The future of Connexions, at least in its present form, may be the subject of intense speculation, but the service appears to be making strong progress towards its goal of reducing the number of young people who are disengaged.
Figures issued recently show the number of young people who are not in work, education or training in England dropped 14 per cent in the two years to November 2004, beating the Government's target to reduce it from nine per cent to 8.1 per cent (YPN, 2-8 February, p2).
Down to business
While the multi-agency nature of Connexions suggests this success is the result of complex relationships between various agencies, the head of Connexions Coventry and Warwickshire says it is actually quite simple.
"Young people are the customers and you give the customers what they want, that's all there is to it," says Steve Stewart, executive director of the service. "We make sure we are in touch with young people to give them what they want in the way they want it."
Connexions Coventry and Warwickshire has reduced the number of teenagers out of work and education in its catchment area by about 30 per cent within two years. Stewart says working with schools was crucial.
"We have designed personal programmes for disengaged young people in schools, and truancy and exclusion rates have gone down," he says. "The way to do this is to wear out a lot of shoe leather meeting everyone face to face."
Andrew Simmons, chief executive of Connexions Hertfordshire, which reduced the number of disengaged young people by a quarter in its area, agrees: "It is important to look at Years 9 to 11 to identify pupils with no clear destination."
For Jennifer Izekor, chief executive of Connexions London East, reaching previously unknown young people was the biggest challenge.
"What made our result genuine is knowing where all young people are," she says. "One of our most memorable ways to do this was getting a group of young people from local colleges and our youth board to contact young people."
The service set up an evening call centre where this group rang young people using contact details from school records.
"The fact that young people were calling up others made it easier to reach them," says Izekor. "Some of them were already in work, but we were able to give the ones that weren't information on their nearest personal adviser or get them to services as quickly as possible."
An ideal match
A smooth transition from training into suitable jobs is also vital, so the service launched a "clearing house" database last year that enabled personal advisers to access details of all training and employment opportunities and match them with young people.
Another strong performing partnership - Connexions Cheshire and Warrington - puts much of its success down to its Motivational Placement scheme.
Steve Hoy, the partnership's chief executive, says: "We identify demotivated young people in Year 10 through teachers and personal advisers and get them on a programme of activities to prepare them for a work placement."
He adds: "If a young person isn't given enough time to prepare, then the chances for dropping out increase."
Reaching people early is also important, says Jenny Rudge, chief executive of Connexions Cornwall and Devon.
"If young people get to know the personal advisers at age 13, then they will be more aware of their choices when they leave school."
And although Connexions is designed to support all young people, Jean Pardoe, head of Connexions Nottingham, believes in focusing resources on young people less likely to enter work or education.
"We try not to spend all our resources on young people who have already got clear pathways to avoid overlapping with other agencies," says Pardoe.
Clearly the Government is closely examining the role of Connexions in its deliberations on the youth green paper, but the statistical and practical evidence suggests some of the service's approaches are beginning to pay dividends.
