AQW 41008/11-15

Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry

Tabled Date: 20/01/2015
Answered On Date: 02/02/2015
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Employment and Learning what mechanisms are in place to (i) identify young people who are not in education, training or employment; (ii) encourage their engagement in programmes to address their needs; and (iii) monitor the outcomes of their engagement with relevant programmes.

Answer:

The Executive agreed the Northern Ireland cross-departmental strategy for those young people in the Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) category, ‘Pathways to Success’, in 2012.

The strategy contains an Action Plan which pulls together actions across Departments, statutory agencies, the voluntary and community sector and local government, and employers also have a role to play. The NEET Advisory Group (NAG) chaired by DEL, brings together key decision makers from Government Departments, voluntary and community, education, health, social care and business sectors and local government. The Group provides leadership and co-ordination of the programme of interventions. It also addresses the need to improve the information base available to all the stakeholders involved so that the actions can be targeted effectively at those most in need and continue to be informed by best practice elsewhere.

In developing the ‘Pathways to Success’ strategy, DEL also helped establish the independent NEET Strategy Forum to engage and help join up those organisations in the voluntary and community sector who deliver services in this area. The Forum consists of some 80 members currently, membership is open and Forum members are also represented on the NEET Advisory Group.

To support a method of agreeing best practice, the Forum is supporting the introduction of the Journey to Employment (JET) pilot. This is a Shared Measurement Framework for Young people who are in need of Education, Employment and Training. The Forum is also developing a NEET Youth Forum (NYF), promoting a Mapping Tool to provide a map of service provision available to NEETs. We are considering the role of the Forum following the formal evaluation of Pathways to Success and the introduction of the new ESF programme.

Collaboration and Innovation Fund (CIF) projects use a range of methods to identify young people who are not in education employment and training. These include collaboration with local community groups and government bodies, advertising through various media sources, the distribution of promotional leaflets and by project staff conducting home visits within local communities.

Projects use a range of activities to encourage CIF participation, such as the use of IT packages, digital media, music and outdoor team building events. Incentives provided by projects and the availability of an Educational Maintenance Allowance of up to £25 per week for 16-17 year olds helps to retain participants’ commitment to the programme. These, combined with access to a personal mentor, have proved successful in providing the motivation for young people to progress to more intensive activities such as vocational training and work experience.

Statistics received on a monthly basis from CIF projects provide information on the destination of all programme leavers including, into employment, education and training. Statistics are also collected on the level of qualifications obtained and the number of essential skills qualifications achieved.

By the end of December 2014, a total of 5,284 young people commenced Collaboration and Innovation Funded (CIF) projects. Of the 3,754 leaving the programme 2,870 have completed activities with 1,954 moving into positive outcomes of employment 496 (13%), education 485 (13%) and training 973 (26%). Performance of individual projects is monitored on a monthly basis by DEL staff.

The Community Family Support Programme providers and DEL staff monitor the destinations of young people participating on the programme at the end of each 26 week programme cycle. Data at the end of cycle two showed that, of the 319 NEETs participating on the programme, 206 (65%) progressed to positive destinations in education, employment and training.

During the period April 2014 to December 2014, a total of 2,422 clients were case loaded to the LEMIS programme, of these 999 were young people not in Education, Employment or training. Derry Job Assist Centre case-loaded 417 clients and 73 people (17.5%) commenced permanent full time employment, seven commenced part time employment and eight entered temporary employment. 145 of those case loaded were NEET clients, 28 commenced permanent full time employment, three commenced part time employment and four commenced temporary employment. The unit cost of a client entering permanent full time employment for this period was £3,556.

Monitoring of statistical information is carried out on a monthly basis using Provider returns and LEMIS spreadsheets.

Tracking System

Data sharing arrangements have been agreed with 258 schools out of a total of 265, including 210 post-primary, 40 special needs and 15 independent schools. DEL’s Careers Service provides full class lists from schools, including details on pupils who are in Alternative Schooling or those that have been suspended. Data sharing ensures that all young people at school and at risk of becoming or remaining NEET can be identified and offered advice. Careers advisers actively case-manage early leavers from school and DEL funded programmes for 16 and 17 year olds. Those identified as being NEET are supported into appropriate provision.

The Unique Learner Number (ULN) has already been adopted by DEL across all its programmes and is being adopted by the Department of Education (DE). This will support the ongoing development of a system to track individuals’ employment, training and educational progress.