Re-thinking youth participation for the present and next generation: education to employment

Even before the COVID-19 crisis, improving youth participation in education, employment and training was a key priority for councils - not only because of our statutory duties relating to young people, but for its significance to the future workforce for our economy. While youth participation in education and training rates for 16 -18-year olds have hovered around the 86.1 per cent mark the challenge for local government has remained over recent years. We continue to hold statutory duties for the engagement of young people in high quality education and training but lack the appropriate formal levers – power and resources – to undertake these responsibilities effectively. Most of the provision for young people is still nationally commissioned by Whitehall departments without conducting assessments of local need.

Then COVID-19 came along and dealt a heavy blow, disproportionately impacting young people – those in school and colleges, on apprenticeships or in sectors mostly bearing the brunt of the crisis.

The Government’s prompt action and recent announcements of Opportunity Guarantee measures, including the Kickstart Scheme are welcome and will help towards supporting young people through this difficult period. Nonetheless, these can only be successful if they are localised by building on the local intelligence and delivery models, working in partnership with employers and providers.

Councils have already shown how they can respond swiftly to local needs by forging partnerships, adapting provision and delivering advice and support to young people in need at pace.

As we look ahead towards the future, we now stand ready to play an equal part with Government to support an inclusive economic recovery – helping young people to ensure that the next generation doesn’t become a lost ‘pandemic generation’ with scars for years to come.

This is a unique opportunity to be ‘Re-thinking local’ to unlock the full potential of local and national partners across the country to support economic recovery. The Government must work with us in partnership to deliver its recovery ambitions and the forthcoming devolution agenda. Our Work Local model provides a blueprint for devolution of employment and skills.

We recommend Government should immediately:

• Set up a Youth Employment and Skills Taskforce and appoint a Youth Minister.
• Work with councils and combined authorities to localise investment in the new active labour programmes for those out of work.
• Work in partnership with councils and combined authorities to plan, coordinate and deliver the Kickstart Scheme.
• Grant additional powers and resources to councils and combined authorities to extend the September Guarantee offer.
• Grant apprenticeship flexibilities to increase the number of young people starts and completions.
• Provide greater investment and incentives for employer to promote the take-up of T Levels.
• Establish data sharing protocols to open-up access and share Government departments’ evidence, including granular and longitudinal data.
  
   

We recommend by 2022 Government should:

• Trial at least one Work Local pathfinder in each region across England.
• Establish an integrated Youth Employment and Skills (YES) Service.
• Give councils and combined authorities the power and resources to co-design and co-commission a local career offer.
• Provide dedicated careers / transition support funding for secondary schools (and academies) to fulfil their responsibilities.
• Give councils and combined authorities’ the tools and resources to enable them to plan a coherent post-16 offer.
• Provide a multi-year flexible funding pot to give additional support to secure/ sustain employment or training.

Councils and combined authorities as democratically elected leaders of place play a key role in stimulating local economies and want to ensure that employers have a supply of skilled workforce to meet the current and future business demands in local areas. Young people’s engagement in education, employment or training (EET) as the next generation workforce is vital for local areas and the economy.

Councils have repeatedly told the Local Government Association (LGA) that the current system does not work for some people and places. This is despite successive national governments efforts to reform the employment and skills system over the last two decades. The result being that we continue to have one of the most centralised systems in the developed world that lacks coherence or a joined-up approach. So, in 2017, the LGA set out a case for the system to be reformed with our vision for Work Local a devolved and integrated employment and skills model. To build on our ambition, last year we published Work Local – Making our vision a reality which highlights our strong appetite to test Work Local through local pathfinders and a plan for achieving it.

Young people are important, they need and deserve the best start in life; helping children and young people to fulfil their potential for Bright Futures is a key ambition of all councils. However, we know that for some young people this is not happening, and that is a concern for councils from both an economic and welfare perspective.

Even prior to COVID-19 crisis, we recognised this key issue and were committed to making the system work better for young people. That’s why last year we started a piece of work to capture the views of the sector, stakeholders and young people themselves to explore how to improve youth participation in EET and to shine a spotlight on the challenges of the system, together with what reforms are needed.

While, it will be some time before official statistics start to reflect the real impact of the pandemic on the labour market and young people, we know the crisis has worsened the situation for the entire generation. Many experts, including the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) indicate that we are facing the worst jobs crisis in a generation – with young people (18–24) set to be hit particularly hard. Most young people will be disproportionately impacted - those in schools and colleges, on apprenticeships or in sectors mostly bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 crisis. What started as a health crisis will now become equally an economic and employment crisis as well, unless bold action is taken to avert this catastrophe.

Statutory responsibilities with lack of formal levers

Councils, alongside their role in helping economies to thrive, have several statutory duties relating to youth participation; to ensure all young people up to the age of 18 (25 for those with learning difficulties) participate in education or training, and these include:

• Raising Participation Age – encourage, enable and assist young people to develop a range of skills for adult life and reduce the likelihood of unemployment. To fulfil this duty councils are expected to provide strategic leadership in their area to ensure that there is a network of support available
• September Guarantee – secure a suitable place in education or training, including a vocational offer, for all 16 and 17-year-olds. To achieve this councils are required to work with partners (schools, colleges and providers) to ensure that relevant processes are in place, and that each has a clear understanding of its responsibilities
• Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) – establish the identities of young people failing to participate in education and training. Councils are expected to work with partners from across education, training, business and support services to develop a strategy to reduce the number of NEET young people in their area
• Risk of NEET Indicators (RONI) – identify those who are not fully engaged in school and therefore may be at risk of becoming NEET at age 16. Councils have worked with schools and partners to develop indicators that shows a young person is at risk of becoming NEET, for example, high level of absence or truancy, low levels of prior attainment; and behavioural or social difficulties
• tracking – undertake effective monitoring to fulfil these statutory duties for participation and to reduce the number of post-16 unknown destinations for young people in the area.

Despite having these wide-ranging responsibilities that demand close working with local providers, partners and employers, councils have very few formal levers over commissioning or co-ordination of provision to meet them, which has become increasingly centralised and fragmented. Our research for Work Local (2017) paints a fragmented picture of 17 funding streams managed by eight departments or agencies, spending more than £10 billion a year. 

Three years on from this research not much has changed. This results in lack of join-up at a local level and a system that doesn’t work for everyone and many young people fall through the gaps. It is also an ineffective use of limited resources; if locally planned, these would have the potential to offer a greater impact and ensure that every young person has the right help, including the essential wrap-around support needed to secure and sustain training or employment.

Emerging skills challenges

Meanwhile, there are emerging skills challenges that will need to be tackled for our economies to thrive. Analysis for the LGA shows a growing skills gap. By 2030, it estimates there will be a skills gap between our future workforce and those required by employers. Across England, it predicts that by 2030 there could be a shortage of two and half million high-skilled people and a surplus of six million intermediate or low-skilled people to available jobs. This shortfall of high-skilled people could risk future economic growth and an economic output of around £120 billion.

The local variations in skills gaps across different areas are equally as striking. For example, the analysis for Essex County Council predicts a higher skills gap of 103,000. By contrast, for the combined two cities of Portsmouth and Southampton the higher skills gap is 16,000. Together they show a need for greater investment in skills and better targeting with place-based solutions; to ensure that the current and future workforce have the skills employers demand and can take-up the existing opportunities and those that lie ahead. This requires an employment and skills system that is fit for purpose – a system that serves all young people, informs them about the available options and prepares them to pursue their chosen career path, including progression in employment. It should provide a clear link between education and employment.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit our country there were many challenges for young people in relation to employment and skills and these will have been exacerbated with the current situation.

Earlier in the crisis, analysis by The Institute of Fiscal Studies show that the lockdown will hit young workers the hardest. Employees aged under 25 were about two and a half times as likely to work in a sector that is shut down as other employees. Sectors that are shut down as a result of social distancing measures employed nearly a third (30 per cent) of all employees under the age of 25. This compares to just one in eight (13 per cent of) workers aged 25 and over.

Worryingly, the Resolution Foundation estimates that the crisis could nearly double youth unemployment as a further 600,000 could find themselves unemployed this year. While the Learning and Work Institute (LWI) predicts that at least 500,000 young people (16-24 year olds) will become long term unemployed over the next eighteen months.

There is also no comfort with the latest ONS data release (August 2020), which covers the period of April to June 2020 during the COVID-19 crisis. This shows that there were 765,000 young people aged between 16 and 24, who were NEET. It is expected that these numbers will increase over the coming months, placing a further strain on councils' statutory responsibilities.

In addition, this September, 800,000 young people will have left schools, colleges and universities, hoping to join the labour market; and according to the Sutton Trust, 19 per cent of young people that were due to attend university this year are considering withdrawing due to COVID-19 crisis.

For the existing unemployed, the current situation will worsen their chances to secure a good job. It is important to ensure that this group of young people do not end up at the back of the queue for support surpassed by the influx of newly unemployed. We know from experience that short periods of unemployment can often result into a deeper issue of long-term unemployment with its scarring effect.

Regardless of the forecasts, most young people will be impacted by the COVID-19 crisis in some way, but this will vary, depending on whether they are in EET or unemployed.

There is a solution to improving the offer for young people. The LGA previously set out in Work Local our vision for a devolved and integrated employment and skills system. The model aims to bring together careers advice and guidance, employment, skills, apprenticeships and business support for young people, adults and employers. 

Over the last six months, the LGA has worked with the sector and many of the leading education, employment and skills organisations across England on this agenda. Several organisations took part in discussions, including Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), National Youth Agency (NYA), Youth Future Foundation (YYF), Youth Employment UK (YEUK), Edge Foundation and Impetus. The sessions focussed on:

• the challenges of the current system for supporting young people into EET
• exploring the potential solutions to addressing the challenges
• LGA’s proposals for improving youth participation.

The discussions revealed that many of these organisations share our concerns about a confusing system, lack of coherence and join-up both at a national and local level. Equally, many of them share our ambition for a more aligned employment and skills system that allows young people to make an effective transition from education to employment; and meet the skills demand of employers now and in the future. The following pages identify some of the key issues, alongside some of the voices of key participants that took part in the sessions.

Most of the provision for young people is nationally commissioned and funded. For example, in 2018/19 academic year the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) allocated a total of £8.6 billion to around 4000 institutions to enable 4.6 million students to participate in further education. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) is accountable for the spending on the Jobcentre Plus Support for Schools Programme and the Youth Obligation Support Programme for all 18 to 21 year olds making a new claim to Universal Credit. The Department for Education (DfE) funds the National Careers Service and The Careers and Enterprise Company.

Also, different Whitehall departments have responsibility for different age ranges, for example:

• DfE, is responsible for those of academic age 16-18 years, young people in the first three years after compulsory school education
  
   
• DWP is accountable for those of academic age 19-24 years, who are not in education or employment.
  
   
• The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) is responsible for youth services for those aged 13-19 (or up to 25 for those with learning difficulties) and the National Citizen Service for 16-17 year olds.

The silo approach at a national level creates a complex and fragmented landscape at a local level; councils without any formal leavers can only adopt a best endeavours approach to knit together the patchwork of different initiatives and ensure that right provision is in place to meet the needs of young people and employers.

While youth unemployment prior to COVID-19 crisis, has fallen and youth participation in education and training rates for 16 -18-year olds have hovered around the 86.1 per cent mark, the number of NEET young people remained around 760,000 and slightly increasing to 765,000 on the latest count. This shows that the system is not working for all young people – too many are falling between the gaps and need better support. A new local approach is needed to tackle the complex issues and support young people to effectively transition into education or employment.

In addition, 40 per cent of care leavers aged 19 -21 are NEET, compared to 13 per cent for this age group overall.  Councils as corporate parents for these young people have clear responsibilities to support them to achieve good outcomes.

The Youth Jobs Gap series measures the gap in youth employment between young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and their better-off peers, showing large differences at a local authority level. For example, Youth Jobs Gap: The Employment Gap in the West Midlands examines NEET rates, higher education, and apprenticeships across the region and highlights the issue of identifying these differences as a first step to tackling them; along with similar reports covering the North West and London, these drill down to the local authority area level. The North West report includes the combined authority areas of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region, to highlight that the differences within the regions are often greater than the differences between regions. For example, the employment gap in Wigan and Tameside is twice as high as it is in Manchester. The reports acknowledge that local and combined authorities’ areas can have a significant impact on NEET young people but lack good quality data on 18 – 24 year olds to allow them to effectively target interventions. While national data can provide some intelligence into unemployment numbers it fails to give the broader picture, including non-claimants.

Yet there is a missed opportunity. Councils are in a unique position with oversight of local EET provision to enable effective partnerships working. Equally, councils know the needs of young people in their area and are committed to delivering a joined-up approach, that works best for this group. Therefore, the LGA is calling for councils and combined authorities, with additional powers and resources, to be enabled to take a more strategic approach to coordinating and commissioning provision. This will help develop the appropriate EET offer and build the wider support to match the needs of young people, including NEETs and the disadvantaged groups. Derbyshire County Council has developed the ‘I-Step up Re-engagement Programme’ to address a gap in transition support and provide the wraparound provision for young people.

Councils and combined authorities have already shown how they can respond rapidly to local needs by forging partnership, adapting provision and delivering advice and support to young people in need. For example, Birmingham City Council organised virtual visits and events to support effective transitions during COVID-19 crisis.

The increased focus on apprenticeships and the roll-out of technical levels (T Levels) provides young people with more options for their career pathways. Having greater choice is positive, but it is vital for young people to have a coherent picture of all available pathways and how they relate to the world of work or further learning. This is especially important for disadvantaged young people, those with special educational needs and disability (SEND) or complex needs.

The Skills Commission report, England’s skills puzzle: piecing together further education, training and employment makes a number of recommendations relating 

to the need for learners and employers to have a better understanding of careers pathways arising from local and national economic trends. It also recommends that the careers offer “should be coordinated and signposted at the local level, based on local skills needs analysis and developed through the local collaboration model.”

Analysis by an independent Future-Ready Skills Commission, supported by West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA), show that nearly a quarter of learners entering further education at age 16 in England switch between course types, dropping back to lower-level learning, or repeating study at the same level. One of the main reasons cited for this is the confusing range of qualifications and the lack of information available to schools to confidently promote all available post-16 routes to young people.

Most young people attend a local provider for their post-16 education, while there may be more suitable options for their career path elsewhere. This is often due to a lack of information about other available options or transport issues. Therefore, it is important for young people to have clear information about all the available post-16 options, including ‘travel to learn’ opportunities.

The Youth Employment UK ‘Youth Voice Census’ which explores young people's (aged 14 -24 years old) views on a range of issues related to education, work and the areas in which they live, reveal in its 2020 annual report that traditional academic routes are more likely to be discussed with young people throughout Years 9 and 10 at school. Nearly all (93 per cent of 1,390 young people) of the respondents had GCSEs discussed while only 60 per cent had A levels discussed. Over half (57 per cent) had BTECs discussed with them but other vocational choices were only discussed with 22 per cent and T levels option explored only with 6 per cent of young people in the survey.

 These issues highlight the need for an improved system of all post-16 pathways together with enhanced information for schools, and better careers advice and guidance for learners at key stages of education. This can only be achieved if councils are enabled to strategically plan the post-16 offer along with oversight of provision in their local area. Greater Manchester Combined Authority has developed a portal to support young people make the right choice for their career and access courses and opportunities.

With the COVID-19 crisis, many apprentices have been adversely impacted in several ways. Employers surveyed by The Sutton Trust reported that, on average, just 40 per cent of their apprentices were continuing as normal, with the remainder of apprenticeships disrupted in some way - 36 per cent having been furloughed and 8 per cent made redundant. While most providers have responded positively and 

moved the theoretical element of the training digitally where possible, 17 per cent of apprentices had their off-the-job learning suspended. In many cases practical assessments, for example, for construction being paused, that result in delays in completing the apprenticeship. Fixed-term contracts and traineeships are also likely to have ended abruptly without certainty about future employment.

Recruitment of apprentices will also be negatively impacted. Around a third of businesses that are worried about the future report that they are likely to hire fewer apprentices or none. The situation will only exacerbate as the economic picture worsens over the coming months. DfE Further Education and Skills data for the last academic year reveals 213,700 starts for under 25-year olds, representing a 25 per cent decline over a five-year period. Apprenticeship starts for young people were notably low even before the crisis and will now be worsened with the recruitment freeze. Council and combined authorities want more flexibilities with the Apprenticeship Levy to enable employers to provide greater opportunities for young people. Hampshire County Council has set up Levy Transfer Scheme to create more job and training opportunities in the area.

The roll-out of T Levels is planned to start this September but with many young people not attending school and college last term there is a risk that students will have missed out on the valuable advice and guidance to select the appropriate vocational route. The Industry Placement element of training was a challenge prior to the crisis, with concerns about supervisory and other costs. This is likely to have worsened as employers coming out of the crisis will not have the capacity nor the resources to commit to additional responsibility or costs. These two factors will restrict the number of young people starting and advancing on the T Level programme.

Every young person is unique with different needs and circumstances, so a standard approach to education and employment support is not appropriate for everyone, particularly those with complex needs. A tailored offer is needed that meets both the core and wider support needs of individuals, which often can only be delivered through a partnership approach. The current system is fragmented and fails to meet the wider support needs of young people. Durham County Council has developed a partnership approach to tackling this challenge. DurhamWorks Programme provides integrated employability and wider support for young people to secure and sustain employment.

According to the ‘Youth Voice Census’ young people when asked about the largest barriers to accessing employment, the most common answers were mental health, location, lack of jobs, disability, lack of work experience, social status, and discrimination. For those that are NEET the main barriers were as follows: lack of work experience (45 per cent), anxiety (35 per cent), no available jobs locally (31 per cent), lack of appropriate skills (25 per cent), travel /location (21 per cent) and mental health (17 per cent). This reveals that every young person’s circumstances and associated barriers are different, that a ‘one size fits all’ approach cannot and does not address the problem; therefore, a different approach is needed for different young people. Councils have shown they are best placed to deliver an integrated place-based approach. For example, the devolved Youth Contract to Leeds City Council, Wakefield and Bradford Council outperformed the national programme.

Having an effective careers advice and guidance system is vital to help young people navigate the world of learning and work. Yet the careers system in England is complicated and fragmented with a range of initiatives and providers delivering provision in any one area: schools, colleges, councils, careers professionals, and national agencies including National Careers Service, Careers and Enterprise Company, and Jobcentre Plus. It is a confusing landscape.

Current evidence, based on self-assessment, in the State of the Nation 2019 report suggests the quantity and quality of careers provision available to young people in England is improving but there is still a lack of resources to deliver high quality provision resulting in a failure to target those most in need of support.

A recent survey by housebuilder Redrow found only one in five young people are getting high-quality careers advice at school. Half of 16 to 21 year-olds have never thought about a career in construction despite there being a ‘critical skills deficit’ in the sector.

The findings of Youth Voice Census show the offer of careers support and the level of information received can be skewed by your age, gender, eligibility for free school meals or additional needs. The pathways and opportunities discussed differ for young people in school, college and sixth forms. For example, young men are more likely to be informed about a vocational pathway while young women are encouraged towards the academic route. Those with additional needs are less likely to be informed about all the available options. Just over half (52 per cent) of those with additional needs had the option of going to university discussed with them, compared to 59 per cent of those without additional needs.

The fragmentation, duplication and failure of the careers system to target those most in need prompts the call for change to enable local areas to co-design the relevant local offer that meets local needs. This will remove the cluttered offer and bring coherence in the local careers offer.  

Even before the COVID-19 crisis, our youth participation work with the sector, stakeholders and intelligence gathered about young people’s views in this space indicated a fundamental need to reform the current employment and skills system. This was so that it could be more effective in supporting young people into EET. The unexpected crisis has only exacerbated a bad situation into a dire one that calls on immediate Government action to tackle the disproportionate effect of the crisis on young people. Some of these will demand a swift response with quick measures while others, for example, more structural reforms, a medium-term response. But it is clear there is no time to waste as young people are central (as the future workforce) to the economic recovery of areas. Consequently, we need an offer that backs economic recovery, employers and young people’s needs.

The key recommendations draw on our work with the sector, stakeholders and incorporate the views of young people. Many of these were developed before the COVID-19 crisis but hold even more relevance today. We have set out our asks together with our offer to the Government for reform. In addition, we have, where possible, integrated the Governments recent announcements (July 2020) on the Opportunity Guarantee measures, including the Expanded Youth Offer and Kickstart Scheme (September 2020).

We recommend this is needed immediately:

Central government: Lead ministers from the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Department for Education (DfE), Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) commit to meet with the LGA and local leaders to discuss how we can collectively work towards our Work Local ambitions, including to improve youth participation now and set a timetable for future reforms, as part of the Spending Review in the Autumn.

1. Youth Employment and Skills Taskforce

The youth employment and skills participation policy span across several Whitehall departments, with DfE and DWP sharing the main responsibility. The absence of a youth participation strategy and action plan to bring together the work of different Whitehall departments or a Minister with overall responsibility demonstrates an ineffective use of limited resources. The DWP expanded Youth Offer and the roll-out of Youth Hubs is timely; however, there is a need for a more localised integrated approach that includes: greater scope and coverage (all young people, geography, employers and support services) to be effective and have a measured impact on young peoples’ training and employment outcomes.

To provide a more co-ordinated and cross-departmental approach, the Government must:

Set up a Youth Employment and Skills Taskforce.

• Appoint a Youth Minister to work across Whitehall and to have oversight of the Youth Employment and Skills (YES) Taskforce.
• The YES Taskforce to have representation from the relevant Whitehall Departments, LGA, business and other relevant organisations.
• The aim should be to provide a rapid and focussed response to prevent a lost ‘pandemic generation’.

Our offer

• The LGA will work in partnership with the Government and the YES Taskforce members to share insights and support the development of interventions to ensure they land well in local areas.

• Councils and combined authorities can support the Government to deliver its Opportunity Guarantee measures at pace.

2. Investment in new active labour programmes for those out of work

Experience from previous recession shows that rapid high-quality re-employment support for the newly unemployed is critical to ensure that recently unemployed are assisted back to work as swiftly as possible. For the long-term unemployed and the disadvantaged, there should be more tailored intensive support, which includes one-to-one support, targeted work experience and pre-training, incentives for employers to provide the appropriate opportunities.

The Government has provided a rapid response with a range of measures to help the newly unemployed to speedily enter the labour market, so to prevent them from becoming long-term unemployed. These are welcome.

To ensure the success of the labour programmes, the Government must:

Work with councils and combined authorities to localise these measures so that they can respond to local labour market challenges.

Our offer

• Councils and combined authorities can work with the Government to deliver labour market programmes at pace by building and scaling up interventions.
• Councils and combined authorities can build on our established local relationships with providers and Jobcentre Plus to accelerate delivery of programmes.

Councils and combined authorities can link programmes to other local services where more integrated and cross cutting support is required (health, mental health homelessness etc).

3. Transitional job creation

Looking to the future, with youth unemployment predicted to double by the end of the year, the transitional job creation schemes have the potential to provide a link between being unemployed and in work. During the last recession councils played a key role through their economic development functions and as an employer in the delivery of a similar scheme, Future Jobs Fund. Any lessons learnt from the past need to be considered to mitigate against poor design and delivery.

4. Extension of the September Guarantee

It is right that the Government has made an Opportunity Guarantee for young people leaving school or college this year. This should be supported with high- quality careers, advice and guidance to ensure that the right academic or vocational pathway is chosen for their career.

To ensure the extension of the September Guarantee is a success, the Government must:

Provide councils and combined authorities with additional powers and resources to determine supplementary provision to plug any identified gaps locally.

• There should be a student premium for providers to support disadvantaged students.
• A maintenance allowance for young people to study further, particularly the disadvantaged and those who are NEET or RONI.
• There should be a funding requirement for providers to agree the appropriateness of provision with councils and combined authorities.

Our offer

• Councils and combined authorities can work collaboratively with all providers in the wider area to ensure a relevant offer and identify gaps.
• Councils and combined authorities can commission supplementary provision, where necessary, to meet employer skills demands and support economic recovery.
• Councils and combined authorities can provide better support for NEETs or those RONI to make an effective post-16 transition.

5. Apprenticeships flexibilities  

Even before the COVID-19 crisis apprenticeships starts were low for young people and needed to be improved. The Social Mobility Commission report shows that the apprenticeship system is failing disadvantaged young people in England. The findings reveal a significant ‘disadvantaged gap’ at every stage of the training journey that indicate underperformance of the system.

To improve apprenticeships for young people and the disadvantaged in the short and medium term, the Government must:

• Pause the Levy spend funding to avoid any funds expiring during and shortly after the COVID-19 crisis period.
• Pause the switch-off of frameworks for at least six months to allow apprentices to complete their training in a timely manner.
• From council as an employer’s perspective, Levy payments should be paused for public sector bodies for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis.
• Provide greater flexibility with the apprenticeship Levy. Permit employers to use the apprenticeship Levy funds to pay for the cost of supervision or backfill for apprentice supervisor role where necessary.

Our offer

• With greater Levy flexibilities councils and combined authorities can enable employers to develop greater opportunities for young people.
• Councils and combined authorities can support sectors and areas of need and align investment with local industrial strategies.
• Councils and combined authorities can back the Government with an inclusive and green economic recovery.

6. Making T Levels work 

 7. Better access to data

Targeted support is more effective and can deliver value for money. Whitehall departments, for example, DfE collect a mass of information, including longitudinal (comparing students’ levels of education to their levels of employment and earnings in later life) data that can help deliver a more targeted approach.

To ensure a more targeted local approach to improving youth participation within areas and different cohort, the Government must:

Open-up access and share the Government departments’ evidence, including granular and longitudinal data.

Our offer

• Councils and combined authorities can develop tailored interventions to support, track progress and measure success of programmes.
• Councils and combined authorities can provide better targeting to reduce the number of NEETs and improve participation rates.
• Councils and combined authorities can develop a ‘What Works’ resource to inform investment of future programmes.

 We recommend this is needed by 2022:

 

8. An integrated offer / place-based approach

Local government has a key role to play in the recovery, particularly as the impact of the crisis will vary depending on location, as predicted in recent research. This requires local government to work with local partners to provide a place-based approach as an analyser - developing and maintaining granular intelligence; enabler - bringing together partnerships / providers; and agents of inclusive recovery – providing a connection between the social and economic functions.

 13. A multi-year flexible funding pot

There is a need for a flexible local funding pot to respond to local challenges, scaling-up successful projects or provide wraparound support for young people to secure or sustain education, employment of training. The funding should be allocated to councils or combined authorities as a ‘single pot’ with the same criteria to spend in their respective areas; they are in the best position to have local intel on effective interventions and potential for scalability of projects.   

To enable councils and combined authorities to respond to wider needs of young people to secure and sustain employment, the Government must:

Grant a flexible local funding pot to meet differing needs in each locality.

Our offer

• Councils and combined authorities can deliver better outcomes for national and local programmes.

Councils and combined authorities can support the Governments Social Mobility and levelling up agenda.

With thanks to those organisations that took part in discussions, including Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), National Youth Agency (NYA), Youth Futures Foundation (YYF), Youth Employment UK (YEUK), Edge Foundation and Impetus. We are also grateful to our LGA colleagues in councils and combined authorities for taking part in discussions and for providing an insight to support the policy development.