Councils press for control of Youth Contract

Government figures released last week showed that the youth employment scheme got 27.5 per cent of the 16- and 17-year-olds it worked with during 2012/13 into work or education.

But the Local Government Association said similar initiatives at local level have performed better and that the Youth Contract should be devolved to local authorities.

It said that a scheme run in Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield had got 57 per cent of the young people it worked with into work, training or education, while a similar effort in Newcastle and Gateshead had seen 47 per cent enter training or employment.

“It’s clear that the current nationally driven attempts to tackle youth unemployment aren’t helping the long-term unemployed,” said Peter Box, chair of the Local Government Association’s transport and economy board and a Labour councillor in Wakefield.

“While there are good initiatives, government has incentivised a series of services like schools, colleges, third sector providers to work in isolation of each other, with no clarity on who is responsible for leading the offer to young people on the ground.”

“With the greatest will, Whitehall cannot do it all from the centre and so we now urge government to work with local authorities and their partners, giving them the powers to ‘own the problem’ and become the link between young people and local employers.”