ANEXO I: CALIFICACION ENERGÉTICA DEL EDIFICIO 98.
3 INSTALACION DE ACS:
10.0 United Kingdom
Country UK
Name of 2nd chance
provision Fairbridge
Level of education Provides alternative education to young people between the ages of 13 and 25 who are viewed to be lacking motivation, self confidence and skills they need to change their life.
Type of institution A charity
Location (city and borough) Middlesbrough, Teeside (25 other centres across England).
Background information: country context
The change in the British government in May 2010 has led to a significant shift of policy emphasis surrounding early school leaving and NEETs. The current
government published a strategy document Supporting Youth Employment in May 2011. This highlights five key areas of policy:
Raising attainment and ensuring that young people have the skills they need through quality vocational education and training;
Helping young people at risk of falling through the net by supporting local
partners (often community and voluntary organisations) to provide effective and co-ordinated services;
Encouraging employers to offer more work experience, internships and apprenticeships;
Promoting personal responsibility by ensuring that work pays and those on out- of-work benefits who can work prepare and search for work;
Creating the wider conditions for economic growth.1
Compulsory schooling ends at 16 in the UK, however there is recognition that young people should if possible continue in some form of education or training until at least 18. In 2008 the previous government tool steps to formalise this by raising the compulsory school leaving age to 17 in 2013 and 18 in 2015. It should be noted that education and training can be combined post-16.
A number of other recent developments include an increase in budget for
disadvantaged young people (<16) via the ‘pupil premium’. This is paid directly to
1ERM Comparative Analytical Report on Recent Policy Developments related to NEETs
schools and academies to support disadvantaged young people and encourage continuing engagement with education. Schools are free to spend the money as they see fit, but are accountable to central government. In May 2011 the government a £10 million annual Innovation Fund. This will be distributed by the Department of Work and Pensions to schemes aimed particularly (but not exclusively) at NEETs. The hope is that it will facilitate the voluntary and community sector to develop innovative approaches to helping target groups – most notably NEETs. Lastly there has been a commitment to implement the main policy recommendations of the Wolf Report (see below).
The Wolf Report was focused on improving vocational training and was published in May 2011.
Incentivising young people to take the most valuable vocational qualifications pre-16, while removing incentives to take large numbers of vocational
qualifications to the detriment of core academic study;
introducing principles to guide study programmes for young people on vocational routes post-16 to ensure they are gaining skills which will lead to progression into a variety of jobs or further learning, in particular, to ensure that those who have not secured a good pass in English and mathematics GCSE continue to study those subjects;
evaluating the delivery structure and content of apprenticeships to ensure they deliver the right skills for the workplace;
making sure the regulatory framework moves quickly away from accrediting individual qualifications to regulating awarding organisations;
removing the requirement that all qualifications offered to 14- to 19-year-olds fit within the Qualifications and Credit Framework, which has had a detrimental effect on their appropriateness and has left gaps in the market; and
enabling lecturers and professionals to teach in schools, ensuring young people are being taught by those best suited.
According to the European Commission data, the early school leaving rate in the UK in 2009 was 15.7%.1
A recent report for the DfE on Improving Alternative Provision2 suggests there is no
reliable data on the number of pupils in Alternative (Education) Provision (AP), but the latest figures from the Department for Education (DfE) 2011 AP Census recorded 14,050 pupils in Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) and 23,020 in other AP settings on full or part-time placements.
The census found that children attended AP for a wide range of reasons, but
predominately they are children with behavior difficulties in years 10 and 11. These children have either been permanently excluded from school and are placed in AP by the local authority or the PRU, or they are sent to AP by individual schools as early intervention to change behavior.
Background information: locality context
1http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmeuleg/428-xxiii/42805.htm
Middleborough is one of five local authorities that make up the Tees Valley area in the north-east of England. Middleborough is situated on the south side of the River Tees and is a small, predominantly urban and densely populated town that covers an area of 5,387 hectares. The current resident population of Middleborough is 139,200.
Middlesbrough has a proud economic heritage and an international legacy in iron and steel manufacturing but this has diminished in the last 25 years and has now almost disappeared. Service industries now account for the largest proportion of local employment in Middlesbrough (88.2%) whilst manufacturing and construction make up most of the remainder of the current economy (10.8%). The latest official unemployment rate is 7.7% and is almost double the national rate.
Middlesbrough has some of the worst deprivation in the country. Ward rankings for the 2010 Index of Multiple Deprivation show that six of the 23 wards are among the most deprived one percent of wards nationally, with 13 among the most deprived 10% of wards nationally. 1
Attendance in secondary schools fell by almost 1% year on year in the 2008/09 school year to 90.1%, but has improved by 0.9% over the last four school years. Persistent absence has showed signs of sustained improvement over the last four school years, falling from 13.4% to 7.6%. Unauthorised absence presents a particular problem for secondary schools, having risen from 1.9% to 3.3% in the last three years. 2
Related to these figures Middlesbrough undertakes an Annual Young People’s Survey and the TellUssurvey (2009).5 Young people are asked various questions about their
time at school. In the 2009 Annual Young People’s Survey 46% of secondary age pupils said they were happy at school ‘most of the time’, with 12% saying they were ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ happy at school, an increase of 2%over the last three years.
The increase in unauthorised absence and of young people not feeling happy at school bot have the potential to contribute top early school leaving within the borough. Many of those who attend the Fairbridge centre were not happy at school as it did not suit their particular needs. In order to deal with these issues Middleborough’s Children and Young People Plan 2011 -2014t3 has identified a
number of key priorities for the area related to early school leaving and second chance education. this includes actions related to:
Developing early intervention strategies to tackle the barriers to learning identified around behaviour, literacy and numeracy.
Establishing literacy development as the central theme for education improvement to unlock learning for all children.
Being better at identifying the needs of young people who require additional support around their education provision at the point at which additional support
1http://middlesbrough-live.runtime-collective.com/ccm/navigation/children-and-family-care/strategic-needs- assessment/general-information-about-middlesbrough/socio-economic-context/ 2http://middlesbrough-live.runtime-collective.com/ccm/navigation/children-and-family-care/strategic-needs- assessment/reduce-risk-taking-behaviours/attendance-at-school/ 3http://middlesbrough-live.runtime-collective.com/ccm/navigation/children-and-family-care/strategic-needs- assessment/
is planned.
Improving service provision and support for hard to reach and vulnerable groups, including teenage parents, young people with a learning difficulty or disability and young people leaving care.
Initiatives in the area include support within the schools from dedicated youth support worker, SIDs place a dedicated space within a school for those young people who feel unable to cope (for a variety of reasons) with formal lessons (see below) a number of school in the area are trying to emulate this successful model and centres such as MYPLAC which is a new youth centre in the city with all the youth services and a youth club facilities all under one roof. Government money was provided to build new facilities or redevelop old ones to provide a space for young people (there are a number of them across England). The business model was always that these centres needed to be self sustaining, so they need to rent out space and bring in partners. The Excel programme which is alternative provision for young people and ran by the Princes Trust and is held at the centre Monday –Wednesday. The centre also provides other basic skills education and in the evenings they provide a range of positive activities, for example the centre has a recording studio and dance studio as well as an amphitheatre in the garden.
History / background to developing the initiative
The Fairbridge Centre has been established for 26 years in Middlesbrough, the centre provides a tailored personal development programme for the most hard to reach groups of young people.
The national organisation has always worked with the hardest to reach groups in the most deprived areas of the country. The Middlesbrough centre provides this support for two cohorts 13-16 year olds and 16+, the young people they support are either NEETs, educational underachievers or potential NEETs. The young people are often from workless households and many have problems with drink or drugs. The young people are assessed on their presenting needs; they must have three presenting needs to be enrolled on the programme. These needs can range from being on the child protection register, to homelessness, to low self esteem or mental health issues. The young people that are dealt with at the Middlesbrough centre have on average 8.5 presenting needs.
Fairbridge is now part of a wider initiative for young people known as the Princes Trust. Fairbridge merged with the Princes Trust in April 2011 and Fairbridge are now managed by the Princes Trust’s structures (a charity). Fairbridge fits very well with the Princes Trusts portfolio of support for young people as Fairbridge centres deal with the very hardest to reach groups which the Princes Trust have not done in the past.
Target groups
As explained above, the Middlesbrough centre provides support to some of the most deprived young people in the area in two age groups 13-16 year olds and 16+. Below are a list of the presenting needs groupings which are used by Fairbridge Presenting needs groupings:
History of offending
History of drug/alcohol/substance misuse
Victim of crime/bulling/abuse
Temp. mental health/low self esteem
Physical or mental disability
Asthmatic/epileptic/diabetic
Looked after history/child protection register
Parent/carer
Literacy or numeracy help required
Most young people are referred to the centre by their school, social worker, probation officer or support worker. Reportedly many of the young people on the programme have tried a number of other kinds of support, alternative education and/or counselling before they attend the Fairbridge programme.
They are a diverse range of young people on the programme, from those with behavioural problems and drink and drug problems, who may have only attended school for the minimal amount of times. To those who did attend school on a regular basis, but who have very low self esteem and this is preventing them moving on into further education or employment.
Key features of the provision and institutional setting
When a young person arrives at the centre for the first time they are assigned an outreach development worker who will stay with them throughout their journey on the programme. For the first week all young people must complete an 'Access Course', one access course is ran each month for under 16 year olds and one for over 16 year olds, there are 12 places on each course, these course are full virtually every month.
The aim of this course is to show to the young people what the Fairbridge Programme is about and provides a chance for the young people to get to know each other and the staff. In the first week they undertake many outdoor pursuit activities in order to build trust, confidence and to stretch the young people. They go abseiling; rock climbing and gorge walking. The highlight of the week for most of the young people is a residential trip for one or two days in a stone hut or tent to the Lake District.
Once the young person has completed this course they move onto 'The Programme', this continues supporting their personal development and challenges their self belief and self awareness. Sessions on this course may include a rock climb about the risks of drug taking for example. Young people are able to stay on this programme as
long as they need, for some it takes six weeks to be ready to move on, for others they stay on the programme for a number of years. The programme is not a 'welfare to work' scheme, but is the step before this.
The whole approach is based on choice theory, they are not forced to do anything, as it says on the website " its is your choice to join the programme it is your choice to stay on it and you will not be made to do anything you don't want to."
An important element of the programme is that the young people are involved in the choice of activities they will undertake on the programme, they suggest what they would like to do and this is taken into consideration when planning the access course and the main programme. Activities and/or support are provided to the young
person for six hours a day.
All the learning which is undertaken at the centre is embedded learning; they use practical activities such as outdoor pursuits or cooking to teach maths or communications skills for example. Young people are motivated to re-engage because they have a choice of the activities provided to them and the teachers and support staff embed the learning into the activities the young people have suggested.
A basic skills teacher is employed for five hours a week to teach literacy and numeracy, she does this through other activities such as cooking, art or construction for example, but she never teaches in a classroom setting. She works on individual needs, some young people want to be able to read to their children or count their change properly, whereas other want help with writing their CV or spelling issues. The Princes Trust has a central fundraising team, which is split between public and private fundraising. It costs £2,100 to put a young person through Fairbridge, the Centre tries to encourage the institution that is referring the young person to at least fund some of the cost (i.e. the school, the probation or the Pupil Referral Unit), but often the Centre has to use their own resources and pay for the young person themselves – they do not turn young people away because the agencies who refers them won’t fund them.
Key success factors
Fairbridge has a high success rate, in the past 12 months 85% of participants went on to achieve something tangible, this means they may have got a job, gone on to do a training course, stayed in education or reduced their alcohol or drug activity. For other young people success can mean engaging in basic skills support for the first time or increasing their self esteem, so they are better equipped to find work or return to education. At the centre in Middlesbrough the percentage of young people achieving one or more positive outcomes is as high as 90% (data covering the past 4 years).
At the Middlesbrough centre the retention rate on their Access course over the past 4 years was around 85% and 80% on the longer term – follow on programme. More detail of the achievements are provided in the table below these are cumulative figure from April 2009 - June 2012
No. of completers No. of those with related
outcomes Percentage
16+ and unemployed 245 Into employment/voluntary work
54 22%
13-18 not in education 72 Returned to
education/training 23 32%
16-18 NEET 51 EET 15 29%
U16 in education 156 Retained in education
Improved performance in education
46 100% 29% History of offending 332 Reduced criminal activity 235 71%
Homeless 45 Securely housed 18 40%
History of drug/alcohol and substance misuse
290 Reduced drug or alcohol use 249 86%
Smoker 131 Reduced or stopped smoking 86 66%
Low/no qualifications (level 1
or below) 539 Gained a qualification or an award 201 37%
Another method of assessing the progress of the young people is through a self image profile. One of the first things completed when the young person starts at the centre is a self image profile, this self image is assessed again after 100 hours on the programme and again once they complete the programme. This is one of the ways in which the success of the programme is measured, on average the self image of the young people on the programme goes up at least 0.5 points (they score out of 5) after 100 hours on the programme and by 1 point by the time they leave the programme. See template below.
Perspectives on transferability
The UK appears to be fairly advanced in terms of implementing initiatives in support young people whilst at school. The two schools consulted during the research already had alternative provision for young people who found mainstream lessons too much. One was known as ‘Sids Place’ a converted caretaker’s office and the other school employed two youth support workers to work on a one to one basis with a range of students in their school. The Fairbridge Centre worked closely with these people based at schools and although they are able to support some young people to stay at school the youth workers all agreed that for other young people being out of the 'regular' school environment was essential to them moving on and breaking the cycle which was preventing them learning. For other young people school had never been a good environment to learn in and the Fairbridge Centre provided this complete break from the mainstream provision to focus on their own personal development issues.
When the young people were asked what they felt could be transferred into mainstream schools to make it any easier for them or to provide them with more support, they all said the one to one learning was important, but often the young people had already received some specialised support within the school environment which had not solved the issues they had at school. Many seemed to feel that being