Written evidence from Rathbone Training (EOP0038)

1. Introduction

Rathbone Training is a UK-wide youth charity focused on helping young people to realise their potential and achieve their goals – whether that is a job, a place at college, a traineeship, an apprenticeship or a work placement.   We run programmes for young people to improve their English and maths whilst gaining qualifications and valuable work experience.  We also run youth engagement programmes which offer practical support and positive experiences through activities like sport, music or art.  Key facts:

• The focus of our work is with young people facing personal challenges in terms of their learning and social support needs
• We reach over 8,500 young people annually across Scotland, Wales and England
• Our work ranges from specialist provision for young people aged 14+ who are partially or fully excluded from school, to Higher Level Apprenticeships
• Rathbone successfully retained its MATRIX standard following a recent assessment of our advice and support services for young people.  Feedback was very positive from the assessor who commented on how Rathbone have changed people’s lives through our work
• We hold the Bronze Fair Train National Quality Standard for Work Experience
• Rathbone achieved an Ofsted Grade 2 (Good)
• Rathbone Training is part of NCG, a major national provider working to develop the skills and education that the economy needs for future growth.

2. Executive Summary

2.1              Rathbone work with some of the UK’s most disadvantaged young people who are furthest from the labour market.  We offer a flexible and supportive environment inclusive to all.  Small group sizes, one-to-one support and flexibility all contribute to creating an environment that allows those with additional needs to thrive.

2.2              Whilst we recognise that JCP do have staff dedicated to supporting young people, we would question if within JCP these people have the necessary skills and expertise required to engage and support young people, particularly those with significant barriers and challenges, as they make the transition from school to employment. 

2.3              Providing this service has become increasingly challenging in recent years due to the impact of cuts to youth services.  Our staff report that they are increasingly called upon to provide extensive support that would previously have been provided by other agencies at a much earlier stage. 

2.4              We anticipate the Government’s Youth Obligation will be introduced in April 2017.  Whilst we welcome the continued focus on young people and the commitment to providing training, work experience opportunities and support into employment, we believe this needs to be provided alongside wrap around support for young people.

2.5              We are unsure if JCP staff have the necessary training and experience to undertake the CIAG role in schools.  Our wider concern with CIAG provision in schools centres around the lack of parity given to academic and vocational options. 

2.6              We believe there may be a role for JCP to support and mentor employers; building a stronger understanding of the benefits of engaging with young people and how to work with them to develop and harness their talent.

2.7              Work experience is essential for young people.  Rathbone believes that employers need to play a stronger role and should take responsibility for developing young talent by providing a broad range of work experience opportunities and creating entry points and progressions routes for young people. 

2.8              Our response highlights the importance of supporting employers with recruitment, understanding the skills they need and how to shape their job description and recruitment processes so that young people can compete with more experienced candidates.  Also, more needs to be done to raise awareness of the benefits of employing young people and growing young talent.

3. Services for Young People

Q: To what extent does getting young people into work and supporting them in work require an approach distinct from that of other groups?

Q: What is the likely impact of the end of the Youth Contract on labour market prospects for young people who are NEET, and is action required to mitigate this impact?

Q: Is current mainstream Jobcentre Plus Provision adequate to meet the needs of all young people, including NEETs and unemployed graduates?

3.1              Rathbone work with some of the UK’s most disadvantaged young people who are furthest from the labour market.  We offer a flexible and supportive environment that is inclusive to all.  Small group sizes, one-to-one support and flexibility all contribute to creating an environment that allows those with additional needs to thrive.

3.2              We believe that JCP is an effective organisation in respect of the core work undertaken; which is, as we understand, processing benefit claims and supporting individuals to return to employment.  Whilst we recognise that JCP do have staff dedicated to supporting young people, we would question if within JCP these people have the necessary skills and expertise required to engage and support young people, particularly those with significant barriers and challenges, as they make the transition from school to employment.  Below we highlight our view, based on our experience, on the specific skills and expertise required to engage young people, gain their trust and support and them.

3.1.1              Rathbone programmes target young people who are disengaged and disadvantaged, many of whom have had erratic school attendance, failed to achieve qualifications or have an exclusion or offending history.  Often learners come from poor socio-economic backgrounds or from the care system; some have chaotic or difficult home lives and are trying to live independently.  These young people have significant barriers to employment and require a tailored approach to identify and provide the right intervention.  One size does not fit all.  We work extensively with young people to understand their particular circumstances, motivations and behaviours to ensure that young people receive appropriate support and are signposted to the right information. 

3.1.2              A critical element of our work is engagement activity: building strong relationships and trust and helping young people to identify and access the support they need.  For example, Rathbone delivered a Big Lottery-funded project in Northern Ireland which involved street engagement and mentoring activity.  We adopted an ‘open delivery’ model, with Rathbone staff engaging young people on the streets, often in hotspots for anti-social behaviour and street violence.  In response to young people’s interests and specific requests, we developed bespoke programmes and used these to engage young people and thereby gained time to coach and guide them and to refer them to specialist support.

3.1.3               Rathbone also recognises the need to look beyond the job outcome, although secure and sustained employment is the end goal, and values softer outcomes which help young people build the resilience and the skills to navigate a turbulent job market. These softer outcomes include deciding on a career goal, becoming capable of independent research into jobs, gaining self-confidence, re-engaging with learning, engaging with the benefits / social support system, raising aspirations and even gaining control over own lives.

3.1.4              As noted in the Rathbone’s recent Matrix Assessment[1], “Guidance extends beyond support in considering options to sometimes significant pastoral support, including dealing with major issues such as homelessness and abuse.  In some cases staff are able to guide their clients through complex processes, in other cases they will advocate on behalf and offer solutions, and staff judge the best approach based on the urgency of need and client capability at the time. Staff understand well the boundaries between guidance and counselling, and are confident in their observation of safeguarding responsibilities.”

3.1.5        It is essential that an employment service for young people is firmly integrated with local specialist partners to allow timely and effective referrals.  The Rathbone Matrix Assessment recognises that our ability to refer or signpost clients to suitable support is a strength of our service, “Clients particularly value this aspect of the service, which has led to some significant solutions for some learners particularly in relation to homelessness, debt management and mental health.”

3.1.6        Providing this service has become increasingly challenging in recent years due to the impact of cuts to youth services.  We refer the Committee to the recent Unison report on cuts in youth services[2]“, which sets out the scale of the cuts and the impact these have had on young people.  Rathbone staff report that they are increasingly called upon to provide extensive support that would previously have been provided by other agencies at a much earlier stage.  Increasingly we find that local services have been withdrawn, or reduced and, rather than being able to signpost young people to specialist agencies, we have to explore other ways of plugging the gap that has been created by this within communities and find alternative ways of supporting them.  For example, there are long waiting lists for counselling services and staff report they are spending significant time intensively supporting learners who are at risk of dropping out as they cannot access the mental health support they require.  In response, Rathbone are exploring introducing our own specialist counselling support service to meet that need. 

3.1.7        Achieving the level of service set out above requires trained and experienced staff with a case-load that allows them to spend time with young people and develop effective and supportive relationships with them.  We believe that currently there is insufficient time allocated to support and advise individuals.  Chris Evans MP noted in a recent Westminster debate[3] “.  Even now people are getting a maximum of 20 minutes with a single person – 20 minutes to help someone begin a life-changing process.  It is all part of another attempt to make a broken system function just a little bit better.” 

3.2              We are concerned about the impact of the end of Youth Contract, particularly when it is anticipated that the economy will be unstable for some years to come.

3.3              We anticipate that the Government’s Youth Obligation will be introduced in April 2017 into geographical areas with the full universal credit service.  We welcome the continued focus on young people and the commitment to providing training, work experience opportunities and support into employment.  However, we believe that as a stand-alone service it is not enough, this needs to be provided alongside the wrap around support described above.

4.               Jobcentre Plus Support for Schools

Q. How effective is Jobcentre Plus Support for Schools likely to be in enhancing young people’s career prospects?

Q. Are there any areas of potential tension between Jobcentre Plus advisors in schools and current school career advice provision, and if so, how could these be overcome?

Q. How can DWP ensure that schools engagement with the initiative, and how should its impact be monitored?

4.1              Young people need early access to good quality, face-to-face IAG with careers advisors who are aware of their particular circumstances and motivations and who can signpost them to appropriate support and information to allow them to make realistic choices.  Managing young people’s expectations and those of employers is a key aspect of Rathbone’s work. 

4.2              Our wider concern with CIAG provision in schools centres around the lack of parity given to academic and vocational options.  However, we recognise, under new legislation, schools will be required to give equal airtime to all the options that young people can take post-16.  

4.3              We believe there may be a role of JCP to support and mentor employers; building a stronger understanding of the benefits of engaging with young people and how to work with them to develop their talent. 

5.              Support beyond Jobcentre Plus

Q. How can Jobcentre Plus services for young people be are effectively integrated with other local services, especially around education and skills?

Q. What broader measures, especially those aimed at employers, should the Government priorities to improve the employment rates of young people?

5.1                            Please note the response provided above

5.2              We support the move towards greater parity of academic and vocational routes, we welcome the Apprenticeship Reforms at a headline level, although we have expressed concerns on the significant reduction proposed in 16-18 funding and the tight timescales. 

5.3              Rathbone believes that employers need to play a stronger role and should take responsibility for developing young talent by providing a broad range of work experience opportunities and creating entry points and progressions routes for young people.   However, we believe that more needs to be done to raise employers’ awareness to the benefits of employing young people and the value that they can bring to a firm.

5.4              We believe that there is also a need to review employers’ recruitment processes.  At an occupational level, the UKCES report[4] identifies that skills shortages continue to be more prevalent in what are traditionally described as unskilled or semi-skilled occupations, for example, Machine Operatives.  So, is this really a skills gap? Or is it a problem with employers’ expectations? Cappelli[5] notes “Managers pile all the credentials and expertise into the job description to minimize the risk that the candidate will fail, making it virtually impossible to find anyone who fits”.  He quotes Neal Grunstra, the founder and president of Mindbank Consulting Group who refers to this as ‘looking for a unicorn’.  In our work with young people, unemployed and economically inactive individuals, we have found it necessary to work with employers to help them understand the benefits of recruiting from these cohorts and to overcome any concerns they may have

6.              Longer-term labour market prospects

Q. How do changes in job quality and availability since the crisis affect young people?  How is the decision to exempt young people from the National Living Wage affecting their experiences of employment?

Q. What is likely to be the impact of any forthcoming economic uncertainty on young people, and how should the Government best seek to protect them from this?

6.1              In developing effective responses to youth employment issues, it is important to understand the causes.  Youth unemployment has been increasing in the UK since 2004, suggesting an underlying structural problem.  The UKCES publication ‘The Youth Employment Challenge[6]’ sets out the structural issues:

• Informal methods of finding work, such as recommendations from contacts, is still a major way for people to find work.  These informal connections tend to be built up over time and through experience of work, so young people are far less likely to have them
• Recruiters place significant emphasis on experience when recruiting.  However, young people are leaving education with little or no work experience
• There have also been changes in the availability of the types of jobs that young people do.  Young people tend to be employed in sales and elementary occupations, however, these jobs have been in decline
• The rise of small businesses have also had an impact.  UKCES note that the between 1998 and 2010 the share of private sector employment in large businesses fell from 50% to 40%.  For the smallest businesses (1-4 employees) it increased from 11% to 22%.  Small companies are more likely to emphasise the importance of experienced when recruiting staff

6.2              This highlights the central importance of work experience.  As noted above, Rathbone believes that employers need to play a stronger role and should take responsibility for developing young talent by providing a broad range of work experience opportunities and creating entry points and progressions routes for young people

6.3              It also highlights the importance of supporting employers with recruitment, understanding the skills they need and how to shape their job description and recruitment processes so that young people can compete with more experienced candidates.  Also, as noted above, more needs to be done to raise awareness of the benefits of employing young people and growing young talent

6.4              Research has demonstrated that economic turbulence does affect young people more than other age groups.  In this response we have set out a range of suggestions on supporting young people and working with employers to increase the work experience opportunities.  However, we must emphasise that we are only now beginning to see the impact of the cuts to youth services; in far too many cases these cuts have exacerbated the struggles of many young people, particularly those that need help the most.  We are particularly concerned that more cuts are anticipated in the coming year and we call on the Government to reverse this trend.

September 2016