Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that targeted careers advice and the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme reaches Gypsy and Traveller young people, including those who are being educated at home.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to ensuring that all young people and adults can access high-quality careers information, advice, and guidance, regardless of their background.
The department is currently developing a Get the Jump communications pack to help Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) stakeholders share information about post-16 and post-18 education and training choices with GRT parents and young people. We will share the pack with members of the department’s GRT stakeholder group at its next meeting and will discuss how we can effectively support GRT young people.
The National Careers Service also provides free, up to date, impartial information, advice and guidance on careers, skills and the Labour Market in England. It is delivered by over 750 careers advisers who help customers to make informed choices about their career options, whatever their age, ethnic group, and background.
Working with the Careers and Enterprise Company, Youth Employment UK have developed a free, new online programme designed to support home-educated young people. This project aims to engage young people with trusted, self-directed learning and high-quality signposting to information about pathways, online experiences of the workplace, sector information, and transitions support. Resources are being developed to be used by multi-agency frontline workers, local authorities, and support staff working with young people being educated outside of mainstream education.
The Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge (ASK) programme is raising awareness of apprenticeships and T Levels to young people in schools and colleges. Since September 2022, it has worked with over 380,000 young people from across all regions and demographics.
In addition to working with schools that request support across the country, ASK targets selected levelling-up areas and works closely with schools with students identified as requiring additional support through its development school programme.
ASK works closely with local authorities to identify young people who are not in education employment or training (NEET), or at risk of being NEET to provide additional support. The programme also works with local authorities and a variety of supporting stakeholders to provide the service to young people outside of education.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to improve diversity and inclusion in the UK’s science and technology education and workforce.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Research and Development People and Culture Strategy sets out the actions that Government and the sector need to take to ensure the UK has the talented workforce it needs to be a global science superpower. This included a review of youth engagement (including the STEM Ambassadors programme), and its effects to encourage more diverse young people into research and innovation.
The Department supports a range of work to improve diversity and inclusion in UK science and technology education in schools. This includes funding an Inclusion in Schools project designed to increase the uptake of A level physics from pupils in underrepresented groups, including girls. It also includes funding the Isaac Physics programme, an online platform of GCSE and A level physics materials developed by Cambridge University designed to increase the numbers of pupils, particularly from typically underrepresented backgrounds, studying physics in higher education.
The Department is investing £84 million into the National Centre for Computing Education to drive increased participation in computer science and funding research programmes on how to improve gender balance in STEM subjects.
Positive progress has been made on uptake of STEM in further education which will help to improve diversity in the workplace.
With over 350 high-quality apprenticeship standards available in STEM sectors, apprenticeships are supporting people of all backgrounds to begin, or progress in, careers in science and technology. The number of STEM apprenticeship starts by women has increased year-on-year, with 14,110 starts in the 2021/22 academic year, an increase of 56% compared to the 9,020 starts in the 2017/18 academic year. The Department is promoting STEM apprenticeships in schools through our Apprenticeship Knowledge and Support programme and our Apprenticeships Diversity Champions Network of influential employers promotes best practices in recruiting and retaining people from all backgrounds in STEM apprenticeships.
The Department is also working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to deliver new postgraduate AI and data science conversion courses to boost diversity in AI jobs. The conversion courses provide people with the opportunity to find new employment in AI and data science sectors, even for those who had no previous experience in the field. In the first year of the programme, 76% of the scholarships awarded have gone to women, 45% to black students, and 24% to students with disabilities. There will be an additional 2,000 scholarships to be delivered between 2023 and 2025.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of long-term youth unemployment in (a) Coventry North East constituency and (b) Coventry; and what (i) financial and (ii) other steps he is taking to tackle long-term youth unemployment in those areas.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The sample size of the Annual Population Survey is too small to provide robust estimates of the trends in long-term youth unemployed in the areas identified.
The Government is committed to delivering targeted support for all young people, no matter what their start in life or the challenges they face, to give them the best chance of getting into work.
The DWP Youth Offer provides individually tailored work coach support to young people aged 16 to 24 who are in the Universal Credit Intensive Work Search group
As well as the DWP Youth Offer, this support offer includes skills training, work experience, Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs), mentoring circles and support funded through other organisations.
Skilled Jobcentre Youth Work Coaches are working harder than ever to help employers fill vacancies. It remains our top priority to match the right young jobseeker with the right job. Key to this is our three Coventry Jobcentres, one based at the Coventry Building Society (CBS) Arena, in North Coventry, continuing to host daily successful recruitment events for both local and national employers.
Sector-based Work Academy Programmes are also proving a vital tool in offering unemployed young people a route into employment. Through Pre-Employment Training, Work Experience and a Guaranteed Job Interview, these academies offer a successful and unique approach to recruitment. Employers currently working with us on this initiative are Coventry Rugby Club, Marriott Hotels, DHL, NHS, Premier Inn, Coop, Coventry City Council, Atalian Servest.
In Coventry Youth Hub, DWP are on site with local partner organisations to offer a range of services to young people in Coventry. We have two permanent Work Coaches co-located whose primary focus is to address barriers to work, motivate and move claimants closer to the labour market.
In the Progression to work program there is a Flexible Support Fund funded grant for St Giles to support 16 – 30 year olds who need support removing barriers to move them closer to work, to include NEETs (not in education employment or training), ex-offenders, those at risk of exploitation or gang violence.
Asked by: Suzanne Webb (Conservative - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help young people find employment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The most recent Official ONS Labour Market Statistics, for the period October to December 2022, show that the current youth employment rate was 54.1%. This is up 3.2% on 2010 figures and 6.6% above the G7 average.
This Government remains committed to delivering a comprehensive and tailored package of support for 16–24-year-olds claiming Universal Credit and seeking employment or progression through the DWP Youth Offer. This includes an initial 13 weeks of intensive help through the Youth Employment Programme, Youth Employability Coaches for those with complex barriers to employment and our national network of partner led Youth Hubs.
For the young people of Stourbridge, the Dudley Youth Hub is a fundamental part of the support offered. Through this Hub, our work coaches can meet with claimants who have a barrier to employment in an alternative setting that allows them to feel at ease and engage with a range of on-site services. Examples of this include a range of employer and recruitment events, Disability Employment Advisors matching claimants with Disability Confident employers and regular National Career Service pre-employability training.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to deter knife crime among young people.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling knife crime amongst young people is a top government priority and we are working tirelessly to keep young people, families, and communities safe. At the Home Office we are redoubling our efforts with a twin-track approach, combining tough enforcement to get dangerous weapons off the streets – including through stop and search methods – with programmes that steer young people away from crime.
This financial year we have invested £64m in our network of Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) which bring together local partners to tackle the drivers of violence in their area. VRUs are delivering a range of early intervention and prevention programmes to divert people away from a life of crime. They have reached over 215,000 vulnerable young people in their third year of funding alone.
Our £30m ‘Grip’ programme operates in these same 20 areas as VRUs and is helping to drive down violence by using a highly data-driven process to identify violence hotspots – often to individual street level – and target operational activity in those areas. In their first three years of funded delivery, these programmes have collectively prevented an estimated 136,000 violence without injury offences.
In addition, the Serious Violence Duty which commenced on 31st January requires a range of public bodies to work together to prevent and reduce serious violence in their local area. Of course, the Home Office is not able to tackle violence alone, and we work closely with a range of government departments to build protective factors against violence.
For instance, we work with the Department for Education as we know that education is a powerful protective factor against violence for young people. The Government is investing over £45 million to fund specialist support in both mainstream and Alternative Provision (AP) schools in the areas where serious violence is most damaging to local communities.
Additionally, we are also delivering the £3.3 million Creating Opportunities Forum with the Department for Work and Pensions to provide meaningful employment-related opportunities and raise the aspirations of young people at risk of serious violence.
The Government remains wholly committed to preventing youth violence and keeping young people safe from harm.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what comparative assessment she has made of the trends in the level of the reoffending rate among (a) children and (b) adults.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This Government is tackling the causes of reoffending to make our streets safer. We are investing in probation services and new initiatives to reduce reoffending and beat crime.
The overall proven reoffending rate for adults has fallen by 6.0 percentage points from 30.0% in 2010/11 to 24.0% in 2020/21.
The overall proven reoffending rate for children has fallen by 9.7 percentage points from 40.9% in 2010/11 to 31.2% in 2020/21.
Our Prisons Strategy White Paper sets out our ambitious plans to reduce reoffending. We will invest to improve prison leavers’ access to accommodation, employment support and substance misuse treatment, and on further measures for early intervention to tackle youth offending.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of effectiveness of Universal Credit provisions on supporting young people under 25 on low incomes or out of work.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP Youth Offer provides individually tailored work coach support to young people aged 16 to 24 who are in the Universal Credit Intensive Work Search group. This includes the Youth Employment Programme, Youth Employability Coaches for young people with additional barriers to finding work, and Youth Hubs across Great Britain.
The Youth Offer is subject to a Process Evaluation, with full findings expected to be shared internally by late 2023. This will inform any improvements or future changes to the Youth Offer policy. The evaluation plans which involve hearing from young people from a range of backgrounds and circumstances and those that work with them, on the services they receive to understand their effectiveness and enable us to make improvements as appropriate.
In addition, the Kickstart evaluation will continue to assess the longer-term outcomes for Kickstart participants after they have completed their six-month jobs. The commissioned process evaluation will conclude in Spring 2023.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with her Cabinet colleagues on the adequacy of employment and training programmes for young people not in education, employment or training.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, regularly meets with cabinet colleagues to discuss employment and training opportunities for young people and is actively considering ways to help young people into education, employment or training. The department wants to give young people the best chance to succeed.
At the end of 2021 10.5% of 16 to 24-year-olds were not in education, employment, or training (NEET), the lowest rate on record.
Local authorities have a statutory duty to identify and support young people who are NEET. All 16 and 17-year-olds are entitled to an offer of a suitable place in education or training under the September Guarantee regardless of qualifications gained. More information on this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/september-guarantee-offers-of-education-or-training-for-16-to-17-year-olds.
A range of provision is available for young people aged 16 to 24 to equip them with the skills and experience they need to progress. The government’s Plan for Jobs includes a range of support to young people to help minimise time spent NEET. These include Youth Hubs and supported internships which offer tailored support for young people with special education needs and disabilities. More information on the government’s Plan for Jobs is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/plan-for-jobs.
The department is also taking steps to increase the number and quality of apprenticeships which will create further opportunities for young people. The new ‘Career Starter Apprenticeships’ campaign is raising awareness of opportunities for those looking for their first role after leaving full-time education. We are working with the Department for Work and Pensions to share and promote this information through Job Centre Plus.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the adequacy of employment and training programmes for young people not in education, employment or training.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, regularly meets with cabinet colleagues to discuss employment and training opportunities for young people and is actively considering ways to help young people into education, employment or training. The department wants to give young people the best chance to succeed.
At the end of 2021 10.5% of 16 to 24-year-olds were not in education, employment, or training (NEET), the lowest rate on record.
Local authorities have a statutory duty to identify and support young people who are NEET. All 16 and 17-year-olds are entitled to an offer of a suitable place in education or training under the September Guarantee regardless of qualifications gained. More information on this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/september-guarantee-offers-of-education-or-training-for-16-to-17-year-olds.
A range of provision is available for young people aged 16 to 24 to equip them with the skills and experience they need to progress. The government’s Plan for Jobs includes a range of support to young people to help minimise time spent NEET. These include Youth Hubs and supported internships which offer tailored support for young people with special education needs and disabilities. More information on the government’s Plan for Jobs is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/plan-for-jobs.
The department is also taking steps to increase the number and quality of apprenticeships which will create further opportunities for young people. The new ‘Career Starter Apprenticeships’ campaign is raising awareness of opportunities for those looking for their first role after leaving full-time education. We are working with the Department for Work and Pensions to share and promote this information through Job Centre Plus.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the report by the Traveller Movement entitled Disrupting the School to Prison Pipeline, published on 2 August 2022; and if he will take steps to implement the recommendations of that report.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Ministry of Justice acknowledges the over-representation in the youth justice system of young people from the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities and is working closely with the Youth Justice Board and other government partners to address this. This government is supporting those at risk of offending at the earliest opportunity by working with families and in schools to prevent the escalation of offending behaviour and further interaction with the justice system.
Current guidance for youth offending teams sets out expectations for ensuring that pre-sentence reports are sufficiently detailed to give sentencers a full picture of the child's background, including for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children. We are giving frontline youth justice services the tools and data to understand the needs of ethnic minority children and are working to make sure alternatives to custody are used to divert children from all backgrounds away from the youth justice estate, where this is appropriate, including through Out of Court Disposals. For children who are already in the justice system, the Youth Custody Service (YCS) are putting greater emphasis on a flexible and individually bespoke approach to vocational training and technology, to improve their employment prospects and reduce reoffending.