Case studies

Blackpool Council's Care Leaver Employment Adviser (CLEA) project provides a dedicated worker for young people (16 to 25 years) who have been looked after by the local authority. This role aims to support young people to take up a job, training, or work placement.

To address high levels of disengagement with young people, leading post-16 providers in Bristol have developed a collaborative strategy for building a high quality system. A key part of this includes the Bristol WORKS programme, providing access to quality work experience and apprenticeships to every young person in the city.

Derbyshire County Council's holistic approach to supporting communities means that support for harder to reach young people is embedded within several wider schemes or programmes of support. This includes through the Thriving Communities programme.

Durham County Council delivers a cross-county programme called DurhamWorks which supports unemployed 16-24 year olds to progress into employment, education or training (EET). To date, DurhamWorks has supported 8750 young people with 78 per cent progressing into EET or gaining a qualification. This provides the framework within which the Sessional Employment Programme (SEP) sits.

An inclusive approach is integral to employment support within Hackney Borough Council. The design of programmes and opportunities are focused on engaging and supporting hard-to-reach groups in the area, including care leavers, young people with disabilities and young black males.

Inclusion is at the heart of Hampshire County Council’s strategies and planning, with recognition of the need to bolster support for those hard-to-reach groups with lower level skills. Hampshire Virtual College aims to ensure that young people have access to high quality, post 16 education, employment and training.

Following the disbanding of Connexions as a national service in 2012, Kirklees Council continued to make significant local investments in Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG), NEET prevention activities and post-16 tracking. With the exception of York, Kirklees and Calderdale have the lowest combined NEET and not known rates in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

In England, the current skills and employment system consists of at least 49 national employment and skills related schemes or services managed by nine Whitehall departments. No single organisation is responsible for coordinating this activity locally. However, with adequate resources local government can deliver. Our local government partners across the UK are already on a path to achieving this.

Bristol City Council’s employment, skills and learning service works proactively to ensure it adds value to the skills and employment system, including through its ‘Bristol One City’ partnership.

Central London Forward provides support, coordination and partnership working across councils in central London, leading on key programmes such as ‘Central London Works’. This case study examines the strengths, impact and challenges of the current skills and employment system, and what is needed to increase positive outcomes for local residents.