Memorandum submitted by The Prince's Trust-Scotland
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. This response includes:
— Background about The Prince's Trust
and our work in Scotland that informs our response.
— Our understanding of "poverty"—that
it is about more than just income.
— The extent of poverty amongst children
and patterns of disadvantage into areas of concentration.
— Contributing long term factors that
have led to a cycle of disadvantage that is hard to break.
— Areas of government policy that could
make a difference to those trying to work to address poverty and
disadvantage: voluntary sector funding, job seekers allowance
and benefit rules, and unrealistic output setting for projects.
BACKGROUND ON
THE PRINCE'S
TRUST-SCOTLAND
2. The Prince's Trust is one of the UK's
leading voluntary organisations involved in the provision of development
opportunities to socially excluded young people aged 14 to 25.
We achieve this through a portfolio of high quality personal development
programmes delivered in partnership with a range of public, voluntary
and private sector partners and through working to influence public
policy. We work with the socially excluded and those with multiple
barriers to employment—our target group is young people
who are educational underachievers, including young people with
low basic skills and those truanting and excluded from school;
the long-term unemployed, particularly those out of work for 6
months or more; those in or leaving care; and offenders and ex
offenders including serving prisoners. Many of our clients come
from the NEET group of 16-19 year olds (those not in education,
employment or training). The young people we help face multiple
barriers and need significant help to turn their lives round.
Our programmes give young people a chance to develop the personal
motivation and confidence necessary to make a change to their
lives.
3. The Prince's Trust-Scotland's work makes
a difference to helping young people out of poverty and to realise
their potential. We work with over 3,000 young people in Scotland
every year helping them to overcome barriers to employment. We
make an impact on the problem of NEET and give the young people
we work with the motivation and self belief they need to change
their lives for the better. Increasingly we are working with younger
age groups to break the cycle of poverty. Our school programme
xlerate with xl, for 14-16 year olds, is proving successful (as
evidenced in research by Durham University) at re-engaging those
who are disaffected with school and at risk of becoming NEET.
RESPONSE TO
INQUIRY QUESTIONS
4. This response is informed by:
— our practical experience of working
with disadvantaged young people, many of whom live in poverty;
and
— research carried out by the Trust
with disadvantaged young people. For example, our report "Reaching
the Hardest to Reach" provides research evidence of the barriers
that young people perceive are keeping them in poverty.
WHAT IS
POVERTY?
5. Poverty is about more than just low income.
In our experience the factors generating poverty and exclusion
are wide-ranging and the persistence of child poverty is multi-factorial.
The young people we work with often have multiple problems that
will diminish their life chances and may result in lifelong poverty
and social exclusion These can include: poor family background
and parental supervision; disengagement from education at a young
age resulting in few or no qualifications; poor health choices,
unemployment (or the "revolving door" of unemployment-training-low
level jobs-further unemployment); drug and substance abuse; poor
housing or homelessness (particularly for care leavers); a history
of offending or trouble with the police.
THE EXTENT
OF POVERTY
6. In a Scottish Parliamentary question
(S2W-26008) Malcolm Chisholm gave the current figure of 240,000
for children living in households with relative low income (after
housing costs) and 130,000 living in households with absolute
low income. The Child Poverty Action Group estimates that a quarter
of the children in Scotland live in poverty.
7. The effects of low income are compounded
by concentrations of inequality into areas of disadvantage which
increases the effects of social exclusion. For example, 25% of
16 to 19 year olds in the 15% most deprived areas are not in education,
employment or training compared to 11% of 16 to 19 year olds in
the rest of Scotland. Over 40% of children in the 15% most deprived
areas are dependent on a recipient of income support, compared
with 10% of children in the rest of Scotland. Young people in
poor areas are also more likely to be registered for free school
meals, absent from school, less likely to achieve national attainment
standards, they reach lower levels of educational attainment and
are less likely to continue into further and higher education.
All these factors make it more likely that poverty and social
exclusion will continue into the next generation.
CONTRIBUTING FACTORS
8. Long term historical, social and cultural
factors have created the current pattern of poverty. These have
resulted in a concentration of poverty and a culture of welfare
dependency. The young people that come from the most deprived
areas have low aspirations and little self belief. They grow up
to expect to live a life on benefits and disengage at an early
age from education, often indulging in crime or other problematic
and self harming behaviours. Education has become a divisive factor,
as employers expect a minimum basic level of qualifications which
many of the young people we work with do not possess. Our courses
are often the first time the young people we work with have succeeded
in a learning environment. The consequences of living in poor
areas are manifest in all areas of public services—education,
health, transport and employment. Those living in the most deprived
areas all too often receive the worst level of service.
9. Poverty is also evident in rural areas
of Scotland where opportunities for employment are difficult to
access by young people with few or no qualifications and limited
resources. The Prince's Trust directly addresses this by giving
small monetary grants, with mentoring support, that remove barriers
to employment—for example enabling a young person to take
driving lessons or gain a diving certificate.
IMPACT OF
GOVERNMENT POLICY
ON POVERTY
10. Many areas of government policy have
the potential to impact on poverty including education, enterprise,
health, justice and communities. Our comments are based on the
impact of government policy on our work and policy changes that
we think would make an impact on poverty.
Funding for the Voluntary Sector in Scotland
11. These are problems that we find with
accessing funding for our work to lift young people out of poverty:
— Lack of a cohesive and joined up
approach across government departments to address the problems
of poverty. Many of the young people we work with have multiple
problems that cannot be neatly pigeon holed into one department
and funding stream. For example, they may be unemployed, have
a history of addiction and be in trouble with the police. We often
have to apply to access multiple funding streams to support our
programmes.
— There is little differentiation in
funding to recognise the degree of problems our clients might
face. Extra resources are required to engage with a difficult
client group and to motivate them. In our experience moving this
group into employment is not a cheap option. Our vocational course
"Get Into Cooking" has been particularly successful
because it uses high quality training (the Nick Nairn cook school)
and it has had access to high quality employers for work placements.
— Short term funding for projects which
creates financial difficulties and uncertainty for voluntary sector
organisations.
— Government support is easily found
for pilot programmes but more difficult to access for programmes
with a successful track record.
— The decline in European funding which
has supported much of the work with disadvantaged communities
and groups. In Scotland The Prince's Trust and other voluntary
sector providers are facing an acute short term difficulty in
finding replacement funding for the European Social Fund. For
example, ESF money of around £1 million a year has funded
our core programme "Team" supporting around 1,000 disadvantaged
young people in their move towards employability. At this stage
we do not know whether a replacement source of funds will be found
to support this programme after 2007.
Job Seekers Allowance/Benefit rules
12. Rigid application of eligibility criteria
for JSA and other benefits can work to the disadvantage of our
clients and prevents them participating on Prince's Trust courses
as they can be faced with the withdrawal of benefits (the 16 hour
rule). Sometimes we reluctantly have to advise young people that
their interest would not be best served by participating on one
of our courses as their principal means of support would be withdrawn.
Some providers get round this rule by making their courses less
than 16 hours per week. It is our view that this does not fit
young people for work. An essential key to successful employment
is good timekeeping and a commitment to full participation in
the course. Part-time working does not enable the individual to
experience the personal responsibility involved in achieving this.
It would be helpful if there was local discretion for JCP advisers/managers
to relax these rules where there is clear evidence that the training
proposed is part of a managed pathway to work and will assist
the client into sustainable employment.
Unrealistic outputs
13. The client group that we work with have
difficult lives and employment may not be a realistic option at
the end of their course—further vocational training from
a further education college may optimise the long term outcome.
Targets set for those dealing with the hardest to reach should
be different to those providing training to less problematic clients.
When allocating contracts, DWP and other contractors should differentiate
between different needs in client groups when setting output targets
and a recognition that employment is unlikely to be an outcome
from some training courses. Further vocational training in a further
education college or with another training provider may be the
best option. There should be more focus on the individual's long
term career rather than an instant job outcome.
14. If you require any further information
about our experiences of working with disadvantaged young people
or research work carried out by The Trust please contact me.
Sonia Newman
Policy Manager
The Prince's Trust-Scotland
5 October 2006
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