New minister for Neets ‘vital to rescue lost generation’

CUTBACKS to some key public services will be required to save Scotland’s “lost generation”, a group of some of the country’s leading industrialists and public sector experts has concluded in a hard-hitting report on tackling youth unemployment.

The report, written by leading industrialist Lord Smith and signed off by entrepreneurs such as Sir Tom Hunter, Jim McColl and Willie Haughey, concludes that action from the time children are born right through to their departure from school is required to tackle the high rates of teenagers who drop out on to the dole queue in their teens.

They back a specific minister for “Neets” – young people not in education, employment and training – and say more funds should be targeted at problem homes across the country to put youngsters on the right track for the workplace.

All this would require extra funding, they say. They add: “If we are committed to finding a solution which endures, we recognise that other policy areas are going to lose out.”

The report does not specify which areas should be cut but it comes with public sector leaders, including some of those who sit on the Smith group, having urged ministers to rein in Scotland’s generous array of benefits which give public money to all households, and focus on the parts of the country where crippling social problems are placing massive demand on the country’s finances.

The report backs calls for more money to be spent on “preventative measures”, trying to boost skills and the work-readiness of children and teenagers who otherwise are destined for the dole queue.

The paper comes after new figures last week showed a marked increase in the number of 18 to 24-year-olds who are not classified as unemployed, and warnings from charities and youth leaders across the country that youngsters are losing faith.

The Smith Group paper concludes that “the costs to society of ignoring disaffected 16 to 19-year-olds are enormous”. The impact of youth unemployment is set to remain “a serious national issue” even after the impact of the recession has run its course, the group adds.

Youth unemployment is growing, it says, because not enough youngsters are work-ready when they emerge from college.

The group – which has studied the Neet issue since 2006 – says that a new dedicated minister should focus on getting to the root causes, such as the quality of pre-school services for toddlers. It follows a series of reports which have declared that children from deprived backgrounds are already irreparably behind other children by the time they start primary school.

The group also says that more work needs to be done supporting pupils who begin to lose interest when they start secondary school. Pupils who are disengaged should be targeted, given one-to-one mentoring, and sent on work experience courses to get them ready for the workplace.

The current exam-based school system, that determines whether pupils make it to university or college, may not be suitable for all pupils, including those in the Neet population, the report says. “That doesn’t mean they are not university material, but, by the time they reach S4, many have become disaffected.

“It is time to consider something different, not only for this group, but also as a pragmatic response to the wider issue of employability,” it says. It suggests that the focus on learning skills development should be a key part of a child’s formal education from primary school onwards.

To achieve this, the group says, “political leadership, with the funding to back it, is required”.

Last week, official figures showed that across the UK, more than one million 16 to 24-year-olds are unemployed, although about 300,000 of these are classed as students. In Scotland, estimates by the Office of National Statistics figures have put the figure at more than 100,000.

While the Smith Group does not say which budgets should be cut, one of its other members, Cosla chief executive Rory Mair, warned earlier this year that the bill for supplying “free” universal services to Scots was “killing us”.

However, at the Scottish election in May, both SNP and Labour pledged to keep expensive universal services intact, including the council tax freeze, concessionary bus travel, and free prescription charges.

The Smith Group report argues that the SNP Government “must now concentrate on the outlook for those young people leaving learning and training and attempting to access the labour market”.

It adds that while councils have “autonomy” over their spending, such is the “seriousness” of the Neet issue, that cash should be ring-fenced to help ensure more young people are ready for the workplace when they finish school or college.

Finance secretary John Swinney said that many of the recommendations were already being taken forward by the Scottish Government – noting the commitment to give every 16 to 19-year-old not currently in work, education or training, a learning or training place.

However, a spokesman for the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations said last night: “This is an extremely disappointing report whose recommendations will do nothing to address the employability issues facing young people. We need to align Scottish employability policy with UK government policies not local government.”