Agenda item

Karen Haswell introduced herself to Members as the new Team Manager for Youth Connexions Dacorum and St Albans District. She has recently taken over and explained that she is aware of some issues in the Dacorum area and plans to tackle them including joint working which hasn’t been done In the past.

Karen highlighted the following;

·         XC remains the main centre in Dacorum

·         There are 23 projects on the go

·         Concentrating on a clean slate

·         Working closely with the Councillors in their areas.

K Haswell was happy to take questions on the report.

Cllr England asked how many number of NEETS are there in Dacorum.

K Haswell said, 146 as of today. In the County we are 3^rd lowest, St Albans is the lowest.

Nationally Hertfordshire has one of the lowest NEETS rates.

K Haswell will send the needs over, the percentage of needs and the target after 30^th Nov. They are doing door knocking and surveys to find out the needs.

Cllr W Wyatt-Lowe referred to the bottom of page 60, Adeyfield. How did it go? And what does DAC stands for

DAC stands for Dacorum Team, it’s where the target support team work out of. The building is being used for youth projects.

The numbers are low; they are doing targeted leaflet droppings to houses, then following that up. Approximately 8-10 people, it is low but it hasn’t been going on long.

Cllr W Wyatt-Lowe asked to be kept informed.

Cllr Mahmood thanks K Haswell for coming as the committee were concerned.

In terms of reaching out to the younger people, are you contacting local schools?

K Haswell confirmed that they were in every school on the information advice and guidance site as a commissions servicer accept Ashlyn’s. Going forward a youth worker is paired up with schools, they do lunch time sessions to raise the profile of what projects there are.

Cllr Mahmood was concerned about going to the XC since there is a perception that you get all the privilege people going there, how do we reach out to all?

K Haswell said that the XC is due to be re vamped, they are waiting on plans to be finalised.

It will be far more user friendly. Which will include:

·         Change of kitchen to provide independent living skills

·         Washing facilities so that care leaves can do their laundry.

·         Moving away from the corporate feel

Cllr Mahmood asked if they now had the necessary support to pay the outstanding community centre bills.

K Haswell said yes this won’t be happening again and she appreciates how different things were in the past. There is a good support team now and they aim to run a professional service.

Cllr Mahmood referred to his personal experience, being intimidated in these places. Is there now the right training/people so that we don’t get any anti social behaviour?

K Haswell said there are still some people that need to look at their career options, they are doing training with people that aren’t doing well. They will be recruiting differently. And they do have boundaries, code of behaviours and expectations. Some of the projects are working really well. They are currently re addressing the open access ones.

Cllr Mahmood asked if Bennetts End Youth Club was still closed.

K Haswell said no its re opened, they did have problems with pigeons and rats, which is now sorted. They are offering the Duke of Edinburg and open access sessions from there.

Cllr Hearn said when they look at Youth clubs they found they follow the curriculum to much, the problem in the past is that kids work so hard at school and they need somewhere to go and be relieved of that.

K Haswell agreed and said a good youth worker would help.

Cllr Adeleke asked how many staff there is. His son got involved with the Harpenden one and the majority of staff are young. It’s important to connect with the young ones. He looks forward to the next update as he believes it will be goo news.

Julie Still to stay in contact with K Haswell so if Members have questions later on, hopefully J Still can answer them.

Action:  None

Outcome: The report was noted.