Agenda item

Presentation by Collette Bailey

Collette Bailey, Integrated Youth support Services, gave the following presentation on the NEET Priority:-

What is the Issue?

-          No real improvement in unemployment rate (NEET) for 16-18 year olds

-          Vulnerable groups were 3 times more likely to be NEET than the wider cohort

-          The NEET group were from poorer soci-economic backgrounds and had worse GCSE attainment

What is the current position?

-          1 in 8 of all 18-24 year olds were unemployed

-          719 young people academic age 16-18 were NEET 7.2%

-          Much worse picture for vulnerable 16-19 year olds NEET

13.% of people with learning difficulties

29% of care leavers

74% of teenage mothers

50% of young offenders in the criminal justice systems

What are we trying to achieve?

-          Improving percentage of young people overall and those on FSM achieving good GCSE including Maths and English

-          Achieving zero NEET for all 16 year olds by 2013

-          All young people in learning until their 18^th birthday by 2015

-          Improving percentage of young people achieving level 2 and level 3 qualifications at 19

Ongoing impact of being NEET

-          Lack of work experience and employability skills meant that young people were not able to compete for available jobs

-          Low or no qualifications made work harder to find

-          Low income jobs unless upskilled

-          Progression into adulthood and becoming parents living in poverty

-          Low self-esteem and lack of hope resulted in poor mental health and wider health issues

-          Poor/lower outcomes for children in terms of learning and achievement

-          Inter-generational unemployment

What helped young people to stay in learning and work?

-          Making the right realistic choices at 16 – careers guidance

-          Sufficient suitable education and training provision for young people at aged 16 with clear 2 year pathways leading to a relevant qualification for the marketplace

-          If you became NEET and had achieved a good range of GCSEs you were more likely to secure learning or work

-          Target support towards vulnerable young people to encourage, enable or assist them to participate and remain in education or training

-          Strong supportive families or role models with a good work/learning ethic

What do we need to do?

Create an outcome related intervention with a focus on prevention of NEET prevention/recovery was crucial

-          Build the key basic numeracy and literacy skills needed to succeed in further education, training or the world of work

-          Co-ordinated transitions at 16 for at risk students identified by the Risk of NEET Indicator (RONI)

-          Early identification of post-16 students at risk of becoming NEET (drop out) and the co-ordination of support to ensure no break in learning

-          Co-ordinated approach to young people who disengaged at the age of 17 after completing 1 year learning programmes

-          Whole family approach in situations of high presenting needs – Families for Change/Family Common Assessment Framework

Challenges

-          Lack of ownership of the NEET agenda that existed in the current setting from schools, colleges and learning providers

-          Focusing on complex needs of individuals and families limited time available to spend with NEET churn

-          Creating an outcome related intervention with a focus on prevention rather than recovery was essential – service pressures could limit this

-          Poverty – lack of financial incentives to engage young people – limited access to work experience or part-time work whilst in learning – limits breadth of skills base and employability

-          Alternative options to the basic academic route were fundamental in terms of giving those most at risk a clear pathway with achievable goals

-          The recession – young people were unable to compete for fewer opportunities

What can the Health and Wellbeing Board do?

-          Training for Integrated Youth Support Services staff on cross cutting themes

-          We were all targeting with the same families - partnership could extend both reach and impact

-          Support tracking of outcomes for young people

-          Offer opportunities for work experience for vulnerable young people

-          Offer employment opportunities/apprenticeships for vulnerable groups e.g. care leavers

Discussion ensued on the presentation with the following issues raised/clarified:-

·           The presentation outlined the importance of getting the early offer right and making contact with families.  If families could be identified early and work take place with them, hopefully, in the long term the cycle could be broken

·           If funding was removed from Early Intervention it would result in more families coming into the Service

·           The Council had done a massive piece of work of opportunities that could link young people into the work taking place around Deprived Communities

·           Major employers should be urged to sign up offering work experience opportunities/employment opportunities/apprenticeships for vulnerable young people

·           Current Human Resources Policies imposed barriers to those young people with no qualifications or experience.  Unless they were changed to facilitate creation of those opportunities nothing would change

·           Statistical analysis showed that the longer a person was out of employment there was less likelihood of being able to do so in later life

·           There were more opportunities created for young people than for older people

·           Had to get it right in schools.  Young people had to leave school with some form of qualification

·           The Council had committed to helping care leavers get used to the world of work that quite often their parents were not in a position to help them with

Resolved:-  (1)  That the Health and Wellbeing Board’s commitment to the offer of opportunities for work experience for vulnerable young people and the offer of employment opportunities/apprenticeships for vulnerable groups be noted and that Board members be requested to seek their respective organisations’ endorsement.

(2)  That consideration be given by partner agencies to the barriers imposed by current Human Resources Policies in relation to young people that had no qualifications or work experience.