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APPENDIX 3: SPECIFIC POLICY INTERVENTIONS - SCOTLAND
(Where the financial value of specific interventions is known, this has been noted in the introduction to each intervention).
Employability
Careers Scotland key worker services
1. The Beattie Report identified the following as important players in the delivery of further education and training for young people:
- Enterprise Networks - SEn and HIE (especially through Careers Scotland) and the LECs;
- further education sector delivery agencies;
- Scottish Further Education Funding Council and Colleges;
- training providers;
- Local Authorities including social work, schools, community education and recreation;
- voluntary sector and employers.
2. Careers Scotland key worker services originally comprised 13 multi-agency inclusiveness projects (managed by individual Careers companies and from 2002 by Careers Scotland). These included a project in Edinburgh and Lothians which targeted young people leaving special and residential schools as well as those with mental health difficulties. The project involved 20 organisations in Edinburgh and the Lothians including the Local Authority testing new approaches to providing long term cross-agency support for a wide range of vulnerable young people for transition, from school to college, training or work..
3. Other initatives include Post School Psychological Services, which aim to build on current local educational authority psychological services, in addition to building capacity within the training and further education sectors, Enterprise Networks and Careers Scotland, to support young people with additional support needs through their educational or employment transitions post school; the BRITE (Beattie Resources for Inclusiveness in Technology and Education) Initiative at Stevenson College Edinburgh, which provides advice and information about assistive and enabling technologies and their use in the support of learners; delivers a programme of staff development, which builds the capacity within colleges to identify technological support needs of students with learning difficulties and implement appropriate support strategies. In addition seven supported employment pilots, building on the learning disabilities model and managed by Careers Scotland are being funded until March 2006. A significant proportion of inclusiveness clients are likely to be from the NEET group.
Worknet (Careers Scotland and Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties ( EBD) School Staff)
4. WorkNet is a Careers Scotland motivational pilot programme in EBD schools providing young people with skills, tools and career guidance to improve employability. Its second strand is a programme delivered in mainstream schools with a high proportion of S4 and S5 Christmas leavers and in Careers Scotland centres with groups of unemployed young people.
Skillseekers (Employers, SEn, HIE)
5. Skillseekers provides work-based training leading to recognised qualifications building on school vocational learning with progression to Modern Apprenticeships ( MAs) or FE. Clients on this programme may be already NEET or at risk of becoming NEET.
Modern Apprenticeships (Employers, SEn, HIE)
6. Work-based training leading to recognised qualifications building on school/vocational learning with progression to FE or HE. All MAs are employed and are educated to SCQF5 before starting the programme. There is a recognition that trainee clients are likely to be from or at risk of becoming NEET.
Xlerate to Succeed Programme - £1.4 Million (Scottish Executive, Princes Trust, Young Enterprise, Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust)
7. Derived from the DtS strategy, the Xlerate to Succeed Programme is a combined personal development, citizenship and enterprise course which may be taken in place of one standard grade. The programme's initial focus is on in-school participation, and options for the 16-18 year old group will be developed in the future.
Healthy Working Lives - £2.3 million and £120 thousand allocated to employability for 2004/2005 ( NHS, DWP, Enterprise Networks, LAs)
8. The workplace strand of the Health Improvement Challenge's target group includes everyone not currently in employment due to ill health or disability. Where appropriate, individuals should be made aware of and offered opportunities to prepare for and find work.
New Deal for Young People (Jobcentre Plus)
9. The New Deal for Young People is aimed at long term unemployed 18-24 year olds. Under the scheme a New Deal Personal Adviser provides information, support and guidance on identifying suitable jobs, developing an action plan, assisting in the application process and helping to overcome any barriers to employment. The personal adviser will arrange a package of full-time help to meet the participant's specific needs e.g. work experience, training on a specific job or interview practice, if the participant has not found work after four months
New Deal for Lone Parents (Jobcentre Plus)
10. The New Deal for Lone Parents is aimed at lone parents who work less than 16 hours a week or not at all and whose youngest child is under 16. The New Deal Personal Adviser provides similar support to other ND models as well as helping with other expenses incurred and issues such as arranging registered childcare and advice on benefit entitlement once in work.
Progress 2 Work (Jobcentre Plus)
11. Progress to Work aims to provide specialist help and provision for clients with a history of drugs misuse, who are claiming certain working age benefits.
New Deal for Disabled People (Jobcentre Plus and Job Broker Agencies)
12. New Deal for Disabled People supports those who receive disability benefits to prepare for and find paid work. Recipients usually need to be aged 18 or over, but 16-20 year olds who are registered with the Careers Service and in receipt of a qualifying benefit may also participate.
New Futures Fund, £5 million (Statutory and Voluntary Delivery Agencies)
13. New Futures Fund aims to close the opportunity gap for people facing serious disadvantage in the labour market. The target group includes offenders, sufferers of mental health problems, drug abusers and the homeless.
Get Ready for Work, £19 million (Careers Scotland and SEn)
14. Provides core, personal, vocational and life skills training for 16-18 years olds with additional support needs, in order for participants to progress to Skillseekers, FE or employment.
Columba 1400 Centre, £1.2M
15. Located on Skye, funding has been awarded by the Scottish Executive to fund 600 young persons to attend the Careleavers' Programme at the Columba 1400 Centre. The funding will run for two years with the aim of boosting skills and confidence of participants.
Activate (On Track) (Careers Scotland)
16. Careers Scotland initiative aimed at Young People from S3 - S4 who are at risk of becoming NEET and who experience difficulties making the transition. Activate is a national programme designed to engage pupils and equip them with the skills they need to take responsibility for their own learning and career decisions, through team activities. It is aimed at young people thinking about leaving school. Members work as a team to take responsibility for organising a range of activities including college and employer visits, fund raising activities and team building events.
Information, Advice and Guidance
Planning for post-school under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act
17. Commencing in late 2005, Local Education Authorities will have new duties to identify young people with additional support needs who will have difficulty making the transition to post-school life, and a duty to ensure appropriate planning and preparation is carried out in conjunction with other agencies. Young people with additional support needs are an identified sub-group of NEET.
Careers Scotland All Age Guidance Service
18. Since its establishment in 2002 Careers Scotland has provided an Information, Advice and Guidance Service to people of all ages. Specific to young people, its key roles are:
- the provision of key worker services, aimed specifically at 16-24 year olds with additional support needs, delivering one-to-one, intensive support to help remove barriers and improve skills for employability, training and/or FE;
- careers education for school-age pupils, including a statutory right to IAG for 16-17 year olds and to Enterprise in Education provision;
- developing and building on the key findings from the 7 supported employment pilots.
Carers Strategy
19. Strategy aims to improve support for carers, including young carers, through early identification and more flexible support services. Strategy identifies young carers as being particularly at risk of under achievement, social isolation and school absence.
Local Authority Implementation of Through Care and After Care Regulations - £10 million over 3 years ( LAs)
20. Under the new Through Care and After Care Regulations, LAs must provide care leavers with a full assessment of their needs and ensure they have access to support services such as housing, health, training and education. The target group is an identified NEET sub-group.
Financial Support Policies
Education Maintenance Allowances ( EMAs), £49 million ( LA, FE colleges)
21. The EMA is based upon financial assistance paid to young people aged 16-19 from low-income households in the form of a means-tested weekly allowance and bonuses of up to £1500 per academic year, to encourage staying on at school.
Policies removing Practical or Logistical Barriers
Extended Schools Childcare Pilot - £1.05 million ( LAs, Jobcentre Plus)
22. Aims to test the assertion that childcare is a significant barrier in preventing lone parents accessing employment.
Working for Families - £10 million ( LAs, Rosemount and Lifelong Learning)
23. To ensure that childcare is not a barrier to entering employment, education or training for those in deprived areas, child care provision has been extended to ensure affordable accessible childcare to parents in deprived areas, to ease access to employment education or training.
Widening Participation in Further Education - £2 million (Further Education Colleges)
24. Widening participation derives from the Lifelong Learning Strategy and is also linked to the implementation of Beattie recommendations. This policy aims to ensure that young people from particular postcode areas / who have suffered disadvantage are provided with the opportunity to access FE and HE. Target group includes under-achievers, mental health problem sufferers, those with disabilities and drug abusers. - all NEET sub-groups.
Review of services for people with a learning disability
25. Review of services for people with learning disabilities, based on the premise that mainstream employment and training services are not flexible enough to support needs. The target group is an identified NEET sub-group.
Widening Choice at Pre-16 Level
School/College Review - £26 million ( LEAs, FE colleges, FE Funding Council, SQA, Careers Scotland)
26. The Review includes recommendations to deliver the partnership commitment. Partnership working should enable 14-16 year olds to develop vocational skills, and to improve their employment prospects by allowing them to undertake courses in further education colleges as part of the school-based curriculum, with the aim of easing transition. New qualifications are being developed, involving innovative partnerships and joint working arrangements between SQA and the schools / colleges sectors. These 'Skills for Work' courses are aimed at S3/4 and above
The Discipline Task Group report 2001 Better Behaviour-Better Learning ( BB- BL) - £10 million per annum ( LAs)
27. BB- BL made 36 recommendations aimed at improving discipline in schools. Key recommendations include:
- number 1 - the Scottish Executive should provide guidance on the degree of curricular flexibility;
- number 28 - educational transitions should be managed in the best interests of the child and family. Planning for transition will be improved with more emphasis on identifying support needs of young people and providing continuity.
- Other Pre-16 Policy Initiatives
28. It should also be noted that a wide range of pre-16 policies are in place to support the educational attainments of young people and to ease transitions. These include the Integrated Community Schools intervention which will be rolled out across Scotland, following a pilot period. This initiative aims to provide 'holistic' support within the school setting, in order that both individual and joint efforts of service providers (such as health care, social services and wider educational support services) are focused upon timely and appropriate intervention support within the school environment.
29. As has been noted earlier in this Chapter there are also many interventions present at both school and LA-levels which have not been identified in this study. In addition, interventions in place through the work of Social Inclusion Partnerships has not been identified in this study. This work exists at a local level and is not widely reported - if at all - in the national EET-based literature. There is likely to be merit in identifying the many initiatives which exist at a local level (in schools, across LAs and in Social Inclusion Partnership areas) to understand effectiveness and influences on effectiveness. However, effective transferability of local interventions across Scotland cannot be assumed, due to different local circumstances and infrastructures.
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