Who are YEPS?
The Youth Engagement and Participation Service (YEPS) provides the statutory Youth Service for Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council. This service is provided by a workforce of qualified staff made up of school based workers, community based youth workers, specialist youth work teams and skilled part time staff.
Click here to meet our team.
What we do
YEPS offers young people 11-25 access to a variety of FREE activities across a number of schools and youth settings. These include afterschool activities and youth clubs. Youth clubs currently run between 6pm and 8pm Monday to Friday. As a young person you can get involved by seeing your YEPS worker in schools, colleges, or via the website.
YEPS provide information, advice and guidance to young people on a one to one basis (referral work) and/or group sessions.
YEPS provision and support is offered through:
- School based youth work
- 16+ specific support
- Mental Health & Wellbeing interventions
- Homelessness Advice & Guidance
- Transitional work into Education, Employment & Training
- Rights based sessions
- Community based activities including youth clubs, mobile youth van, street based sessions, school holiday trips and community drop ins
Our teams
Community and Schools Engagement Team
19 Youth Engagement Officers – 17 based in Each Secondary School and further 2 Community Based, to support young people with Additional Learning needs, and those educated other than at mainstream schools.
- Offer One to One support to young people in schools
- Support young people referred to YEPS to identify areas of need and develop an action plan to support these areas to increase resilience and young people’s wellbeing.
- Support young people to access other services (Barod, Sexual Health and other specialist agencies)
- Lunch Time Drop ins in school for advice, guidance and information
- After school activities
- Issues based projects
Youth Engagement and Progression Officers (YEPO)
- 4 x community based officers
- Provide one to one support for young people aged 16 to 25
- Provide one to one support for young people who attend special schools throughout RCT
- Provide support to young people who are educated other than at school (EOTAS)
- Deliver issue based workshops and information, advice and guidance drop in sessions in colleges
- Support is provided in schools, colleges, community venues, street based and home visits
- Provide community based projects. Projects vary based on the needs of the community
- Deliver four local youth forums – Equality and Diversity, Community Safety, Mental Health and Environment and Sustainability
Community Youth Offer Coordinators (CYOC)
Each CYOC Takes responsibility for a designated area within Rhondda Cynon Taf and take a lead for the coordination of all of the YEPS programme of activity including:
- Youth Work Activities in schools
- Transition Programmes
- Community based youth work programmes
- Youth Club and Street based provision
- Club Fusion
- School Holiday Programme of activities and trips
- The Mobile Youth Van
Keep up to date with all the planned activities in your area on the What’s On section of the website and our social media channels.
Mental Health and Wellbeing Officers
- 5 x community based officers
- Provide one to one support for young people with mental health needs
- Support is provided in schools, community venues, street based and home visits
- Provide training to young people to educate them on mental health issues
- Provide community based projects. Projects vary based on the needs of the community
- Support local youth forums with mental health issues including training opportunities, project development
- Provide online information to support people
Transitional Support Workers (TSW)
- 4 x community based officers
- Provide tailored support to young people aged 16 to 25 years who are at risk of, or have disengaged from education, employment or training
- Provide one to one and group support for travel training
- Provide pre-engagement information and guidance to raise levels of motivation, confidence and self esteem
- Deliver employability skill projects such as CV writing, interview techniques, team working, etc
- Provide support to young people to overcome the barriers they face in accessing education, employment and training opportunities
Youth Homelessness Officer
- 1 x community based officer
- Provide one to one support for young people at risk of homelessness
- Support is provided in schools, community venues, street based and home visits
- Provide training to young people to educate them on homelessness issues
- Provide community and school based projects to improve young people’s independent living skills
- Provide interventions through early targeted help including helping educate and provide information and advice for young people and their families and other agencies about the realities of youth homelessness
Youth Homelessness Education Officer
- 1 x community based officer
- Develop and deliver independent living skills package of support to young people with the aim of enabling them to live independently.
- Develop and deliver packages of support or young people who are at risk of homelessness and early intervention packages for young people with some risk factors, which makes them more at risk of becoming homeless
- Develop and deliver accredited learning packages to up-skill young people 16 to 25
- Work closely with colleagues in the housing sector to address the impact of homelessness on young people 16 to 25 years of age
Digital Development Officer
- Looks after YEPS’ website www.wicid.tv providing quality information to young people on a number of topics / online booking system for YEPS activities
- Looks after YEPS’ social media platforms – Facebook / Instagram / You Tube communicating all YEPS activities / opportunities to the public.
- Looks after YEPS’ app – coming soon!
- Looks at new creative opportunities to engage young people
- Works with partners to share key information for services for young people
Communication and Rights Officer
- Runs our Youth Editors programme where young people are trained and capture footage of our local activities / youth offer. Promoting the positive work young people in RCT do
- Liaises with RCT / schools / community groups to run RCT’s County Youth Forum
- Supports the development of RCT’s Member of Youth Parliament
- Support the roll out and findings of ‘Make Your Mark’ campaign
- Provides opportunities for young people to be aware of their rights
- Runs a youth inspector programme to ensure provision is approved / up to standard for young people / provide recommendations for change.
YEPS Apprentices
- Two Full time YEPS Apprentices (1 for East & 1 for West)
- Attached to YEPS as part of RCT Apprenticeship Scheme
- Both support YEPS work during daytime, evenings and school holidays
- Deliver sessions in school behaviour units supporting young people with emotional literacy
- Support delivery of afterschool clubs at our additional need settings
- Key part of evening staff teams that deliver street based and mobile youth van provision
- Apprentices are in a learning role so undertaking Level 2 and Level 3 Youth Work Qualification
Engagement Support Officers (ESO’S)
- Engage with young people aged 11-25
- Part time staff who usually work evenings
- Cover all areas across RCT.
- Support our Full-time staff on YEPS delivery
- Work within all sorts of provision including youth clubs, street-based sessions, trips, activities, and projects
- Can lead on issue-based sessions when identified young people
- Provide young people with information, advice and guidance during face to face work
The small print (but bigger)
WICID.tv and YEPS is supported and funded by the Welsh Government to work with young people aged 11 to 25 years old in Rhondda Cynon Taf.
We take online safety and child protection extremely seriously. All comments submitted to the website or any of the social networks associated with the WICID.tv and the YEPS will be moderated and any inappropriate posts will not be made live.
We will actively combat all forms of bullying and discrimination and we work in partnership with the Police to safeguard children and young people against online exploitation. We encourage our members and users of the website to report any incidences they see online via the CEOP button located on the bottom of the homepage.
We reserve the right to withdraw any content from the website and our social media posts; and refuse to post any new content if it breaches community guidelines. We may also amend or suspend your account without prior warning if you are in breach.
We cannot accept responsibility for any data loss incurred on the site or for content on the external sites that you have accessed via links posted on this website or on our social media.
The Council is committed to keeping your personal information safe and secure and keeping you informed about how we use your information. To learn about how your privacy is protected and how and why we use your personal information to provide you with services, please visit our service privacy notice HERE and the Councils data protection pages HERE.