Staffordshire County Council procured spatial insight software to map a summary of services which support children and young people.
Staffordshire is over 1,000 square miles, consisting of eight districts with over 876,000 residents, 21 per cent of which are aged 0-19.
Staffordshire fulfils its Section 507b statutory duty (to provide sufficient educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people aged 13 to 19, and up to 24 for those with special educational needs) via a partnership and commissioned arrangement with Staffordshire Council for Voluntary Youth Services (SCVYS). SCVYS provide infrastructure, funding and development support to the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector partners who support children and young people.
Staffordshire County Council procured spatial insight software and provided dedicated resource within its ICT service to utilise the software to map and create a visual summary of services which support children and young people.
To ensure the information was accurate, Staffordshire worked alongside SCVYS to identify as much youth provision as possible throughout the county, including the VCSE, faith, private and sports sectors.
Over 1,400 different activities were recorded into a database which was then cross referenced with census data and information accessed via Staffordshire’s Early Help partnership such as:
- Antisocial behaviour locality data
- Child exploitation locality data
- Education, Health & Care Plans
- SEND & Inclusion support
- Free School Meals eligibility
- Family Hub locations and delivery
Bringing this information together allowed Staffordshire County Council teams and partners to understand the sufficiency of provision. The geographical range was supported by the function of heat maps and visual summary data, such as below:
Staffordshire County Council presented the information to district-based partnership boards to apply local knowledge to the figures. This provided an added layer of qualitative information, such as accessibility to public transport.
Staffordshire CC have subsequently shared their learning and experienced with other local authorities across the region - highlighting the effectiveness of the mapping and modelling approach.
Using data to drive positive outcomes for children
The modelling has proved particularly useful for local programmes such as the implementation of the Turnaround Programme, on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, which is intended to prevent children from becoming involved in the criminal justice system.
Understanding the sufficiency and geographical distribution of youth provision across the county, combined with insight into how the Early Help partnership data influences demand in each locality, enabled a programme to be planned that could provide bespoke interventions to children, centred around their communities, interests and support needs.
The Programme supported Youth Justice officers to undertake whole family assessments and then work with youth provision providers to engage directly with the children. The Programme has so far engaged with circa 250 children, supporting a broad range of needs, with 90 per cent of participants remaining outside of the Youth Justice system.
The Programme has delivered a range of support packages, ensuring sustainable exit offers into youth provision for children supported by the Programme.
To date, the VCSE sector delivered support for 70 per cent of children supported by the Programme. Providers contributing to the programme also utilised the anonymised data collected as part of the sufficiency mapping to further expand the range of positive activities available for children in Staffordshire.
Report link: Young People's Offer - Countywide Needs Analysis
Contact: Declan Kinney
Commissioning Officer, Staffordshire County Council