Youth Connexions
Welwyn Hatfield & Hertsmere Universal Services
YETI Meeting
Wednesday 16th July 2014
9.30-12.30 Mundells
ITEM / Who / When
Present:Peter Shea (Youth Connexions/Chair), Jane Devlin (JCP), Susan Platten (DWP Jobcentre Plus), Michelle Wood (The Marlborough Science Academy), Sean Callaghan (Youth Connexions LDD team), Tony Jefedjian (DWP Jobcentre Plus), Concetta Kyriacou (JCP), Natalie Arculli (TCHC Youth Contract), Beverley Woodhouse (First Rung), Anne Ferrari (Jobcentre Plus), Colin Marsh (Hatfield JCP), Sadiqua Khanam (Youth Connexions), Sharon Keenlyside (Youth Connexions/Minutes).
Apologies:Laura Dabner (JLT Apprenticeships), Xanthe Ballard (SPS Training – Learndirect Hatfield).
1. / Welcome and Introductions.
Peter welcomed everyone to the meeting and everyone introduced themselves.
2. / Previous Minutes.
The minutes of the previous meeting were circulated and the items updated.
Item 3 – Guidance has been circulated. Jane will contact Anne and ask her to send an update.
Item 4 – this had been done and is on today’s agenda.
Item 6 – NEET data is on the agenda.
Sean – Personal data can’t be released to organisations as there are concerns about providers contacting young people directly (direct targeting) and the young people not receiving impartial advice.
Peter – Youth Connexions have a form that the young people sign that enables data from the data base to be shared.
Action – Peter will discuss this with Tracey Noble.
Item 8 – The YETI survey has gone out and is on today’s agenda.
Item 9 – This has been cleared. Anne is in contact with Oakland’s College.
3. / Review of JCP and Youth Connexions NEET data (16-24).
The YCN data was distributed.
Peter – There has been a lot of work taking place to bring down the number of NEETS, including door knocking to find lost contacts.
The number of Year 12 NEET’s has dropped to less than 2% which is very low.
Hertfordshire figures are less than the national average.
Figures have gone up in Hertsmere which reflects the decrease in lost contact figures.
Jane – JCP is able to share data now as it is a requirement to know where all young people are and what they are doing.
JCP is part of a pilot (of just four taking place across the country), where a full time JCP advisor from the Broxbourne and Waltham Cross area is joining with a Youth Connexions advisor to work with Young people who are NEET or at risk of becoming NEET.
The pilot may extend across the country.
Anne – JCP numbers for NEETS are hugely reduced.
Caseload numbers are approx. 200-250.
Unemployment data will come out shortly.
Reflection of the discussion with various points raised and the activities taken by attendees.
Peter – in Welwyn Hatfield, three wards consistently come up and we will be targeting these areas to reduce figures.
It is best to get to the young people before they have been NEET for 0 – 3 months.
Michelle – The MarlboroughScienceAcademy is the only school that has an apprenticeship co-ordinator.
Sean – there is a lack of courses that offer purely practical skills.
DWP is going into schools to talk to YR11 & YR 12.
Peter – We are seeing 16-18 year olds who want to do Maths and English on their own. There is a gap in provision for this. At the moment young people have to pick a pathway. Peter has flagged it up.
Colin – Employability courses will not take people under 18. JCP have to send young people to Youth Connexions for interview skills and CV writing etc.
Jane - Perhaps we can have a joint event for young people aged 16 – 24 to cover employability, apprenticeships, how to apply and other required skills. We are all doing things individually and it would be nice to do something collectively. YETI can provide this platform.
Natalie – TCHC runs ‘My Future Programme’, a six week course on employability, required skills and workshops but not enough young people turn up. It would be useful to know where the need is.
Oakland’s College have a bank of employers. They do a course for Maths and English and some employability and then match them to employers.
Peter – what are the barriers to young people (16 – 18 year olds) participating?
Location, parents, finance, lack of knowledge, wanting to wait until they are more grown up before getting a job, we need to dispel myths about the labour market, more support required for young people with learning difficulties e.g. job coach, lack of motivation, laziness, they don’t know what’s available and don’t think that they have any options, they are not asked what they would like to do, work isn’t normal for some young people as other members of their family do not work or sabotage them, hard to contact them, job hunting is very technological and time consuming, we assume that they have access to technology but they may not, unlimited number of places to look for jobs which is daunting, we need to speak their language by using social media, drugs, homelessness, depression, children, alcoholism etc.
They need positive unconditional regard as many young people do not see themselves with a future.
There used to be funding to keep young people occupied between the end of school and the start of college. There needs to be something to bridge that gap.
Michelle – There is a lot taking place in the background to promote apprenticeships. In January we are having our apprenticeship launch.
YETI could be used as a way to start working together. We need some way to communicate our individual small events. Perhaps via the Beds and Herts provider network.
Jane - We can look into having a YETI calendar.
4. / Feedback from the YETI Survey.
A handout of the results was distributed.
Jane - YETI was formulated to join up providers and organisations and was launched a year ago. A survey was commissioned for feedback to find out what people think of it.
Three areas were identified as being the least effective;
- Matching young people with provision.
- Vacancy matching for maximum uptake.
- Plan progression routes.
There is perceived duplication in some provision.
How is it to be delivered to the young people? What are the incentives?
It seems to be most successful when we target a group of young people who know each other or who went to school together.
There is a lot of funding for 16-18 year olds with good incentives such as £100 for interview clothes, lunch etc. We need to promote this.
It is important that schools and parents know what is available. Events could be targeted at parents.
We need to investigate the wards identified as having high levels of NEETS and find out whether they are male or female, what age group, what the local school is, male or female, ethnicity, job goals and aspirations etc.
Action – All - Can all information /data be back week commencing 18th August. Please send to Peter and Peter will liaise with Jane.
Action– Jane and Annie will see if anything on the JCP data correlates with the Youth Connexions data.
Apprentice providers will not get funding from next year.
We need to look at how we do the transition from one agency to another when provision is coming to an end.
We need to make sure that providers are invited and attend the meeting. Not all providers are on the website so they don’t get invites.
It is also important to ask schools to attend the meetings.
5. / Where are the Gaps in Provision?
Already discussed;
- Lack of practical courses.
- Lack of courses for Maths and English.
- Provision for school leavers between leaving school and starting college.
A lot of colleges have bursaries.
Youth Connexions see a lot of young people interested in retail and warehouse vacancies – perhaps because they don’t know what’s available or they feel that they are unable to do anything else.
Jane – perhaps we can share reprographics as we have lots of information and leaflets etc.
Funding is linked to labour market, not always with what the young people want to do.
Need to get young people in to develop their interests and aspirations.
Very useful to have young people as ambassadors.
6. / AOB.
Peter will publish the minutes in draft form first. If anything is missed, please let us know.
The providers are to chair the next meeting.
Action – Jane will ask Anna to contact the providers and ask them to chair the meeting and provide a venue.
7. / Next Meeting.
The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 11th November 2014