroe, a director at credit referencing firm Equifax, is not surprised that debt is commonplace among young people. "The credit boom started in the mid-1980s, so all those surveyed here will have only known a culture of debt. It is an accepted part of life for them, whereas for the older generation there is perhaps still a stigma attached to debt." Leisure and sport activities are taking a back seat to saving and meeting debt repayments, the survey also suggests. Seven out of 10 young people say cost is a barrier to taking part in organised activities. Only half knew of local discounts available to young people and just under a third say their families are spending less on leisure because of the recession. Lunn backs calls for more promotion of leisure discounts. "Councils and those running leisure need to do much more to promote any discounts that are available."

The report is now being handed to the government, while the BYC is calling for councils to be given more support regarding leisure discounts, emotional support schemes for young people to cope with the recession and more consultation with young people when devising economic policies. Job creation policies were ranked by young people as the most effective way to help young people cope with the recession. Paul Fletcher, Rathbone's director for youth engagement, agrees that this should be ministers' top priority but dismisses calls for further help with leisure discounting. "Our research with NEETs shows they want jobs and the skills to get jobs rather than playing five-a-side football every day. They are already savvy when it comes to leisure," he says.

SURVEY SNAPSHOT - How young people are weathering the recession

• Undertaking relevant training: 43%
• Updating skills: 40%
• Networking with other organisations: 32%
• Updating their CV: 38%
• Going beyond basic job responsibilities: 44%
• Not taking holiday/annual leave: 9%
• 80% have taken measures to safeguard job
• 70% say cost is preventing participation in leisure activities
• 63% still save money regularly
• 34% are unhappy with the state of their finances

9. Free Mobile Calls for Benefit Claimants

From 18th January, calls to DWP contact centres from benefit claimants will be free to the majority of mobile phone users. The Department has reached agreement with the major mobile phone companies to end charges for people calling the 0800 numbers to make benefit claims.

For full details see http://www.dwp.gov.uk/newsroom/press-releases/2010/january-2010/dwp007-150110.shtml

10. NACRO Courses in Surrey

Please see attached a breakdown of all of the Courses NACRO are currently delivering as well as flyers for your convenience.

Army Preparation & Sports

Getting Into Work

The Urban Sports Project

The Urban Creative Arts Project

ESF Activities Programme

NACRO Surry - All Programmes

If you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to contact Lisa on the details below. 

Lisa Davies - Programme Manager – Surrey Nacro

T: 01784 492192

11. Job Centre Plus Work Trials - Please see attached document for info.

12. Employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities.

Employability Brochure

13. Surrey Care Trust STEPS Referrals

Please find attached Referral form and a brief summary of the Programme. Term dates follow mainstream school term dates and STEPs usually take ten new Year 10s in September and fill any places that may be available on the Year 11 Programme. However, if they lose any young people from the Programme they will take referrals at any time during the year.

14. Route 4 YMCA

The programme is run for 2yrs. The students begin the programme in year 10 and complete the programme at the end of year 11. The students gain qualifications in the Certificate of Personal Effectiveness, Wider Key Skills, and an Open College Network qualification (OCN) in healthy living. The programme is run by Christine Rickard, Inclusions Officer from The Warwick School and Boni Jenkins Connexions Personal Advisor. Click Here to read more.

15. PA Handbook

By now you should have started to receive your Handbook, the electronic version now has a permanent home on the PA Resources Page under Personal Advisor Resources. You may like to save this link as an Internet favorite. Any updates to the document will be highlighted via the bulletin.

16. PA Bulletin Focus Group

We want to hold a PA Bulletin Focus Group. This would be an opportunity to review the current format and content and look at ways to improve information and make it as relevant and interesting for you as we can. We would like to have one of the VT centre managers along with nominated VTPAs that may be interested along with a couple of Voluntary and Community Sector PAs. If you would be interested in coming along to Quadrant Court in Woking for a few hours discussion and brain storming, please reply to Jemma.campbellscott@surreycc.gov.uk let me know and depending on how much interest there is we will pick a couple of names at random to come along.