Doncaster Council

History

The Connexions Service was established in 2001 in response to the vision set out in the Social Exclusion Unit’s report ‘Bridging the Gap’ and the white paper ‘Learning to succeed’. These documents proposed the creation of a more co-ordinated youth support service to address problems and issues faced by young people, and in particular those young people Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) or at risk of becoming so.

Reducing the proportion of 16-18 year old NEETs is therefore, the primary focus for our service. This has been addressed in the main by the impartial information, advice and guidance, support, brokerage and advocacy role of the personal advisor (PA) as a single point of contact for the individual young person.  Our service brief is to provide a service to all young people – encompassing the careers advice and guidance function – whilst also providing more intensive and targeted support to those most at risk of disaffection and therefore becoming NEET.

Connexions are charged with monitoring young peoples progress via activity survey – conducted 1st November each year. Doncaster has seen a remarkable improvement with the number of young people going into learning! For historical information please visit the North Anglia Lifetime Development (NALD) publications website at:

http://www.ypzone.co.uk/publications.asp

Not In Education, Employment or Training (NEET)

NEET or Not in Education, Training or Employment is the generic term coined by the Department of Children, Schools and Families now used to describe young people who have passed the compulsory school leaving aged but are below the age of 19 and who are not engaged in any form of education, employment or training. The NEET group are not a homogenous one and within this broad definition lays a vast number of individual circumstances and situations. These circumstances and situations can be a predictor of problems in later life with young people who are NEET between the ages of 16 and 18 being more likely to suffer from a range of issues including depression, poor physical health, teenage motherhood and poverty.

In broad terms NEET describes worklessness rather than unemployment as it includes young people who are NEET but not active in the labour market, specifically it includes young people who are NEET because of:

Illness
Teenage Mothers
Carers 
Pregnancy
Religious Grounds
Unlikely to be economically active

The majority of young people who are NEET are active in the labour market, typically in Doncaster this accounts for around 80% of the total NEET group.

From 2007 onwards young people who are engaged in Personal Development Opportunities (PDO) are classed as NEET even were they may be engaged in an accredited learning programme. The extension of EMA may however include some of these programmes enabling them to be counted as Education, Employment or Training.

Most young people who become NEET do not remain NEET, nationally it is estimated that only 1% of the NEET group remain so from leaving school until their 18th birthday.  In Doncaster in the critical quarter November 2006 to January 2007 whilst 516 young people left NEET, 501 young people became NEET. Retention and enabling young people to make a sustainable transition into EET therefore becomes of vitally important.

NEET is no longer taken as a ‘snapshot’ measuring the percentage of young people who were NEET against the whole 16 – 18 cohort on the 30th of November but is now taken as a quarter average over November to January.

In addition to the NEET group Connexions have to track all young people aged 13 – 19 (up to 25 for young people with LDD). This tracking and follow up takes place within a framework referred to as the ‘currency rules’ that define how often young people need to be contacted (although sometimes this contact can be through a reliable 3rd party such as a school or parent / guardian for example). Young people who are NEET must be contacted as a minimum once every 12 weeks and those in EET once every 12 months for their destination to remain valid in order that they do not become ‘not known’. In reality those in the NEET group are in contact with Connexions much more frequently and very few, if any become ‘not known’.

Nationally DfES (now DCSF) set a target to reduce the number of young people who were NEET by 2 percentage points by 2010 from a baseline year of 2004, in Doncaster this means the target is
 
2008 – 8.8% NEET and 5% ‘not known’
2010 – 7.7% NEET and 5% ‘not known’

The NEET percentage has fallen steadily when measured year on year and the participation rate has risen, in December 2006 the NEET figure stood at 11.01% (or 1084 young people) by December 2007  the figure had fallen to 8.10% (or 798 young people). The ‘not known’ figure remains below target and in December stood at 4.8%. It is worth noting however that the NEET figure is subject to monthly fluctuations and does not remain static.

Summary Points

-NEET is a measure of worklessness not just unemployment
-It includes all those past compulsory school leaving age who have not reached their 19th birthday
-It is now an average of the NEET percentage across November, December and January – there is no    single count date
-The NEET group is subject to a large degree of ‘churn’ as people move in and out of NEET
-It is not a homogenous group
-Doncaster Council has a target of 8.8% NEET for 2008 and 7.7% in 2010
 

2007 Activity Survey details for Doncaster schools - Year 11