Equality Impact Assessment - Connexions Services

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• Equality Impact Assessment - Connexions Services

Is this a new function or a review of an existing function?

This is a review of an existing function.

What are the aims/purpose of the function?

Connexions provides information, advice and guidance to young people aged 13 – 19 (up to 25 for young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities).  Advisers work in schools, Kingston college and pupil referral units, from a high street Connexions Centre, outreach points and through other key agencies such as the Youth Offending Team, Teenage Pregnancy Unit and Leaving Care service.  We also provide help with benefits, finding job vacancies and provide, through specialist PAs, intensive support to young people who cannot make easy progress into employment, training or education.

Is the function designed to meet specific needs such as the needs of minority ethnic groups, older people, disabled people etc?

Yes.  The specification for the work which we are contracted to provide lays down continuous improvement targets year on year.  These targets are laid down in order to improve the life chances of  those young people who may be deemed to be more vulnerable to becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) as well as meeting the needs of the wider population.  These targets have been incorporated into the Children and Young People’s Plan.

The service sets down an improvement action plan which lays out how the targets will be achieved and how we will ensure that we are meeting the needs of all the young people in Kingston.

What information has been gathered on this function? (Indicate the type of information gathered e.g. statistics, consultation, other monitoring information)? Attach a summary or refer to where the evidence can be found.

We produce statistics each month which are sent to Government Office for London and which are published nationally.  This information is fed into the Children and young Peoples Strategic Partnership and into the annual plan.  Reports are also made to key internal groups such as the 14 – 19 strategy group.  The statistics show any anomalies in achievement or destinations of specific groups of young people.  Any such anomalies are reported back to local centres so that action can be taken to address the problems.  Currently we are investigating the monthly figures closely at borough level for evidence of any groups which need further support.

An annual survey of destinations of all year 11 school leavers is carried out at the end of each calendar year.  Only numerical information is provided to the Government Office for London.  A report is published and disseminated to schools and the local authority.  Information is published on the Prospects website and also on Connexions South London website.   The report contains information on destinations broken down by gender and ethnicity.  

We produce statistics on caller rates to the Connexions Centre.  This information is collated by Connexions South London and is used by us for planning purposes.  We encourage all callers to the office to complete a ‘Tell us what you think’ questionnaire which is collated quarterly and from which we gather information about issues young people feel need to be addressed in our services.  Twice annually we ask all the young people we see in a two week period to complete evaluation forms about the service they have received.  These reports are collated by our quality unit.  Kingston has only received one negative comment in the past year and this related to the fact that we were not providing a service which we are not funded to provide.  The comment was made anonymously.  Generally satisfaction ratings are very high.

Does your analysis of the information show different outcomes for different groups (higher or lower uptake/failure to access/receive a poorer or inferior service)? If yes, indicate which groups and which aspects of the policy or function contribute to inequality?

Feedback on our services is good.   We are concerned that the statistics on our vulnerable groups show that Learning Difficulties and /or Disabled young people are over represented in the NEET group (Not in Education Employment or Training) against the whole population of young people in Kingston.  We have secured funding to address this by seeking more suitable supported vacancies and arranging work experience to assist young people into work.  We are also working with the LSC to identify gaps in appropriate courses.

Some vulnerable groups such as teenage parents have lower rates of entry into EET than other groups but this can be a matter of personal choice in some cases, as the parents wish to wait until their children are older before returning to study or work or training.  Services have been offered to support them in this and there is good take up of Care to Learn and other support packages.

More work needs to be done on identifying specific BME groups with whom additional work needs to be completed.  This process of interrogating the statistics has already been started.  

Are these differences justified (e.g. are there legislative or other constraints)? If they are, explain in what way.

See above

What action needs to be taken as a result of this Equality Impact Assessment to address any detrimental impacts or meet previously unidentified need? Include here any reasonable adjustments for access by disabled people. Include dates by which action will be taken. Attach an action plan if necessary.

We will continue to press for opportunities for young people who are not capable of achieving level 2 training without extra support.  This will serve the needs of a wide range of vulnerable groups who, in many cases, have not achieved more than a minimum level of education before leaving school.

When will you evaluate the impact of action taken? Give review dates.

We review the statistics for all vulnerable groups monthly at contract review meetings.  This will continue.

Assessment completed by:

Barbara Thorn

Prospects Services Ltd (provider of the majority of Connexions services in Kingston)

24 April 2007