SKILLS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE!

A colleague sent me  link to the The Centre for Youth Impact and Local Government Association document, 'A Framework of Outcomes for Young People 2.0' which affirms the work we had been doing in Sheffield with the Cutlers Company to develop programmes to help young people develop the skills required to thrive and succeed at school, in work and in life!!

The Catalyst Framework of Outcomes 2012 took as its starting point the emerging evidence that social and emotional skills play a key part in young people’s ability to make successful transitions to adulthood and achieve positive life outcomes including educational attainment, employment, and good health. It was an attempt to make clear connections between what are often considered to be the short-termor ‘soft’ outcomes of provision for young people and the longer-term impacts. The framework was well-received by the youth sector initially, and many practitioners started to use it as the basis for defining and measuring the outcomes they hoped to achieve with young people, assisted by the matrix of measurement tools included with the framework. However, the Catalyst Framework ultimately failed to make as great an impact on the sector as had been hoped, emerging as it did into an environment of severe reductions in resources available for youth work and other forms of developmental work with young people. As well as reducing the actual offer available to young people, budget reductions led to a significant decline in leadership roles within the youth sector, both locally and nationally. As a result, the Catalyst Framework lacked advocates in senior roles in local authorities and national organisations, and has lost traction in the last five years.Despite this, contributors to the LGA Bright Futures consultation praised the work that was done on the Catalyst Framework and its relevance to their work with young people. As such, when the LGA designed the specification for work on an updated framework of outcomes, contributors encouraged a revision of the Catalyst Framework as an option. The Centre for Youth Impact has embraced this as a positive evolution for the original Catalyst Framework, and a new opportunity to revisit and update the thinking that underpinned previous work. In undertaking this new piece of work, the Centre has listened to practitioners, commissioners and managers from across the youth sector who have welcomed the opportunity to revise and refresh the Catalyst Framework. Those who are familiar with
that Framework recognise that it continues to provide a useful exploration of the key skills that help young people make successful transitions and respond to challenges along the way, and – with a research-informed update - it has the potential to underpin commissioning and provision of services for young people.