Issue - meetings

[To approve the support to be offered to care leavers who are not engaged in education, employment or training.]

Jazmine Walker, Head of Children and Young People in Care, presented the Increasing Support to Not Engaged in Education Employment and Training (NEET) Care Leavers in the 19 – 21-year-old Cohort report and highlighted salient points. The report provided an update on current performance, the impact of Covid-19, and the Authority’s approach to increasing engagement and support to care leavers who were currently not in education, employment and training (NEET) in order to improve their employability and life chances.

The report outlined the numbers of EET, NEET and NALM (not available for the labour market) and the reduction already seen in NEET from 2018 – 2019 to 2019 - 2020.

It was noted that COVID-19 had impacted heavily on employment in general with a large fall in employment for young people aged between 16 – 24, which had resulted in an increase of NEET. Despite the limitations posed by the national lockdown restrictions however, the EET Coordinator has worked closely with Children and Young People in Care Service, colleagues across the Council and partner agencies to identify several ways to monitor and support care leavers and promote EET opportunities.

An outline of the work undertaken and its alignment with the City-wide Relighting Our City Strategy was noted.

Within section 3.0 of the report, members of Corporate Parenting Board were invited to support the following proposals to further enhance the EET opportunities available to care leavers:

• Local businesses in Wolverhampton to engage in further work or work experience placements for care leavers with on the job training (to make up for lack of formal qualifications). Corporate Parenting Partnership Board members will be requested to see if they can offer further additional traineeship placement experiences on 31 March 2021.

• Closer work with the Care Leaver’s Covenant for increased tailored opportunities to meet our young people’s need which will be explored and progressed through the Corporate Parenting Partnership Board on 31 March 2021.

Resolved:

That Corporate Parenting Board approve the support offered to those young people who have left care and are not engaged in education employment or training as proposed in section 3.0 of the report.