Integrated Youth Support Services (IYSS)
Click here for the Latest update from IYSS (August 2008)
After lengthy negotiations and consultation between partners and the unions the 1st April 2008 saw the launch of the new Integrated Youth Support Service for Warrington.
The service in Warrington has been developed as a partnership between sectors of the Health Service the Cheshire and Warrington Connexions and the Warrington Borough Council Youth Service. It is a partnership arrangement with an integrated management team.
Connexions PA’s working in the community and schools and Youth workers will continue their work in the Borough. The staff in the service will continue to be employed by their ‘home organisation’.
What will change is the management structure of the joint Service.
Senior managers of both the Youth Service and the Connexions service being collapsed into one management team.
The following personnel have been appointed to post. Mandy Burrows Head of IYSS, Sue Breslin and Paul Maher responsible for Development and Operations of the Service and a new structure of five area managers Rebecca Boothroyd, Katie Davis, Gill Gascoine, Yvonne Neary and.
Margaret Potter replacing Connexions team leaders and Senior Youth workers.
The intention is to build on the strengths of the services involved, bringing benefit to young people and the continuity with an integrated, multi disciplinary delivery model and maintain the skill base of the individual professions involved.
It is a very different model to neighbouring Cheshire, and understandably some confusion exists around the governance of the new Service.
To clarify, the funding for both Connexions and Youth Services sits with Warrington Borough Council who hold ultimate responsibility for delivering the services.
Connexions Cheshire and Warrington are contracted by Warrington Borough Council to deliver the Connexions element of the IYSS, an integrated management structure and integrated delivery teams will ensure that services become seamless, with all the benefits of shared processes and procedures and where possible a single point of contact to access a range of services.
For those voluntary organisations that have been in receipt of Grant Aid or have been funded in the last financial year by means of a contract or Service level agreement from the Warrington Borough Council Youth Service, six months funding has now been agreed from 1st April 2008 as an interim arrangement until new policies and guidelines on grant aid have been developed for the joint service.
There is a similar arrangement in place for those in receipt of the connexions If you have any questions or require further details and information on the IYSS you can ring 01925 442883 It is important to recognise and seek clarification where required as it is different to the Cheshire model.