Agenda item

(i)      Joint Report of the Corporate Director of Resources and the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services.

(ii)      Presentation by the Strategic Manager, Progression and Learning, Children and Young People’s Services.

The Committee considered a joint report of the Corporate Directors of Resources and Children and Young People’s Services which provided Members with an update on the DurhamWorks Programme (for copy see file of Minutes).

Linda Bailey, the Strategic Lead for Progression and Learning was in attendance and gave a presentation which focused on the following:

·        DurhamWorks Programme

·        Evaluation of the Programme

·        Employer Engagement and DurhamWorks Grant

·        New European Funded Programmes

The presentation included performance of the Programme to date and the Strategic Lead was pleased to inform members that 69% of the young participants had progressed to employment. 700 of these positions were apprenticeships. The majority of businesses supported by the DurhamWorks grant were micro-businesses who although had found the financial contribution to be of benefit, the help and guidance they received from DurhamWorks was more important.

The strength of partnership working across the County had supported the integration of DurhamWorks and had avoided duplication of service provision.

Employer engagement continued to be a challenge; good networking and continuous engagement with key partners was key to overcoming this.

Outlining the next steps, the Strategic Lead advised that DurhamWorks ended in July 2021 and the evaluation of Stage 2 would be used to inform Stage 3, Durham Directions, which was the subject of a bid for European funding of £10 million to support 6,000 young people into employment. This would enable activities in schools to engage with vulnerable young people at risk of ‘dropping out’.

At the end of the presentation Members were shown a video of young people discussing their individual experiences of the Programme.

Councillor Adam applauded the success of the Programme and noted that 50% of NEETs were aged between 20 and 24. The Councillor suggested that other ways of identifying young people in that age group be explored and asked if a separate Programme was needed for 20-24 year olds. The Strategic Lead advised that the Programme already used different approaches for each age group which had proved successful over time. She continued that the Programme acted as a triage service directing young people to various support available. Introducing a separate programme for a specific age group would be complicated for young people and partners who worked with DurhamWorks.

In respect of the 20-24 age group Mrs Morris was of the view that if young people were engaged at 16, then there would be fewer 20-24 year olds in need of employment. The Strategic Lead reported that the number of 16-17 olds who were NEET had fallen which could be as a result of transition work with vulnerable young people in schools. It was frustrating that at present DurhamWorks could only work with young people who had left school.

Following a further question from Mrs Morris, the Strategic Lead confirmed that all the apprenticeships were accredited, and were mostly Level 2.  

Councillor Atkinson commented that he was impressed that each £1 spent returned £2.69 in social and economic benefits and asked how this was calculated. The Strategic Lead responded that it was a range across various factors and agreed to circulate detail of the factors to Members of the committee.

Councillor Henderson commented that the number of 16-24 year olds Not Known was very small and that he hoped that the bid for European funding would be successful.

Resolved:

That

a)   the report and presentation be noted;

b)   the Economy and Enterprise Overview and Scrutiny Committee includes a further progress report on the DurhamWorks Programme in its 2020/21 work programme together with consideration of the interim and final evaluation reports when available.