Agenda item

Report of Chief Executive of Futures Advice, Skills and Employment

To accompany the report, John Yarham and Michelle Wright of ‘Futures Advice Skills and Employment’, delivered a presentation which was included on the online agenda following the meeting.

The following points were highlighted:

(a)  Futures is an independent and ‘not for profit’ organisation providing services to the City and County Councils;

(b)  the primary purpose is to prepare and support young people for employment and through all major transitions;

(c)  Futures aims to ensure that the levels of young people ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET) or ‘not known’ remains as low as possible;

(d)  highly qualified advisors work with young people from aged 14/15 to help them decide their long term aspirations and provide advice and support;

(e)  a data base of all young people in the City aged 13 to 19 years of age is maintained but only those most in need of support, meeting specific criteria, are prioritised to receive that support;

(f)  dedicated support is provided to the Youth Outreach Team and Leaving Care Teams to ensure support is available for those young people in most need;

(g)  every child in the City reaching the age of 16 is accounted for and their designation, ie training, is recorded;

(h)  Futures fulfils the City Council’s responsibilities for the ‘September Guarantee’ of every young person being offered a place in learning as well as ‘raising of the participation age’;

(i)  to counter the funding cuts which are experienced nationally, Futures has diversified by offering a careers service, providing an apprenticeship agency and selling services to schools and colleges, and winning work through the European Social Fund.

Questions from the Board were responded to as follows:

(j)  a transitions team has been established to engage with emerging communities. In addition the Arts Award project has brought people and communities together whose first language is not English;

(k)  it is a concern that Ofsted do not recognise the activity of schools preparing their pupils for education and employment or training. However the new Secretary of State has explicitly referred to this area of work and some schools have seen recent Ofsted inspections scrutinise careers activity were it has been inadequate.

Sean Kelly, Principal of Top Valley Academy, informed the Board that the National Enterprise Programme was provided to year 8 pupils and has proved highly productive. Year 10 pupils do an ‘employability and entrepreneur programme’ for the last 2 weeks of the summer term. With an initial ‘start up grant’ of £250, pupils can be very creative and successful in developing business models. This leads to a ‘European Driving Licence’ qualification, contributes to GCSEs and has resulted in pupils leaving school with high esteem and improved confidence.

The Academy now plans to arrange work experience during the first 2 weeks of the summer for pupils who complete the programme to take advantage of the high personal esteem which many pupils benefit from as a result of taking part in the programme.

The Chair informed the Board that in regard to NEET and ‘not known’, Nottingham City achieves the best results among all of the Core Cities. 

A short film on how ‘Futures’ has impacted on young people’s lives can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWsAwLopTNo&feature=youtu.be

RESOLVED to note the presentation and the achievements of Futures in supporting the City’s young people.