Councils "need information sharing powers to help young people off the radar"

Councils urgently need more legal powers to ensure partner organisations share information if those 16- to 18-year-olds – or NEETs – currently “off the radar” are to participate in education and training, the Local Government Association has said.

Cllr David Simmonds, chairman of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said: “Too often the challenging task of reducing teenage disengagement is made far more difficult when schools, colleges, Jobcentres, national schemes and UCAS do not provide the information needed to identify those in need of help." 

Cllr Simmonds’ comments followed a report, 16-18 year old participation in education and training, published today by the influential Public Accounts Committee. The MPs’ findings included that:

• Local authorities and the Department for Education needed to do more to identify more than 100,000 young people “who are off the radar”. Too many young people simply disappeared from all the relevant public systems. “Local authorities have a statutory duty to track the activity of 16- to 18-year-olds, but some local authorities do not know whether young people are participating in education or training or not. Nationally, 7% of young people’s activity is unknown. In some local authorities the proportion is as high as 20%.”
• Some within this NEET group [those not in education, employment or training] had been reached by the Youth Contract initiative, but this was expected to only support half the number it was originally predicted to assist, would end soon and the Department had no plans to replace it.
• The DfE should work urgently with local authorities to identify and disseminate good practice on the most effective ways to track young people’s education and training activities.
• The Department should examine the impact of variation in local authority transport policies on its objective to increase participation and should review whether and how to intervene where this is a significant barrier to participation. In 63 local authorities where transport costs are relatively high, young people do not get help with these costs.

The PAC said it was pleased that more 16– to 18-year-olds continued in education, but the MPs noted that the UK still lay behind other OECD countries. Young people who are NEET are, on average, more likely to be unemployed, have lower paid jobs, have addictions or go to prison.

The Government has legislated to raise the participation age so that young people are required to continue in education and training beyond the age of 16, and students who left year 11 in summer 2014 are the first cohort that will have to continue until at least their 18th birthday. However the PAC noted how the Government had decided not to bring the enforcement provisions into effect, preferring to rely on persuasion.

Committee chair Margaret Hodge MP said: “If the activity of young people is unknown to the local authorities where they live, they are unlikely to receive targeted help.”

She added: “It would seem common sense that the main reason the number of NEETs is down is that the law has changed to require young people to continue in education or training until at least their 18th birthday. It is difficult to show that any other interventions, such as careers advice, have been effective.”

Hodge also noted that the Government’s spending on 16-18 education had fallen by 8% in real terms compared to 2010-11. In September 2014 it reduced the basic rate of annual funding for an 18-year-old from £4,000 to £3,300.

“With scarce resources it is vital to understand whether and which initiatives are most effective and why. Yet, the Department for Education has little understanding of the impact of existing initiatives and programmes,” Hodge said.     

In addition to his comments on information sharing, Cllr David Simmonds also said: “Councils are committed to identifying and supporting all youngsters to realise their full potential and have actually reduced the number of ‘unknown’ 16-to-18-year-olds by 14% since 2012 as well as leading the reduction of disengaged teenagers to an all-time low......

He added: “Councils know that transport costs can be a real barrier to post-16 education for young people. Despite not being legally required to do so, many councils have dug deep to try to fund travel costs for young people to get to college.
 
“Funding for the concessionary fares scheme for elderly and disabled residents has reduced by 39% during the life of this Parliament. This means vital post-16 transport services can no longer be protected and councils are forced to take difficult decisions to scale them back.”