Background
The development of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) can be traced back to The Victoria Climbie Inquiry (The Laming Report), which made a number of recommendations to Government in order to improve protection for children.

The recommendations included the need for Local Authorities to:

"Establish reliable ways of assessing the needs and circumstances of children in their area..."

The CAF has been developed for use by practitioners in all organisations so that they can communicate and work more effectively together.

The National Youth Agency has published the 'Local authority youth services annual audit 2005-06'.

This is an opportunity to see how Hampshire measures up against other local authorities.

Local Authorities are required as part of the inspection regime to submit a self assessment of the service. This is used as a key document during the inspection process.

This is a link to Hampshire's self assessemnt prepared in connection with the approaching Joint Area Inspection (JAR). It's an excellent overview of the youth service.

The Education and Skills Committee's final report on bullying, published yesterday (Tuesday), urges the Government to issue fresh guidance to schools as a matter of urgency, making it clear they should not be barring young victims from school.

The report says the Government's guidelines must make it clear that all anti-bullying work should focus on changing the behaviour of bullies, rather than victims. And it calls for local authorities to draw up advice to schools, setting out what services are available for young people whose bullying behaviour cannot be dealt with in school.

The report also says the Government should introduce a requirement for all schools to record all incidents of bullying, and for all schools' anti-bullying policies to mention disability-related, race-related, faith-based and homophobic bullying.

This from Young People Now

The Government will have to go back to the drawing board with its standards on information, advice and guidance for 11- to 19-year-olds if it acts upon the responses of four major national guidance organisations to its consultation.

Among the criticisms to the consultation, which ended on 16 March, the most stinging attack comes from the National Association of Connexions Partners (NACP), which says they are "seriously flawed and not fit for purpose".

The association criticises the way the standards are divided into minimum expectations and higher-level practice, calling for all providers to reach the same level. It also says it is not made clear who the standards apply to and calls for a framework of independent inspection.

The Government has appointed the Improvement and Development Agency to run a £2m training programme for public sector commissioners.

The two-year programme is designed to create a better understanding of charities that are keen to deliver public services. From the summer, it will train 2,000 public sector commissioners, including staff from councils and Jobcentre Plus.

Third sector minister Ed Miliband said he hoped the programme would improve commissioners' awareness of the sector and the problems it faces when bidding for government contracts. "The third sector is not yet seen by commissioners as a solution to their commissioning needs," he said.

Teenagers' lives outside school are often unstructured and chaotic, interim findings of a national inquiry into young people published this week reveal.

The Make Space Youth Review, which has collected the views of more than 7,000 young people since it was launched last July, says that teenagers are concerned for their own personal safety and want help from adults, as well as safe places in the community to meet friends and try new things.

Free training programme for voluntary organisations supported by ChangeUp...

Hampshire Voluntary and Community Sector Consortium, the body responsible for implementing the year Infrastructure Development Plan has organised free programme of training and development programme for staff and volunteers working in Voluntary and Community organisations based in Hampshire. The consortium will also contribute towards the expenses of course delegates. Follow the links for further details of courses and booking information:

Training for Tendering: an intensive 2 day programme for service providers delivered by ROCC, Southampton - places available for courses running on: 26 & 27 March 2007; 19 and 20 April 2007; 24 and 25 September 2007; 10 and 11 December 2007; and, 12 and 13 March 2008. Booking information here

Government social exclusion policy is stopping youth work from achieving its full potential, according to a two-year research project to be published by the NYA in April

Youth Work: Voices of Practice, carried out by Durham University and youth organisation Weston Spirit, found that when youth workers had to work with young people referred from other agencies such as schools and youth offending teams, they were forced into a policing role and were unable to gain young people's trust. Youth workers were more effective in more mixed groups. "Youth work is not the most appropriate approach for all groups of young people," states the report.

HCVYS supports 37 voluntary youth organisations in the Hampshire, Southampton and Portsmouth

• 2,691 outlets for young people
• 12,686 adults working with young people
• 115,597 young people being worked with on a regular basis
• 14 Residential Centres

There are approximately 313,556 young people in the 5-19 age range in our geographic area. This means that at a conservative estimate 37% of the youth population of Hampshire is catered for by HCVYS members.