[ssf] Social inclusion of youth

[spodulike at freeuk.com]

Hello all, went to a really interesting talk on the social inclusion of 
young people up at the Uni, didn't think to forward details for which 
apologies as was really interesting, especially cos the bloke giving it 
was far more a practitioner than an academic. The notes are kind of 
rearranged from the lecture but hopefully give you the picture should 
you wish to get it:)


Social Inclusion of Young People.
Dr Howard Williamson (School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University)

Referenced the Tomlinson Report a good deal. Said that beyond this we 
don’t really need any more research into the various aspects of social 
exclusion because we already know what is wrong and the possible 
solutions, the point is doing it. Also mentioned the Russell Report on 
youth volunteering. One problem with the present government is the 
“tyranny of policy momentum”, where policy initiatives are there as an 
aid to the government’s relationship with the media, thus there is a 
continual stream of policy initiatives which move faster than their 
evaluation (see Peter Hyman’s book “One out of Ten”). The private 
prejudices and power plays between ministers also play a large part in 
how policy is formed, rather than being based on actual research.

The problem of disengaged youth is resistant to innovation, successive 
government initiatives have had little effect. Existing initiatives 
such as Connexions (which was going to follow the innovatory Pat 12 
report on young people until Blunkett ditched the research and used the 
initiative for his own ends) are too focused on particular aspects such 
as careers guidance. One idea is providing a route into mainstream 
earning from activities outside of the mainstream, e.g. sales of art/
music. Education (in the form of formal academic qualifications) is the 
best route to achieve social inclusion, giving the disengaged options 
and routes into a wide range of employment. 

Slipping through the education, employment, training net are around 100 
000 young people nationally, 16 to 20% of young people, three quarters 
of these have no visible means of support and 80% are men. They are 
classified as neet’s or status zerO. Status zerO youth arose out of the 
collapse of unskilled manual labour in the 70’s, where they previously 
had employment options these are now not open to them, leading to 
isolation from mainstream society. The problems of teenagers has not 
changed but the world around them has.

Socially disengaged youth can be divided into several broad groups:
(1) Essentially confused	- have normal aspirations but not sure about 
where they are going in life
(2) Temporarily sidetracked	- home/family problems prevent them from 
taking part in the normal workings of society
(3) Deeply alienated, further divided into:
- purposeless	- Don’t what their place is in society, drug/alcohol/
mental health problems. Dispirited/depressed. The “in your face Diamond 
White grunters” for example.
- purposeful	- Know their place, which is in the criminal society. 
Drugs, theft, and other activity - one said he worked in “Midnight 
Autos”. Provides an alternate income of around £100-£120 pw for little 
effort – this amount is similar to the old income support for 16/17 
year olds.

The five C's of social inclusion policy:
Coverage: 	It is not enough to just provide extra services, there must 
be outreach providing equal access to services and opportunities. There 
are a range of factors which aid inclusion, for example sports. The 
lifestyle possibilities of those socially included contrasts markedly 
with the disengaged, and it is all these differences in lifestyle 
possibilities which should be addressed.
Capacity:	What structures are in place to make things happen, ideas and 
policy are not enough.
Competence:	Needs most competent and experienced workers to level the 
playing field. Needs to be education for all staff working with 
disengaged youth of the complex issues involved.
Co-ordination:	The relationship between agencies has to be worked out.
Cost:	It costs money to change things!

Those experienced in working with the young, who are aware of the 
difficulties of working with disengaged youth, are most needed in the 
field. People without this experience are not aware of the difficulties 
of working with disengaged youth and may have unrealistic expectations/
prejudices. Many disengaged youth view profssionals in the terms: 
“Tough bastards to avoid, soft touches to be exploited”. The best 
teachers should be teaching those most in need.

Disengaged youth view professionals with scepticism, views such as 
“it’s not for us”, “it’s a con”, ideas that the professional is in it 
for the money or is hopelessly naive. This view can be reinforced if 
the professional is forced to have short rigid contact time and 
encouraged to meet concrete evaluation targets rather than forging long 
term relationships. Building communication and trust outside of the 
public/professional relationship is important. The public face of many 
youth will be hardened to match the expectations of peer pressure: 
uncaring, streetwise, short-term, exploitative. The private face of 
disengaged youth tends to be one of fear, loneliness and disenchantment 
with their life. There is a need for the professional to gain access to 
this private face if change is to occur and this can only happen within 
a long-term relationship. There needs to be an exploration of the 
“hidden criteria” of disengaged youth. What criteria is driving their 
existence: status, money, drugs? Debating and exploring with disengaged 
youth about the (often destructive) criteria they have chosen is an 
important step on the way to openly exploring alternative paths such as 
employment, education or training. 

A long-term relationship with the professional also allows for the fact 
that many, particularly the deeply alienated, may have problems which 
will take years to work out and that takes continued intense support 
and training. There may be a need sometimes to separate out the deeply 
alienated from the other groups as no initiative will reach them, and 
their presence and influence may disrupt any chance others have of re-
engaging. This especially applies to initiatives where the relationship 
with the professional is short-term and relies on a will to change from 
the individual. 

To solve problems needs an inner motivation to change, receptivity to 
such change comes in a cycle – some people will be untouched/resistant 
to all kinds of support at times in their lives – especially when only 
offered as part of an unresponsive 3 week course. A professional can 
make a difference in “being there”, but this relies on autonomy for the 
professional rather than meeting targets. Long-term youth work done 
well is far more important, and has far more effect, than short-term 
quantitative outcomes.

Howard Williamson, Milltown Boys:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=+site:society.guardian.co.uk+milltown

refs:
Tomlinson Report on Inclusive Learning Summary:
http://inclusion.uwe.ac.uk/csie/tmlnsn.htm

Russell Report on Youth Volunteering:
http://www.russellcommission.org/

Pat 12 report into young people:
http://www.socialexclusion.gov.uk/publications.asp?did=125

(Also on my travels as I was writing up found this: http://www.
downingstreetsays.org/ - a site with all the guff that the downing 
street press office comes out with - linked to http://www.mysociety.org/
which was also of interest)

Jason