During 2020, a year of uncertainty, upheaval and unprecedented demand for our service, we introduced a number of Youth Worker mentors to deliver mentoring. This was driven in part to enable matching children more quickly but also in recognition of the increasingly complex challenges some of our families are facing. After a full review we can see that this model has meant that we have been able to reach more children and families than we would have otherwise been able to and deliver high quality outcomes for children.
Alongside piloting the Youth Worker model, our Board has been developing our new strategy which commits the organisation to reaching more children over the coming five years and working differently and more flexibly. As part of these changes the Board (which includes two former mentors) have decided that future mentoring relationships will use youth workers as mentors. Although this has been a big decision, it has been driven by a recognition that our service needs to adapt and change in light of the needs of children and families and that we are able to do this in a timely way. We are looking forward to offering new ways to harness the positive influence, incredible energy and experience volunteers bring and to share this with more children. As a result of these changes, From we have paused recruitment to new volunteer applications from 2nd June 2021 whilst we continue to develop our new volunteering offer, we will be reaching out soon to share our new plans and very much want to hear your thoughts and feedback on these.
Our longer-term plans also include employing more frontline staff working directly with children and families as well as challenging inequalities and amplifying the voices of children and families we support. We believe that the changes we are making will enable the organisation to deliver high quality support, to more children and families in the short and longer term.