Mystery shoppers revealed!

In Autumn half term, a secret project took place! Young people from three youth groups went mystery shopping in all of Oxfordshire's Connexions Offices, Young People's Centres and Youth Offending service offices. All, that is, except for the three where the young people came from, Barton, Berinsfield and Eynsham.

Check out this video to see how the young people got on when they stepped out of their own young people's centres and went to see how things were done elsewhere:

What did they get out of doing mystery shopping?

I was curious to find out what young people felt they'd gained from taking part in the mystery shopping exercise, so put the question to the young people from the Eynsham group. They had this to say:

• It's good to know that you can go into any youth centre and expect respect and to be welcomed
• I found out you can get support from more than one place, you can go to Connexions too
• It's interesting to see other centres, to see what they've got
• It's good to get out and do new stuff

Want to follow their footsteps? Youth Offending Offices don't provide a drop-in service, but any Oxfordshire young person can visit our Connexions Centres and Young People's Centres. Why don't you try visiting somewhere different?

• Oxfordshire Connexions Centres
• Oxfordshire Young People's Centres

So, what were the results?

• 70% of young people who answered the question said they completely or partially "got what they came for” from the IYSS service they experienced
• 65% of young people who answered the question said their expectations were met or exceeded by the IYSS service they experienced
• 62% of young people who answered the question said they would use or partially use the IYSS service they experienced again
• 80% of young people who gave a rating, when asked to rate how welcoming and comfortable the IYSS building they experienced was, awarded 3 or more points out of 5
• 78% of young people who gave a rating, when asked if the IYSS worker they interacted with explained things in a way that was easy to understand, awarded 3 or more points out of 5
• 78% of young people who gave a rating, when rating the overall IYSS service they received, awarded 3 or more points out of 5

Percentages showing what the young people thought of IYSS services, taken from the total 45 useable Feedback forms, including both Visits and Non-Visits