Leeds Youth Service - support to vulnerable children and young people known to Children’s Social Work Service (CSWS)

Outcome/aim

Offering activity and learning sessions to vulnerable children and young people at Leeds City Council-managed centres including Herd Farm and West Leeds Activity Centre. In the last year West Leeds Activity Centre has delivered activities to at least 500 individuals through over 300 sessions, while more than 200 young people and their families participated in events at Herd Farm.

Background

In addition to delivering youth work in all communities as part of the council’s commitment to Leeds being a child friendly city, Leeds Youth Service is also responsible for a number of activity centres. These projects combine exciting outdoor education experiences and a connection with nature, with a youth work approach that fosters personal and social development for children and young people. The activity centres provide support and capacity building to schools to enable them to extend their educational offer as well as delivering bespoke activity programmes for our most vulnerable groups. High quality provision is of paramount importance and both Herd Farm and West Leeds have been awarded the Learning Outside the Classroom (Lotc) Quality Badge in recognition of the quality of work delivered. Herd Farm has been voted the best place in Leeds for young people twice (Child Friendly Leeds Awards).

What has been delivered? (Between April 2020 and March 2021):

West Leeds Activity Centre: Delivered activities to at least 500 individual looked after children and young people including doing bushcraft, waterslide, camping, den building, camp cooking, climbing, canoeing, team games, archery, assault course, giant pushball, roller blading, football, assault course, pedal go-karts, foraging, nature walks and multi-sports. More than 300 activity sessions have been delivered including one-to-one, small group work and full-day groups. Young people participating include those from fostering, children’s residential homes, One Adoption, the Blind and Partially Sighted Service, and direct referrals from social care.

Herd Farm Residential Activity Centre: has provided a range of opportunities for looked after children and young people following assessments of their individual needs and interests. These have ranged from single activity sessions to full day experiences and emergency residential placements. These include, half and full activity days for foster families and/or giving the foster carers a break; targeted group activity events e.g. off-road bike expeditions; access to the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Awards Scheme; Family contact sessions, both with and without activities and team building activity sessions for CSWS teams to help develop their communications. Over 200 young people and their families have participated in events at the centre.

What was the impact/next steps ?

WLAC:

Young people have been able to make new friends, build communication skills and confidence, learn new life skills such as cooking and food preparation, as well as developing their own personal social competencies and strengthened their relationships at home.
As a result of working with young people in partnership with colleagues in Children’s Social Work Services, officers have been able to contribute to Educational Health Care Plans, Child in Need and Child Protection plans, and Child Sexual Exploitation risk assessments. The teams have also been involved in meetings to plan positive activities for young people to participate in.
Around 50 young people who have attended the WLAC have also been able to access other provision such as the Shortbreaks holiday club and Thursday evening after school club. Some have also gone on to volunteer.

Herd Farm:

409 experiences to young people (some of these were repeat visits); 115 half-day sessions; 42 full day visits; 30 overnight stays