The Keighley Area Committee met on Thursday, 12 December 2024 at 6pm to discuss a report on youth services in Keighley. The meeting was held at Keighley Young People's Centre on Parkwood Street in Keighley. Aside from the procedural items, the meeting was scheduled to focus on a single report on the Youth Service in Keighley.

Youth Services in Keighley

The committee was scheduled to consider a report on the Youth Service in Keighley. The report was provided by Abina Dorgan, and included an update on the work done by the Youth Service in 2023/24.

Background

The report begins by introducing the Youth Service in the context of the Bradford District Youth Offer. It says that the Youth Service's vision is:

to work with partners to ensure that young people grow up healthy, happy, informed and aspiring; proud of who they are, where they come from, and actively involved in their community.

It also describes the management structure of the Youth Service, noting in particular that the Breaking the Cycle Youth Work Team became part of Bradford Children and Families Trust on 1 April 2023.

Youth Service Activities

The report then describes a number of activities undertaken by the Youth Service, broken down by type.

Youth Provision

The report describes how the Youth Service provides support to young people in Keighley. In particular, it describes how the ward teams work with community partners. It says that:

This work has taken place through a range of delivery methods including detached, outreach and centre-based sessions.

The report then goes on to describe the work done by the Youth Service to engage young people and prevent antisocial behaviour. This included a “Consequences” campaign and detached youth work.

This work had positive outcomes in the Keighley constituency which suffered very few fireworks related issues.

The report goes on to say that the Youth Service has focused on offering a range of activities, with a particular focus on supporting young people making the transition from primary to secondary school.

Responding to Demand and Complexity of Need

This section of the report describes the ways that the Youth Service in Keighley has responded to an increase in demand for its services. It says that Youth Workers in Keighley have had to respond to a significant increase in referrals from partner organisations seeking help with a range of challenging issues including:

• Domestic Abuse
• Educational Anxiety
• Isolation
• Self-Harm

The report describes how this work is delivered:

The Youth Service has remained focused on meeting demand and delivered the following support through local youth provision:

• One to One Support
• Peer Support Groups
• Youth Clubs
• Volunteering

Other work targeted at young people with specific needs including vulnerable and at risk

This section focuses on the work done by the Youth Service to support young people at risk of exploitation. The report says that:

Through building trust with their youth worker, young people have reported feeling less isolated, more connected with their community and safer.

It then describes some of the specific work done by the Youth Service in this area, including work to:

• raise awareness of issues such as serious organised crime, grooming and county lines.
• explore critical thinking
• address knife crime

Youth Work support as part of Youth in Mind

The report describes the Youth Service's work in collaboration with Bradford District Care Trust and Youth in Mind (YiM), saying that this work:

offers help to young people for their mental health and well-being and seeks to reduce demand on specialist services.

It describes how the Youth Service in Keighley has received more than 380 referrals from a range of organisations including the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) and School Nurses. The report goes on to describe how the Youth Service works with schools and colleges to support students and to deliver 1:1 work and drop-in sessions.

Partnership approach

This section describes how the Youth Service works in partnership with a range of partners in each community. The report says that this approach:

enables us to understand the needs of the community and help build capacity to deliver bespoke projects.

It then goes on to describe the work of the Keighley Youth Offer Group, highlighting the fact it has met regularly in the past year.

Youth Voice

The report describes how two new Youth Change Ambassadors were welcomed to the Keighley team in June 2024. It says that:

The aim is to support the development of Youth Voice initiatives that ensure young people have a greater role in shaping service delivery.

It then goes on to describe how young people are encouraged to take part in the Youth Service and describes how a number of young people from Keighley attended the “Students Speak: Youth Voice Summit” in November 2023.

Future Workforce

The report describes how the Youth Service has been supporting a new cohort of staff to acquire Level 2 and level 3 youth work qualifications. It says that this is:

part of a strategy that sees the Youth Service investing in local talent and retaining skills within the district.

Keighley Wide Provision

This section of the report describes the work done by the Keighley Youth work team to deliver five area wide sessions per week.

The Keighley Youth Vibe

The report describes the work done by The Keighley Youth Vibe, working with a range of partners including the DWP and Keighley College to deliver employment and training opportunities to young people. It describes how the Vibe has worked with 572 young people since January 2023, providing support, advice and guidance. The report says that the vibe has helped 162 young people into new jobs.

District Wide Youth Work

The report describes how the youth work practitioners from the Keighley youth work team continue to work closely with Bradford Children and Families Trust, working to:

ensuring seamless services for young people in the area.

It then describes some of the work undertaken in partnership with Bradford Children and Families Trust, in particular the work done to support young people through the Breaking the Cycle project. It says that this work:

includes those identified as being linked to Organised Crime Groups, Urban Street Gangs and those who have higher than yellow ASB sanctions.

The report goes on to describe how the Breaking the Cycle project provides intense support to young people at a point of crisis.

Financial & Resource Appraisal

The report notes that the Youth Service has reduced area management costs by combining the Keighley and Shipley constituencies. It goes on to describe the funding arrangements for the District Youth Service Team, saying that it is:

funded through a combination of Council budget (Children’s Services & Public Health) external grants (Violence Reduction Unit) and ‘fee earning’ externally commissioned services (Health).

Appendices

The report is supported by three appendices:

• Appendix A: Keighley Youth Service Baseline Youth Provision 2024. This appendix contains a table that sets out where and when youth services are delivered in Keighley, along with a case study of the “Creative Manifesto” project which was delivered in three Keighley secondary schools: Beckfoot Oakbank, Carlton Keighley and Holy Family.
• Appendix B: Keighley Youth Service – Youth Service Ward Updates and key developments. This appendix contains a more detailed description of the work done by the Youth Service in each of the wards in the Keighley constituency.
• Appendix C: The Keighley Vibe - an overview of the 16–24 work and developments. This appendix describes the range of services offered by the Keighley Vibe, and includes a number of positive case studies from young people who have benefited from its services.

The report concludes with a recommendation that the Keighley Area Committee welcomes the work undertaken by the Youth Service in the Keighley constituency and requests that a further report is brought to the committee in 12 months time.