Young care leavers have told the Children’s Commissioner for Wales how ideas they come up with at Torfaen’s annual Care Leavers Conferences are helping to develop new services.
Keith Towler was meeting young people who are being supported by Torfaen Young People’s Support Service (TYPSS), including those who are not in education, employment or training (NEETS).
The young people told him that TYPSS has made a big difference to their lives because it brought professionals from different agencies together under one roof in a central location.
Keith Towler, in turn, asked about their individual experiences and where they were living; several young people described their experiences at Hales House – a hostel for young, homeless people – and praised the support available there.
“It’s really great to come somewhere like TYPSS and see so many people from different professional backgrounds working under one roof to support young people,” he said. “It’s a big plus that TYPSS is so accessible and that children and young people know the service is here. You should pat yourselves on the back.”
The Commissioner was also impressed with an idea, raised by older care leavers, that they might share their experiences of life after care with fifteen year olds attending TYPSS Employability Group.
Gary Jones, TYPSS manager, explained how Keith Towler’s visit was arranged after a discussion about local authority support for care leavers at a recent Wales Leaving Care Forum.
“Colleagues working with care leavers across Wales were discussing the type of problem that we all face,” he said. “Fortunately, in Torfaen, we’ve been able to make a dramatic impact on helping care leavers and other young people, by bringing together our support services under one roof. The Children’s Commissioner expressed an interest in seeing for himself what support we are able to offer care leavers and to talk to the young people themselves.”
Keith Towler, who was appointed in March 2008, said his job is to be an independent champion for children and young people – someone who will speak out on their behalf.
Since it was set up in June 2007, TYPSS has transformed the lives of many vulnerable 16-21 year olds who have sought advice and support about homelessness, mental health issues, substance misuse, education, employment and training, pregnancy and other issues.
At the heart of TYPSS’ approach is the way it has taken the multi-agency approach one step further and brought together all the services that vulnerable young people might need under one roof and co-ordinated them centrally.
Demand has grown steadily, and 365 visits to the service were recorded in November 2009, compared to 270 in March 2008. In the year ending March 31st 2009, there were 3,827 individual visits by young people needing support from one or more agencies based at TYPSS.
This has prevented the harmful and frustrating ‘pillar to post’ syndrome – a formerly common experience where vulnerable young people might have had to deal with three or four professionals and revisit past, often painful, experiences with each of them before gaining appropriate help.
TYPSS runs regular training/support groups for young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), including the Employability Group, which supports young care leavers to gain valuable qualifications and work experience, healthy eating and cookery classes, a breakfast club for those who are doing key skills courses, a drop-in group for young women.
TYPSS is located on the Fifth Floor, Gwent House (above Cwmbran Library), Cwmbran Town Centre, Cwmbran, Torfaen.
