Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions she has had with the Prime Minister on his announcement of 30 June 2020 of an opportunity guarantee for young people.

The Government recognises that young people have been especially vulnerable during the pandemic and are committed to providing support to help them move into work in these difficult times. Our £30bn Plan for Jobs includes specific interventions targeted at young people.

From September 2020 we started the implementation of the DWP Youth Offer for all 18 to 24 year olds making a claim to Universal Credit and who are in the Intensive Work Search Group.

Our 13-week Youth Employment Programme delivers wrap-around support for many of the Plans for Jobs initiatives, and helps young people to take up work-related training or a job, such as Kickstart, which has so far seen over 100,000 successful applications with over 2,000 young people starting work, a traineeship, an apprenticeship and Sector-based Work Academy Programmes. The Youth Employment Programme is live and our dedicated Work Coaches are delivering the programme to young people.

Youth Hubs are co-located and co-delivered with our network of external partners and have been rolling out nationally, with many hubs providing support digitally to young people during the current restrictions.

Youth Employability Coaches are providing flexible support to young people with significant complex needs and barriers to help them move into employment. We are also offering this group of young people six weeks of in-work support when they find a job.

This programme will provide a guaranteed foundation of support for 18 to 24 year olds in the Intensive Worksearch Regime of Universal Credit. This means that whatever their needs, young people can find the right support, education or training that will ultimately lead to sustained employment.

We will continue to monitor our policies and processes to ensure young unemployed people are effectively supported during the current economic situation.