Calderdale MBC
Wards Affected All
CABINET
17b
11 November 2013
YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
Report of the Director, Economy and Environment
1.
Issue
1.1 This report sets out an overview of youth unemployment within the Borough, and the
support on offer to help young people access employment.
2.
Need for a decision
2.1 Current services are often provided using external funding, much of which is time
limited. Additional Council funding may be required to extend services, to develop a
more sustained range of services, and to fill the gaps when external funding falls
short.
3.
Recommendation
It is recommended that:
3.1 The wide variety of schemes underway, and progress with regard to potential
delivery of the Youth Contract in Calderdale is noted
3.2 A sum of up to £100,000 is earmarked within the Economic Fighting Fund to support
the ‘Grow Your Future’ Team until further external funding is secured.
4.
Background
4.1 In 2010 Calderdale Council committed to halve youth unemployment from 1800 to
900 in 2015. This ambition has driven the development of a broad range of work to
help young people gain employment, and, indeed to help businesses engage in a
sustained way, with young people.
4.2 A new team, known as the ‘Grow Your Future’ Team was formed within the Council’s
Business and Economy service to pursue this ambition
4.3 Leeds City Region activity has also been integrated into the newly created ‘Grow
Your Future Team’. Work undertaken since January 2013 has included the ‘100 in
100’ campaign, ‘5,3,1’ business sign up, and creation of the Apprenticeship Hub.
4.4 At the same time the Council’s Economic Task Force have allocated a range of
funding to test bed products to remove barriers to work for young people. Currently
being developed are a Community Task force pilot, an education business
partnership pilot, apprenticeship grants, and paid work experience activity.
4.5 Claimant Age Groups
The chart below shows how different age-groups have been affected by
unemployment. The 25+ age group peaked in February 2012 and fell throughout the
rest of the year, rose again at the start of 2013, but has since been declining
steadily. In August 2013, there were 1,635 claimants under 25, for the 25–49 age
group there were 3,445 and for the 50+ age group there were 1,020.
Source: NOMIS, Claimant Count Data-set
Page 2
4.6
Claimant Age Duration
The chart below shows that Youth Unemployment has reduced in Calderdale since
June 2009. The total figure has reduced from 1,820 in June 2009 to 1,635 in August
2013. There has also been a decrease in those claiming JSA for less than 1 year in
the same time period, from 1,815 in June 2009 to 1,380 in June 2013. However the
number for those claiming over 2 years has increased to 110 in 2013. Claimant count
numbers do not yet include claimants of Universal Credit.
Source: NOMIS, Claimant Count Data-set
4.7
Apprenticeships
There are currently 1631 people in Calderdale employed as Apprenticeships, 406 of
these are aged 16 – 18 years old. The success rates for completing apprentices
increases with age, with 73.6% completing for 2011/2012 for those aged 16 – 18,
80.7% for those aged 19 – 24 for the same period and 81.2% for those aged 25 plus.
Most apprenticeships across all ages are being supported by the small companies
within Calderdale and the highest concentration of subject areas are Adult Social
Care/Healthcare, Business, Administration and Governance and Healthcare. The
smallest concentration of apprentices includes the Chemicals, Life Sciences etc.,
Creative Media and Automotive Industries.
5.
Activity to Tackle Youth Unemployment
5.1 A broad range of activity to tackle youth unemployment is underway in Calderdale. A
number of local programmes, delivered by the Council and its partners supplement
national programmes
5.2 Calderdale Apprenticeship Grants
Discussions with National Apprenticeship Service and Job Centre Plus (JCP), have
identified a gap in providing grants for new apprentices to SME’s who have already
taken on an Apprentice. The existing national grant only helps businesses who are
taking on their first, or have not had an apprentice during the past year. The Council
has successfully completed two rounds of Apprenticeship grants supporting a total of
200 apprenticeships, and is currently supporting a further 26 businesses with a grant
of £1k as well as offering in-depth support and guidance to help the employer.
Page 3
5.3 Apprenticeship Hub( known as Grow Your Future in Calderdale )
The Apprenticeship Hub is governed by the Leeds City Region partnership. The
funding is provided by City Deal whose ambition is to increase opportunities for
young people across the region. Within Calderdale we are promoting apprenticeship
opportunities within local small and medium enterprises (SME’s). We are targeted to
engage with 152 SME businesses in Calderdale to open up 177 Apprenticeship
starts by September 2015. To date the team have 32 business commitments with 20
apprenticeship starts
5.4 Pre-Apprenticeships/Paid Work Placements
The Grow Your Future team continue to support young people into work and they
have engaged with 84 businesses, working with 26 apprenticeships, 1 pre-apprentice
and 15 Paid Work experience clients. A new 100 in 100 campaign in due to start mid
September 2013, with the aim for businesses pledging 100 places for
apprenticeships within 100 days, to strengthen the work already underway.
Additionally these businesses will be encouraged to sign the ‘5.3.1’ Leeds City region
campaign which will open up opportunities for offering placements, mentoring and
work experience for young people and the wider unemployed.
5.5 Education Business Partnership
The Education Business Partnership pilot which started in 16 September 2013 will
have a target to get 38 Year 11 students into an apprenticeship by September 2014.
Trinity Academy and Park Lane School were successful in leading the pilot and will
be supported by Calderdale College undertaking the business engagement support
activity.
5.6 Internal Apprenticeships
Within Calderdale Council there are currently 40 apprenticeships underway, with an
additional 5 planned. Work is being developed to encourage links with the Looked
after Children Service and Family Matters to increase applications from their service
users
5.7 Community Task Force
Following ETF approve on 27th March 2013 The Community Taskforce programme
has been in a development phase. The initial projects have been identified . This
environmental strand of work should create an additional 12 apprenticeship
opportunities. The IT project within the Care sector will also be starting later this year,
and will provide an additional 12 apprenticeship opportunities.
5.8 Youth Contract
Funding has been made available to City Regions to bid for projects to reduce Youth
Unemployment as part of the Government’s Youth Contract. The Council’s ‘Grow
Your Future’ Team has developed a proposition and submitted an application into
the LCR seeking £355,000 to be used over a 2 year period to support 250 young
people aged 18 – 24 into employment. The proposition also encourages local
businesses to access the wage subsidy of £2,275 to help keep those young people in
work. ( Bid results will be notified by Dec 2013 )
Page 4
6.
Consultation
6.1 All of the activity set out above has been developed and shared with the Employment
and Skills Board, and Calderdale Apprenticeship Group. The young people involved
within each scheme also help shape the services and each work strand will be
evaluated on its conclusion.
6.2 The business survey results have been used to try and inform policy and proposed
work resulting in the creation of the education business partnership pilot.
7.
Financial implications
7.1
Current range of activity and break down of secured funding:
Project
PreApprenticeships/
Paid Work
experience
Amount
Funding
Source
£98, 900
Flexible
Working Fund
£100, 000
Economic
Fighting Fund
Timesc
ale
Dec
2013
Outputs
200 young people access
training.
Provide and support 100 places
for paid work experience
Provide and support 50 places
for pre apprenticeships
Apprenticeship
Grants
Leeds City Region
£80,000
Section 106
£279, 874
City Deal
Dec
2013
June
2015
80 places for apprenticeships.
152 Businesses Engaged by
Sept 2015
Apprenticeship Hub
177 Apprenticeship starts by
Sept 2015
Education Business
Partnership
(£58,000
from
above
figure)
July
2014
38 Apprenticeship starts by Sept
2014
Recruit 60 SME’s into the pilot
to work with schools
40 YR 11 young people attend
employability training
Community Task
Force
£56, 500
Economic
Fighting Fund
Within 6
months
of start
24 young people aged 16 – 24
to complete:
 12 weeks volunteering
 12 weeks paid work
experience
 Move into an
Apprenticeship
100 in 100
Nil cost
N/A
N/A
100 businesses pledging
Apprenticeship opportunities
Page 5
7.2 Currently the Grow Your Future team consists of 5 staff all funded through external
funding. The Department of Works and Pension (DWP) Flexible Fund finishes at the
end of December 2013 and funds 4 of the 5 staff. If the new Youth contract work is
secured it will start before March 2014 leaving a potential gap in funding for the team.
7.3 For the team to continue the pilots and keep a focus on supporting young people and
businesses a request of £40,000 was made to the Economic Task Force to cover the
potential gap until the inception of Youth Contract work.
7.4 If the Youth Contract proves unsuccessful a request of £100,000 would be needed
to sustain some of the team until the end of June 2015 when all funding concludes.
7.5 The Economic Task Force agreed to recommend to Cabinet that funding of up to
£100,000 from the Economic Fighting fund be made available to support this work.
8.
Equality and Diversity
8.1
Key processes are being reviewed about linking services to more vulnerable groups
of young people. Closer working will be seen within the Family matters Service and
Looked after Children agencies, and Job Carving initiatives
9.
Conclusion
9.1 The work of the Grow Your Future Team is proving to be successful and through the
various projects is breaking new ground by removing the barriers for young people to
access and sustain work. In total some 280 young people have been supported with
52 in secured employment .The financing of the team is reliant on external funding
and is consequently precarious. Some underwriting of the future costs would assist
continuity and sustainability of delivery.
_______________________________________________________________________
For further information on this report, contact:
[Click here and type your name]
Mark Thompson Head of Housing Environment
and Renewal
Telephone:
01422 392403
E-mail:
[email protected]
The documents used in the preparation of this report are:
1.
Annex A
The documents are available for inspection at:
Page 6