Issue - meetings

To receive and consider report 243/05 of the Strategic Director. 

Introduction and Report Summary

The purpose of this report is to provide information about the proposed draft Vale Youth Development Strategy and seek approval to delegate the authority to finalise the consultation draft.

The contact officer for this report is Toby Warren, Head of Innovation & Enterprise (Tel: 01235 547695).

Recommendation

Members are requested to delegate the authority to finalise the consultation draft of Vale Youth Development Strategy 2006-2009 to the Chair, Portfolio-holder for Youth Strategy and the Strategic Director. 

(Time: 3.29pm to 3.35pm)

The Executive received and considered report 243/05 of the Strategic Director regarding a draft Vale Youth Development Strategy.  The report sought approval to delegate the authority to finalise the consultation draft. 

The Audit Commission's Comprehensive Performance Assessment in 2004 identified that the Council provided high quality activities for young people including after school and holiday programmes.  It also identified that there was a clear commitment, through the Youth Forum, to involving young people more in the Council’s decision making.  However, the Audit Commission considered that the Council needed a strategic overview of its youth service provision.  This was in line with the Government green paper 'Every Child Matters' that identified a need for sharing information with other authorities to protect children and young people from harm and help them achieve what they wanted in life.  Oxfordshire County Council had a statutory responsibility to lead on a plan for all services for children and young people provided by both the County Council and other relevant partners.  The County Council and its partners could be subject to a 'Joint Area Review' inspection. 

The proposed draft Vale Youth Development Strategy showed how the Council would use its services to contribute toOxfordshire County Council's Children & Young People’s Plan.  The initial time period of the strategy was 2006-2009, to fit in with the initial time period of the Oxfordshire plan. 

Members welcomed the draft strategy but recognised that it would only succeed if partners in the public, voluntary and private sector were committed to the same strategic aims.  Therefore, the Vale Strategic Partnership and other relevant organisations would be invited to comment.  The proposed draft strategy did not have any additional financial implications for the Vale.  The intention was to deliver improved outcomes from existing resources. 

Consultation on the proposed draft strategy would initially take place with the Vale Youth Forum.  Meetings would also take place with groups of young people from the Abingdon Bridge, the Foyer in Abingdon, the Sweat Box in Wantage and Faringdon Youth Project. 

The Council would have a strong interest in the work of other agencies in improving outcomes for children and young people in the Vale and would monitor their performance.  The Vale Strategic Partnership would also be able to help in monitoring performance and take action to deal with any issues relating to underperformance.  Once the final version of the strategy had been adopted, the Council's Youth Development Co-ordinator would have an important role to play in monitoring the strategy, reporting to the Youth Forum and providing feedback to Members and officers. 

RESOLVED

that authority be delegated to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Chair of the Executive and the Executive Portfolio-holder for Youth Strategy to finalise the consultation draft of Vale Youth Development Strategy 2006-2009.