Activity Agreement and Entry to Learning pilots to end in December

Eight Activity Agreement pilots (AAPs) and four Entry to Learning pilots were due to run until March 2011. But the government has now written to service providers delivering the pilots to tell them their work will end on 31 December. In a letter to the pilot areas, the Department for Education said the decision was taken as part of the £6bn of savings being made across government.

Delivered through Connexions, the pilots were created by the previous government in 2006. They offer young people intensive support and incentives to take part in activities that will help them move into employment and training.

The pilots had already been extended on a number of occasions. Last year, they were extended again as the previous government intended to use them as a template for new approaches to raising the participation age. They were also specifically targeted at young people who were deemed vulnerable, such as care leavers, young carers, homeless young people, or young people with learning difficulties, mental health or substance misuse issues.

John Taylor, project manager at the Activity Agreement West Yorkshire, said his project had helped more than 3,600 young people, with 60 per cent moving into education and training, and he had expected the pilots to eventually be rolled out nationally.

"In his Budget announcement, George Osborne was talking about his strategy to address the national deficit, and he boasted that £6bn of 'wasteful expenditure' had been found and saved 'already'," said Taylor. "As savings from the premature termination of the AAPs' budget is included in that £6bn, I very strongly resent this defamatory remark about our work," he added.

The government is expected to save £2.7m by ending the pilots prematurely.