Meeting young people where they are
Photo by Tim Mossholder
Towards a new model of essential digital support for young people
Young people might be considered ‘digital natives’ - having grown up entirely in the digital age - but that doesn’t mean they can easily navigate digital services and find the support they need online.
A host of factors can make it difficult for young people to identify what support they need, who provides it, and how to access it. Young people also use the internet and digital tools differently to other age groups, but this is not always recognised in how services are designed and operate.
Why young people are struggling to find the right support online
Digital exclusion affects millions of people in the UK, making it difficult or impossible to reliably get online and access digital services. Some young people, particularly those from communities that are already marginalised in some way such as disabled people, care-experienced or young people of colour, can be particularly at risk of digital exclusion. This means the wealth of advice, information and services potentially available online are at best only available occasionally, and at worst are entirely out of reach.
Even when a young person can get online regularly, finding the right place to get the help they need is not straightforward. Google searches are not the first port of call for many young people; instead they might search for information on social media, find content through social recommendations, or ask friends and acquaintances. This might lead them to the right place, but it’s likely that along the way they will encounter inaccurate information, misleading ‘experts’ and potentially harmful material.
Even when they do find a reliable source of information and support, most services tend to provide help on one specific issue such as health, housing or money. But life doesn’t work in separate boxes: if you’re struggling to pay your rent because your job is insecure and your wages are unpredictable, you might also find your mental health suffering. Help with debt and legal advice would be invaluable, but suddenly you’re having to navigate and interact with multiple services, and make sense of all the different information and advice you’re getting.
Towards a new model: essential digital support
Our new report ‘Meeting young people where they are: Towards a new model of essential digital support’ reframes the challenge of digital services for young people, and suggests that thinking about support, rather than separate services, unlocks a new way of working which puts young people at the centre of their own journeys.
Essential digital support breaks down operational silos, and treats young people as a whole person with overlapping and intersecting needs. It recognises that support needs to come from multiple sources, and crucially it doesn’t expect young people to find and pull together a range of services on their own.
Essential digital support
Understands the young person’s reality and adapts to reflect it
Wraps around the young person, joining up and smoothing over the gaps
Finds the young person where they are
Respects young people’s autonomy, privacy and agency.
There’s a lot of work to be done to get to this model; it’s far from an overnight fix. It will take shifts in how youth-facing organisations work, how funders support them, and how organisations work together. We’re thrilled to be launching our report on the same day as NPC launch their own report reflecting on their Signpost+ project. Signpost+ focuses on how signposting - sharing details about another organisation or service with an individual - is a critical element of making young people’s support journeys smoother and more joined up.
Better signposting has the potential to improve young people’s user journeys, make the most of data, service information and directories, and improve collaboration between agencies. Improved signposting would be a great step towards our vision of essential digital support, and we look forward to seeing where NPC and their partners go next.
If we’re going to achieve the shift towards essential digital support, collaboration will be key, as will ambition and a willingness to try new approaches. We believe the model is not only relevant to support for young people, but for public services and third sector organisations more generally, and we’d love to speak to you if you’re interested in finding out more.