Asked by
The Lord
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to
reduce the number of young people not in employment, education,
or training.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work
and Pensions () (Lab)
My Lords, this Government are fully committed to supporting our
young people through the universal credit youth offer, and have
invested £7 billion to ensure places in educational training for
every 16 to 18 year-old. We plan to improve opportunities for 18
to 21 year-olds through a new youth guarantee, offering training,
apprenticeships and support into employment, alongside launching
Skills England and a new national jobs and careers service.
The Lord
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for her Answer. The
north-east has the highest proportion of young people not in
education, employment or training at 15%. What steps are His
Majesty's Government taking to offer targeted support to young
people in regions of greater disadvantage?
(Lab)
My Lords, the right reverend Prelate is right to highlight both
the regional differences and the correlation with disadvantage in
identifying levels of young people not in education, employment
or training—or NEETs, as they are rather horribly known. The
problem needs early intervention and targeting. The Department
for Education is supporting local authorities to identify young
people who are at risk of becoming NEET, so that they can be
supported to stay in education and training in the first place.
My own department, DWP, is reforming careers support and
introducing a youth guarantee so that, right across England,
every young person, from 18 to 21, has the option of
apprenticeships, employment or quality training. We have also
convened a small advisory group, including the mayoral combined
authorities, local councils and others to make sure that we
pursue a mission to reduce the number of young people who are
NEET in a targeted way.
(LD)
My Lords, the charity First Star Scholars—I declare an interest
as patron—works with children in care and has a success rate of
over 72% of them obtaining GCSEs and 50% attending university.
Care-experienced children usually under- perform, with less than
20% achieving GCSEs and just 6% progressing to university. Will
the Government agree to meet with me and First Star Scholars to
address this so-called care cliff to help reduce the number of
care leavers not in education, employment or training and enhance
educational outcomes for these vulnerable young people?
(Lab)
I am grateful to the noble Baroness for raising such an
incredibly important point. I have the pleasure of having
responsibility in my department for disadvantaged groups
including care leavers, and I would be delighted to meet her and
talk about this further. For a brief outline, here are some of
the things the DWP does to support care leavers in different
ways: they get priority access to universal credit and budgeting
support and help; care leavers in staying-put arrangements can
claim benefits under their own steam until 21 in many cases; and,
crucially, we have a second-chance learning scheme, which means
that if you are 18 to 21 and a care leaver, you can claim
benefits and still study full-time to catch up on education you
may have missed earlier. There is a lot more, which I cannot wait
to tell her about. I look forward to meeting her.
The (CB)
My Lords, we are aware of the numbers, and the Minister is
suggesting some action, but can she say how much research is
being carried out to find out why NEETs are NEETs? What
encouragement are the Government giving to such research?
(Lab)
What a great question. It is really interesting. Some people are
NEET for short periods, but we know that vulnerable and
disadvantaged young people can be NEET for much longer periods
and may have complex needs. Some young people are overrepresented
in the long-term NEET group, including people with low
educational attainment; children who are looked after, as I was
discussing just now; children who are permanently excluded, or in
PRUs or alternative provision; those with health conditions; and
those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. We are
trying to attach each of these things separately, as well as
looking at this as a category.
(Lab)
My Lords, has my noble friend the Minister looked at other
exciting things going on to try to get hold of these young people
and make sure they get some training? Has she seen the examples
of the professional league football teams that provide just this?
They provide schooling and proper education and, alongside that,
allow the young people—mainly young men, but also women—to come
along and do some training with professional footballers. This
has been very successful in places in the north, such as at
Carlisle United, where we have a very successful scheme.
(Lab)
My Lords, I have not thought about it from that angle, but it is
really interesting. I wonder whether it may be necessary for me
to go and look more closely at what is happening. Do they do it
for cricket as well? If so, I am definitely interested.
(Con)
My Lords, the first secure school opened in May this year, with a
new holistic offer for youth justice. It is designed to shift
settings away from punishment and towards rehabilitation. What
allocated support will be given to pupils and their families in
the next stage of their lives after leaving?
(Lab)
From my department's point of view, we work quite closely with
those who have been through the criminal justice system. For
example, we have prison work coaches who can work inside not just
prisons but young offender institutions, and we are working quite
closely with colleagues in the Ministry of Justice to try to make
sure we can address the reasons young people end up going through
the criminal justice system and then come out the other side and
find it difficult to get into education, employment or training.
If there is anything specific that she thinks we can learn from
that, I would be grateful to hear more.
(CB)
My Lords, young people experiencing homelessness experience
unique barriers to entering the workforce. Apparently, 43% of
young people who are homeless have had to turn down work because
of the impact it would have on their benefits. Does the Minister
recognise the challenges for this part of the community, and what
are the Government doing to ensure that people who are
experiencing homelessness can enter the workforce?
(Lab)
We are looking very closely at these issues—I also have
responsibility in my department for people who are experiencing
homelessness. We are doing a number of things in this space, and
I recognise the problem the noble Baroness describes. I have
recently met some of the charities working on this, looking at
some of the interesting solutions that they have been offering in
supported housing. From the other side, we were one of the
departments that helped launch a new homelessness covenant for
employers. I recently went to an event to celebrate its first
year of operation, and it was brilliant to hear employers talking
about what they got out of it, not just recruiting young people
who are themselves homeless but understanding that, in many cases
in their own workforce, people were at risk of homelessness, had
experience of homelessness or were in very precarious situations.
We all have a lot to learn about the range of experience that
young people have in that space and what more we can do about it.
I thank the noble Baroness for raising the question.
(Con)
My Lords, the Youth Futures Foundation—an independent
not-for-profit organisation—calls the number of NEETs a “crisis”.
As we know, 66% fall into the economically inactive category. I
acknowledge the need for better mental health support, but the
head of the Government's new Labour Market Advisory Board, who
advocated for
“quicker, clearer and more effective”
sanctions in his advisory role prior to 2010, now suggests a
universal income for those out of work and states that sanctions
are not a priority. Can the Minister explain what is going on? Is
this official Labour policy?
(Lab)
I am not sure who the noble Viscount is talking about but, if he
would like to speak to me afterwards, I am very happy to look
into it. We want to try to reform support to make sure that every
young person has the opportunity of either quality training,
quality education or a job. That is our priority and that is what
people need. Young people want to have a future and to get on in
life, but they have to be given all the support they need to get
to that point. We have a crisis among the young. We should not
have as many young people between 18 and 24 not in employment,
education or training as we have. This Government are determined
to reduce that number.
(Lab)
My Lords, I welcome the action the Government are taking. Does
the Minister agree with me that employers can take a more active
role in recruiting young people who are in danger of being not in
education, employment or training for life —like her, I hate the
phrase NEETs—into earn and learn opportunities such as
apprenticeships and graduate training programmes? Will she join
with me in encouraging more employers to sign up to schemes such
as the incredible 5% Club, which now has 1,100 members and is
employing 100,000 employees in earn and learn roles, harnessing
their incredible talent to increase productivity and growth?
(Lab)
The noble Lord makes an excellent point and I thank him for
flagging up the 5% Club to me. I am happy to commend the work
that it does, and I will make sure I share information about the
club with my DfE colleagues.
On the broader point, the Government are encouraging employers to
hire apprentices and host T-level placements, but also to develop
closer ties with colleges and universities and to strengthen
their links with, and have input into, local skills improvement
plans. The noble Lord might be interested to know that we have
begun work on a new foundation apprenticeship. The idea is to
give more young people a foot in the door—it is a
pre-apprenticeship apprenticeship, if you like—and to create
clear pathways into work-based training and employment. Again,
that is the first step on the way to a youth guarantee of a
promise of educational training or a job for young people across
the country.
