Agenda item

Report and presentation by Trevor Cook.

The Committee received the NEETS update for 14-19 years olds and the accompanying draft Raising Participation Age (RPA) report.

The government had increased the age to which all young people in England must continue in education or training, requiring them to continue until the end of the academic year in which they turn 17 from 2013 and until their 18th birthday from

2015.   Young people would have a choice about how they continue in education or training which could be through:

·           full-time study in a school, college or with a training provider

·           full-time work or volunteering combined with part-time education or training

·           an apprenticeship.

The Local authorities had a responsibilityto support young people into education or training, which were set out in the following duties:

·      Secure sufficient suitable education and training provisionfor all young people aged 16-19 and for those aged 20-24 with a Learning Difficulty Assessment in their area.

·      Make available to young people aged 13-19 and to those aged 20-24 with a Learning Difficulty Assessment support that will encourage, enable or assist them to participate in education or training. Tracking young people’s participation successfully is a key element of this duty.

In addition, ESA 2008 placed two new duties on local authorities with regard to 16 and 17 year-olds as follows:

·      A local authority in England must ensure that its functions are (so far as they are capable of being so) exercised so as to promote the effective participation in education or training, to which Part 1 of ESA 2008 applies, with a view to ensuring that those persons fulfil the duty to participate in education or training.

·      A local authority in England must make arrangements to enable it to establish (so far as it is possible to do so) the identities of persons, to whom Part 1 of ESA 2008 applies, but who are failing to fulfil the duty to participate in education or training.

·      In order to discharge the duty, local authorities must collect information to identify young people who are not participating, or who are at risk of not doing so, to target resources on those who need them most. The information collected is maintained in the appropriate format on the Client Caseload Information System (CCIS). In order to fulfil the duty local authorities will need to have arrangements in place to confirm young people’s current activity at regular intervals. This includes the exchange of information with education and training providers and other services as well as direct contact with young people.

·      Local authorities are expected to continue to work with schools to identify those who are in need of targeted support or who are at risk of not participating post-16. These learners are identified through the gathering of local intelligence and referrals are made to Prospects for targeted intensive support in order to support sustained participation.

There was also a new duty on young people themselves. From 2013, all young people were under a duty to participate in education or training until the end of the academic year in which they turn 17. From 2015, this would rise to their 18th birthday.  In addition, schools and colleges would also be playing a crucial role and would be held to account for the destinations of all their leavers through annual publication of Destination Measure including transition of SEN pupils.  It was also a duty of all educational institutions to tell a local authority when a young person was no longer participating.

There were also duties on employers to take certain actions in respect of young people who meet the duty by combining work with education/ training. These duties, however, would not be brought into force at this stage and the possibility of commencing them would be kept under review.

It was noted that the Local Authority were working with a number of partner agencies to ensure the participation and support for all young people in the area. 

Officers assured the Committee that those young people who were considered high risk of becoming a NEET were being tracked.  Havering had a low number of NEETs and Unknowns, as in December 2013, 96.92% of young people were actively participating in education, employment and training.  Officers advised the Committee that 20% of NEETs were teenage mothers or were connected with the Youth Offending Services.

The Committee noted the report and raised the issue that provision for young people with Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities had yet to be commissioned. Officers assured members that they were aware of this and that two separate teams were investigating the matter in addition to providing clear information for users. The Committee were asked to note that new processes were due to commence for SEN in September 2014 and that key workers would be allocated to them and would remain with them for the duration of their education and training.  Committee members requested that this should be noted in the report in addition to the reference to SEN on page 101 of the RPA report where it should also include the parents of children with Learning Difficulties.