NCVYS STRATEGIC INFORMATION SERVICE BULLETIN NO. 459
2 October 2009

School exclusions
The Department for Children, Schools and Families has published Where Next for Pupils Excluded from Special Schools and Pupil Referral Units? The research tracked a group of pupils permanently excluded from special schools and pupil referral units (PRUs) and examined the events and processes that led to their exclusion, as well as their subsequent education and other outcomes. Key messages to emerge from the research included the need to secure further funding for alternative education providers to work in partnership with PRUs and special schools as appropriate in order to continue to provide a range of vocational and work experience-based provision.
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/programmeofresearch/projectinformation.cfm?projectId=14862&type=5&resultspage=1

Special educational needs
Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, has announced measures to provide better support for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) and disabled children. The proposals aim to make life easier for parents and help their children maximise their potential. The measures will: test easier ways of assessing children with special educational needs; review current and future supply of teachers trained to meet the needs of pupils with severe learning difficulties; and provide new guidance for schools to tackle high exclusions of children with SEN.
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2009_0170

Lamb Inquiry
Written by the University of Warwick and the Institute of Education, University of London, the Lamb Inquiry: Local authorities' learning from the eight projects considers learning from innovative projects that were concerned with improving parent confidence in the special educational needs (SEN) process. The report states that these low-cost projects provided very useful vehicles for local authorities to work productively with parents and to develop practice that improves parents' confidence in the SEN system.
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/lambinquiry/

Water charges
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has announced that community groups will be offered a reprieve from increased charges for surface water drainage. Following campaigning by voluntary and community organisations - including the Scout Association and the Community Matters-led Community Law Monitoring Group, of which NCVYS is a member - groups such as scouts, village halls, faith groups and amateur sports clubs will benefit from changes to legislation.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/latest/2009/defra-0928b.htm

Graduate jobs
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced that the Government will work in partnership with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) to offer up to 10,000 graduates internships in small and micros businesses. The internships will be funded through a grant, administered through Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the universities who will administer the scheme. That will provide £100 per week towards the wage costs involved and employers will meet the balance. University careers services will help match graduates to the opportunities available.
http://nds.coi.gov.uk/clientmicrosite/content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=407128&NewsAreaID=2&ClientID=431

Jobs for young people in sport
The Government has announced funding to create 2,000 new jobs for young people in sport as part of its £1 billion Future Jobs Fund. SkillsActive will help to shape the qualifications, training and continuous professional development the young employees need. The National Skills Academy for Sport and Active Leisure, part of the SkillsActive Group, will deliver the programme in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust, a number of non-governmental bodies, the Prince's Trust and the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust.
http://www.sportengland.org/about_us/our_news/skillsactive.aspx

Adoption
The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has published a research briefing looking at how successful adoption and long-term foster care is for children in providing security and permanence, and promoting positive outcomes. The research also looked at how children perceive the emotional and legal security and sense of permanence offered by different types of permanent placement.
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/programmeofresearch/projectinformation.cfm?projectId=14433&type=5&resultspage=1

Adoption and the inter-agency fee
The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has published research on the costs of arranging adoptions by local authorities and voluntary adoption agencies (VAAs). The research estimates the costs for adoption agencies in the statutory and voluntary sectors of recruiting and preparing adopters and placing children in adoptive families; costs of providing adoption support post placement and post order for children placed after 2002; and overheads for adoption agencies.
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/programmeofresearch/projectinformation.cfm?projectId=15841&type=5&resultspage=1

Racism in schools
Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls has announced a review of the provisions which prevent the promotion of racism in schools will be undertaken by Maurice Smith, former HM Chief Inspector of Schools. The review will look at issues including whether the current safeguards, or further measures deemed necessary, should extend more widely across the school workforce. Maurice Smith will deliver his report in January 2010.
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2009_0172

Volunteering fund
Research by the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) has found that disabled people are 9% less likely to volunteer than the rest of the population. In response, the OTS has launched a £2 million pilot fund in London, the West Midlands and the North-West, to support disabled people to volunteer. The fund will act as a pilot for a national Access to Volunteering fund.
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector/news/news_stories/access_to_volunteering.aspx

Youth crime and community empowerment
The winner of the Government-backed MTV competition ‘Good 4 The Hood', dancer Wacky Rymel (16 years old), will soon be holding free dance classes to young people on his estate in Hackney, London. The competition was part of Government's drive to prevent young people becoming involved in crime and empowering them to make a difference in their own communities.
http://nds.coi.gov.uk/Content/detail.aspx?NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=407036&SubjectId=2

Justice workforce
Skills for Justice is consulting on new draft National Occupational Standards (NOS) for the justice sector's children and young people's workforce. Skills for Justice has developed 14 new NOS to address gaps which were identified in a previous Skills for Justice project. The deadline for written consultation responses is 30 October 2009 and there are also consultation events throughout October in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast.
http://www.skillsforjustice.com/template01.asp?pageid=696

Labour Party Conference
Speeches from the Labour Party Conference are available on the Party's website. These include a speech by Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls highlighting developments under the current Government that effect children and young people, such as the raising of the participation age in education to 18 and short breaks for families with a disabled child.
http://www.labour.org.uk

Consumerism
The Liberal Democrats have published a policy paper which includes proposals designed to protect children and young people from consumerism. Are We Being Served? argues that children and young people need specific consumer protection, because they face "too many commercial pressures". The Party wants to stop "the heavy promotion of undesirable products such as suggestive lingerie for six-year-olds and unhealthy foods and drinks".
http://www.libdems.org.uk/news_detail.aspx?title=Are_We_Being_Served%3F_Policies_on_Accessing_Goods_and_Services&pPK=51ccf9c0-8365-46d9-8483-145a90cae0ac

CRB check fees
The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) has reduced the fee for Standard Disclosures from £31 to £26. The change will come into effect from 1 October 2009. The planned fee reduction has been made possible due to an expected increase in the volume of disclosure applications being processed as the new Vetting and Barring Scheme comes into place from 12 October 2009. Checks for volunteers will continue to be free of charge which provided a saving to the voluntary sector of approximately £27 million in 2008/09.
http://press.homeoffice.gov.uk/press-releases/criminal-records-fees

Intergenerational practice
The Beth Johnson Foundation has launched a new guide and book relating to intergenerational practice. Intergenerational Practice, Policy and Performance: A framework for local authorities provides analysis on how intergenerational projects can be used to meet national indicators.
http://www.centreforip.org.uk/Libraries/Local/949/Docs/LAA%20Document%20Final%20Version%20protected.doc

Sex and alcohol
The British Youth Council has published findings from a survey of over 1000 young people on sex and alcohol. Findings from the research include that two out of three young people believe that there is a strong link between drinking and having unprotected, or unsafe sex and nearly one in three young people said that the first time they had sex they had been drinking, and of these, one in five would not have done if they were sober.
http://www.byc.org.uk/view.php?parent_id=286&content_id=325

Mentoring and befriending
The Mentoring and Befriending Foundation has published Transforming Lives: Examining the positive impact of mentoring and befriending. The report highlights the positive impact that mentoring and befriending can have on people who are facing challenges in their lives, including young people ‘at risk'.
http://www.mandbf.org.uk/resources/publications/

Financial capability
YouthNet has launched a series of online guides and podcasts offering money management tips to young people. The Bringing Money Advice to Life features have been added to the charity's advice website. Included is video and audio clips of young people's experiences of issues such as working below the minimum wage, saving and dealing with bank charges.
http://www.thesite.org

Compact resources
Compact Voice has produced a collection of six "health-checks" for the Local Compact, including scorecards, a template and a relationship polling form.
http://www.compactvoice.org.uk/information/100835/100886/publications/

Enterprise
The National Enterprise Academy (NEA), the first-ever UK educational institution dedicated solely to enterprise and entrepreneurship, has opened, allowing young people to study for new qualifications in enterprise and entrepreneurship. The NEA will expose students to business issues in real-life business environments, with input from a range of entrepreneurs acting as mentors, supporting trained tutors.
http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/detail.aspx?NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=406833&SubjectId=2

Extended services
The Training and Development Agency for Schools has published a leaflet which offers an overview of the extended services disadvantage subsidy. The extended services disadvantage subsidy is part of the Government's commitment to extended services in and around schools and is designed to subsidise access to extended services activities for economically disadvantaged children and young people and children in care. The leaflet offers an overview of the subsidy, its purpose, benefits and practicalities, and signposts the resources available to local authorities, school clusters and schools to support their delivery of the subsidy.
http://www.tda.gov.uk/about/publicationslisting/tda0755.aspx

Community development
The Community Development Foundation (CDF) is conducting the England Wide Survey of Community Development Work. CDF is looking for paid or voluntary community development workers and their managers to take part in the survey. The experiences and information provided will be used to raise the profile of community development, nationally and locally, at this challenging and important time. The survey will form part of a published report in March 2010. To register your interest in taking part in the survey please email research@cdf.org.uk or contact Helen Sender, Research Officer at CDF, on 020 7812 5451.

Free policy seminar
Volunteering England is hosting a free policy seminar around the implications of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act for volunteering. The seminar will discuss issues including: how should volunteering and citizenship be linked? What does the scheme mean for volunteering organisations? And will it lead to the community cohesion that Government intends? Speakers include Baroness Hanham, former Shadow Home Office Minister (chair) and Sarah Cutler, Head of Policy, Refugee Council. The event will be held in London on 15 October 2009, 16:30-18:00. For further information contact the events team at Volunteering England.
events@volunteeringengland.org

THIS WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

Parliament is currently in recess. The House will next sit on Monday 12 October 2009.