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Skills for every young person Contents

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Chapter 7: Governmental initiatives and responsibilities

304.The issue of youth employment sits between different ministerial portfolios. This is due to the multiplicity of factors that can lead to a young person becoming unemployed, and the range of issues that can arise from unemployment itself. As a result, UK government policy tends to be produced in a siloed fashion with lack of a clear steering hand or accountability from any one minister or department. The range of policy initiatives enacted to tackle the issue, which are many at present, are spread across departments and are not clearly aligned nor joined up with one another, which makes navigating them difficult for employers, local authorities, youth work practitioners, and young people themselves. Many of these schemes were introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic and are in their infancy so it is not possible at this stage to undertake a detailed examination of their merits and outcomes.

Current cross-departmental approach

305.Evidence we heard from the Government suggested a strong working relationship between the DfE and DWP. Keith Smith, Director of Post-16 Strategy at the DfE, told us that “relationships have never been stronger than they are now”. He went on to reiterate that “in order to get the skills system really world class, it is important that we connect across all government departments.”546

306.However, the Youth Employment Group gave evidence that the spread of responsibility across government departments means that young people can fall through the cracks and end up “the responsibility of no department”.547 The Association of Colleges told us that many people are not being redirected to advice and training because of a disconnected system in which programmes and schemes do not effectively coexist alongside one another.548 Lauren Roberts, Youth Engagement Executive at the City & Guilds Group, told us that there is widespread confusion:

“You have employers that are very keen to invest in young people and want to do all they can to offer opportunities, but when there are so many schemes to pick from, how do you know which one is best for your business needs? As a young person myself who was NEET only eight or nine years ago, what scheme do you go for? Do I do an apprenticeship? Do I do a T Level? Do I join a Kickstart programme? Do any of those lead me to a real job at the end of the day?”.549

Figure 31: Key departmental responsibilities

Source: HM Government, ‘Welcome to GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/ [accessed 1 November 2021]

307.The disconnect between the departments can also be confusing for businesses looking to implement government programmes and schemes. In the East Midlands, we were told by one organisation working with young people that there are too many overlapping programmes from government departments and, as such, the system needs to be radically simplified to properly support young people.550 Esther O’Callaghan OBE, CEO of Hundo Careers, told us that young people need more than a range of disparate interventions and support, but a “coherent and consistent systemic roadmap from education to employability skills and ultimately employment.”551 Jason Holt CBE, of the Holts Group, expressed similar sentiments on coordination:

“My observation is that there needs to be clarity around how Kickstart interlinks with apprenticeships. That is not clear to me. Maybe it is partly due to the fact that there are two government departments responsible—DWP for Kickstart and the Department for Education for apprenticeships. How that interlinks might need clarity because I am not sure that those two pipes connect perfectly”.552

Box 12: Scotland’s Youth Employment Minister

In 2011, in response to the financial crisis, the Scottish Government appointed a dedicated minister for youth employment following rising youth unemployment rates. This was accompanied by an additional £30 million in funding.553 Once appointed, the Minister’s draft strategy included proposals for the following: Clear and targeted approach to support young people as they look for jobs; Development of opportunities within the apps programme; Targeted support to help young people into the energy and low carbon economy; Support via the My Work Coach programme under development at the time; and Financial support to employers to encourage them to employ young people from disadvantaged groups.554 The role has since been expanded into the current ministerial post of Minister for Higher Education and Further Education, Youth Employment and Training, who has responsibility for the Young Person’s Guarantee, apprenticeships, youth employment, FE and HE, STEM and widening access.555 The Scottish Government also has a Minister for Children and Young People, whose portfolio includes the school leavers toolkit and wraparound childcare.556 Both sit under the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills.557 The Young Person’s Guarantee—developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic—drew heavily on the Edinburgh Guarantee that offered six months’ paid work experience for all unemployed 16- to 24-year-olds following the financial crisis. The Edinburgh Guarantee was a private sector employer-led scheme that worked with the Chamber of Commerce to target SMEs, with placements underwritten by the council. The Young Person’s Guarantee expands on this and aims to connect young people across Scotland with an opportunity, whether that is a job, apprenticeship, FE or HE, training or volunteering.558

308.We heard that Youth Hubs may prove a vehicle through which to connect the varied programmes and provide wraparound, joined up provision for young people accessing careers, learning and employment support.559 Youth Hubs were announced in the Plan for Jobs as part of the Youth Offer. They are created in partnership with JCP and aim to provide employability and skills advice. They are co-located with other organisations to provide access to a range of services in one place. Young people on the 13-week Youth Employment Programme may be referred to Youth Hubs, where they can get extra support from a Youth Hub work coach for up to six months. Some Youth Hubs may offer a drop-in service for all young people who need support to find work, including those not claiming Universal Credit. As of September 2021, there are over 115 Youth Hubs in existence and the DWP plans to place one in every JCP district. The Government plans to open 150 in total by the end of 2021. The Government has also employed 150 Youth Employability Coaches.560 The Youth Employment Group offered praise for Youth Hubs:

“The new ‘Youth Hubs’ that bring together different local partners are a promising way of transforming the landscape for young people in the long term and can help ensure there is ‘no wrong door’ for young people who do not engage with Jobcentre Plus. These need to be properly resourced as a hub for all local partners, employers and institutions to provide joined up support”.561

309.Youth Hubs must ensure that they follow a ‘what works’ approach as they are established. Louise Doble, Chair of the ACE Youth Trust, told us that after the age of 16 engaging young people was a struggle best overcome by one-to-one engagement, but that there were funding challenges.562 Tony Wilson from the Institute for Employment Studies agreed that one-to-one support was crucial in ensuring that support was effective for young people.563 The CSW Group reflected on the approach of the Connexions service, which offered bespoke support to young people to address their barriers and offered ongoing support until they were in work.564

310.While there is clearly strong positivity around what Youth Hubs could provide, Laura-Jane Rawlings, CEO of Youth Employment UK, told us that even Youth Hubs struggle with the problem of ‘too many cooks’. She called for a leader with national accountability for Youth Hubs.565

311.There is no individual within senior UK government with sole responsibility for youth unemployment. There is a need to better connect the key Government departments on this issue including Work and Pensions; Education; Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy; Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; Levelling Up, Housing and Communities; and HM Treasury, so that young people do not fall through the cracks. If properly resourced, Youth Hubs could streamline the variety of provisions in place for young people and deliver them more effectively.

312.While we understand calls for a minister for youth unemployment, we are concerned that this would not best serve the interests of young people given that the factors influencing youth unemployment are spread across departmental responsibility by their nature. A Governmental reorganisation may only add another artificial divide. An authority that is independent, representative of young people and can challenge the Government in public will be best placed to hold them publicly to account, as was demonstrated by the role played by Sir Kevan Collins.

313.The Government must appoint an independent Young People’s Commissioner for youth aged 16 to 24 with specific reference to youth unemployment, education and skills, including the new Youth Hubs. The purpose of this role should be to interrogate Government policy and be the voice of young people, in a similar role to that of the Children’s Commissioner, whose remit covers those aged 18 and under. At the point of overlap in their proposed remits, between the ages of 16 and 18, the Government must consider how they can work together to ensure the best outcomes for young people undertaking FE or training.

314.The role of Young People’s Commissioner should be designed on similar principles to that of the Children’s Commissioner: the Office of the Commissioner should be established as a non-departmental public body, largely independent from ministers and accountable to the public directly via Parliament, for which the Commissioner should produce an Annual Report.

315.The Department for Education and Department for Work and Pensions should work together on the creation of a consolidated ‘toolkit’ guide for employers on the types of opportunity they can provide for young people, the costs and benefits that they provide, and the pathways they can progress towards. This should include work experience opportunities like traineeships, apprenticeships, T Level industry placements and SWAPs. A version of this guide should be developed in an accessible format for young people.

316.The Government must work with businesses to create an Opportunity Guarantee, offering all young people aged 16 to 24 the guarantee of a job, education or training. This should be extended to every young person, not just those claiming Universal Credit, to ensure that nobody misses out. Youth Hubs could be the primary vehicle to deliver this.

Kickstart

317.The Government has a range of employment support programmes on offer, further details of which are outlined in Appendix 7. The primary response is led by Jobcentre Plus (JCP), which delivers benefits like Universal Credit (UC). The DWP plans to increase its spending on support programmes from £0.3 billion to £2.5 billion between 2020–21 and 2021–22. The majority of this will be spent on Kickstart (£1.9 billion).566

318.Kickstart is the Government’s primary youth-focussed response to the pandemic. It provides government-subsidised jobs for 16- to 24-year-olds. The Government pays the age-appropriate minimum wage for 25 hours per week plus National Insurance and pensions contributions.567 We heard several calls for the extension of the scheme. Belfast Met told us that “short term projects of less than two years are not a workable model for youth labour market interventions”.568 In October 2021, the Government announced an extension of the scheme until March 2022. The Government has confirmed that as of November 2021, the scheme has supported over 100,000 young people.569

319.Reaction to the ambitions of the scheme has generally been positive. Employers in particular told us that it enabled them to build their talent pipeline.570 The Minister for Employment told us that the scheme was proving valuable in getting young people a foot on the jobs ladder who might not have previously got through the CV screening process.571 This suggests that the scheme is providing valuable opportunities for young people who might otherwise have slipped through the net into becoming NEET. We heard positive feedback from young people regarding the scheme, including one young person at our Bolton and Lancashire engagement session, who told us that “there are some good opportunities in Kickstart and I’m looking at doing one—a chance to start work and get a bit of money”.572 A young person at our engagement session with young people from ethnic minority backgrounds told us:

“I joined the Kickstart scheme through UC and the role that I have been doing has given me a lot of access that I didn’t think I would have had before–a really good opportunity”.573

320.Tony Wilson of the Institute for Employment Studies said:

“we are never going to solve everything with one intervention. It will never all lead to permanent jobs, but it gives people work experience, addresses signal that employers receive when people are out of work, gives people confidence to look for new jobs, gives them workplace skills and helps them to find a new job. This is a well-proven intervention that works, and we should be doing more of it”.574

321.However, we have also heard that there are a number of barriers to taking up a placement. These include:

• Limiting eligibility to UC recipients—16 and 17-year-olds can only claim UC in certain circumstances, and therefore they are barred from the Kickstart Scheme. We also heard that vulnerable young people in care may not claim UC but would benefit from a placement.575 Kevin Blacoe, Head of Partnerships, Nations and Regions at Channel 4, told us that there were challenges linked to recruitment via JCP.576 We also heard frustration that Kickstart excludes young people with disabilities if they are claiming Employment Support Allowance rather than UC.577 Sope Utulana of the Youth Futures Foundation also told us that “being a universal credit claimant provides a simple tool for targeting, but it risks missing those young people who are from disadvantaged backgrounds but have not made a claim and would not enter a jobcentre”;578
• High entry requirements—Barbara Strang, Business Partnerships Manager at ThinkForward, noted that Kickstart placements often listed a range of required skills in their advertisements, which the young people she works with have not yet developed.579 A young person at our engagement session with young people from ethnic minority backgrounds told us that “people are joining my team at work on Kickstart but I was shocked by the qualifications of the people joining–many of them have Masters degrees. What is really out there for people who don’t have GCSEs or A-Levels or who have gone through a lot in their personal life?”;580 and
• Lack of choice—Alex Reader of Nottingham Works for You at Nottingham City Council told us that it was unhelpful that work coaches chose which opportunities to put in front of a young person, which often meant that a young person may have no interest in an area in which they are placed.581

322.We also heard that there were a number of challenges for employers who may be interested in setting up placements for young people.

• Short-term length—The North East LEP told us that Kickstart could be a “great progressive opportunity” for the development of a pipeline moving towards apprenticeships. However, its finite nature means that employers cannot build it into their long-term strategy;582
• Exclusion of very small businesses—Kickstart has a suggested ratio of three employees to one Kickstarter. Whilst this does not automatically result in rejection, it is likely that an application from a microbusiness would be rejected.583 David Barker told us that this limits the scheme’s capacity to scale up;584
• Connection to apprenticeships—Jason Holt told us that the links between Kickstart and apprenticeships are not clear enough for employers to understand;585 and
• Taking on Kickstarters permanently—We heard that some employers may not be able to offer a permanent position after the COVID-19 pandemic. Emma Taylor, People Director for UK and Ireland at Tesco PLC, said that converting 60% of their 900 placements into permanent employment was a “realistic ambition” for Kickstarters.586 One youth organisation in the East Midlands suggested there should be more support or incentives for businesses who do not have capacity to offer Kickstarters permanent work to help them source this elsewhere.587

323.The Government told us that examples had been learned from the Future Jobs Fund (FJF) when creating Kickstart.588 The FJF was set up in 2009 following the financial crash. It was available for those who were out of work for six months and offered subsidised employment, training, or work experience for up to six months, largely in the public and third sector, at a minimum of 25 hours a week. It was cancelled by the Government in 2011 on the grounds it did not help to secure sustainable employment, with 45% claiming benefit seven months after starting the scheme.589 Tony Wilson told us that of all the people who went through the scheme 40% moved into permanent employment. However, there was a 10% increase in the likelihood of being in permanent work for those who went through the scheme.590

324.Proper evaluation of the success of the Kickstart scheme will rely on publication of data on take-up and outcomes broken down by type of user. This data is not released on a frequent or regimented basis. Kickstart data is able to be broken down by region, but not as yet by other personal characteristics such as ethnicity, gender or age, which makes it difficult to see which groups have benefitted most from the scheme. The Youth Employment Group called for the Government to measure outcomes from the scheme, not only placements that have been created.591
The Government has assured us that work is being undertaken to record how many Kickstarters go on to sustained work.592

325.Kickstart is a welcome initiative that has supported the provision of opportunities for work experience to thousands of young people, but it is currently due to end in March 2022. It could be improved, expanded and potentially made permanent so that it reaches those who could benefit most from the support it offers. It could also be more clearly aligned with further training opportunities such as traineeships.

326.The Government must extend Kickstart beyond the immediate crisis. Its eligibility should be broadened to include those from disadvantaged backgrounds who are not accessing Universal Credit. When able to do so, it should publish outcomes data broken down by demographic groups, with an emphasis on those with protected characteristics. To fully meet the needs of these groups, the Government must ensure that CEIAG and training support are core components of any placement by linking employers to local organisations and intermediaries who are able to provide one-to-one wraparound support for Kickstart participants who may require more support.

327.The Government must explore whether the removal of the recommended ratio of three employees to one Kickstart participant would enable microbusinesses to access the scheme if there is appetite to do so. The Government must consider a ‘bonus’ incentive provided to the employer if a Kickstart participant goes into a permanent role following their placement.

328.More widely, the Government must also undertake a rigorous assessment of take up of Kickstart places and the barriers to this, so that appropriate lessons are learned and opportunities for the disadvantaged are maximised, regardless of whether the scheme is extended or replaced with a longer-term programme.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund

329.As a member of the EU, the UK received funding from EU structural funds. The European Social Fund (ESF) in particular supported many youth interventions focussing on employment, including third sector interventions. The Youth Employment Initiative was administered through the ESF. New funding through the EU structural funds has now ceased. The Government promised to replace these funds with a UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), due to launch in 2022. Belfast Met told us:

“A lack of certainty over the allocation of Shared Prosperity creates a risk that a substantial number of the most disadvantaged young people who actively participate in ESF funded programmes at entry - level 1 in colleges and the community and voluntary sector will be further impacted in the future”.593

330.In March 2021, £220m was allocated to the UK Community Renewal Fund to invest in skills (25%), local business (23%), investing in communities and place (20%) and supporting people into employment (32%) in preparation for the UKSPF.594 As of October 2021, no funds have yet been allocated.595

331.Professor Sue Maguire, Honorary Professor at the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath, told us that there is concern about how funding for philanthropic and social finance and support can be replaced post-Brexit, with no current commitment to sustained funding via the UKSPF.596 The Shaw Trust said that the UKSPF will be “crucial in supporting skills and employment support programmes for disadvantaged young people” and urged the Government to publish its proposals.597 Careers England told us that as EU funding winds down, the UKSPF should be targeted to ensure that funding is focussed on NEET young people.598 However, Janet Jackson, Partnership Manager at Lancashire Skills Trust, told us that project-based funding models can be limiting in terms of sustained momentum and longevity.599

332.Metro Mayor for Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Steve Rotheram said that ESF funding was “brilliant because it was targeted”, in comparison to the “cluttered landscape” of current Government schemes.600 The DWP’s Deputy Director for Youth and Skills Tammy Fevrier said that the UKSPF, as the domestic successor to the ESF, would look to streamline and speed up the delivery of services and support to better align it with domestic priorities.601

333.Brexit has resulted in a loss of access to EU funds that have supported youth unemployment initiatives. The Government has announced new funding streams in place of these EU funds. However, there is no guarantee that they will continue to fund youth unemployment initiatives at the same level, if at all.

334.The Government must ensure that due consideration is given to the potential of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Community Renewal Fund to continue to deliver finance to programmes that support youth employment, particularly targeting the NEET group, at an equivalent or increased level to that of the European Social Fund.

Data collection and publication

335.Previous chapters of this report have noted the challenges of data collection, publication and assessment that exist at present, for example in recording and publishing skills gaps and the challenges of identifying and recording young people who are NEET. Some of the greatest challenges presented to effective data collection and evaluation are due to the limitations of ONS data.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS)

336.The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) main labour market survey, based on household responses from across the UK. The LFS is a rolling household survey that takes place on a quarterly basis and has been running since 1992. Each sample is made up of roughly 40,000 responding households. LFS microdata captures characteristics including age, sex, qualifications, employment status (full or part-time, public or private, permanent or temporary), ethnicity, and disability.602

337.The ONS recognises its main limitations as follows: the survey is not industrially stratified so provides no guarantee of adequate coverage of any industry; coverage omits those in communal establishments (except NHS housing, students in halls of residence and at boarding schools), members of the armed forces who are not living in private accommodation, and workers aged 16 and under; and the survey is not designed to measure migration flows.603 The LFS faces several additional challenges that can distort our understanding of unemployment:

• We were told that collecting data for young people and students can be challenging due to physically reaching them.604 Students are hard to reach as those in halls of residence are collected at their home address but those in private rental homes can be sampled at their place of study. This means that large student households being rolled in and out can have a noticeable impact on a sample. The proxy response for those aged 16 to 17 was 94.2% in April to June 2021;605
• Young people tend to have more casual interaction with the labour market.606 The LFS records microdata on employment status, including whether a person is full or part-time, public or private, permanent or a temporary worker. However, it is difficult to produce official data on the number of people engaged in the ‘gig economy’. Research published by the TUC estimates that three in 20 adults regularly find work through online platforms once a week.607 The ONS accepts there is no universally accepted definition of this system, and it is not aware of all the businesses included within it. It is exploring whether its definition should be updated;608
• We heard that unemployment varies significantly between local authority areas within a region more than between different regions (see Figure 32). Sam Windett, Co-Chair of the Youth Employment Group, told us that “if you look pan-regionally or even nationally, you will not understand NEET young people in the statistics. You have to look at a very local level.”609

Figure 32: Local variations in the NEET rate for 21-year-olds in the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) area at March 2017

Source: Private seminar delivered by B Gadsby (9 March 2021). See also Impetus, ‘Youth jobs gap’: https://www.impetus.org.uk/policy/youth-jobs-gap [accessed 15 October 2021]; Impetus, The Employment Gap in the West Midlands (July 2019), p 23, table 6: https://www.impetus.org.uk/assets/publications/Report/Youth-Jobs-Gap-The-Employment-Gap-in-the-West-Midlands.pdf [accessed 15 October 2021]

• Despite these large variations, the ONS do not recommend breaking down LFS data below headline measures at a regional level due to small sample sizes. This is a significant barrier to effectively diagnosing and tackling the problem;610
• Hidden NEETs611—Careers England told us that local councils, who have a statutory duty to monitor and engage NEETs, have lost track of over 150,000 young people aged 16 to 18, and over 50,000 of these are believed to be NEET. They argued that local authority data can differ depending on priorities and standards, leading to inaccuracies and at worst a “perverse incentive” not to track young people.612 Young people may not engage with JCP for several reasons, including ineligibility to claim Universal Credit; difficulties attending JCP during the COVID-19 pandemic; backlogs of cases at some jobcentres; and stigma, lack of digital skills and lack of understanding of the process;
• Self-perceptions of proficiency are unreliable. The Bell Foundation told us that the LFS is not a good measure for the need for provision for people whose first language is not English (ESOL) because it is based on self-perception of proficiency.613 This is also the case for disability;
• There are small sample sizes for ethnic minority communities. While the LFS is weighted for demographics and it does capture data on ethnicity, Darren Morgan confirmed that small sample sizes were a challenge. He said: “we do not regularly publish data on ethnic minorities”;614
• Darren Morgan confirmed that the LFS cannot be broken down by socio-economic disadvantage, questioning what definition would be appropriate. While it collects data indicative of economic background such as the area respondents live, the main wage earner and their occupation, this information is not published.615 This is a fundamental barrier to ensuring an accurate picture of the labour market that captures and reflects the socio-economic makeup of the working population. Using FSM eligibility as a proxy for disadvantage may present a straightforward solution.616 The ONS has since informed us that it is exploring whether it can publish a breakdown of labour market status by economic background;617 and
• Other factors are not measured. Researchers from the University of Lincoln told us that data is not routinely collected and analysed on how many unemployed young people are also parents, for example.618

338.Professor Jonathan Wadsworth, Professor of Economics at Royal Holloway University of London, told us that it was best to look at a range of indicators rather than focussing on the unemployment rate, due to the limitations of the LFS.619 The most important measures are the unemployment rate, the unemployment to population ratio, and the NEET rate. In addition to this, Darren Morgan noted experimental payroll data sourced from HMRC, which allows greater regional analysis.620

339.Darren Morgan told us that the ONS is developing a new survey to succeed the LFS, with a larger sample size of 120,000 households. He also told us that the ONS would be publishing recommendations and launching a new inclusive data task force.621

Government interventions

340.We have heard a number of further concerns about data collected and published about the labour market, which influence our understanding of the effectiveness of programmes intended to tackle it. The Government does not release regular updates on all of its employment initiatives. In September 2021, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee reported that shortcomings in the DWP’s data “presents a potential barrier to evaluating the effectiveness of its schemes for different groups robustly”.622 For example, in 2020, the DWP only had data on the ethnic background of 40% of benefit claimants. This has since increased to 74%.623 This makes it difficult to analyse how well interventions are working for different ethnic groups.

341.The National Audit Office has previously pointed out that user views are not systematically and routinely gathered from participants of the DWP’s employment interventions.624 This limits its capacity to improve upon them. We heard the following view from one of our participants in the engagement session with young people from ethnic minority groups:

“I’ve had a mixed experience with Universal Credit. You get some CV workshops and a personal adviser who can help you with support. But it is not tailored to help you with your career development. I didn’t feel they allowed me to be ambitious in what I wanted to do. It is not set up to support people with careers, it is just set up so people can get off UC or not use it in the first place”.625

342.To take the example of Kickstart, for which data is neither frequently nor regularly published, the Government told us that the DWP was focussing on “data-led analysis of sector and geographical spread of Kickstart vacancies and employer engagement to agree targeted interventions to increase participation where gaps are identified”.626 Due to the urgency with which the scheme was rolled out, there are gaps in data collected about the scheme that will be fundamental to understanding its impact. In September 2021, the Employment Minister told the House of Commons that “mechanisms that record the number of disabled young people participating were not included within the initial design of Kickstart. However, disability status is recorded on the wider Universal Credit systems”.627 She said that the DWP continues to evaluate the success of Kickstart for various demographic groups “throughout and after its implementation” through a planned participant survey.628

343.However, while based on a small sample, a recent process evaluation for skills bootcamps found that while there were positive results from participation, data collected did not consistently cover all bootcamps nor geographic areas, while there was “incomplete” data on employment and salary outcomes.629

344.We have heard the case that data on the Government’s varied interventions must focus on long-term outcomes. Stephen Evans of the Learning and Work Institute told us that the DWP needed to produce more comprehensive data on how many people its interventions get into work and their progress, rather than simply recording when they are no longer claiming benefits.630 Professor Sue Maguire of the University of Bath also told us that:

“Programme evaluation has highlighted the importance of targeting. This is dependent on having tracking systems that can produce robust, reliable and efficient data on young people’s intended and actual destinations, alongside accurate labour market information, which is sensitive to the needs of regional and local labour markets”.631

345.Tom Younger, Deputy Director for Labour Market Analysis at the DWP, told us that the Government was carrying out process evaluations to review how interventions are working in practice, including via evidence gathering from JCP work coaches. He caveated that “it still is early days in terms of outcomes and impacts. As time goes on and more people go through these programmes, we will be keeping a very close eye on outcomes before carrying out formal impact evaluations later down the line”.632

School leaver destinations

346.We have heard that data on school leaver destinations is a critical means of measuring the effectiveness of careers guidance. The DfE collects destination data; however, Professor Sir John Holman told us that there is a lag between collection and publication. The Government have only recently published destination data from the 2017-8 cohort of Year 11s. He suggested that technological improvements should speed this process up.633

347.Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data links education records to tax and benefits information, showing whether graduates were employed and how much they were paid. However, there is a time lag in the publication of this data, and schools and colleges may struggle to access, interpret and analyse the data to better understand outcomes given their limited resources.634

348.The Gatsby Benchmarks advocate for schools themselves to record destinations data for their students for three years after a student has left, but this requires significant resource. Professor Sir John Holman also told us:

“If a school does that and has really good records about where everyone ends up, up to three years later, that is a tremendous resource that it can draw on, because it can use that data to analyse how well it is doing in the careers guidance that it is providing—for example, how well it is countering gender stereotypes. What is more, once it knows where everyone has gone, it can build a very strong record of alumni and invite those young people to come back later on and tell their fellow students about their experiences”.635

349.Without high quality data, collected and published on a regular basis, the Government, policymakers and third parties cannot properly assess the impact of its employment interventions on young people from a range of vulnerable groups. This limits understanding of how effective any intervention is at reaching the most in need, and the capacity to which it can be improved.

350.The Government must work with the ONS to improve the quality and quantity of employment data collected on specific groups of young people, in particular those from disadvantaged (such as FSM-eligible) and ethnic minority backgrounds. This data must be published at more regular intervals than is presently the case so that it can be interrogated by policymakers.

351.The Government must take a more uniform approach to publishing detailed data on takeup and outcomes from its employment support schemes. This information should be able to be split by local authority area, demographic group and disadvantage.

352.The Government must, so far as possible, ensure that the destinations of school leavers in the summer they leave school are recorded so that their effectiveness can be better monitored. We recognise, however, that any mandatory requirement in this respect may impose a disproportionate burden on school administration which they may not have the capacity to manage. Instead, the Government must assess how best schools can be supported to achieve the relevant Gatsby benchmark in this area and allocate appropriate resources if necessary.

353.As an interim measure, the Government must take steps to reduce the lag between collection and publication of destination data, publish more data over a longer period of time, and explore the possibility of extending support for schools and FE institutions to access and interpret Longitudinal Educational Outcomes data on the destinations of their students.

Local and regional policy implementation

354.The themes discussed in this report have often been the subject of a national response, reflecting the fact that youth unemployment is a national challenge. We also know, however, that different challenges exist in different regions and localities. There are also a range of levers and initiatives that can be initiated at local and regional level to reflect differences in youth unemployment rates, local labour markets, or other specific local challenges.

355.A recurring theme of the evidence we heard was the extent of inequality both within and across regions relating to youth employment prospects. This is a reflection of the economic disparities in localities that are often very close to one another, and to which national policy is not always effectively attuned.

356.Regional inequalities are often exacerbated by ‘brain drain’, where young people leave an area in search of better opportunities elsewhere, generally gravitating to large cities. The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities recently said that a person shouldn’t have to “leave the place you love in order to live the life you want”.636 However, the Youth Voice Census 2021 found that only 9.9% of respondents said they were confident that they would be able to find quality work where they live.637

357.Meredith Teasdale of Cornwall Council told us that “in any conversation you have with somebody in Cornwall, they will talk about a young person leaving Cornwall and going somewhere else”. In part, she suggested that this is because there are fewer large businesses in Cornwall, and so locations such as Bristol or London might present better opportunities to join a big firm.638 We heard similar views from young people in our meetings; for example, when speaking to young people from Bolton and Lancashire, we were told that opportunities available locally for apprenticeships that are in the right sector for them are limited.639

358.Research from the IFS shows that at age 27, 35% of graduates and 15% of non-graduates have moved away from the area where they lived at age 16. Around a quarter of graduates who move go to London. People from ethnic minority backgrounds and lower income backgrounds are less likely to move than their white and more affluent peers, and the effect of HE on mobility is much weaker for these groups. The IFS concludes that “patterns of mobility exacerbate regional inequality in skills”, with many areas with low levels of HE participation losing their graduates to cities with already high rates of HE participation.640

359.In recent years there have been significant changes in English regional governance which has changed the context in which initiatives to tackle youth unemployment operate. In particular, many areas have seen the advent of mayoral combined authorities (MCAs), especially in metropolitan areas. MCAs have been granted powers over adult education budgets since 2019, including education and skills training for learners above the age of 19.

360.Each mayoral combined authority is led by an elected mayor commonly known as a ‘metro mayor’, who runs the authority in cooperation with the council leaders in the areas they cover. As well as adult education, the mayors also have access to a capital investment fund and (in most cases) can raise a council tax precept to fund their activities. The high profile of metro mayors also means they can exercise ‘soft power’ to promote initiatives of their choosing and working with other organisations to take action. Some MCAs have used both formal and ‘soft’ powers to pursue initiatives to tackle youth unemployment.

361.Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, told us that in order for devolution to the regions to work properly, “we need proper finances. There needs to be appropriate resource if devolution has the chance of success… We absolutely want to be held responsible and accountable for what we do, but that means that the Government need to work with us. At times, it seems that we are pulling in opposite directions”.641

362.Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs)—formal partnerships between businesses and local authorities in functional economic areas, often crossing council boundaries—also have a major role to play in addressing youth unemployment, particularly in relation to skills needs and supporting local economic priorities. In areas without a Mayoral Combined Authority (or the Greater London Authority) LEPs are the principal drivers of Skills Advisory Panels, which are local partnerships that work to identify and address local skills priorities. The Government states that “they aim to strengthen the link between employers and skills providers including colleges, independent training providers and universities”, and receive Government grants for this purpose.642

363.We heard evidence from a number of regional authorities and LEPs as to the initiatives they were undertaking and the powers they would need to tackle youth unemployment more effectively. For example, the Liverpool City Region told us of its plans to implement a “Young Person’s Guarantee”. This would mean a commitment of a job, training or an apprenticeship opportunity for every young person who is out of work for more than six months (see Box 12 on Edinburgh’s Youth Guarantee). This will begin with a focus on school leavers, and the City Region aims to extend this to everyone under 25. It also discussed its work with the Department for Work and Pensions to establish a Youth Task Force, with face-to-face support being delivered through Youth Hubs. The City Region also noted that it had established a single and integrated CEIAG portal via its Employment and Skills Board.643

364.The Tees Valley Combined Authority told us how it used its powers and resources to support youth employment. For example, it told us that it had implemented a “Routes to Work” pilot to support residents most distant from the labour market into or closer to sustainable employment. It stated that through this, “over 3,420 people have already been engaged and over 670 assisted into employment”. It said it had offered grants allowing the creation of over 300 apprenticeships; had set up an online careers education hub to “deliver high quality careers education to 100,000 children and young people”; and had established a “partnership of local colleges, training organisations and employers designed to meet the skills needs of Teesworks—the UK’s largest industrial zone, centred on advanced manufacturing, innovation and clean growth”.644

365.The Combined Authority also advocated that future interventions should not be targeted towards specific groups, regions or sectors on a national level, but that national policy should take a regional approach, in which sub-regional bodies such as Combined Authorities are given additional responsibilities and resources. As noted, an amendment to the Skills Bill requires that LSIPs should be developed in partnership with local authorities including Mayoral Combined Authorities and FE providers.645

366.The North East LEP told us that its Skills Advisory Panel has conducted a series of research projects into the skills demands and needs in the region. It noted that one particular ongoing project “is looking into the future skills needs in the area in particular, the green economy sector and health and social care. This will inform the LEP and the area’s learning and skills partners around where provision and assets that may be needed in the future”. It added that:

“interventions for young people are best targeted at a local level to local young people with control of funding and strategic oversight at a regional level through Strategic Advisory Panels or MCAs… localised support at the right level for the young people who have initial barriers around accessing transportation, confidence and self-belief and at the same time delivery can key in regional skill demands from employers and sectors”.

367.Local authorities also have a role in addressing employment challenges in their areas. The LGA told us that, as well as their general duties to support their local economies, local authorities also have several statutory duties in relation to supporting the education and employment prospects of young people, in particular in ensuring that all young people up to the age of 18 are in education or training. However, the LGA also told us that “councils have very few formal levers over commissioning or coordination of provision to ensure their statutory duties are met”.646

368.The LGA stated that “coordination of these funding streams to target them to the needs of communities and individuals is crucial” and called for a new approach based on its ‘Work Local’ model, which it described as follows:

“This would give combined authorities and groups of councils, working in partnership with local and national partners, the powers and funding to plan, commission and oversee a joined-up system, by bringing together advice and guidance, employment, skills, apprenticeships and business support for individuals and employers, at the local level. We are calling on the Government to back and fund the trialling of the Work Local model”.647

369.The Government’s written evidence stated that it “recognises that young people’s needs will vary depending on where they live and their own individual circumstances. This diversity will be essential when it comes to helping our country recover after Coronavirus pandemic”. It gave the example of Youth Hubs, which are located across the country, and which “use the knowledge of staff from the local area to provide young people with the most suitable provision”. It also noted that “we have also worked in partnership to create local Kickstart opportunities that meet the need of each local community. Our Work Coaches are best placed to identify young jobseekers in their areas who would most benefit from the scheme. Local partnership managers and Kickstart District Account Managers are working with employers and partners locally to help align Kickstart to economic recovery plans and works alongside the Scottish and Welsh offers”.648

370.We heard a range of positive case studies of local and regional initiatives to combat youth unemployment, including positive evidence of the employment and skills initiatives being undertaken by the recently established Mayoral Combined Authorities. We remain concerned at the evidence that there is a lack of local coordination of national funding streams, and of the work of national agencies. It is clear that longer-term solutions to the issue will only be found when they are locally driven and attuned to local needs. The Government must bear this in mind when developing and implementing initiatives to address the challenge.

371.The Government must consider adopting the Local Government Association’s ‘Work Local’ model, by which groups of councils and their local partners would receive funding and support to plan, commission and oversee a joined-up system of employment support at a local level.

372.The Government must ensure that youth employment initiatives such as Kickstart should, as far as possible, be delivered on the basis of local and regional collaboration, to ensure that opportunities are visible and accessible, and that young people have the largest range of opportunities to meet their aspirations.

373.The Government must review the powers and resources devolved to Mayoral Combined Authorities with a view to extending them where appropriate, to ensure they have the capacity they need to support youth employment in their areas.

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