Buckingham Palace was buzzing with activity on Tuesday 30th March as the DofE invited Directors of Children's Services to join them for a Celebration of Partnerships. The event was an opportunity for those invited to witness the inspiring impact that the DofE is having on young people's lives across the UK.

The welcome and outline for the day was given by Martyn Lewis who chaired the event. Peter Westgarth DofE CEO opened up proceedings with a speech about The DofE Today. Followed by a presentation by The Pears Foundation Deputy Director Amy Phillip and Professor Andrew Pithouse, Director of Social Work Studies, Cardiff University who spoke about the Aspire and Impact Research.

Professor Andrew Pithouse said: "The DofE has a sizeable impact and has the greatest positive effect on those from the lowest starting point. The DofE develops social and economic capital and improves employability. The least well off do much better in terms of aspiration and distance travelled."

Martyn Lewis facilitated a question and answer style session involving DofE Manager and Youth Worker Noel Forrest, Outdoor Education Advisor, Waltham Forest and DofE Ambassador Rebecca Griffiths, DofE Gold participants Seb Green and Samra Kanwal.

Noel Forrest said: “I don’t think I have a better tool in my locker for enabling me to deal with the 13-19 age group. The DofE is not discriminatory against any young people – it is open to all whether they are in school or faith groups or hard to reach”

“It has a huge impact outside school and college where young people are not so focussed or structured in their approach. It is a positive activity that impacts on society as a whole in Newham.”

“I see growth in what young people choose to get involved in, the responsibilities they have to take on”

"I have seen it work, I’ve seen it give young people something they tangibly have, see and gain success from. I had a group of very difficult boys. Because they were doing DofE, they had to do some volunteering and were initially very apprehensive about going into an Old People’s Home. At first they wouldn’t talk to the residents, nor would the residents talk to them; they started out just gardening, but by the third week they were having tea with the residents and talking to them about their experiences and memories. The residents were talking to them, and proud of them. Without the DofE I wouldn’t have been able to initiate such a project with that group of boys.”

“The DofE gives them an idea of what they can do in life. You couldn’t pick four better areas than the DofE’s four sections to develop young people."

Seb Green Gold Award holder said: "In Dorset there is an emphasis on encouraging less advantaged young people to do the DofE. For me personally, I’ve developed communication, teambuilding, trust and the ability to make friends. It’s reinforced and encouraged my ambition to join the Royal Marines, but it’s also inspired me to go back to college so that I can enter the marines at officer level. It shows you can commit yourself to something.

"The biggest thing for me though, was learning that the DofE is like a family. If you’re involved in the DofE it doesn’t matter where you’re from or who you are, you are part of the DofE family”

Samra Gold Award holder said: "It gave me an idea of what I want to do in the future. It’s taught me team work and to raise funds. I really look forward to meeting people in other award groups now."

DofE Ambassador and Gold Award holder Rebecca Griffiths said: “For me the greatest thing is that it gives everybody the chance to achieve”

DofE supporter Avi Lasarow from Trimega, said: "I'm really impressed by the work the DofE does in keeping young people on track and providing them with positive activities and inspiration. Our involvement has enabled us to witness the impact it has on those it comes into contact with, which was confirmed by the research presented."

Dr Maggie Atkinson – Childrens Commissioner for England, said: "If, like me, you’ve signed people’s gold books, you’ll know what young people do and can do to achieve their DofE. 

"I’m one month into my new job and my first visit was to the East Midlands. Hill Holt Wood is a project restoring ancient woodland working with very difficult young men.   The young man showing me round mentioned that he could only talk to me because he was on probation. The only thing he wanted to tell me about was doing his DofE. 

"At the other end of the scale, my niece who is well-supported by her family, and at one of Linda’s schools in Norwich; she’s doing her A levels and on course to read modern languages at Exeter University. I asked her what she felt the DofE had done for her and she said “It’s given me the confidence that I was more capable than I thought. As an A level student I’ve been spoonfed and crammed for the past two years, and it showed me I could do things.”

"For me The DofE is a socially enabling rounded-people programme. It’s a social intervention mechanism par excellence. It knows no boundaries and it recognises no prejudice. It is a part of the tapestry of entitlement for this nation’s children and young people.”

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh said: "Local Authorities of course have a statutory responsibility for the education of the young generation. They have particular responsibility for genreal academic education as well as an obligation to provide technical and professional training that they will require in order to make it possible for them to earn a living.

"I believe the whole community should be concerned to help young people develop into well-rounded adults. Of course leaving young people to find out for themselves how to fill their leisure time is always an option but experience suggests that for all the trials there are apt to be an awful lot of errors. It seems only sensible to help young people to discover those leisure activities that most adults know to be personally satisfying and socially valuable. This is of course where the DofE can help. 

"The four sections of the DofE are designed to give young people the chance to experience for themselves the satisfaction of giving service to others by volunteering; of developing a personal skill; by taking part in a physical activity; by discovering the countryside by making and completing a challenging expedition. As each of the sections contains a wide range of options each participant is able to create their own programme of activities. 

"Unlike other qualification systems, the participants design their own programmes. Doing their DofE means creating and accepting a challenge. The benefit of the experience only becomes apparent once the DofE has been achieved. 

"I was visiting the DofE in South Africa some years ago and they’d introduced it to young offenders. I went to this prison and Nelson Mandela had been invited to present the Awards. I went round behind him and he was telling me how to behave in prison, because he’d been in that prison himself. But the interesting this is that the re-offending rate among those who had taken up the DofE dropped dramatically. It’s now been introduced in a great many young offenders’ prisons throughout South Africa and in this country.

"It’s one thing to offer young people the opportunity to amuse themselves, but it’s far more constructive and rewarding for them to discover worthwhile and satisfying activities for themselves. The four sections of the DofE offer an introduction to activities that most adults have found to be rewarding throughout their lives.

"Fifty years experience, or fifty five years now, shows that together we can give young people a flying start in life."

To read all about the Celebrating Partnership event in Wales click here.