Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by City of Bradford, Department of Children ’ s Services

1. Executive Summary

1.1 In the introduction we explain how Bradford LA has approached the changes in legislation related to careers guidance by working with the 14–19 Confederations to set up our CEIAG Partnership. All but a few of our secondary schools and colleges agreed that the Local Authority (LA) would procure a universal careers guidance service on their behalf at the same time as commissioning the LA service for vulnerable young people.

1.2 In the Information section we address each of the points that submissions are invited to consider, drawing on our experience of running the existing Connexions contract through to August 2012, with the new CEIAG Partnership service starting this September. The LA is therefore confident that all the schools subscribing will have a good quality, value for money service for their students. However, the new universal service cannot be impartial while schools are funding it, and the reduction in the Early Intervention Grant means that the overall service is much reduced compared to the previous Connexions service.

1.3 The Recommendations for Action call for a properly resourced, professional and impartial careers guidance service to support young people in making the difficult choices they face at points of transition.

2. Introduction

2.1 As the strategic partner within the 14–19 Bradford Confederations, Bradford LA has this year, following the changes to legislation and after consultation with the 14–19 provider partners, set up the Bradford CEIAG Partnership. In addition to commissioning CEIAG services for vulnerable young people to fulfil the LA’s duty, we have worked in partnership with schools to commission a service that meets their new duty to provide impartial careers advice. 25 of our 28 secondary schools and academies; all 4 of our 4 secondary special schools and all 3 of our 3 FE colleges have committed to our partnership approach, for a year in the first instance.

2.2 After a competitive tender process, led by the LA and with representative provider partners on the project group, we have appointed Prospects Ltd as our provider. They have been our Connexions provider for the past two years and have consistently provided a high quality service.

2.3 Each signed-up provider is committed to a minimum payment of £10,000 for the academic year 2012–13, for which they receive 1.5 days of Personal Adviser (PA) time, which can be used flexibly by schools to support them in meeting the needs of their students. Schools and colleges can buy additional time if they wish to.

2.4 We will retain the Connexions brand, as this is known and trusted in Bradford, We are pleased that we have been able to provide schools and colleges with good value for money at a time when they must pay for a service they previously received free. Schools and colleges have been happy that we have removed the burden of procurement from them; they have trusted the LA to undertake this work on their behalf, and they have confidence in the company who will provide the service. The local authority will be monitoring contract delivery on behalf of schools and colleges.

3. Information

In this section we address each of the points submissions are invited to consider.

3.1 The purpose, nature, quality and impartiality of careers guidance provided by schools and colleges, including schools with sixth forms and academies, and how well-prepared schools are to fulfil their new duty.

3.1.1 Bradford continued its existing Connexions contract until August 2012 in order to ensure young people would not experience a sudden change in service at the very time they were taking their GCSEs and moving onto the next stage in their progression pathway. Schools will therefore start taking on their responsibilities for the new duties themselves from the beginning of the academic year 2012–13.

3.1.2 29 of our 32 secondary schools (including special schools) and academies have bought in to the CEIAG Partnership described above. We agreed the tender specification with them and are confident that the procured provider will offer a good service. We will liaise with schools and monitor the contract to ensure that the service meets both LA and school requirements. Our good partnership working with all our schools through the confederations will enable us to enquire of the three remaining schools what service their students will receive. We understand that it is not a requirement of the Local Authority to ensure that schools are compliant with their new duties, but recognise that if we are to champion the rights of children and young people in our District, then one of the things we must be confident of is that they are receiving effective impartial information, advice and guidance as they move into employment and training.

3.1.3 Each of the schools buying into the shared provision will receive 1.5 days per week of PA time for their £10,000 contribution. This will be used principally to fulfil their new duty to offer impartial careers advice. They may decide to target all students in Year 11 or only a proportion. In our response to the recent consultation on careers guidance for schools, sixth form colleges and further education institutions we said that “The elephant in the room is the tension between the existing funding system which pushes a school to ensure financial stability through increasing or, at the very least, maintaining student numbers, and the duty to offer impartial careers advice that might lead to a reduction in that school’s student numbers at key transition points.” This tension is recognised within our 14–19 partnership and one that all partners are aware of.

3.1.4 The service that schools will buy, with their money, is therefore very flexible. It will include face-to-face advice, but it could also include: careers interviews, assemblies, ensuring all Year 11 and Year 12 students have an offer of a suitable place in learning for the following academic year, drop-in advice sessions, staff training, governor briefings, exam results’ day support, parents’ consultations, parents’ evening presentations and availability, parents’ workshops on supporting their son/daughter, workshops for young people on relevant topics such as CV writing, Interview preparation, etc. and organising careers fairs. Each school will agree a bespoke package with the guidance provider, and they may purchase additional service if they wish to.

3.1.5 Companies tendering for this contract had to meet rigorous quality standards, and a significant part of the tender assessment was based on quality. As the contract is implemented, quality will be an important part of contract management and feedback from the schools will be collected. Additionally, schools have only signed up initially for a year, so their second year’s sign-up will be dependent on their perception of the quality of the service they receive and its value for money.

3.1.6 The careers guidance thus provided in schools will be as impartial as it can be under current legislation. It will be provided by a national careers company and will fulfil the requirements of the agreed tender specification. However, it is being paid for by schools and colleges, and they are deciding the nature of the service they require for their money. They can, therefore, shape it as they wish, and as long as the service is paid for by schools and colleges, it can never be truly impartial.

3.1.7 The LA and the CEIAG Partnership have tired to ensure that schools are as well-prepared as they can be to fulfil their new duty. Schools are purchasing a professional service from a national company that employs professionally qualified staff, and there are clauses in the specification about the level of qualification and the training that staff receive. However, most schools are purchasing significantly less provision than they received under the previous Connexions contract, and the provision will not be as extensive as they are accustomed to. Because of the bespoke arrangements that each school will shape, it is not possible for the LA to ensure that all young people in Bradford receive an equivalent level of careers advice. What we have ensured is that all schools have purchased a quality service from a quality provider and that the contract is managed to maintain levels of performance.

3.1.8 Bradford’s local provider of the National Careers Service, Aspire-I, has offered a free training session on the use of the National Careers Service website and telephone service to schools. They have already given a presentation on this work to our Confederation Executive Committee.

3.2 The extent of face-to-face guidance offered to young people.

3.2.1 Through the CEIAG Partnership schools have purchased 1.5 days per week of Personal Adviser time, but this may not all be used for face to face guidance. The decision about service provision in schools and colleges rests with the institutions that are funding the service.

3.2.2 The Connexions service in Bradford will continue to operate drop in facilities for careers information and guidance as they did through the previous contract.

3.2.3 Three of our schools are not participating in the CEIAG Partnership. They are aware of their duties, and we will ask them how they are fulfilling them, but they are not obliged to tell us.

3.3 At what age careers guidance should be provided to young people.

3.3.1 Careers guidance should be provided from the age of 14.

3.3.2 Careers information should be provided from primary school age in a consistent and planned way as part of PSHCE. It is important that children are made aware of different careers, opportunities and futures open to them as early as possible so that they are not limited by only being aware of their family and local circumstances. This should be done by trained professionals in order to be effective and equalities aware.

3.4 The role of local authorities in careers guidance for young people.

3.4.1 The renewed emphasis on LAs taking particular responsibility for guidance for vulnerable young people is welcome, and in Bradford we are investing as much as we can from the reduced Early Intervention Grant in a newly procured service. The new service is based on the previous Connexions targeted service, which has proved very effective. The Council is investing some of its own funds to work with schools to develop a through-age enterprise curriculum which will support pupils through all key stages to recognise the types of businesses, employment opportunities and potential for self-employed/business start up in Bradford.

3.4.2 Using the previous Connexions budget we have reduced 16–18 year old NEET in Bradford very significantly, from 15.3% in 2002 to 5.7% in June 2012, and are proud of the fact that our NEET rate has been below the national average for the first time for the last three months (April to June 2012). We are therefore of the view that in Bradford an effective model is to fund LAs to provide a truly impartial and holistic service, in partnership with schools and colleges, so that young people receive what should be viewed as an entitlement to impartial information, advice and guidance. LAs are able to act more impartially on behalf of young people than schools and colleges are, particularly where sustainable budgets are reliant on institutions retaining pupils post 16. The shift of the duty to provide impartial advice to young people to schools does bring these tensions to the fore. Once schools are paying for the service, even if it is not provided by personnel on their pay roll, it is not impartial.

3.4.3 Effective, professionally provided, impartial careers guidance is essential for all young people, particularly as they approach transition at age 16. It is essential for the development of the young person; they must be confident that they are sufficiently well informed to make the best choices about their future; and we cannot afford to waste funding while they make mistakes with the accompanying loss of self esteem. In Bradford, the majority of our young people are first generation HE students and most are first generation FE. Good careers guidance assists the social mobility the District needs and helps to overcome gender and cultural barriers. A service that provides these benefits is best provided by the LA working in partnership with schools, and properly funded by central government.

3.4.4 It is important that effective careers guidance sits alongside the huge investment made in provision for the 16–18 age group. For many of our young people, excellent provision is of little benefit to them if they do not know about it and how to select the most appropriate courses. Professional and impartial information, advice and guidance that assists young people in these ways is better provided centrally by LAs working with schools than by leaving it up to individual schools to provide a service.

3.5 The effectiveness of targeted guidance and support offered to specific groups, such as Looked After Children, children eligible for Free School Meals, teenage parents, young offenders, those with special educational needs or disabilities and those at risk of becoming NEET;

3.5.1 It is right that responsibility for these young people rests with the LA, alongside LAs’ other responsibilities for these groups. However, it is difficult to plan and deliver targeted guidance as discreet provision. Targeted guidance is best when it is integrated with a universal service. This mirrors young people’s experience of having times of additional need and other times when their requirement for support is less. Through divorcing the targeted service from the universal service there is a very real danger that young people fall through the gaps between services. The local authority has therefore made provision within the overall Connexions service contract that where additional needs are identified, referrals are made through the use of the Common Assessment Framework to our Integrated Youth Support Service, using a step up step down process to ensure ongoing support is available. The council made the decision that it needed to ensure ongoing support beyond impartial information, advice and guidance to these groups so that they could fulfil their potential towards independence and employment.

3.5.2 Cuts to the Early Intervention Grant mean that targeted guidance is less well funded than in the past. Bradford’s EIG was cut by 12.4% in 2011–12 from its 2010–11 baseline, and its increase the following year by 4.3% amounted to little more than inflation.

3.6 The link between careers guidance and the choices young people make on leaving school.

3.6.1 In regularly collected feedback from young people, they rate careers guidance as important in helping them make post 16 choices. In a survey of Year 11 young people across the Bradford District carried out in February 2012, 11.5% of the 308 respondents said that they did not know what they wanted to do at the end of Year 11 and 17% said they were not sure. When they were asked how helpful they found careers advice given to them by their Personal Adviser, 55% rated this helpful and 41% rated it very helpful.

3.6.2 School staff do their best to advise their students, but they say that they feel least equipped to advise young people about apprenticeships. This is despite the National Apprenticeship Service and the West Yorkshire Learning Providers offering training. Careers guidance provides a very useful source of advice and guidance for young people wishing to pursue an apprenticeship.

3.6.3 Careers guidance should be impartial. Although our school sixth forms offer a wide range of courses at different levels, our three FE colleges offer many more, particularly vocational and occupational courses. In the absence of impartial careers guidance, we cannot be fully confident that young people will know about the learning, training and employment options, as schools and colleges seek to protect their post 16 budgets. Although current legislation endeavours to retain that impartiality by insisting that professionals offering impartial guidance should not be on the school pay roll, this will not actually ensure impartiality. Once the schools pay, they control the advice and guidance.

3.7 The overall coherence of the careers guidance offered to young people.

3.7.1 We have endeavoured to work in transparent partnership arrangements in order to retain as much coherence for the delivery of careers guidance offered to young people as possible. We are hopeful that this will be the case, as we are all aware, as partners, of the tensions and risks involved in the new system.

3.7.2 Schools and colleges will decide how the universal service is provided for their students and may not provide anything for the majority. The local authority with its responsibilities for vulnerable young people will determine the nature of support for them whilst working with the broader partnership to retain as much coherence across the system as possible. There is a high risk that the new regulations could remove the future possibility of coherence.

3.7.3 The National Careers Service is improving but is fundamentally adult facing and only the website and phone lines are available to young people.

3.7.4 The local Prospectus is a useful tool, but young people need professional guidance to assist them to use it to full advantage. The National Careers Service course search does not include the lower level courses that many of our young people need to access.

3.7.5 Overall coherence is unlikely as LAs decide how to provide for vulnerable young people, schools and colleges provide whatever they feel is appropriate for their students, students may or may not know about the National Careers Service and may or may not know about a local Prospectus, which may or may not exist.

4. Recommendations for Action

4.1 Retain the current arrangements for careers guidance for vulnerable groups.

4.2 Put in place a properly funded, impartial face-to-face careers information, advice and guidance service that assists young people into the most appropriate provision for learning pathways to employment. This would be best organised through local authorities working in partnership with local providers.

4.3 Re-introduce the requirement for schools to include Careers Education and Guidance in the curriculum. It should be a stated, compulsory part of the secondary curriculum and an entitlement for all young people.

October 2012