Editorial: Give Connexions the recognition it deserves

Connexions gained favourable feedback from the National Audit Office last April, generally does well in Ofsted inspections and achieves high acceptability ratings from young people. Yet it still struggles to win the hearts and minds of politicians and policymakers in Westminster and Whitehall.

Despite exceeding its target of reducing the number of disengaged young people by a tenth - from nine per cent to 8.1 per cent - by November 2004, the service looks set to be restructured in the youth green paper, due out on 10 March.

Forty of the 47 Connexions partnerships achieved their target for reducing the numbers of young people not in education, employment and training (NEET). The average figure achieved across England was 14 per cent, rising to about 30 per cent in Coventry and Warwickshire (see p9). This is despite the fact that the service has had cuts in funding and was forced into a costly about-turn on its VAT status a year ago. But the Government has not exactly shouted these achievements from the rooftops.