Young people's advice services take a 180m hit

8 August 2011 2 mins read Andy Hillier Connexions Careers Guidance

Local authorities have budgeted to spend almost 180m less on information, advice and guidance services for teenagers this year compared with last year, despite the fact that almost one in five young people are unemployed, a CYP Now investigation has found.

Figures obtained through freedom of information requests to all 152 local authorities in England reveal that councils plan to spend an estimated £289m on Connexions-related activities through their early intervention grant allocations in 2011/12 - 38 per cent less than the £467m central government allocated to Connexions work in 2010/11.

The government allocated more than £460m to Connexions in each financial year between 2008 and 2010, but the total allocation was not spent on the service in 2010/11 after cuts to funding were implemented in May last year.

Of the 101 councils that responded to the survey, 85 were able to state how much of their early intervention grant they had allocated to careers advice and guidance services. On average, they plan to spend 13 per cent of their grant on activities such as supporting and monitoring young people not in education, employment or training and providing careers advice. With the government allocating £2.2bn to the early intervention grant for 2011/12, this would equate to a national spend of £289m on Connexions-related activities.

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