Agenda item

To receive a report from Patrick Doherty, Principal Strategy Officer and Danny Edwards, Head of Economy on youth employment. (report to follow)

The commission then received a report from Patrick Doherty, Principal Strategy Officer on youth employment on the following points

• New Economic Strategy to be adopted by Cabinet by the end of the year, strategy involves new jobs and opportunities for young people
• Southwark Youth Deal- employment services and advice
• Southwark Works- employment service commissioned for another 4 years split amongst 9-10 contracts, and one for people over 50 with specialist skills; 3 contracts for vulnerable young people been in criminal justice system and young people with disabilities
• Council’s Internal Apprenticeships service, External apprenticeships through Passport centre and through LSBU Centre, Southwark Construction Centre and Green Skills hub
• Council Delivery Plan to deliver 250 paid internships for youth from disadvantaged back grounds spread across 3 strand schools, graduates and councils own scheme has been very successful
• Southwark Local Offer and Southwark Information and Advice Service targeting young people with SEND
• Education Business Alliance bringing together Businesses and Schools preparing students for the transition to jobs from education
• Sub–regional partnerships such as Central London Works open to Southwark residents’ aged 16-25 and Youth Opportunities bullet in for young people in Southwark to sign up.
• One hub website and care leavers website targeting young people

The commission then asked questions on the following topics

·  Southwark Works visibility and advertising in the borough; support for young people below the age of 18

·  Apprenticeships numbers when compared to other boroughs; creative ways to reach young people; Southwark Works contracts promotion in the community

·  Potential collaboration with organisation to increase visibility of Southwark works; ex-offender support and rehabilitation to get back into work

Patrick apologised to the commission on the framing of the phrase aged 18 and above in Southwark contracts as a typo. Within Southwark works contracts young people aged 16 and above have contracts available to them if they face barriers to employment. Southwark has successfully met targets for past two terms of 2500 apprenticeships, however benchmarking against other borough will be provided to commission at a later date. Providers within contracts are assessed on a two year term with an option to extend based on performance. Southwark Youth Deal within the New Economic Strategy is aimed at filling the gaps in publicity and spreading awareness of job opportunities and apprenticeships amongst young people. Specific contracts are tailored for ex-offenders and providers are measured against placement and sustaining jobs as a metric; such contracts are limited due to budgetary and resource constraints. However, Southwark has been quite successful in achieving value for money. Southwark has also an integrated network co-ordination service which has successfully linked many partners in the borough for over 20 years, however there is room for improvement as it’s not perfect. Southwark is also working on an Outreach and Engagement plan to gauge the reach of such initiatives in the community.

The commission then asked further questions on the following themes

• Education Business Alliance – communication between the private sector and community based initiatives, pooling resources and synergy
• Internships figure too low, evaluating performance of programmes, no. of apprenticeships in last 5 years
• Graduate scheme only for graduates or one year after graduation

Patrick explained to the commission that Education Business Alliance sits within a different department in the council and not local economy, answers to the question will be provided at a later date. Internships targets of 250 was set by Cabinet and officers did not have any input in it. On evaluation of programmes, last year an independent review was done by an external organisation called Rocket Science appointed by the council, to compare similar programmes in other boroughs, where in Southwark Works outperformed most comparative programmes. However, there were some improvements needed in working with clients for job opportunities and working with clients to train them for the jobs available.

The commission will be provided data on apprenticeships at a later date and also that council is working on reviewing the apprenticeship programme.

The commission agreed that graduate scheme needs to be reviewed with regards to graduates being supported 1-2 years after graduation as Universities already support students about to graduate.

The commission also agreed to ask in the Cabinet Member Interviews on internship targets that were set so low at 250 as many organisations involved could provide external paid internships.