The government shelved plans for a national youth opportunity card in February after failing to find a technical solution for the scheme. The nine areas that were piloting the work were asked to come up with local alternatives.
Youth minister Beverley Hughes last week announced £14.5m would be spent in these areas to evaluate ways to engage 20,000 disadvantaged young people using the card. These schemes will run from the start of next year until April 2009.
If the pilots are successful, a national scheme is still an option. Hughes told CYP Now: "It is still possible further down the line we might be able to move to a scheme in which cards used in one area can be used in another area. It will depend on technical developments at a national level in terms of what information technology might enable us to do in the future."
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