In the light of youth unemployment figures in the UK, the like of which we haven’t seen since … well, the last time we had a Conservative government wreaking havoc on our country … a whole generation of young people risk their lives being blighted.
While Whitehall-devised government schemes such as the work programme are proving to be woefully inadequate, Labour councils up and down the country are shaping plans of action moulded to the particular needs of their areas. Using all the powers at their disposal, bringing public, voluntary, private sectors and trade unions together, matched with a big dose of common sense, knowing what will actually work on the ground, our Labour councils are getting their residents back to work.
So, having put youth employment as one of our top priorities here in Leeds, what are we doing about it? Council leader Keith Wakefield, on taking back control of the council, led the delegation to London demanding and securing £4.6m from government in our city deal for employment and skills for the Leeds city-region. A key thread of this is getting a coherent city offer around quality apprenticeships. Like the jobs and skills scene in general, for individuals seeking an apprenticeship or for an organisation wanting to take on an apprentice, it is currently far too fragmented and complicated. Building on the 7,000 new apprenticeship starts in the city over the last few years, our apprenticeship hub aims to tackle the fragmentation, by bringing all the different apprenticeship initiatives together – a one stop approach.
We launched our new Apprenticeship Training Agency in November, a partnership between the council and Leeds City College. This takes away all the bureaucracy and headache that small and medium sized businesses normally face so that it is much easier for them to take on apprentices.
Through our city deal we now have control over the youth contract in Leeds. Targeting 1,100 16- and 17-year-olds classed as not in education, employment or training, each young person is given a key worker for 6 -12 months acting as their guide and mentor, helping the young person on their journey back into education, training and a job. Each young person is provided with job preparation skills, mentoring, business visits and work placements. The key worker also helps with all the other things that come up in the young person’s life such as money issues, family problems and so on. Since the programme started last September 250 young people have joined with 87 of those already now re-engaged in learning, training or work.
All of this activity is on top of the work of our community learning programme, where we commission local providers, the majority from the third sector, with a focus on engaging those young adults from the most deprived neighbourhoods and individuals facing specific and often multiple barriers and disadvantage to help move them towards further training and employment. The council also runs a network of job shops across the city which last year helped 2,500 Leeds residents back to work.
So, a lot done but so much more to do.
I hope as we move towards developing our manifesto for the next general election, the party really is bold. Let’s look at the current Whitehall-determined welfare and employment programmes and see how local authorities can instead be put in the driving seat. What Liam Byrne’s Labour youth jobs taskforce is showing is that it is our Labour councils that are delivering real change on the ground.
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Adam Ogilvie is executive member for leisure and skills at Leeds city council. He tweets @AdamPOgilvie
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