Impact
‘Outcome Star’ is the main outcome measuring tool used by Music to My Ears. It allows us to effectively measure young people as they enter the service, and monitor their journey through the service to ensure we are always aware of key areas that might need additional support.
With the help of Outcome Star, we are also able to work towards hitting care plan goals in a timely and effective way. This not only provides real targeted support for young people, but also also allows the service to learn lessons and pivot a care plan so that, as we hit certain goals, we can better focus on other identified areas.
From this tool, over the last year, the following percentages of young people supported by the service have reported improvements in these key areas:
- 100% in managing mental health
- 98% in physical health and self-care
- 100% in living skills
- 100% in social networks
- 96% in work / education
- 100% in relationships
- 98% in addictive behaviour
- 96% in responsibilities
- 98% in identity and self-esteem
- 98% in trust and hope in the future
A more detailed breakdown of these improvements can be seen in Chart 1 in the full report.
Demographics
Ethnicity
Our ethnicity demographics are fairly consistent with the wider demographics throughout the county, with the exception of a low referral rate for people from the Asian community.
Our referrals have mainly skewed towards people from a white ethnic background, however this is not always British: we have also seen a small number of white European young people being referred into the service.
Gender
As in previous years, we have seen most of our referrals being male.
We have completed significant awareness work over the last year to help partners and stakeholders better understand the “push and pull factors” that could see a young person being groomed into child criminal exploitation (CCE).
Through this work, we saw a potential risk that all female exploitation was only looked at as child sexual exploitation (CSE) with no consideration for the potential of child criminal exploitation forming part, or all, of the picture. As this awareness grows, we have seen an uplift in the number of female referrals that are appropriate for service.
Additional needs
When a young person enters our service, we ask them to self-identify any additional needs and talk to them about any areas they might struggle with – from social exposure to literacy, to mobility issues. This is so that we can ensure our service meets the needs of everyone who is referred in, and so that we can adapt accordingly.
We then work with the young person in the care planning stage of the intervention to ensure that all the goals are achievable as part of our SMART care plan ethos.
Of the young people referred this year:
- 48% reported no additional needs or health conditions that required adjustments to be made.
- 35% stated they had a medical condition that required adjustment. We consider medical conditions to include emotional wellbeing, and the majority of the 35% suffered with anxiety.
- 10% had a diagnosis of ASD.
- 5% had a diagnosed mental health condition, including depression and personality disorders.
Location
The heat map highlights the annual trends across the county:
- The areas with the greatest referral density are almost all, except for Guildford, neighbouring London Boroughs.
- Godstone has seen the highest level of referral, followed by Staines-upon-Thames.
- We have also notable levels in Woking and Guildford and various wards on the east of the county.
Challenges
As with all services, we have not been without our challenges. This year, we have faced two main challenges:
- consistent referral pathways, and
- staff recruitment.
Referrals
Although we have had a record number of young people through the service, we have found that we have peaks and troughs, which makes the resource deployment tricky to plan.
After consulting several key partners, we have concluded that, as expected, due to the nature of the service and the young people referred into it, it is not possible (or realistic) to expect a regular and consistent referral volume.
To overcome this, we have flexed how we staff the service to ensure we always have capacity. We have done this through a minimum staffing model, and investment in a bricks and mortar location to allow us to see more young people on certain days compared to purely outreach offerings.
Staffing
As above, in order to find an effective succinct solution to the challenges we have moved towards a small bricks and mortar studio space. Not only has this helped us with managing capacity, it has also allowed us to provide a safe space that we can invite young people, professionals, and partners to utilise.
Being able to provide up to five sessions a day on studio days, we will be able to meet our KPIs whilst also getting the best value for money out of the service.
“Being in a studio and having hands on experience with recording equipment makes my Music to My Ears sessions the highlight of my week.”
– Service user
Working in partnership
Over the past year, we have increased the reach of our partnership working by doing more work with more people, and in return receiving more referrals into service.
Accordingly, Music to My Ears has seen a massive uplift in partner agencies this year. This has seen us holding regular workshops in short-stay schools and colleges, as well as being invited to present to partners and train colleagues.
Our offer now includes child criminal exploitation (CCE) training days for partners, ranging from local magistrates to teachers, as well as being included in the local hospital safeguarding training days.
We have also had the opportunity to do roadshows with Surrey County Council and Crimestoppers. This has allowed us to have a presence in town centres, railway stations and shopping malls.
This gives us brilliant exposure to as many services as possible. It puts our name and mission into the minds of the public and it lets any would-be CCE groomers know that we are taking things seriously in Surrey!
“It would be fair to say that, this time last year, I was in serious trouble. I’m not sure how I got involved in what I was involved in, but it seemed to go from making a new friend to serious business overnight.
“I was getting arrested a lot and doing my Mum’s head in because I was going missing for days at a time.
“I got a Catch22 worker who, at first, started seeing me in a neutral location that was away from anyone I might know. We just talked and listened to music – it was super relaxed and chilled. We planned ways I could move, sort myself out, and to be fair they stuck with me…. Every week we met, every text was answered, every time I needed them, they were there.
“I feel sorted now. I have a job; I’m not in that life anymore and I doubt I could have done it without Music to My Ears.”
– Closing conversation with a young person who worked with MTME on a long-term basis
Future plans
Studio
The studio is the most exciting addition to the Music to My Ears toolbox. Over the next 12 months, we plan to build on the studio offering to engage more young people.
We are already geared up for recoding music and podcasts, but we plan to work with partners at Kane FM to explore how we can give young people broadcasting experience with some of the station’s top DJs.
The studio facility also has outside space so we can play basketball or football with young people to build rapport, or just offer some fresh air if a young person needs to take some time to gather their thoughts or have a relaxed break from the sessions.
We plan to use this facility as a test to see what benefits something like this offers. Should we get positive results, we will explore the possibilities of replicating the studio space on the east of the county.
Physical activities
Last year we ran some pilot projects to see if offering physical activities as an engagement tool would be beneficial to the young people we support.
The results are in, and it’s been a resounding yes!
Part of the main objective of the Music to My Ears project is to help young people recognise healthy relationships and identify unhealthy ones. We have found that, in supporting young people to develop healthy habits, we are better able to introduce structure into sessions and show what healthy and positive differences to your life can make – be it exercise or friendships.
Over the next 12 months, we will continue to offer young people the chance to get outside or go the gym with a worker and help them build healthy habits that have overall health benefits and, most importantly, allow us to keep talking to young people affected by child criminal exploitation. The offer will be as diverse as possible: from football, to hiking and even parkour.
“Music to My Ears is an absolute must for our county. I have nothing but praise for the work they do, and long may it continue!”
– Surrey Family Magistrate
