Dave Hill - a tribute

I was deeply shocked and saddened to hear of the death of Dave Hill, the Director of Children’s Services for Surrey. I have only known Dave for two years, but he has had a large impact on my life and work.

Dave was passionate about children and getting it right. When he came into Surrey, there were huge challenges across the services for children across Surrey – social services, children’s mental health and services for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

The combination of these problems would have daunted a lesser person, but not Dave; he has worked tirelessly for the last two years to set a new vision and lead the county in a new direction. He has brought in a new team of very talented, dedicated people who know that things can be different, who have made things work in other places and know that they can do it here. At the same time as leading the big picture, he would pay attention to detail, paying personal attention to individual family cases to make things happen. I often wondered how he had the time to be operating at the strategic level whilst also down in the detail, but he knew that it was an important part of his leadership to show how things needed to change, one family at a time.

Dave was a System’s Leader – he knew that his job was not just to change Surrey County Council’s services, but also to bring the whole “system” -  re-imagining how the various public agencies and the third sector to work together as whole to serve children, young people and families.

I personally owe a huge amount to Dave. He really saw the value in the third sector – in all of the wonderful children’s and youth charities across Surrey that I represent. He rapidly invited me to join various boards and opened up space to work towards much greater third sector involvement with council initiatives. He also saw the value in having a “critical friend” on many of the boards and initiatives that he was involved in and welcomed left field questions.

I think that the best personal tribute that I can pay to Dave is to show the legacy that he has left with me personally. I have gained hugely in confidence from working with Dave – learning to trust my own voice, to speak out, to believe that human kindness can trump bureaucracy, that we can aspire to nurture each and every child in the system, that love and kindness is what counts, not tick box exercises.

I had known much of this in my heart before Dave arrived in Surrey, but hadn’t managed to articulate it very well, or had often been a lone voice in the room. Thanks to Dave I am now bolder, more challenging, believing in myself, having more clarity about how I can help ensure that every child in Surrey gets the start in life that they deserve.

Thanks to Dave I am able to reach new levels of authenticity and honesty in my working life. Thanks to Dave, I too became a System’s leader – working as an equal with my colleagues to change the Surrey public and charity sector landscapes to deliver better for children. The third sector is now so much more valued than by the public sector than before and we are working very differently together – I hope that this difference will be felt by children, young people and families in new CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services) Contract that is currently under re-procurement and will start next April. 

I observed with wonder Dave’s personal resilience. He was absolutely passionate about doing the best for children and faced a shedload of challenges that would have daunted most – not just the challenge of turning around services but also financially the council was in a really bad way so there was very little room for manoeuvre. In the midst of this as he worked day and night to change things, he told me one time how he had received a tweet from a parent, blaming him for ruining their child’s life. He took it graciously in his stride, carrying on with his purpose, I guess that he saw the pain behind the parent’s anger. I marvelled at how he could carry on with equanimity, it was a lesson that I had not yet learned from him how to do myself and had still hoped I might learn from him.

I know that I am not alone in my grief, there are many, many people feeling as I do. As well as bringing in new talented, dedicated people to work with him, Dave has also strived to reset relationships in the county – relationships between many organisations were extremely poor when Dave started and are so much better now. I so hope that together we can build on Dave’s legacy, to deliver on his vision to give every child a great start in life – believing in them, nurturing them, helping them to shine.  Below I attach the principles that Dave and I worked up with some colleagues from police, health, other charities across the county and the Better Way network. The best tribute that we can give to Dave is to live and breathe these for every child in Surrey.

I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to his family, I know that his strong home life was a key foundation of his strength.

The last two years have been the very best of my working life – enjoyable, productive and learning so much.  Thank you, Dave, from the bottom of my heart. I will miss you deeply.

TIME FOR KIDS SURREY – PRINCIPLES

Our five key principles will make the difference to all children and young people and provide them the very best opportunity to succeed in life.

Being crazy about the kid

We all need to be ‘crazy about the kid’. Every professional needs to focus on human connection with a child, regardless of their background or circumstances, with patience and passion to achieve the very best for all children and young people.

Every child/young person needs a consistent relationship with at least one adult they trust.

Many young people feel lost and without direction, they don’t believe that they have anyone to turn to. Building trust and confidence takes time and a persistent and consistent approach. Often we hear stories of ever changing so-called ‘trusted adults’ in a child/young person’s life. How can we expect any form of ‘trust’ to be built when that person changes frequently and relationships have to start all over again. We need to enable professionals and volunteers working with children and young people to have the time and resources to provide stability and earn the child/young person’s trust.

Every child needs to be able to tell their story and learn to hope.

Many children experience trauma or loss. Others have a deeply unpleasant daily lived experience. Those children who have a clear story about what has happened to them are more likely to have develop healthy relationships going forward and hence to flourish. Children and young people need to know why they are where they are and to understand that they have choices and the potential to experience a happier life; connection with their peers can often help with this immeasurably. We all need to encourage young people to tell their story, and we must listen, believe and help the young person to make the changes that they need to make and to develop a sense of hope about their future. 

Every child needs a sense of belonging and encouragement to shine.

Children and young people need to have a group of friends, a club, association or school, which they look forward to going to. Where they can be themselves. Where they feel people have an interest in their welfare and they can ‘shine’. We all need to find ways to build on the strengths of each child, not just those who fit into the traditional mainstream educational systems and exams that are prevalent in our society and help them to shine.

We all need to believe in the child or young person and what they can achieve.

Believing in yourself because others have believed in you is the recipe for success. Professionals need to have faith in young people, to help them explore their individuality and learn the tools and belief that they can do what they set their minds to, with the power to change their world.

by Jon Savell (Surrey Police), Trudy Mills (Children and Family Health Surrey), Dave Hill (Surrey County Council), Chris Hickford (The Eikon Charity), Caroline Slocock (Better Way Network), Steve Wyler (Better Way Network), Jon Hetherington (More House School, Frensham), David Gumbrell (The Resilience Project), Cate Newnes-Smith (Surrey Youth Focus), Joe Crome (Community Foundation for Surrey)

Mental health: complex problems require diversity

In one respect, I have missed my usual frequent drives round Surrey. I usually use this time to listen to a range of materials, some intellectual, some lightweight, occasionally music, to feed my brain with whatever the mood takes me. This gives me a buffer between work and home, space to wind up and wind down. It also gives me an opportunity to learn and be exposed to new ideas. One of my favourite sources of inspiration is Matthew Syed, who has written several excellent books.

Since lockdown, I have not managed to fit in my usual diet of ideas and growth mindset podcasts. Between giving the children quality time, trying to get a reasonable amount of exercise and being tired after long periods videoconferencing, my brain has had enough by the end of the day.

However, I realised that this is not serving me and on Saturday I chose to go on a solitary walk for my exercise and I carried on listening to the audiobook of Matthew Syed’s Rebel ideas. The book contains the best explanation of why and how diversity is important that I have come across. He does not start with the premise that diversity is good, indeed for simple problems he argues that diversity is often not good (the men’s 100 metre final in the Olympics being a good case in point). However complex problems require diversity of thought and that comes from diversity of culture and experience.  The best ideas, the best solutions, will come through a range of different people with different experiences working together.

This has direct translation into the work that Surrey Youth Focus is supporting around the re-procurement of Children’s Emotional Well being and Mental Health services in Surrey. If ever there was a complex problem, mental health is it. The mental well being of any one person is a result of a complex mix of upbringing, culture, societal influences, life experiences, social interactions and more. 

At Surrey Youth Focus, we have long been believed that young people who are struggling would benefit hugely from more social solutions, many led by the third sector. (Note: I deliberately don’t use the term “services” because services tends to imply a narrow range of professional led work such as counselling, whereas solutions are much wider – peer support, whole school approaches, social movements, encouraging participation in arts and sports, etc).

However, it has gradually become clearer to me the importance of joint creativity around the future use of the money spent on mental health. We will get the best results if we work with a much more diverse group with different perspectives on emotional health understand the societal root of the issues and to generate new solutions. Young people, parents, commissioners, teachers, school nurses, psychiatrists, police, social workers and of course the third sector…to name just a few.

Together, we are so much stronger. But we need to find a way to throw off the baggage of the past - the silos, the overstrong faith in medical solutions, doing "to" young people rather than with them. We need to start with a clean sheet of paper and be creative together, painting a brand new vision of how to create a culture in our schools, our communities, our charities and our medical providers that enable every child and young person to thrive. The signs of change are afoot. There are some very strong cross-sector relationships being built, that will, I hope, lead to a very different way of serving our young people. 

Hidden Talent

I was invited to sit on a panel and do a short talk at Surrey County Council’s We are Surrey event last week, which was aimed at companies wanting to do “social value” in the course of their work – or to put it simply, to do good. The picture shows me with Bob Pickles of Canon and the other panel members. 

Here’s the gist of my talk.  Many employers in Surrey are finding it hard to recruit and are looking for new avenues to find talented staff.  If this is you, here’s some suggestions you may not have thought of.

Have you heard of Sabrina Hatten Cohen who has just been made chief fire officer at West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service? According to the Guardian, she is the youngest Chief Fire Officer in the country, aged 36, and one of only six female Chief Fire Officers. She also has a PhD in behavioural neuroscience and is writing a book.

You may be wondering what she has to do with the title, Hidden Talent? Age 15, she was homeless. She lived on the streets for some considerable time, selling the Big Issue and going to school. These experiences have almost certainly helped build her character – to help her become resilient and determined – characteristics that employers undoubtably value.

So, if you are looking for new employees, may I suggest that you may like to seek out Hidden Talent – young people who maybe do not fit the traditional mould but who nevertheless could make you very good employees. Others potential new employees that you may like to consider:

• People with Learning Disabilities and Difficulties have a range of talents and their disability does not mean that they person cannot be a very useful employee, although in some cases you may need to make some adjustments. Some very much like repetitive jobs and could be perfect for a role that you find hard to fill long-term. Per the stereotype, some with high functioning autism are brilliant with numbers or at testing software.
• I know of a blind person who has been working as an administrator for ten years for a multinational in Surrey. She is a valuable employee and they particularly value her loyalty.
• Have you been to have your keys cut at Timpsons recently? They are very successful retail chain around the Country. They employ 1,200 ex-offenders and say that have a high retention rate of these staff. Ex-offenders again are another group that have lots of skills, often they just need to be given the opportunity to use them in a law-abiding way.
• The final group that I want to mention is care leavers. Young people who have had a difficult start in life, perhaps suffered a bereavement or domestic abuse which means they have had to leave their homes. I often meet care leavers through work and my impression always is that they are amazingly resourceful, wise beyond their years. They have had to duck and dive and adapt to survive some difficult situations and these are skills which are very transferable to the workplace. 

So when you next walk past a homeless person I hope that the first thought that pops into your head is Hidden Talent. When you next drive past a prison, Hidden Talent. When you see a person with a disability, you think Hidden Talent and when you hear that a person has been in care, Hidden Talent. They could be the person that your organisation really needs.

My lovely colleague, Paula Neal, at Surrey County Council is looking for employers to interview about Hidden Talent to help generate ideas and solutions to enhance opportunities for employing Hidden Talent by Surrey businesses. Please contact Paula if you would like to take part.

A mental health epidemic?

I am often asked what I think is causing the current high level of mental health issues in our teenagers and is the current “epidemic” real or manufactured by the media and society. I think it’s a mixture of both.

On the one hand, I think that today’s teenagers are facing a wealth of challenges that previous generations haven’t faced. On the other hand, as parents we somehow feel it’s our responsibility to make our kids happy all the time and take away all their pain. It’s not and we can’t; it’s an impossible task and we should give up trying. Having challenges and difficulties is a normal part of growing up and they will only emerge as a mature adult once they have learnt to navigate life.

Here are some beliefs that I think we need to foster in our kids to combat some of the challenges that society is throwing at them:

1) Emotions are a normal part of being human. You will sometimes feel sad, angry, lonely, frustrated, etc. This is normal, it doesn’t mean you need have a mental illness. However, it might mean that you benefit from the support of another human being - a friend, a parent, a neighbour, maybe sometimes a professional such as a teacher or a counsellor. Or maybe you need to nurture yourself, do your favourite thing such as listening to music or playing sport. 

2) Life doesn’t always give you what you want when you want it. Being used to waiting - saving up for that new bit of kit, waiting until tomorrow to speak to your friend, watching that video after you’ve done your homework, will massively help you to have the patience that you will need to get through life.

3) Being rich and famous doesn’t make you happy. In fact, there’s masses of evidence that it does the opposite. Just think of all the famous people who have talked about their mental health problems or taken an overdose. Those who are truly most content know that the most important thing is what goes on in your head. Do you say nice things to yourself? Or is there an inner critic constantly eating away at you. Do you seek out genuine friends (however geeky they are) or do you hang out with the “cool” crowd in the belief that it makes you a better person.

4) Having a “perfect” body never made anyone happy either. And the most attractive trait is an authentic smile on your face, radiating from being comfortable in your own skin.

I know that list isn’t exhaustive, but it’s a start. So how am I doing on these in my own parenting? Not too bad on some of them, but I’m not sure that I’ve found effective ways to teach the delayed gratification idea yet….any tips anyone?

Crazy about the kid

·       Why are so many young people being impacted badly by society at this point in our history when we are more advanced, healthier and wealthier than ever?

·       What are the deep rooted causes as to why children get left behind? Why do some people manage to overcome a difficult start to reach their full potential, living relatively happy, fulfilled lives? Why do other people sink under the weight of their problems, failing to fulfil their potential – living a life of poor coping strategies such as taking drugs and being violent or exploited?

·        How do we break the generational cycles of sexual exploitation, domestic violence, criminal exploitation, poor mental health, substance/alcohol abuse?

Chris Hickford (CEO of Eikon) and I were pondering these issues, so we invited a small, group of people with diverse experience and big brains to explore these issues with us. We call this our "unofficial think tank." Thank you ever so much to the kind, thoughtful, intelligent people involved:

Steve Wyler and Caroline Slocock

• Caroline Slocock – Better Way Network
• Steve Wyler – Better Way Network
• Jon Hetherington – More House School, Frensham
• David Gumbrell - The Resilience Project
• Jon Savell – Surrey Police
• Trudy Mills - Children and Family Health Surrey
• Dave Hill – Surrey County Council
• Chris Hickford – The Eikon Charity
• Cate Newnes-Smith – Surrey Youth Focus
• Joe Crome – Community Foundation for Surrey
• Sharon Ward

As a result, the group came up with a DRAFT set of principles for professionals and volunteers that we believe could make the difference to all children and young people and provide them the very best opportunity to succeed in life. We are just starting to tell the world about the principles... 

SURREY UNOFFICIAL THINK TANK – OUR ‘PLAN ON A PAGE’

Being crazy about the kid

We all need to be ‘crazy about the kid’. Every professional needs to focus on human connection with a child, regardless of their background or circumstances, with patience and passion to achieve the very best for all children and young people.

Every child/young person needs a consistent relationship with at least one adult they trust.

Many young people feel lost and without direction, they don’t believe that they have anyone to turn to. Building trust and confidence takes time and a persistent and consistent approach. Often we hear stories of ever changing so-called ‘trusted adults’ in a child/young person’s life. How can we expect any form of ‘trust’ to be built when that person changes frequently and relationships have to start all over again. We need to enable professionals and volunteers working with children and young people to have the time and resources to provide stability and earn the child/young person’s trust.

Every child needs to be able to tell their story and learn to hope.

Many children experience trauma or loss. Others have a deeply unpleasant daily lived experience. Those children who have a clear story about what has happened to them are more likely to have develop healthy relationships going forward and hence to flourish. Children and young people need to know why they are where they are and to understand that they have choices and the potential to experience a happier life; connection with their peers can often help with this immeasurably. We all need to encourage young people to tell their story, to listen, believe and help the young person to make the changes that they need to make and to develop a sense of hope about their future. 

Every child needs a sense of belonging and encouragement to shine.

Children and young people need to have a group of friends, a club, association or school, which they look forward to going to. Where they can be themselves. Where they feel people have an interest in their welfare and they can ‘shine’. We all need to find ways to build on the strengths of each child, not just those who fit into the traditional mainstream educational systems and exams that are prevalent in our society, and help them to shine.

We all need to believe in the child or young person and what they can achieve.

Believing in yourself because others have believed in you is the recipe for success. Professionals need to have faith in young people, to help them explore their individuality and learn the tools and belief that they can do what they set their minds to, with the power to change their world.

What do you think? Do these make sense? How can we make these ideas become reality for every child and young person across Surrey? If you are a professional or volunteer working with children and young people in Surrey, please let us know what you think. 

Cate.newnes-smith@surreyyouthfocus.org.uk

The Community Paradigm

As many people have commented, we cannot afford to keep salami slicing the funding for services to people in Surrey. And despite the ongoing passion and commitment of professionals across Surrey, many of the problems that our children face – domestic abuse, mental ill-health, substance abuse and more – are not going away.

There is increasing evidence across the country that radically different models of engagement are proving popular. These models, put much more of the power and responsibility in the hands of communities and the charities that serve them. These bring huge benefits, they serve our citizens better, with a holistic, preventative agenda, not a crisis response, they make best use of community asset and they encourage individual responsibility.

Across Surrey, people are daring to think very differently, as was demonstrated at the Surrey 2030 Vision event yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about projects from around the country yesterday, particularly from Adam Lent of the the New Local Government Network. I thoroughly recommend reading their document:

The Community Paradigm: Why public services need radical change and how it can be achieved

However, this type of change cannot be driven from the top. There are many thriving community projects and charities across Surrey, which bring huge benefits to Children, Young People and Families (CYPF), many of which the public sector is not funding or only partially funding. Many of these have a very holistic view of people’s lives and do great preventative and supportive work which is hugely valuable to individuals and to society at large – making a huge difference to wellbeing.

For me, these are the starting point for an engine for change. I believe that there is the potential to achieve far more for our communities by working with our communities - bringing people and professionals with energy, enthusiasm and skills together to share, learn and work in a more coordinated way. To improve the lives of the most vulnerable, despite shrinking public sector budgets, there is a need for all sectors of society to work together. We need to achieve a cultural shift where people needing help play a greater role in their journey – in decision making at a personal and community level, in helping to support their peers and more.

This will require change on all sides, both within commissioners and within the third sector. In fact, I have heard the opinion expressed that actually the third sector needs to change more than the commissioners for this to work. Looks like we (Surrey Youth Focus) will have our work cut out for us to help facilitate this change. 

Solving the mental health crisis

The crisis that we have with children and young people’s mental health is not going to be solved in consulting rooms and clinical settings across our county. The crisis may be contained by professionals in clinical settings, but it is not going to be solved there. 

It will be solved in communities – in schools, in families, in friendship groups, in youth clubs, in charities. It will be solved by changes in attitudes, in cultures, in beliefs and behaviours – not just in the young people themselves, but in their parents, their teachers, their friends and their medical staff. It will be solved by young people having access to and making use of healthy coping strategies – exercise, peer support, long-term bond with a trusted adult, mindfulness - and avoiding unhealthy coping strategies – substance abuse, violence, abusive relationships, eating unhealthily. 

Until we – councils, health services, parents, police, schools, charities – work truly in partnership with young people to understand their lives and address the underlying causes together, the situation will only get worse. 

Young people with learning disabilities collaboration 

Surrey Youth Focus is delighted to welcome Sally Stubbings to the team, Sally will be working on the Hidden Talent project. This project aims to make it easier for young people with Learning Disabilities and other Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) across Surrey to find work experience, work placements and ultimately jobs. To sign up to the Hidden Talent bulletin please - click here.  For more information please email sally.stubbings@surreyyouthfocus.org.uk

More about the project

Given the high employment rate in Surrey, do you find it hard to recruit and retain suitable employees? If so, the good news is that there are “hidden” pools of talent that many employers are not tapping into – young people with learning disabilities. Many young people with learning disabilities are longing to work and make great employees if given the chance. 

There are many wonderful young people who happen to have learning disabilities leaving schools and colleges across Surrey who have the capabilities to do a wide range of jobs. Some are highly capable of doing challenging financial or technical jobs, as long as employers make adjustment for their social skills or other learning disability. Others may excel at doing highly repetitive jobs that others do not enjoy.

Employers benefit from employing young people with learning disabilities by gaining new talent and having a more diverse workforce which can bring useful insights to their organization’s strategy, products and services. It also gives employers an opportunity to demonstrate that they are compassionate and forward looking to their employees, customers and local community, thus helping both customer and employee retention. 

It’s true that some may need more initial support than other employees, but this can often be funded by the state and many employers have achieved a long term return on investment with a hard working, long-serving employee. 

We are aiming to create a win-win situation where employers get access to new pools of employees and some great young people get the work opportunities that they long for. For this to work, there needs to be new paths to employment for these young people, since the traditional recruitment practices typically act as barriers, not enablers. We believe that the best way to do this may be to create an email bulletin which contains requests made by charities/colleges for opportunities such as work placements for young people. If the work placements are successful, these young people might become valuable employees. We are currently doing a survey to find out employers’ attitudes to our ideas.

This project is being led by Surrey Youth Focus in consortium with an impressive list of organisations including Surrey Chambers of Commerce, Surrey County Council, employers, charities and schools & colleges across Surrey.

Employment for young people with Learning Disabilities

Across the country 6% of people with learning disabilities have employment.

We have many young people with learning disabilities who want work and have useful skills and assets that could be beneficial to employers. Many of these young people  have the types of qualities that employers are seeking - they are reliable, loyal and hard-working. In a tight labour market, such as we have in Surrey, employers increasingly need to seek out the "hidden" pools of talent (a phrase that I have learnt from Louise Punter at Surrey Chambers of Commerce). Some young people with autism, for example, are highly talented in logic and numeracy and can bring huge value to IT and financial functions in an organisation.

This is why we are initiating a cross-sector collaboration in conjunction with Surrey Chambers of Commerce, Surrey County Council, Halow and a range of other charities and employers to address this issue. At the first meeting, one of the major issues identified was purely that employers do not know about the possibilities or, if they do, they have put it on the "too hard" pile. The collaborative group will be seeking to address these issues and others.

If you are an employer interested in finding out more about employing a young person with a learning disability, please do get in touch.

Core-porate Social Responsibility

There is a growing thirst in the private sector to do more Corporate Social Responsibility or “Giving Back”. Companies are realising that CSR makes good business sense – by helping key objectives such as recruitment and retention, it directly serves their bottom line. In these cash strapped times, where the "rolling back" of public services is affecting the most vulnerable in society, this is good news. Indeed, we believe that the contribution that businesses could be making as they go about their daily business is huge. 

Take Timpsons -  the key cutting and shoe repairing business – 10% of their 3400 staff are ex-offenders. These staff are employed on day release, whilst still in prison, thus easing their transition to a different life on the outside.  The reoffending rate of these Timpson employees is 3% versus around 45% for ex-offenders in general. Whilst some of this difference may be down to careful recruitment on Timpson's part, surely not all? This has helped Timpsons to get a highly motivated, loyal workforce and done a huge service to society and the public purse: how much would it have cost councils and/or charities to turn that many people's lives around?

If you haven't heard it, I highly recommend listening to the John Timpson interview that was broadcast on Radio 4's Desert Island Disks a few weeks ago -  you can download the Podcast from the BBC.  

The key to really making a difference is ensuring that the CSR activities are part of CORE business, serving business objectives, and not just a bit on the side.  

If you are a company or youth charity in Surrey and are interested in exploring this more, do drop me a line.

Who would you turn to if you had a mental health problem?

Well, looks like my resolution to write more often was broken pretty quickly? Still, I am pleased to say that I stuck to my dry January.

We have collaborated with our members on two different projects about young people's mental health funded by Healthwatch. I was struck by a discussion with a colleague this week that I thought worth mentioning in the blog.

Where would you turn to if you had a mental health problem? Online? Family? Friends? GP? 

Our sample of young people would look online first and maybe go to a friend. Only a subset would go to a professional such as teacher or GP. Few would go to parents. 

I will say that again. Only a subset would go to a professional and few would go to parents.

This leaves us with a real challenge as to how to support young people with mental health. We can have all the services in the world but if they don’t make use of them, what’s the point? This needs to be the starting point for all service designs.

Any comments? Ideas? Feel free to respond or email me.

New projects and new years resolutions

Oops. This hasn't really been a weekly blog of late, has it? We have so many exciting projects going on that blog writing has slipped. Apologies... new year's resolution (is this the first one you've heard?) to write more often.

My wonderful team have been admiring the number of new ideas that I've been having... and gently and wittily pointing out that we cannot do it all. My response was to say that I used to have a boss who was a nightmare to work with because he was always excited by his latest idea..whilst I was still working on the last three that he had tasked me with, so I sympathise with their plight. New Year's resolution no 2: learn to prioritise and say no.

Anyway, here are a few of the things going on that you may be interested in...

• Our Safeguarding conference went extremely well, with 100% of attendees satisfied or very satisfied. The feedback that we got from attendees is that they want more help with safeguarding...policies, seminars, briefings, etc. We will be talking to Surrey CC about how this might be provided.

• We are setting up a cross-sector collaboration of organisations who are keen to help young people with learning disabilities into work, in conjunction with businesses, charities, Surrey CC and Surrey Chambers. If you share our passion for this and would like to be involved, let me know. This will be followed by another to help other vulnerable young people into work.

• We have been awarded funding by Healthwatch to work with a group of young people around the issue of a mental health issue that his bothering them. We will support the young people to take the actions that they want to take to address the issue.

Did I say that I wasn't going to have any more ideas? Trying not to, but then other people give them to me. I went to an event at the House of Lords hosted by Lord Victor Adebowale (CEO of Turning Point) and the very interesting Collaborate organisation. Victor kindly gave me an idea... a significant amount of crime in this country is committed by people leaving care... many of whom have had awful life experiences as children and who have not been given good role models or shown appropriate behaviours required to fit in and hold down jobs. He suggested that we sit down with young people leaving care in Surrey and ask them what they need in order to get a job, housing, self belief etc. I am sure that a mentor, someone that they can turn to when they are down, will figure in there somewhere. We can then get a cross-sector collaboration together to serve these young people in Surrey. There's no shortage of people wanting to help. The challenge is ensuring that the offer is young person focused, holistic and joined up.  I am very excited by this. It's now on my list of things to do. However, I am prioritising. I won't start it until a few other projects are underway. Promise.

I wish for you whatever you wish for yourself this Christmas.... peace, joy, silence, laughter, fun, happiness, calm, energy, etc.....

Reckless young people?

I have heard a number of statistics about the current generation of young people smoking less and drinking less than previous generations. Here's a great story to back up the statistics:

The school council at Eythorne Elvington Community Primary School in Dover raised the issue of smoking by parents at the school gates, leading to the head asking parents to improve their behaviour in the school newsletter.

Go, kids, go! Let's get these kids sorting out world peace, too, I'm sure they can do a better job than our generation.

The social and economic cost of mental health

Sitting in the office alone on a very grey Monday morning, I am reading some very depressing statistics:

• One in 10 children has a mental health problem at any one time.
• More than a fifth of children referred to mental health services in England have been refused treatment.
• Only one in 10 prisoners has no mental health disorder.

Aside from the human misery of all this, how much money do we spend on the justice system and keeping people in prison? How much is lost by our economy on families supporting people with mental health issues?

The methodical researchers over at Public Health Surrey who are passionate about improving people's health have told me that a proven way of preventing mental health related issues such as self-harm, taking legal highs, etc, is to build resilience in young people. To expand the idea further, I thought I would take a quick look on the internet for a definition (thanks to Wikipedia....)

"Psychological resilience is defined as an individual's ability to properly adapt to stress and adversity. Stress and adversity can come in the shape of family or relationship problems, health problems, or workplace and financial worries, among others. Resilience is not a rare ability; in reality, it is found in the average individual and it can be learned and developed by virtually anyone. Resilience should be considered a process, rather than a trait to be had.

A common misapprehension is that resilient people are free from negative emotions or thoughts, remaining optimistic in most or all situations. To the contrary, resilient individuals have, through time, developed coping techniques that allow them to effectively and relatively easily navigate around or through crises. In other words, people who demonstrate resilience are people with optimistic attitude and positive emotionality and are, by practice, able to effectively balance negative emotions with positive ones.^"

This is a key area where all of the wonderful youth organisations across Surrey make a significant contribution to all of the young people that they work with. 

We strongly believe in Youth Social Action as a way of giving young people a sense of agency, and hence self-esteem and resilience. 

We would be interested to hear more of your stories/anecdotes/comments about building resilience in young people...

Young people: risks, control and growth

I think being a parent myself is a great asset to my job. I understand how difficult it is to be a parent myself, how you long to do the best thing for your kids, but so often its not obvious what the best thing is. How quickly or slowly to let go, to enable your child to learn for themselves, rather than be protected and told what to do? You also long to control the environment your child is in as much you can, to nurture and support, but lots of things are out of your control.

An example that my husband and I have faced recently. Due to circumstances beyond our control, our daughter has just started at a school at some distance to our son's school. Both schools are within walking distance of our home, but it is not possible to do the school run to both schools on foot given the start and finish times. So, we were faced with the choice: school run in the car - creating pollution, congestion and missing out on exercise - or school run on foot, letting our ten year old walk a mile to school by himself, crossing several roads which at school times get quite busy. As you may know, there is evidence that kids who walk to school perform better. So, we have opted to let him walk to school and I have alerted my mums network to let me know if anyone spots any concerns about his road crossing behaviour!

For now, the decision feels good. It is healthier and he is learning independence. But will I feel guilty and irresponsible if he has an accident? 

Organisations working with young people, face the same issues as a parent. How much can they and should they control the environment? How much risk should they let the young people take?

There is evidence that young people naturally take more risks, it's hard wired into their brains. Ben Byrne from Surrey CC will be talking about this at our Safeguarding Conference on 12th November. If you haven't already booked a ticket, book now, thanks to funding from Surrey CC, we have extended the number of places at  the conference, but still only have a few places left.

Communilab in action

As hopefully you have heard by now, we are in the middle of setting up a great new Community...called Communilab. It is bringing together charities, businesses, public sector agencies, schools and universities to solve problems and create opportunities for young people in Surrey. Communilab Community interacts both off-line (meetings, etc) and online at www.communilab.org. Two examples of collaboration...

Youth work on the pitch started on Friday night in Park Barn, Guildford. It is based on the Leatherhead Youth Project model of organising regular football sessions and having youth workers alongside to build relationships with young people, especially the ones most in need of a supportive adult relationship. The Guildford sessions have resulted from a collaboration of a number of organisations including Guildford Saints Football club providing the coaches, Guildford Borough Council providing the pitch, Lifetrain providing the youth workers, Kings College and Surrey CC youth worker marketing to young people, Surrey CC youth worker promoting, funding from the High Sheriff Youth Awards (looking for more though in case you know of any sources...), Active Surrey and Surrey FA providing guidance and kit, etc.The initial session on Friday night had 14 lads, a good start and a sign that this project is much needed in the area.

I am, sadly, only talking about boys football at the moment. As a former footballer myself, I am hoping that they might get some girls football going too.  (Personal plea - I would still like to find regular 5-aside women's football in the Guildford/Godalming area. I don't have time to train or play 11-aside at weekends, but would love a quick one hour game an evening a week).

The second example of collaboration is Surrey County Council's volunteering programme. Surrey CC are keen to promote volunteering in the county and are leading by example, encouraging their own staff to volunteer. Their staff volunteer offers are being put on Communilab, for charities to see and take up. To see these opportunities you would need to join the Communilab Community. If you are a charity wanting access to Communilab... for members of Surrey Youth Focus then access to Communilab is provided as a part of your subscription, contact the team for your login. If not, join SYF to gain access to Communilab. If you are a business, public sector agency, school or university wanting access to Communilab then contact us now on communilab@surreyyouthfocus.org.uk

Bold new futures

Three of us in the office have had our youngest child start school this September. Generally things are going well, us mothers are adapting to seeing our little ones off to school (and the kids are doing too badly either!)

On the first day, a few weeks ago, one of my colleagues had a lovely experience as she walked her youngest to school on the first day. Along the streets approaching the school, on the pavement in chalk were encouraging words...

Dream big
Be yourself
You're a star
You rock kid
Have a great day
Here is where your journey begins...

How nice to have lovely encouraging words, we could all do with a few of those in our working lives too I think.

On another subject, places at our Safeguarding Conference are going like hotcakes... much faster than expected. We are going to see if we can make some more places available, but in the meantime book today if you want to be sure of a place!

Let young people play their part

Sorry for the gap in blog posts. One of my strengths (and weaknesses) is my passion for my job... I sometimes get involved in too many things at once!

It was our AGM this week and the undoubted stars of the show were the young people from Surrey Heath Youth Council who presented on the great practical work that they have done around preventing use of "legal highs" and anti-bullying.

I frequently go to meetings full of professionals (very often with not a single young person in sight) where issues such as self-harm, legal highs, mental health and bullying are discussed. The solutions that are come up with are generally the same... leaflets, messages via the professionals, a website etc.

Who are young people more likely to listen to? An old fogey like me rattling on about an issue on which I have no personal experience or a young person who may have directly experienced the issue or had a sibling or friend who has? I strongly believe that we should be turning to young people across the county to help with these issues. There are many young people who want to.

Often what is needed is not much more than the salary of a good youth worker to support young people in their work. The Citizenship Foundation ran a great session for us at a local school, where the young people were passionate about supporting their peers through issues. It was the kids who have had the tougher times in life, often from poorer backgrounds, who were the most engaged in the process. The Citizenship Foundation can come in and deliver, or alternatively train up local youth workers on their workshop materials.

Surely in these times of austerity it also makes economic sense? I am now looking for evidence that will prove (or disprove) my theory that it makes the best social and economic sense to create the conditions and support structures across the county so that many of these thorny societal issues affecting young people are being addressed primarily by youth-led initiatives. If you can supply any evidence either way I would be very grateful...

A Plea to Funders

I said that I was off for two weeks, but having taken an interest in all of the articles around Kids Company, I need to get something off my chest before I go.

It seems to me that the high level summary is about Kids Company is:

A long term successful charity needs Good delivery PLUS Good Fundraising PLUS Good Governance PLUS Good administrative systems.

The general media consensus seems to be that Kids Company made a fantastic difference to lots of young people's lives, although there were some practices ("pocket money" allegedly spent on drugs) which have attracted criticism. They also had fantastic fundraising capabilities.

The jury still seems to be out on the governance, the trustees are largely keeping quiet, presumably following due process for directors of a company that is insolvent, we don't yet know what was going on behind the scenes. What it certainly lacked was good financial and administrative systems - monitoring and evaluation of its' work, tracking its' finances, keeping a sensible level of reserves. There seems to have been a mantra that all money should be spent on the kids, not on administrative functions.

Funders are most usually willing to pay for Good delivery. But very often, they are not willing to pay for the other stuff - governance and administration. However, the Kids Company example proves that just being excellent at delivery is not enough. Every sensible funder should understand that a certain amount of money spent on administration is a good thing, not a bad thing. My plea to funders - please bear that in mind when funding charities!

International Youth Day - 12th August

I was asked by the Cabinet office last week if we could provide examples of young people having a positive impact on their communities and working hard to get on so they can be celebrated as part of international youth day this week.

Whilst I know that there are lots of fabulous young people in Surrey doing this stuff, I was concerned about whether the right people would be around in Youth Organisations in mid-August to answer the call. However, many of you are hard at work at your desks (or checking your emails on holiday – naughty!) and our members have done us proud… there have been a flurry of responses. Just a few:

• Skillway nominated Josh Taylor – check out his website 
• Eikon’s (@eikoncharity) Youth Development Board have been working hard feeding back to trustees and organising an awards evening.
• Through YMCA East Surrey’s extensive volunteer and employability programme, called ‘Get Involved’, young people have been gaining work experience and qualifications with a view to finding future employment. Well done especially to the volunteers of the month – Frankie, Abbi and Sam.
• Epsom Phab we have a fantastic group of young volunteers who dedicate hours of their time to ensuring a wide range of activities are provided for the children with and without disabilities  at our club.

Do encourage any young people you are working with to tweet on the day (August 12) using the #aimhigh or #YouthDay.

Also, do use this to publicise opportunities that you have for young people.

Just to give you some ideas about what you might like to tweet about:

• Joe Bloggs from Surrey started her own social enterprise at 20. Could you do the same? #AimHigh (including a picture with with hashtag)
• Under 25 and have a business idea? Here's how to start (include link and hashtag)
• Girlguiding gave me the opportunity to make a real difference to my local community #AimHigh
• Could you be a volunteer and make a difference? Include hashtag and weblink

I’m off on holiday for the next two weeks, so there’ll be a two week gap in my blog as I am away with hubby and kids to cycle in South Wales for a week after which I will hopefully be relaxed enough to be able to sit still on a beach in Cornwall for a week. See you in September.