North Yorkshire Youth Carlton Lodge Outdoor Centre Carlton Miniott Thirsk North Yorkshire Y07 4NJ

01845 522145 info@nyy.org.uk www.nyy.org.uk

Youth Charter
Rights, Respect, Responsibility
General information
The Youth Charter is a tool developed by young people in North Yorkshire to help them assess and improve the services that they use. Young People should be actively involved in designing, managing and evaluating the services that are provided for them and their community.

Why use the Youth Charter?

Many organisations provide a good quality service for young people and want to see how they can improve. Young People can use the Youth Charter to assess a service and give feedback and action points to help organisations improve.

Which services could you Youth Charter"?

Any service that deals directly with Young People can be assessed. These could include: Places you go to take part in activities, such as youth centres, youth van or village hall. Places you go to relax or play sport, such as leisure centres, or cinemas. Places you go for education and learning, such as school, college or a library, Places you may visit for advice and guidance, such as Connexions, drop-in services or district councils, Places that you go for specialist support, e.g. A health clinic, support group or service. Note: if an organisation or service wishes to be Youth Chartered they must contact North Yorkshire Youth to discuss how to take the process forward.

What does the Youth Charter assess?

There are nine quality standards an organisation can be assessed against. An organisation or service must be assessed against at least 5 of these standards: Is it friendly Is it clean and comfortable Has it got clear signs Is it safe Is there somewhere private if needed Is Information easy to understand Are Young People treated with respect Are Young People listened to Are things clearly explained

How is an organisation or service assessed?

Forming a group: To carry out a Youth Charter assessment a group of Young People must get together and register their interest with a Youth Charter Facilitator. You can use Form 1 the Youth Charter Registration Form. It is vital that you register with a Youth Charter Facilitator so NYY can confirm that the Youth Charter will be used in the appropriate manner.

Initial meeting: Your group needs to meet with a manager in the organisation that is being assessed to decide which standards you are using. You need to pick at least 5 of the standards that relate to the organisation. You need to think carefully about which standards you choose. For example if a youth club is running in a village hall and they dont own the building, is it fair to assess them on signs? There are 2 Parts to assessment: Assessment Part 1 Face to Face assessment. When you have agreed with the organisation the standards you are assessing, you can then score the organisation. You can do this at the same time as the initial meeting. You may choose to do the following to make sure you can score the organisation fairly: Ask the staff lots of questions about the organisation Ask to be showed around the organisation and introduced to the other staff or volunteers involved. Make notes about what you can see and how you think other young people feel about the service or organisation. Take part in some of the activities that the organisation provides. Ask other young people using the organisation about what they think. You need to use the Form 2 (Youth Charter Assessment) below to score the organisation against the standards you have chosen Assessment Part 2 Mystery Shopper You need to be careful with this part of the assessment. The organisation that is being assessed should not know that this assessment is taking place. Therefore you need to think carefully about how you do this. For Example: 10 members of your group turning up to a cinema with clipboards and pens will give you away! Lots of members visiting a sexual health clinic at the same time is not necessarily appropriate! Sometimes it is very inappropriate to do a mystery shopper. E.g. A service that is available for young people who may suffer from a particular problem would not be happy with you just turning up to a session just to see whats going on!

If you need any help in deciding if you are going to do a mystery shopper please let us know on your registration form, and how you think you are going to do it? If your group is going to do a mystery shopper, you dont need a separate scoring sheet. The mystery shoppers role is to check that they agree with the assessment scorings. If the organisation is very different when a mystery shop is being done, you need to go back to them and re assess the organisation from the start.

Follow up Once your group has assessed the organisation complete Form 2 - Youth Charter Assessment Form to record your feedback. You need to send this back to North Yorkshire Youth to enable them to provide the organisation with a certificate and the recommendations you have made. North Yorkshire Youth will then post out a certificate to the organisation with their star rating and feedback. The organisation can use their certificate for 2 years to promote themselves to young people. After 2 years the organisation will need to be reassessed to be able to say they have a Youth Charter. North Yorkshire Youth will provide participation certificates for all the Young People who have been involved in the assessment; these will be posted to the Youth Charter Facilitator.

Notes for Youth Charter Facilitators: To become a Youth Charter Facilitator you do not need to attend any training, but you must register with NYY before you go through the Youth Charter Process. To register you must fill in Form 1 Youth Charter Registration Form and send it to NYY before you complete the Youth Charter. You must wait for us to be in touch via email or phone to discuss the Youth Charter with you. It is perceived that most Youth Service staff and Keyfund Facilitators will be granted the go ahead to Youth Charter with limited discussion. Please wait for NYY to contact you before you complete Form 2 - Youth Charter Assessment. We will endeavour to contact you within 1 week of receiving the registration form for an informal discussion.

Form 1 Youth Charter Registration Form

Group Name: Facilitators Name: Facilitators Job Title: Facilitators address: Postcode: Group Location: Facilitators Organisation: Facilitators phone number or email Have you been a facilitator before? Yes / No

Facilitator Please note: Please fill out all the details clearly. This information will be used to provide you with certificates for the young people. The certificate for the organisation will be sent direct with a letter including the feedback from the young people. If you are a first time facilitator please use this form to register with us before you carry out the Youth Charter Assessment. We will be in contact for an informal discussion to hopefully grant you facilitator status.

Group Details
Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 D.O.B Age M/F

Which organisation / service or facility is going to be assessed: Organisation address: Postcode: Are you going to do a mystery shopper? Please give details here:

Lead contact in organisation:

NYY USE ONLY:

NYCC Area : Hambleton N Hambleton S Added to NYY Database: Harrogate E Craven YES / NO Scarborough Ryedale Selby Richmondshire

Contact / register the Facilitator: YES / NO

Form 2 Youth Charter Assessment

Remember you must have registered your group with NYY before completing the assessment. Step 1 Details of group and organisation: Who is doing the assessing? Group Name: Facilitators Name: Facilitators address:
(all certificates will be sent to this address)

Group Location: Facilitators Organisation:

Postcode: Who is being assessed? Which organisation / service or facility is going to be assessed: Organisation address: Postcode: Other stuff: Date of assessment: Date of mystery shopper:

Lead contact in organisation:

How long did it take? How long did it take?

If your group are going to do a mystery shopper, you dont need a separate scoring sheet. The mystery shoppers role is to check that they agree with the assessment scorings. If the organisation is very different when a mystery shop is being done, you need to go back to them and re assess the organisation from the start.

Step 2 Scoring What standards are you assessing the organisation against? You must pick at least 5 standards: Circle the score your group gives the organisation. You only need to do one score sheet for the group, you should all agree on your final scores.

Assessing? Standard
Friendliness Welcoming? Rude? Abrupt? Smiley? Enthusiastic? Confident? Body language? Clean and Comfortable Place to sit? Clean? Tidy? Bright? Atmosphere? Display? Clear Signs Are there any? Confusing? Instructions? Catering for all needs? Safe Lighting? Security? Fire doors? Bullying policy? Enough staff?

Score

Notes

Yes / No

Yes / No

Yes / No

Yes / No

Yes / No

Privacy Private confidential area? Are the staff willing to talk on a one to one level? Information Whats available? Presentation? Variety? Forms for all abilities? Staff knowledge? Treated with respect Attitude towards young people? Respect? Involvement? Do staff value young people? Listened to Ignored? Are young people asked or directed? Willing to help? Encouraging? Supportive? Have things explained Explanations given willingly? Are you helped to understand?

Yes / No

Yes / No

Yes / No

Yes / No

Step 3 - Working out the score: What scores did you give for each standard, remembers you must have scored against at least 5 standards.

Standard
Friendliness Clean and Comfortable Clear Signs

Did you score it?

Yes / No Yes / No

Score

Working out your results:

Add up scores to give you a total score:

Yes / No Number of Standards you scored against? (Number of Yess)

The final rating is number of Yess Total score, e.g. if you scored 5 of the standards and the total score is 16 your rating is 3.2

Safe Privacy Information Treated with respect Listened to Have things explained

Yes / No Yes / No Yes / No Yes / No Yes / No Yes / No

Final rating

Step 4 - Feedback for organisation: Star Rating: Work out how many stars the organisation will get on their certificate for their youth charter using the final rating you just worked out.

Action points for the organisation: 2 things that were good about the organisation:

Final Rating

Star rating (circle the organisations rating) 1

2 things that werent so good about the organisation:

Up to 1

Between 1 and 2

2 Action points: what do you think the organisation needs to do to improve their Youth Charter Rating?

Between 2 and 3

Between 3 and 4

Between 4 and 5

I hereby confirm that the grades and comments are that of the young people involved in the assessment Facilitator signature: ....................................................... Date: .................................. 10