10 December 2015 weekly update

Dear Colleagues

NEET Strategy and Action Plan 2015-16

One of the biggest educational challenges we face in Kent is to ensure all young people participate in education or employment with training until age 18. This means they must have qualifications in English and maths and there have to be courses and pathways that they can follow to achieve a number of other academic and vocational qualifications. At present we are not delivering this and too many young people become NEET (not in education, employment or training).

Engagement in learning and educational attainment is critical if young people are to gain employment and make a success of their lives. Evidence shows that not being in education, employment or training between the ages of 16 and 18 is a major predictor of later unemployment, lower job security and lower pay. There is also greater likelihood of teenage parenthood, depression, poor physical and mental health, youth offending, insecure housing and homelessness, use of illicit drugs, poor relationships and early death.

To improve our approaches to tackling this issue we have developed a new NEETs Strategy. This sets out our commitment to young people to ensure that they are able to engage in education and training, to maximise their life chances and to make a successful transition to adulthood. The Strategy addresses the key issues which contribute to young people not engaging in education, employment or training and identifies what, collectively, is needed to improve outcomes for young people who are vulnerable to becoming NEET and who are already NEET. It sets clear targets to ensure that the number of NEETs in Kent is reduced to 1% by January 2017.To achieve this ambitious target new approaches have been developed to reduce NEETs in schools, colleges and work based training providers.

The success of this Strategy is dependent on focused collaboration and integrated working, between services within KCC and between KCC, Schools, FE Colleges and work based learning providers. The 3 key strands of activity are to:

• Implement an integrated and high quality data system to track all learners across all KCC services. This information is available monthly in detailed reports and is used to identify activities and target resources to support young people into learning.

• Develop focused, collaborative and integrated working between services within KCC and between KCC, schools, FE Colleges and work based learning providers. All services need to have efficient support systems that enable all young people to maintain successful learning pathways and positive destinations. This will include focused work and interventions for the most vulnerable groups, which includes Children in Care, SEND, Young Offenders, Teenage Parents, and Elective Home Educated young people.

• Provide high quality personalised pathways with positive destination across all districts. During 2015-16 work is being undertaken to model new 14 – 19 pathways to ensure that the learning and training offer in every district in Kent is aligned with employment opportunities, has provision for level 1 and 2 qualifications and enables access to progression to gain English and Maths qualifications. A particular focus is on ensuring vulnerable learners have the necessary support to progress into appropriate pathways, internships, supported employment, or apprenticeships.

Focused activities to identify those young people likely to become NEET are also being developed further. There are particular characteristics of NEET young people in Kent, for example:

• Over a third come from 15 coastal High schools
• Over a third of NEETs have had more than one fixed term exclusion from school
• Over a third have had a Social Care referral or are Children in Care
• Over a quarter are known to Youth Offending
• About a fifth are from a Troubled Family group

To ensure no more than 1% of this age group are NEET by January 2017 is a challenge. However, the activities and actions set out in the Strategy and Action Plan are designed to ensure that we are able to achieve this target. Last year Kent was in line with the national annual NEET average which was 4.7%.

Ensuring that the most vulnerable learners experience success is a top priority. The Early Help and Preventive Service's District teams have developed new support systems and programmes to work with NEET young people. A number of these programmes are already contributing to the significant reduction in NEETs particularly in Dover, Ashford, Shepway, Thanet and Maidstone.

September Guarantee

All Year 11 and Year 12 young people are required to have an offer of further learning, education or employment with training for the beginning of the next academic year in September.  This is called the September Guarantee.  The local authority has a statutory duty to monitor this guarantee and report back to the DfE.  The table below illustrates the percentage of this cohort who have a recorded guarantee status, this includes those young people who may not be meeting the requirements of Raising the Participation Age.

DFE September Guarantee tables – September 2014.  Final report published December each year. * Provisional data

Participation

Young people must continue in education or training until at least their 18^th birthday, and this is reported as young people aged 16 and 17 (Years 12 and 13).

DFE Participation tables – December 2014. Tables published for three census points a year: June, December, March. Latest figures available February 2016.

Not Knowns

Not knowns are those young people aged 16, 17 and 18 who are not in a current known activity. This means that what they are currently doing has not been identified or when it has, the time limit for that status to remain current has expired and needs to be checked again.

NCCIS Tables – January 2015.  Tables published monthly

The NEETs Strategy is designed to ensure that there is a more coordinated approach across all KCC services and key partners to support young people into positive destinations post 16 and beyond.  We believe the new systems and approaches introduced as part of the Strategy will significantly reduce the number of NEETs and Not Knowns.

I hope schools will continue to work with us on this Strategy and make every effort to ensure no young person becomes NEET and no young person is left without a clear pathway and destination for their post 16 learning and training.

Thank you.

Patrick Leeson
Corporate Director for Education and Young People's Services