Social Exclusion (Hansard, 13 July 1999)

§ The Prime Minister

Last summer, I asked the Social Exclusion Unit to assess how many 16 to 18-year-olds are not in education, work or training, to analyse the reasons why and to produce proposals to reduce the number significantly. I am publishing the Unit's report today. Copies have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

At any one time, more than 160,000 16 to 18-year-olds—one in 11 of the age group—are not in education, training or work. The young people most likely not to participate in education, training or work during this period of their lives come from backgrounds of poverty or unemployment in the family, have truanted or been excluded from school, have been in care or live in the poorest neighbourhoods. There are clear links between non-participation and other problems encountered in adolescence. Half the young women who are outside education, work or training are teenage parents or carers, and there are links also with homelessness, offending and serious drug misuse.

Non-participation at this time in their lives has a dire effect on young people's future life prospects. By their mid-twenties, they are much more likely than their peers to have no qualifications, to be unemployed, to be poor, to experience poor health and depression and, if they are men, to have a criminal record which damages their prospects of work. The Government have a number of programmes in place to tackle educational under-achievement and youth disaffection, including the setting up of youth offending teams. But more needs to be done. The Unit's Report shows that there is little joined-up delivery of services to young people, and that the end of compulsory schooling at 16 is seen by too many young people as the end of education, rather than as a basis for its continuation. For too many of them, no one is responsible outside the family for guiding them through adolescence and there is not enough effective support to help them overcome personal problems that get in the way of learning. There are also strong arguments for giving more financial help to young people from poor families who want to stay on in education.

The Unit's Report plots a way forward in combating social exclusion among this age group. The Government believe that young people should be given every encouragement and support to stay in full-time education after they are 16 and reach at least a Level 2 qualification. It will ask the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority to consult on ways of giving young people who stay in education until 16 recognition for what they have 90W achieved in education and elsewhere. It will build on improvements already in train in education and skills for 13 to 19-year-olds, with a particular emphasis on the education received by young people in custody.

To extend the financial support available to young people to stay in education, the pilots of the Education Maintenance Allowance will be extended to include homeless and disabled young people, and those with high transport costs, for example in rural areas.

The Report also provides more detail on the new Youth Support Service, which was announced in the White Paper "Learning to Succeed" (Cm 4392) on 30 June. The aim of the new service will be to provide for young people between the ages of 13 and 19 individually tailored guidance and support, in places and ways which meet their needs. The youth support service will be a new service operating in a radically different way. It will look at the broad range of needs which a young person may have, focusing on those who require most help with the clear goal of supporting participation in learning. It will link closely with other agencies in doing this.

It is clear that the best defence against social exclusion is having a job, and the best chance of having a job is to be well educated. This will be more the case in the information age of the future than it has ever been. The years between 16 and 18 are crucial ones; making the wrong decision at that stage can affect a young person's prospects for the rest of their life. This action plan for the whole of Government will help to put young people firmly on the right track.