The Isles of Scilly Youth service has been praised in a letter written to Phillip Hygate, Chief Executive of the Isles of Scilly Council, from Mr Ivan Lewis MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Young People and Learning.
This praise comes as a direct consequence of a recent OFSTED report on Youth Services, in which Scilly faired particularly well. In the Letter, Ivan Lewis noted “the Isles of Scilly has a good youth service with many strengths and which provides satisfactory value for money”. He also congratulated the Staff concerned for their “hard work”.
The Youth Service has worked hard over the past few years, it was widely recognised that the infrastructure did not exist as recently as four years ago to implement the changes we can see today. One of the most vivid examples of the action taken is the Youth Club which has been set up recently on St. Marys. Such clubs on the off Islands though are regrettably still primarily up to the discretion of individuals and not an official body.
All though the general tone of the letter was in praise, Ivan Lewis MP also highlighted areas where the service could be improved. These areas included improving the co-operation within youth work and how this can be linked with young peoples educational achievements. The council intend to address these problems by appointing a ‘Youth Worker’ for the Islands.
This report comes as a breath of fresh air for Young people in The Islands as it highlights the fact that work is finally being brought up into line with the standard of provisions available to mainland students, despite obvious differences and difficulties which the Islands incur.