Local authorities knuckle down to raising the participation age
Lauren Higgs
Monday, January 23, 2012
As 2011 drew to a close, the number of young people not in employment, education or training (Neet) hit its highest level since comparable records began. There are now almost 450,000 so-called Neets aged between 16 and 18, not to mention a further 700,000 aged between 19 and 24.
This intractable problem is one that the government hopes will, in part, be addressed by plans to raise the participation age.
From summer 2013, young people will have to stay on in education or training for the whole of the academic year in which they turn 17. From 2015, this will increase to 18.
Councils will be charged with managing the local system and 35 local authorities have been taking part in Department for Education trials to get ready for the changes.
The trials have thrown up challenges that will affect many areas. For example, high-quality and impartial information, advice and guidance will be essential to increasing participation, but concerns remain about the demise of the Connexions service and the transfer of careers guidance responsibilities to schools.
Cuts to Connexions also mean that councils in some areas will struggle to track young people.
David Simmonds, chair of the Local Government Association's children and young people board, admits that monitoring young people will be more difficult in the "new world" of academies, free schools and multiple training providers, "because tracking services will need to gain that information from a lot more different sources".
But he argues that the retention of the legal "duty to co-operate" on schools in the recent Education Act provides a "hard-edged means" of ensuring that institutions share information with councils.
Malcolm Trobe, policy director at the Association of School and College Leaders, is concerned that careers advice is currently "significantly variable" across the country.
He says that reducing the dropout rate at age 17 will require a concerted effort, given that many young people complete the first year of post-16 education or training, but about 15 per cent fail to progress after that.
And reaching full participation will be costly, he adds: "The most vulnerable and hard to reach are, of course, the most expensive to provide provision for."
Here, three of the pilot authorities tell CYP Now about how they are taking on the challenge.
DERBY CITY COUNCIL
Graeme Ferguson, raising participation strategic lead, Derby City Council
We are into our third year of the trials now. We decided to start with the data and did a comprehensive analysis of two year groups from age 16 to 18.
We found that schools were good at moving young people from year 11 into something positive post-16, but when we got to age 17, about 15 to 20 per cent had dropped out.
We've now put a process in called the managed learning transfer, so that if a young person does become unhappy with the course they're on, the institution tries to move them into something else that is positive.
If the young person were in school pre-16, the school would take responsibility for them if they stopped attending, so we're asking for the same thing to happen post-16 within schools, colleges, training and apprenticeship providers.
We also looked at what is on offer to young people. In school sixth forms, a lot of young people were going down the A-levels route even though it was not appropriate for them. We've put in place something we're calling an apprenticeship progression pathway, so the young person stays on in the school sixth form, but they don't do A-levels. Instead, they do a curriculum package to get them ready to be employed on an apprenticeship.
Another major piece of work is identifying the young people who are at risk of becoming Neet (not in education, employment or training), and putting in extra support.
For example, our pupil referral unit ran a mentoring programme for pupils from the February of their year 11 to the February of their first year post-16. The results were very good; we had 75 per cent still in education or training a year on.
But there is a resource issue - it is intensive and costly. An increasing number of young people are participating in education or training, but there is a core of vulnerable young people who are hard to engage even with high levels of support. It will be up to local authorities to try and find local solutions to that.
EAST SUSSEX COUNTY COUNCIL
Jessica Stubbings, children's services development manager, East Sussex County Council
We've been involved in the trials for three years. We did a mapping exercise and identified quite a big provision gap in employment connected with training. So we've set up a number of projects.
One that has been quite successful is "work pairing". This essentially places a young person with an employer for a six-month period, during which time the employer mentors them and develops them. The young people are paid £10 a day through Young People's Learning Agency funding for 16- to 18-year-olds. It's very much about on-the-job training and work skills. The young people can progress onto college one day a week or into more formal training.
Another project we developed is aimed at young people with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, because they make up the largest group of young people who are Neet. It's a supportive model that includes small group work training with social enterprise employers. For example, it worked with Hastings Furniture Service, which picks up unwanted furniture from people's homes, restores it and sells it in its shop.
We're also looking at setting up an apprenticeship training association, which would support small and medium-sized employers to take on apprentices. In East Sussex, 86 per cent of our learners go on to a college post-16, unlike some areas where most learners go onto a school sixth form. That raises certain challenges because they're all going to an institution that don't know them, so we've done a lot around improving the whole transition process and data sharing between schools and colleges.
We're also looking at how schools and colleges can collaborate on teaching and learning. Colleges say that learners come to them having made it through GCSEs but without independent learning skills. We've been looking at how schools can understand what college will be like for their learners and doing some work to develop those skills.
WORCESTERSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
Kim Wattie, diverse curriculum manager, Worcestershire County Council
We've been part of the trial for two years. We chose to focus on fulfilling our statutory responsibilities as a local authority, particularly around supporting and re-engaging young people at risk of being Neet.
One of the things we did first was use an electronic assessment tool called the "Risk of Neet Indicator" to identify those young people most vulnerable to becoming Neet. This is all about early identification, so we've used it for our current year 10 cohort, so we can put additional support in for those who need it over the next two years while they're still in school.
We're also using local data to look at what level and type of provision the current cohort of young people are likely to require. Another important part of our work is managing transitions and tracking. With the demise of the Connexions service, we've been looking at how we monitor participation and pick up when young people do become Neet, so that we can provide extra support for them.
We're looking to do that data tracking and information-sharing process electronically between the local authority and post-16 providers. We've brought the Connexions service in-house, so we have a team within the local authority that will be fulfilling that role.
There won't be any national communication from the Department for Education on raising the participation age, so that will be down to local authorities. There is much misinformation about raising the school-leaving age - but the intention is not to keep all young people in school, so we really need to tackle that perception at a local level.
We're focusing on communicating the raising the participation age message internally and to parents, young people and employers. Unfortunately, we don't have an education business partnership any more, but we're working to raise awareness with employers through our local enterprise partnership and chamber of commerce.
TIMELINE: HOW THE EDUCATION PARTICIPATION AGE WILL RISE TO 18 BY 2015
Mar 2012 35 trial councils hold peer-to-peer learning events for local authorities across the country to help prepare for raising the participation age
Sep 2012 Schools become responsible for securing impartial careers advice and guidance for their pupils
July 2013 First cohort of young people are required to continue in education or training until the end of the academic year in which they turn 17
July 2014 Second cohort of young people begin their first year of compulsory post-16 education and training
July 2015 All young people are required to continue in education or training until the end of the academic year in which they turn 18