Young people have been hit hard by this government.
Educational maintenance allowance has been scrapped as tuition fees have trebled. The Future Jobs Fund has been cancelled as career advice services are slashed. Nearly one million young people are out of work with many being offered nothing but exploitative, unpaid internships or zero-hours contracts as they try to take their first step on the ladder.
For generations, parents could believe that their children would enjoy a better life than they had. Now, we’re seeing that belief shattered as thousands of teenagers from low-income families find it harder to study, harder to get a job and harder to find a home than ever before.
We have a responsibility to our young people to change this. A damning report produced this year by the University College Union showed the harmful effect unemployment has on mental health, with a third of young people feeling depressed and seeing their confidence and motivation shattered. Labour’s compulsory jobs guarantee is an important pledge that I fully support, but we also have to redirect the billions of pounds being spent on a work programme that in many cases is less than useless into effective initiatives that get young people into real, sustainable employment.
As a council leader I’ve seen how wasteful and ineffective the current system is. Government departments, government agencies, private companies and a whole host of private training providers all have a role in providing training, skills and reducing youth unemployment. It’s chaotic and wasteful. We frequently see provision commissioned with no real knowledge of the local labour market or the skills needed in a particular area to meet future demand.
Barely 20 per cent of public spending in this area is under local control. Yet local and regional provision is proving to be much more effective in getting young people into apprenticeships, training and work. London Councils’ excellent ‘Getting London Working’ report shows how projects like the North London Pledge, based across four London boroughs, was commissioned and delivered locally and got 26 per cent of referred clients into work for six months or more. Over the same period with a similar client group, the work programme only got 3.6 per cent of referred clients into work for six months or more. In the borough where I am council leader, we’re working in partnership with great local businesses like K&M McLoughlin who have set up an employer-led Painting and Decorating Academy providing pre-apprenticeship courses for our young people. It’s oversubscribed and proving hugely successful at teaching useful skills and getting young people into work – including through the council’s own contractors.
My private member’s bill would propose devolving the budgets and responsibilities of big failing national employment programmes to local level. It would mean that money was channelled into effective initiatives and not into the pockets of big, failing private sector contractors. Crucially, it would also mean we helped more of our young people into work, training and meaningful activities – not left abandoned and sinking further into despair.
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Catherine West is prospective parliamentary candidate for Hornsey and Wood Green, which is seat 27 in the Frontline 40
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