• The Ministry's sub-output themes
• youth at risk;
• youth achievement;
• co-ordination of services; and

The three related strategic perspectives of

• the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC);
• youth development; and
• information flows from and about young people.

 Concern for young people at risk has become a major focus of media attention, political debate, community concern, policy development, and programme delivery. Indicators for at risk young people between the ages of 10 and 18 include: criminal offending; alcohol and drug use; low self-esteem; high levels of self-harm or suicidal behaviours; truancy or suspension from school; living in a benefit dependent household; unwanted pregnancy; poor educational achievement; poor physical and mental health; and symptoms of physical, sexual or emotional abuse. New Zealand's high rates of teenage suicide, teenage pregnancies, road crash deaths, and rates of teenage criminal offending are often quoted as symptoms of youth in crisis. 

 Based on research data from the Dunedin and Christchurch longitudinal studies, young people from approximately 5% of families are at high risk of exhibiting persistent and multiple disadvantage. The Christchurch study estimates that a quarter of teenagers from the 5% of high risk families exhibit multiple problems. Assuming these studies are representative of New Zealand, then 25,000 to 30,000 families are at risk nation-wide, and approximately 25,000 young people are disadvantaged or seriously at risk.  

A broad range of programmes across central government agencies are targeted at young people at risk of adverse life outcomes. The Strengthening Families project11 has identified a total of 140 programmes which impact on, or directly support families and whanau. This includes programmes universally provided for families with children aged 0-6 years, and those provided specifically for at risk families with dependent children of any age. Total expenditure on these programmes is estimated at $385 million. 

The Ministry of Youth Affairs is currently working to identify more explicitly Government agencies_, expenditure on young people between 12 and 25, and how much is targeted to at risk young people. This project could extend into an investigation of local government and voluntary sector expenditure.  

In spite of efforts to assist at risk young people, serious problems remain. Statistics on youth offending, youth suicide, and truancy and suspension from school remain at the same levels or have increased during the 1990s. Although unemployment rates for young people have fallen, young people remain by far the most likely group to be unemployed.

 Research indicates, in particular, that the needs of a small group of young people with severe multiple problems are currently not being well met. This group would benefit from a more structured and individually case-managed network of co-ordinated intervention over the long-term, rather than the somewhat fragmented set of specific help which current services are targeted to deliver within an individual agency focus.

 Current policy work is beginning to focus on early intervention to reduce the number of young people at risk during their adolescent years. There is a need, however, for:  

• better integration between agencies of the assessment process used for early identification;
• co-ordination of interventions; and
• information sharing.

 It is important to put the problems of young people at risk in perspective. While perhaps 5%, or 25,000, of the youth population is at risk of negative outcomes, more than half a million young people generally are not. The positive aspects of youth achievement need to be promoted and encouraged, as well as caring for those at serious risk of failure.  

A key aspect of the Ministry's policy work focus is, therefore, on policy initiatives which help young people to maximise their potential to achieve, and improve their self-reliance and self-management as they move into adulthood.  

Projects and policy work where the emphasis is on the broad based delivery of services to young people include: 

• innovative ways of managing the school/work interface and making the learning environment more friendly to young people to maximise the retention of young people in learning;
• the delivery of careers advice to young people; and
• the financial signals to young people in the post-compulsory education and training system.

In addition, the Ministry works to encourage and facilitate the participation of young people into the social, cultural and political fabric of New Zealand through regional youth councils, the student representatives scheme, and the triennial Youth Parliament.

It is recognised that the integration between services offered by government agencies could be significantly improved. Since the late 1980s agencies have tended to focus on careful definition of their own outputs, and strict measurement of exclusive accountabilities. Rigid operational policies appear to have restricted innovative and integrated ways of assisting young people. As a result, co-operation and collaboration have suffered. Different agencies can be working with the same young client and know little or nothing of each other_,s work, applying different mechanisms for the assessment of need and delivery of services.

 Because of its neutrality from any major service delivery responsibilities, and its focus on a single client population, Youth Affairs has been able to take an objective approach to examining solutions to current policy and programme co-ordination problems. As a result, the Ministry has been able to take the lead role in several key interagency projects, such as Youth Suicide Monitoring and Prevention, Crime Prevention for Youth At Risk, and Young Recidivist Offending.

 The recent publication of the Realising the Potential documents has been very positively received by many agencies with whom the Ministry has been working, both inside and outside of Government, as a means of highlighting the inter-dependency of policies and practices impacting on young people's lives. 

Young people are seldom incorporated into the policy and programme development process. While often given nominal representation, such as on Secondary School Boards of Trustees, young people's views and opinions are generally given little if any weight. It is not surprising, therefore, that services and policies designed to assist them are too often seen by young people themselves to be poorly run, poorly directed, and even irrelevant.  

In addition, the range of restrictions and limitations placed on young people by using age as a surrogate for capacity to participate fully or enjoy adult rights and responsibilities is inconsistent and often without clear rationale. The range of ages, from 6 to 20, which act as significant benchmarks to adulthood and full citizenship lack a coherent framework or commonality of rationale which recognises the evolving capacity of young people, and their right to have their views and opinions taken into account.

Rather, they appear to reflect a set of past ad hoc decisions, and can present a confused jumble of messages to young people seeking to develop their own maturity.

 It is important that young people are able to develop a clear sense of their rights and associated responsibilities as they mature. The rights of young people to be treated as adults, unless there is a clearly demonstrable reason why there is a need for them to be protected from themselves or others, should be a key parameter in the development of legislation, regulations and policies which affect young people. 

 In recent years Government policy and service delivery for young people has tended to focus on solving specific problems at the expense of more broadly focused youth development programmes.The concept of youth development is a broad approach to youth services that incorporates several strands of activity. The approach is proactive, seeking to focus activity on the promotion of healthy overall development. It complements the reactive or problem focused approach that currently dominates provision of services to young people. The problem based paradigm often dominates the orientation of policies within the education, justice, health and welfare sectors.  

Reliance on a problem-based approach can result in young people with needs, who do not fit into one problem prescription or another, remaining unnoticed and going without the assistance they may require. This increases the probability of young people falling into an at risk category, at a later stage. Other young people, who are relatively problem free, may not be provided with the appropriate services and opportunities that will help prepare them for fully adult life.

 
Youth development programmes incorporate a variety of activities and experiences, often including recreation as well as formal or semi-formal learning. Focusing on the whole young person, rather than on a set of discrete characteristics, or problems, allows youth orientated services to be more effectively delivered to suit the requirements and needs of individual young people. Sound youth development services and programmes often involve close collaboration between the voluntary, private, and public sectors; with young people being involved in the associated decision making processes.

 The concept of individual case management has attracted interest as a means of providing services for young people. It also accommodates the holistic youth-development approach. It is based around a single key worker, with whom the young person feels comfortable working. Pilot projects in Auckland schools wrap services around, the young person.

 These services are brought to the school site with full consultation with the young person and his or her family or caregivers and the school key worker,. These projects appear to be proving very successful in lowering negative indicators such as self-harm and suicide attempts, truancy, and drop-out rates.  

 Good policy analysis requires high quality information about the nature of the problem, and the views and opinions of all relevant parties. Constructive and informed opinions on the best solutions require good information to be available about young people.

 The ongoing development of the Ministry's communication and information strategy is structured around these needs. It seeks to:

• improve the information that is available to policy analysts on young people, and the funding and services which are provided to them;
• improve the input of young people themselves by developing a structured framework of information gathering from and about young people, across the full range from anecdotal and qualitative information from young people to statistically representative and census based information; and
• make this information available to other government and non-government organisations and policy agencies.

It is essential that other agencies are also encouraged to gather information and opinion from young people. Large agencies which have a key role in designing, delivering, or evaluating services for young people, such as those in the Education sector, should have methodologies for acquiring the views of young people where relevant. This is often not the case.

 The Ministry is working with Statistics New Zealand to produce an update of the Youth Statistical Profile, using 1996 Census data and other relevant statistics and information, which will be made widely available to government and non-government agencies. The publication is expected to be available in the second half of 1997.