roles and responsibilities
what you have to do as a youth coach (and a bit about what we do)
what you have to do as a youth coach
Youth coaches provide a wraparound, intensive service for our young people to help get them on track for study, training or work-based learning and to guide them towards achieving their goals.
Working with YP, YPP or young partners
When a youth coach is working with a young person on Youth Payment, Young Parent Payment or are a young partner, they need to support them to achieve their study, training and wellbeing goals and to meet their obligations and manage their money responsibly.
Working with NEET
When a youth coach is working with a NEET client, they need to support them to achieve their study and training goals while also addressing any obstacles that may impact their overall well-being.
applying for financial assistance
Youth coaches help young people with their applications for financial assistance and supplementary assistance, and be aware of the types of assistance available to them to ensure the young person receives their full and correct entitlement (F.A.C.E).
Note: If a young person is coming from Oranga Tamariki care, work with their social worker and/or transition worker to make sure there’s a smooth transition between the services.
enrolling NEET clients
Youth coaches should enrol a young person within 90 days of accepting their NEET referral.
NEET is voluntary, but the young person still has to sign a consent/enrolment form to take part. Make sure they understand what they’re agreeing to when they sign the enrolment form, i.e. taking part in the service and giving consent for their information to be shared between us (the Ministry), you (the Provider), schools and other agencies.
Remember to upload the young person’s signed consent form to ART.
planning to reach goals
Work with the young person to tailor a plan to improve their wellbeing, achieve their goals, meet their obligations, and get an education that leads to a sustainable job and an independent future.
Remember to get the young person to sign the youth service plan (and any revisions).
Complete the initial youth service plan when they enter the service
The initial youth service plan will include a needs assessment and a plan for how the young person will meet their obligations and achieve their goals.
It should include information about their current circumstances and barriers, what other services or interventions they’ll need, things they’d like to work towards and – most importantly – it should be realistic and achievable.
Complete their exit youth service plan before they leave the service
The exit plan should identify what the young person needs to successfully shift into a job, study or training when they are preparing to leave the service.
Include things like:
- Next steps, ie. details of further study, work, etc.
- Qualifications and certificates they’ve gained
- Current CV
- Support people
contacting the young person
Contact is a conversation or two-way correspondence.
Stay in regular contact with the young person to make sure they are on track with their youth service plan, to see if their youth service plan needs to be reviewed, and to find out if there’s anything you can do to help them meet their obligations.
How often you need to contact the young person
You have to be in contact with the young person at least once every:
- 30 days – by phone, text or face-to-face.
- 90 days – face to face.
This is the minimum – the more often you see them and talk to them, the better.
Remember to keep track of all your contact history, contact methods and conversation details in ART.
What to do when you can’t contact the young person
Communication goes both ways. The young person is obliged to be in regular contact with you, too, and let you know if their contact details have changed. This is why it’s important to keep track of times you’ve attempted to contact the young person but haven’t been able to. It may inform decisions later on.
coaching, mentoring and guiding
As the young person’s coach, you need to be on their side. Encourage and support them to be socially connected and healthy. Equip them with practical life skills, and guide them to make good decisions. It’s your job to advocate for the young person and help them overcome any barriers that are standing between them and a bright, independent future.
Some of the things you should be doing to support your young person:
- Make sure they’re safe and well
- Refer them for any treatment and counselling they might need
- Give them parenting and budgeting advice and help them meet their obligations
- Make sure they're paying reasonable accommodation costs
- Inform them of the benefits of approved Early Childhood Education services
- Get them enrolled with a doctor and dentist
- Support them to engage with Family Planning and Family Reconciliation Counselling (where appropriate)
- Make them aware of benefits and services they may be eligible for
- Encourage them to take part in events, activities and social gatherings
- Get them signed up to and using MyMSD
recording and informing
Use the Activity Reporting Tool (ART) to keep the young person’s record up to date and to raise tasks for the Youth Service Support Unit (YSSU). ART is the client management system for Youth Service and should contain all relevant information about the young person.
You are responsible for capturing information, uploading documents and maintaining the young person’s needs, activities records, and notes. This includes whether or not the young person is complying with their obligations, and whether or not they’re achieving their milestones and outcomes as set out in the plans.
Update ART every time you have contact and activities with the young person and notify YSSU immediately about any changes to the young person’s circumstances that may affect their payments or entitlements.
For young people receiving a payment
Let YSSU know details of benefit redirections for the young person's basic costs: accommodation, bills and lawful debts.
Things you have to manage in ART:
- updating client details
- transferring the client to another provider if they move
- creating needs
- creating, editing and completing activities
- sending tasks to YSSU and responding to these if required
- reviewing client notifications
- adding file notes
- uploading documents
- recording when administration, milestone goals have been met
- viewing client histories
wider responsibilities of youth coaching
As a youth coach you should be well connected to your community. You should actively develop and maintain positive working relationships with community services and organisations, particularly the Ministry of Justice, Department of Corrections, Oranga Tamariki and the Ministry of Education, schools, family and whānau, iwi, training providers and employers in your area.
These community connections will enable you to provide a more effective wraparound service to the young person, and better guide them.
the role of msd
There are lots of aspects to the Youth Service. Here are the MSD teams and roles that also play a part in keeping the service running.
The function of the National Youth Service team is to:
- be responsible for the performance of Youth Service at a national level in achieving education, training, work-based learning and employment outcomes
- develop, design and implement changes to Youth Service
- work with MSD policy and business units to advance the interests of the service and achieve outcomes
- oversee enhancements to systems, policies, processes and procedures
- work with YSSU to identify trends and areas where we can make changes to improve the experience for young people
- communicate significant changes that may impact the providers and young people
- work with other MSD business units, including Ministers Office/CE and DCE Office to manage risks and requests for information
- build Youth Coach capability through the development and delivery of inductions, reflections, coaching and learning needs analysis
- evaluate effectiveness of learning by taking on a continuous improvement culture
- work collaboratively with YSSU to identify any learning and development gaps.
Youth Service Support Unit (YSSU) is the MSD team responsible for managing all client information for Youth Service.
YSSU is your main contact for Youth Service client interaction and requests.
YSSU are responsible for:
- referring YP and YPP young people and young partners of a main beneficiary to Youth Service providers
- receiving and screening all applications.
- assessing entitlement and processing all applications for YP and YPP and other MSD financial assistance.
- processing all changes in circumstances which impact a young person’s eligibility for assistance.
- monitoring information Youth Coaches enter within ART.
- providing advice, support and clarification around any ART processing requirements.
- providing advice, support and clarification on MSD procedures, policy and processes.
- actioning any transfers between Providers (for YP, YPP and Young Partners only).
- approving a Service Level Intensity (SLI) rating change for a NEET young person where it is a manual referral from Providers.
- managing manual referrals for NEET young people, including assigning the NEET Service Level Intensity (SLI) rating for a NEET young person based on information supplied by the Provider.
The RCM’s primary role is to maintain the ‘face-to-face’ relationship with you, including:
- reviewing and verifying reports produced via ART.
- releasing payments to you in a timely manner.
- monitoring performance of your service.
- monitoring the quality of the service to young people engaged in your service.
- working with Youth Service providers and YSSU to resolve issues.
MSD contact centre responsibilities include:
- handshake calls to YSSU for screening purposes
- handshake calls to YSSU for the young parent to contact us
- providing advice and guidance for young parents
- managing young parent partners' queries
- referring young parents to their Youth Service provider if they want financial assistance.
MSD service centre responsibilities include:
- accepting forms or documents that are dropped off
- scanning and uploading forms or documents and assigning them to YSSU
- assisting young people to use the self-service kiosk
- testing and administering entitlement for emergency hardship assistance if they are a walk-in client
- interviewing the young person if the Youth Service provider is not able to meet the minimum standards or if the IT systems are down.
- processing the transition to a main benefit if a young person approaches the service centre
- managing the Youth Service delivery where the Youth Service provider is at capacity or a significant event occurs and the Youth Service provider's premises is unable to operate, e.g. due to natural disaster.
The Service Centre should help any new applicant who needs hardship assistance before they have been referred to a Youth Service provider.