Increase the proportion of sixteen to eighteen year olds who are learning or working, focusing particularly on vulnerable groups
You can read the summary below, or access the full versions in the right-hand column.
What will be different in one year’s time?
What actions are planned over the next year?
Why does this matter?
- Some groups of young people are less likely to be learning or working. We need to make sure that they have the same opportunities as other young people.
- To enable all young people to earn a living.
- To ensure all young people are able to contribute to their community and the economy.
- To ensure young people do not live their lives in poverty.
- Young people who are learning or working are less likely to be involved in activities that are harmful to themselves or to others, such as crime or substance misuse.
Where are we now?
What the local data tells us about Nottinghamshire
- In Nottinghamshire as a whole, the percentage of 16 to 18 year olds in learning or working is above the national average.
- This percentage varies between localities within the County. For example, Mansfield District has a lower percentage of young people in learning or working than the national average.
- Some young people are less likely to be learning or working wherever they live. These are known as vulnerable young people. They include:
- Young people with learning difficulties or disabilities (LDD). This is particularly true for young people who were previously at SEN level School Action Plus in their last year of school
- Young people who are in local authority care
- Teenage mothers.
- Participation in learning or working by Black and Minority Ethnic groups is higher than the Nottinghamshire average but there is some variation within this group.
What children, young people or families tell us
Nottinghamshire’s Young People’s Board was recently consulted about the Connexions Service. (The Connexions Service is the service commissioned by Nottinghamshire County Council to deliver a personal advisor service providing information, advice, guidance and support to thirteen to nineteen year-olds across Nottinghamshire local authority area).
One of their top priorities was to target support to young people who drop out early from post-16 learning, such as school, college or training.
Children, young people and families also want:
- local access to learning
- more apprenticeships
- improved preparation for employment while they are at school.
What will be different in one year’s time?
- Young mothers will be offered taster sessions at local colleges to encourage them to take up learning again
- Systems will be in place to identify young people at risk of leaving college or training early and to provide support that helps them to stay in learning
- Young people who are in local authority care, or who have left local authority care, will have good training and employment opportunities
- Learning opportunities will better meet the needs and aspirations of young people
- Young people with learning difficulties and disabilities will receive good quality assessments to support their transition into post-sixteen learning
- Young people who were at SEN School Action Plus during Year eleven will receive additional targeted support. We will implement the first phase of a vulnerable young people strategy to focus on those young people least likely to be in learning or work after Year Eleven.
What actions are planned over the next year?
- Work with young mothers and encourage them to attend the college taster sessions funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC)
- Provide information, advice and guidance to participants in taster sessions to help them stay in learning
- Evaluate young mothers’ taster courses and their outcomes
- Get information on all early leavers from school, college or training courses who are aged over 16. Contact all early leavers and offer support to start learning again
- Present a report on an apprenticeship scheme for children and young people who are in local authority care and those leaving local authority care to the local authority’s Corporate Parenting Members Panel for consideration. Implement the recommendations of the report
- Transfer responsibility for funding post-16 learning from the LSC to Nottinghamshire County Council
- Implement the first phase of a vulnerable young people strategy to focus effort and resources on those young people least likely to enter work or learning after Year 11.
How will we measure impact?
NI 117 - The percentage of 16 to 18 year-olds who are not in education, employment or training (NEET). The target for 2009-10 is to reduce NEET to 4.3%, for 2010-11 it is 4.1%.
- We will also monitor the percentage NEET for vulnerable groups. We expect these to reduce compared to the percentage NEET for all of Nottinghamshire.
Contact Information:
Lead Partnership Group:
Nottinghamshire NEET Reduction Partnership
Strategic Lead:
John Endersby
Operations Director
Connexions Nottinghamshire
For more information about how this work is being developed, contact:
Denis McCarthy
Operations Manager
Connexions Nottinghamshire
Tel: 0115 912 6611
