MEMBERSHIP & RESOURCES HOME

RESOURCES

QUALITY MARK

LINKS TO OTHER YOUTH ORGANISATIONS

Policy

Policy is a word that sets many a youth worker running from the room, however without policies and procedures in place your group will have no guidance or structure to follow.

Keeping update to with changes in the law will often mean that a group’s policy will need to be reviewed and translated into meaningful procedures that any staff member or volunteer can follow.

Policy is defined in the dictionary as ‘a course or principle of action adopted or proposed by an organization or individual’. Fine words that should inspire or even galvanize us into action! Why then can it have an opposite effect?

As a group you can test yourself and check when you last updated a policy document (assuming of course you dated the document in the first place!) In fact adding dates is a immediate top tip that all of our members have benefited from when completing our Quality Standards Programme

At a national level central and local government policy influences the amount of money that flows into the voluntary and youth sectors. It is therefore worth gaining a broad understanding of the current themes that these policies wish to realize.

Armed with this knowledge you will be able to complete funding bids in a more concise and coherent way should you be applying for any government funding.

Public Service Agreements

What are they?

There are 30 Public Service Agreements (PSA) which set out the Governments vision for the spending of public monies.

They exist as a result of the Comprehensive Spending Reviews, which is a process where by the Treasury allocates public money to all of the government departments over a three year cycle. 

Each PSA sets out the key priority outcomes the Government wants to achieve in the next spending period, which is currently for the period of 2008-2011.

Each PSA is underpinned by a single Delivery Agreement shared across all contributing departments and developed in consultation with delivery partners and frontline workers.

How does this relate to the youth sector?

There are three key PSA's which relate to the youth sector, which are: PSA's 12, 14 and 22. Central to youth work is PSA 14: Increase the number of children and young people on the path to success.

This PSA comes as a direct result of Aiming High which is a ten year strategy for positive activities setting out the Government's long term vision for young people and the services for them.

back to top

back to resources