Early conversations help support young people in Sefton

ACTION

Career Connect’s early intervention service is helping specific groups of vulnerable young people in Sefton at greater risk of becoming Neet (not in education, employment or training).

The charity, which delivers independent careers guidance and coaching services across the North West, says its support programme is unique by expanding traditional post-16 Neet services to offer interventions to year 9 school pupils.

Commissioned by Sefton Council in 2019, the Neet Reduction and Early Intervention Service has evolved from a “reactive” to a “proactive” model of support, explains Sarah Vaughan, one of the charity senior operations managers who heads up the Sefton-based service.

“It’s more about delivering a preventative model for year nine, 10 and 11 and what we’ve done in Sefton is to enhance that offer by focusing on vulnerable groups to reduce Neet [rates], improve participation and increase outcomes,” she explains.

Against a national backdrop of rising Neet numbers, the charity says more young people are presenting with complex needs that could become barriers to post-16 education, employment and training.

Increases in young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), mental health issues as well as those being home educated or absent from school are significant factors affecting national figures, it adds.

Vaughan says she is “thankful” the Sefton service was launched around nine months before the pandemic began, the impact of which continues to affect those at risk of Neet across the region.

“The benefit of us being able to implement and deliver that initial service mitigated against some of the risk [of Neet] locally and we were able to support an enhanced offer during that period,” she says.

Forming strong relationships with young people and their families is an integral part of the service that works with a range of different vulnerable groups.

They include young people with low attendance rates – or those persistently absent from school – as well as looked-after children, young carers, young people with SEND or involved with youth justice.

“It’s about the relationship – which can be really slow at first – and engaging with those families particularly if they have had a negative experience of learning,” says Vaughan. “It’s about getting to know them.”

The service uses a caseload model which provides a named adviser – either a careers coach or a careers adviser – who will work with individual young people and their families. The charity says its named adviser approach also applies to its post-16 service.

These advisers offer tailored careers information, advice and guidance to meet the specific needs of each young person.

Such support is provided through one-to-one or group sessions at locations including the young person’s school, home or in the community.

It also includes a focus on helping young people to develop routine, skills and steps to learning.

Staff members co-locate with the relevant team specific to a young person’s need: if a looked-after child is involved, they will work with the council’s virtual school team; for a young person with special needs, they will liaise with SEND case workers.

“This means we can provide a holistic approach to the support we offer,” says Vaughan. “We remain impartial, so we don’t work for the school even though we are commissioned by the local authority.

“Our staff are good at selling the service from a client-centred approach where they let young people know it’s about them and their future.”

Out of a team of about 16 staff, around a third work on early intervention cases drawing on their training to support those young people at greater risk of Neet.

“Using a trauma-informed approach is key in how we address the support needs of these young people,” explains Vaughan, adding that mental health issues are also increasing “so our staff are all trained as mental health first aiders too.”

The team works with families experiencing high levels of deprivation as well as those tackling issues with drugs or alcohol.

It employs the principle of “making every contact count” so the needs of other family members are considered while supporting young people involved in the service.

“We don’t work in isolation with that one individual because there could be barriers for the family, so we use a multi-disciplinary approach to maximise the impact,” says Vaughan.

IMPACT

The charity’s impact report for 2021/22 – its latest evaluation is due to be published imminently – states Sefton Council consistently performs higher than the North West and England average for the number of 16- and 17-year-old Neet population and for those whose destination is “not known”.

In October 2021, Sefton was ranked third highest for performance in England out of 151 local authorities with just 3.4 per cent of 16- and 17-year-olds being Neet.

The report says this is a result of Sefton’s “extremely robust” tracking process which enables early identification of young people’s destinations and Neet young people.

In Manchester, where the charity also delivers programmes to support young people at risk of Neet, the combined figures were 4.6 per cent in March 2022, a drop from 7.6 per cent the previous year.

However, Vaughan stresses it is the amount of local engagement with young people and the service that offers clear evidence of its effectiveness.

“The fact that they are engaging with us as a service, particularly those who have had previous negative experiences, means we can work and plan to help them achieve their true potential,” she explains.

She cites an evaluation carried out on a small cohort of care-experienced young people in January which revealed 85 per cent had gone on to either education, employment or training in September.

“The turnaround in terms of identifying and putting in that support is based on knowing those young people a lot earlier in those relationships,” she says.

• Read more in CYP Now's Careers Advice and Guidance Special Report