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Section 4: (iv) The right support

The challenge

109. These young people are individuals at one of life's biggest transition points - between childhood and adult life - and the value of high quality, appropriately delivered support in altering outcomes for them cannot be overstated. Most young people, supported by parents, friends and school, manage the transition successfully. But this support is simply not available to all young people. A key component of the infrastructure required for the NEET group is, therefore, the support services available which can help prepare them for, signpost them to, and sustain them in potential education, employment and training opportunities, often within an integrated service approach.

110. There is much recent thinking and activity to build upon. In 1998, the Beattie Committee was charged with presenting government with a set of recommendations to improve transitions to further education, training and employment for young people who require additional support. One of the most valuable lessons from Beattie has been the importance of vulnerable young people having access to a trusted adult to advocate on their behalf, giving them one-to-one support to access the services they need to progress towards the labour market. Such individuals can help ensure there is continuity of support, and promote trust between the young person and particular services. ⁷⁹ But the role of the trusted adult goes further than acting as a co-ordinator and a 'friendly ear': it must offer some element of challenge to young people and to help them move on in their thinking. ⁸⁰

One to one support from key workers

111. Recognising this need, the Beattie Committee proposed the concept of a key worker: ⁸¹ someone to support a young person before, during and after the critical transition stage and to ensure the relevant additional and, very likely, specialist support to meet that individual's needs is secured.

112. The evaluation of the Beattie Inclusiveness projects ⁸² which piloted Careers Scotland's delivery, in partnership with other organisations, of key worker support to young disadvantaged clients has underlined the success of this approach and the potential for its future development. ⁸³ Between April 2004 and March 2005 over 2000 NEET clients were supported by key workers into sustained education, employment or training outcomes. ⁸⁴

113. Recent research ⁸⁵ into the services for disengaged young people in three areas across Scotland echoed this finding and concluded that key workers fulfil a pivotal role between existing services. Operating at full potential, key workers have been the mortar between the bricks of the service offer - sharing information, ensuring other services join up and helping their clients to navigate often complex systems.

114. We must exploit and develop this success. Careers Scotland should play a central role in taking this agenda forward given the breadth of experience that now resides within the organisation in successfully engaging and supporting the NEET group. Key workers continue to play a vital part in assisting successful post-school transition. In supporting the key worker approach and encouraging its extension, there are capacity issues which must be addressed. Key worker support is highly resource intensive and not all of the NEET group require this level of input.

115. Although there has been concern ⁸⁶ about Careers Scotland shifting its key worker emphasis in an attempt to refocus resources on individuals who do not require as intensive support to progress towards the labour market, recent work for the Executive ⁸⁷ has reinforced the importance of retaining the focus on the least engaged. While key workers have been shown to have an important part to play in helping those in the NEET group who are closer to the labour market to progress into positive outcomes, the nature of the key work role - proactive, client-focused and holistic - was shown to be particularly important for successfully engaging with harder to reach clients. It is therefore important that it remains focused on those young people who are most in need.

116. Building on this approach, we recognise that there are many good examples of Careers Scotland working well with key worker provision located within community based organisations, within some of which key worker provision is located. This has helped to ensure that employability support gets to the most disengaged young people. These first step agencies are often critical points of front end engagement - familiar with the young people for other reasons - and viewed as a less formal or intimidating point of initial contact. ⁸⁸

Building the skills and employability focus of a range of providers

117. Workforce Plus focuses on our ability to engage, sustain and progress people who are outside the labour market. Evidence ⁸⁹ suggests that for young people in the NEET group this approach will work only if it leads, and is part of a bigger effort across the piece to build, a more effective interface between specialist and mainstream employability agencies. In some places these links are well-established, whilst in others, there is some way to go. Strengthening local partnership approaches will assist with this and we see Careers Scotland's key workers remaining at the heart of the local offer in each area.

118. That said, there is scope to strengthen the role and deployment of key workers. The issues are 4-fold:

• A clearly defined lead worker role particularly in response to young people with multiple needs. Whilst there are many good examples of partnership working, the role of Careers Scotland key workers in relation to other support is not yet uniformly well established. Clarity about the Careers Scotland key worker role, where this begins and ends, is vital. It will minimise the potential for duplication of effort or confusion about the roles and responsibilities of each agency involved in supporting the young person's progression. And, crucially, it will ensure that key workers do not get out of their depth on issues outwith their remit.
• The delivery capacity of key workers and spread of best practice. The introduction of key workers has placed considerable demands on agencies, most notably Careers Scotland, to recruit a significant number of suitable staff. Careers Scotland have brought in a raft of staff from new and varied backgrounds to address the key worker challenge. Future developmental work must ensure a suitable supply of appropriately skilled people; the net should continue to be cast wide. Moreover, there is a need to develop quality standards and accreditation in what is a growing area of work in the employability field in order to develop a greater consistency of quality support and to give key workers proper recognition for their skills and expertise.
• Improved common assessment between agencies. The importance of a co-ordinated planning process, with effective information sharing and a shared focus on outcomes, cannot be overstated in terms of underpinning efforts to provide an improved service offer to the NEET group. Although a considerable challenge, work has been underway in many areas for some time on integrated solutions, e.g. Post-School Psychological Pathfinder services supporting the development of shared protocols across agencies at the point of leaving school. Such efforts, as detailed in Workforce Plus, ⁹⁰ should be continued and extended.
• Joint training and development in order to develop common understandings amongst both operational and managerial staff in partner agencies. Some excellent examples exist. Equally, however, too many staff have limited and sometimes out of date knowledge of partner activities and, too often the different disciplines and perspectives of staff led to widely varying progression routes for young people. This is, at best, confusing for the clients, and ultimately contributes to cluttered and uncoordinated services, and poorer rates of labour market progression. A comprehensive programme of joint training and development, linked to development of an accredited networking/partnership working qualification, is essential. Local partnerships should lead work in this area, possibly linking with partner agencies' ongoing approaches to Continuing Professional Development.

119. Careers Scotland's key worker services are not the only feature of support which young people in the NEET group will require in order to access education, employment or training opportunities. Earlier on (in pre-16s), we highlighted Careers Scotland's wider role, through careers advisors, key workers and other staff, in building stable and continuous relationships with young people to maintain a focus on employability.

120. Moreover, the Executive is committed to increase by 15,000 the number of parents from disadvantaged areas and groups who enter or move towards employment by removing childcare barriers. For many young people who are NEET, particularly females, parental responsibilities can act as a barrier to accessing these opportunities. We need to bring action on these targets together to ensure that the policy responses on childcare are targeted in a way that reflects national priorities in NEET reduction.

121. The needs of many young people are such that they have support, quite appropriately, from a range of agencies. Though it may seem far removed from the critical human interface that best characterises this kind of support, leadership and a common understanding, backed up by shared assessment and training are all vital components of effectively supporting a young person through the transition stage.

ACTION: THE RIGHT SUPPORT

Intensive, one to one support from key workers:

(i) Careers Scotland ( CS) will continue to provide a highly accessible, highly skilled, key worker service to young people who most benefit from intensive support in order to progress towards the labour market.

Building the skills and employability focus of a range of providers who deal with NEET and at risk NEET:

(ii) CS will build the capacity of the whole organisation in working with the NEET group and those at risk, recognising that a range of responses is needed in order to meet the needs of these young people.

(iii) CS will take the lead in building the capacity of - and strengthening operational links with - specialist services ( e.g. social, health and voluntary sector services) in order to promote employability as an integral part of personal planning - not an add on.

(iv) The SE will support local partnerships to further develop common assessment processes, and will request details of proposed action to progress this within local delivery plans.

Losing no-one:

(v) CS, with local authorities and schools, will provide a systematic follow-up service for school leavers who do not have a positive outcome on leaving school, and those who do not go to or who drop out of secondary school.

(vi) CS will undertake a follow-up survey of school leavers (a) tracking leavers with negative destinations in the October and then (b) tracking all school leavers, following the annual School Leaver Destination Report, in order to better track progress in the post-school transition year.

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