Agenda item
Removing Barriers to Youth Employment - Report of the Scrutiny Working Group
To agree the report and recommendations arising from the Scrutiny Review.
Minutes:
Councillor Ann Jackson, Lead Member/ Chair of the Scrutiny Working Group: Removing Barriers to Youth Employment, introduced and highlighted key points in the SWG report, which set out the rationale and objectives, methodology, key findings and recommendations of the scrutiny review. The following Officers were also in attendance to answer questions from the OSC.
· Anne Canning, Interim Corporate Director, Education Social Care and Wellbeing.
· Di Warne, Interim Service Head Learning & Achievement, ESCW.
· Steve Grocott, Head of Careers Service, ESCW.
· Andy Scott, Interim Service Head Economic Development, D&R.
The following points were highlighted by Councillor Jackson:
· Background to identification of this as a potential area for review including:
o Awareness of the importance of employment, given the impact of Government welfare reforms, which combined with continuing recession made securing employment more difficult for young people in particular, because of their need of job specific experience, skills and qualifications to allow them to compete with others and get on a career ladder.
o Awareness that Government has not intervened in the UK job market, relying instead on encouraging corporate and financial growth to bring employment, combined with a belief that more serious consideration was needed on how to get young people ready for work. A belief also that young people needed additional individual support and guidance to achieve this, as they found themselves in a position of understanding and choosing the best direction and were not equipped to do so. Consideration that the Council could adopt a more custodial approach with partners to ensure the best outcomes for young people.
o Improving employment opportunities for young people in the borough was a Council and Mayoral priority, and it was important to ensure resources in this area were applied efficiently/ effectively and delivery/ outcomes were optimised.
· Review Objective: To investigate how the Council and its partners could improve the support provided to young people to become work-ready, and help remove barriers to employment.
· Key areas for review:
o The demand for apprenticeships by young people.
o The supply of good quality apprenticeships and how this can be stimulated.
o Supporting young people to access opportunities and be competitive in the labour market: how could the Council add value to this agenda?
· Key Findings including:
o Information: Much Government and Council activity focused on securing post 16 education/ employment for young people, but partnership working was not joined up. There was a significant opportunity to improve the quality and accessibility of information available for young people, to help them understand what happened after school: how to look for work, the offer available to them from the Council and other providers to support this, also information on benefits, housing and training. Easy to understand web based menu driven information was needed.
o Mentoring: A mentoring resource needed to be available to young people. With mentor encouragement they could gain the insight needed to on education/ training/ careers available to them, consider their options, gain confidence/ motivation and weather problems that faced them.
o Council’s role: A more custodial approach with partners to ensure the best outcomes for young people was needed. A more coherent Council approach on opportunities for young people, particularly apprenticeships, would improve it’s understanding of need and better enable it to influence funding in the borough, draw providers together and improve outcomes. National companies might then provide apprenticeships for local young people.
· Recommendations set out in the report were also highlighted. It was felt Recommendations 6 & 7 could be strengthened by reference to ensuring that all apprenticeship opportunities should appeal to both genders.
· Review Group Members, Ms Vicky Allen, Strategy Policy & Performance Officer and other Offices were formally thanked for their contribution to the review,
A discussion followed which focused on clarification being sought and given on the following points:-
· What action could be taken to raise young people’s aspiration for apprenticeships to the level of aspiration they had for attending university to get degree level qualifications? There were a range of schemes focused on parents and young people to inform them of progression routes and apprenticeship opportunities and information available on websites of Council and partners.
· Could the role of the Council, particularly through the Skillsmatch service, be made more productive in securing outcomes for young people? Skillsmatch provided a valuable service but information on the offer to young people could be improved, particularly by development of menu driven information. The Council’s focus was on job brokerage and joining up the activities of providers to focus on young people.
· In welcoming the report for raising the visibility of the issues facing young people, comment that significant work was undertaken in this area by the Voluntary Sector, among others by City Gateway. City Gateway did undertake valuable work, however the focus of the review, given time constraints, had been on mentoring and apprenticeships.
· Many apprentices did not secure employment after the apprenticeship; what action could be taken to address this and how could improved outcomes be measured? The apprenticeship offer to young people needed to be more coherent and this would help with the development of performance measures. Information about apprenticeship needed to be menu based to be more effective. Both would lead to more value for money. The Towerskills scheme was an example of good practice. It was important to develop business based apprenticeship opportunities, and whilst these might not lead to employment with that particular organisation, the experience and skills gained would prove valuable to securing employment. It was also important for the Council to monitor apprenticeships to ensure young people were not exploited.
· Did the Council optimise its leverage with contractors, through its significant procurement, to secure apprenticeships for local young people? There was a defined statement on apprenticeships in the Council’s procurement policy, and clear targets for the number of apprenticeships which correlated with contract value.
· Consideration that parents understood the value of an academic pathway for their children and for most this was the aspiration. What action could be taken to increase their understanding of the value of apprenticeships? Information was available on the web for parents and school heads were stakeholders in reviewing this and the approach with parents.
· There were many providers of apprenticeship for young people, but unless young people’s understanding of the offer available to them improved, there would continue to be high drop down rates as they found themselves in jobs not suited to them as individuals. The consortium approach was welcomed as it should prevent young people transferring from one scheme to another. When apprenticeships were created organisations had a choice of provider including the National Apprenticeship Scheme, and although the Council could endeavour to promote local providers this was a matter they might influence but did not control.
The Chair thanked Councillor Jackson for her contribution in chairing the scrutiny review, and for attending OSC to present the report/ recommendations arising. He then Moved the recommendations as set out in the report, and it was:-
Resolved
1. That the draft report of the Scrutiny Review Working Group, and the recommendations contained in it, be agreed; and
2. That the Service Head Corporate Strategy & Equality be authorised to amend the draft report before submission to Cabinet, after consultation with the Scrutiny Review Working Group.
Action by:
Daisy Beserve (Senior Strategy Policy & Performance Officer, Corporate Strategy & Equality Service, CE’s)
Vicky Allen (Strategy Policy & Performance Officer, Corporate Strategy & Equality Service, CE’s)
Supporting documents:
- Removing Barriers youth employment v2 - FINAL VA1906131029am, item 6.1 PDF 95 KB
- Removing Barriers youth employment Appx 1 FINAL VA1906131029am, item 6.1 PDF 316 KB