The young people's service covers 5 areas of responsibility:
Lead areas
Play policy and development
Health, drugs and sex education
Participation and citizenship
Detached youth work and crime protection
The young people's service aims to provide children and young people with a range of choices to participate in activities and programmes which are educational, challenging, empowering and fun.
The service is very diverse, ranging from play centres, adventure playgrounds and play schemes to youth clubs, youth centres and specialist projects. There are over 150 groups registered with the service.
One feature of the service is its strong partnership with the voluntary sector, which manages just under half of the funded provision in the borough, as well as running a large number of clubs on a purely voluntary basis.
Children aged 5-11 are catered for in 21 play centres and 6 after school clubs running predominantly in primary school buildings and community centres, after school hours.
These run for 2.5 hours per night and have full-time programmes in selected centres during Easter and summer holidays. The borough funds 12 adventure playgrounds. Six of these are run by the voluntary sector including a specialist playground for children with disabilities. The larger youth centres often have a more extensive programme on offer for a wider catchment area.
There are currently a number of youth projects targeting particular groups who may not access mainstream provision. As well as 'outreach' work from play and youth groups, there are detached projects which do not have a club base but which work in particular areas or estates or with specific ethnic minority groups.
There are a number of other specialised and unique facilities, activities and programmes that reflect the needs and interests of children and young people in the borough. These range diversely, from music projects and counselling projects to water sports and outdoor education projects.
In addition to borough-wide projects, the young people's services holds a budget for holiday provision, which offers an extensive range of schemes run in partnership with the voluntary sector and other agencies each Easter and summer.
The service works closely with other council services, most notably in the estate security initiative and in projects on drugs education, homelessness, youth safety and crime prevention, emphasising the need to work with children and young people both as victims and perpetrators of crime or anti-social behaviour.
The service has a budget of £5.6m with 100 full and part time and part time staff. A strong emphasis is placed on support for those staff through training and production of educational materials and projects.
Head of Young People's Services
Janine Brady
Block B,
Barnsbury Complex
Offord Road
N1 1TH
Email:
janine.brady@islington.gov.uk
Tel: 020 7527 5645
Fax: 020
7527 5547
Enquiries: 0207 527 5641
Page Last Updated: 31 October 2008