A COMPREHENSIVE report published today by Tomorrow’s People and the University of Bristol Centre for Market and Public Organisationshows a worrying increase in the number of young NEET individuals – one of the most economically vulnerable groups in society.

The report, The Early Bird… Preventing Young People from Becoming a NEET Statistic,reveals that the number of NEET young people has been rising over the past decade, well before the current economic crisis began, compounding fears that this is a long-term structural problem within the UK and not just a short-term trend attributed to a poor economy. Government figures released last week continue to paint a dire picture, showing a further increase in youth unemployment, to a historic 1.04 million, or one in five of those between 16 and 24, raising fears of a lost generation.

The paper focused on those who were worst off among the whole NEET group – young adults who fail to make a successful transition from school to work, often due to poor qualifications and lack of work experience which is itself symptomatic of wider problems.  Immediate action is necessary to avoid tens of thousands more young British people becoming part of an abandoned generation.

Youths aged 16-17 are especially vulnerable as they have little or no contact with the state and do not qualify for state support. This creates a serious risk of disconnection for this group, who can experience two years or more out of work, education or training before any recovery programme begins. By the time they reach 18 – the qualifying age for the formal benefit system – the damage has already been done, reinforcing the need for early intervention.

The research highlights the cost-effectiveness of early identification and engagement, noting that the younger the intervention takes place, the cheaper and more effective it will be – a view that is expected to sit well with current Government moves towards a payment-by-results system.

This is supported by independent evaluation undertaken by FTI Consulting in June 2011 of the Tomorrow’s People Working It Out initiative that works with those aged 16-24. FTI identified a £2.86 social return on investment (SROI) for every £1 invested in the programme. The broader Welfare to Workprogramme does not focus on young people, instead being available to anyone of working age, has a lower return on investment, confirming the merits of early intervention.

This is supplemented by results comparing different approaches of engaging with at-risk young people, suggesting that financial incentives – such as payments tied to young people’s participation, attendance and performance – are a more effective way of improving educational outcomes. In contrast, careers advice and counseling generally proves to have a short-lived impact. Following the scrapping of Educational Maintenance Allowance in England, there are serious risks that the trend of youth-NEETs will only accelerate.

Tomorrow’s People Chief Executive Baroness Stedman-Scott said: “This research shines a spotlight on a group we cannot afford to ignore. Thousands of young people leave school each year with no qualifications and no experience of work. They remain ‘stuck’, at risk of long-term unemployment, depression and crime. This report shows us not only how to identify those at risk at a key age, but also how to support them so they have a real chance of a successful future.

“Beyond the benefits to improving the lives of individual young people, the report brings to light the huge benefits of early intervention to the taxpayer, something I know the Government will be keen to look at in these difficult economic times.”

The report’s author, Professor Paul Gregg said “The key transition from school to work is too often chaotic, interspersed with long-term joblessness. This causes long-term damage to these young people’s lives. This report highlights those most at risk, drawing on existing evidence to identify the key building blocks of a potential programme which can make a real difference in the UK”

An Early Bird… Preventing Young People from becoming a NEET statistic, Jan 2012

Download the full report here, or download the exec summary here.

Tomorrow’s People Plymouth swept the board in the ‘16-24 Award for Personal Achievement’ category. The runner-up was Tom Fagan, who joined the Tomorrow’s People Working It Out team because he wanted to completely turn his life around.  With the support of the Working It Out team, Tom was able to rid himself of addiction and has recently being named the “star pupil” on his plastering course.

The winner of this award was Nicola Collard.  A series of negative relationships had led Nicola into a downward spiral and she felt she had little direction in life, until she contacted Tomorrow’s People.  Nicola is now living a life free from drugs and is acting as a Mentor for people in prison.

William Palmer from Glasgow was the winner in the 25+ category; William, an ex-gang member, played an instrumental part in getting rival gang members to work together on community challenges. William has completely turned his life around and now hopes to show young people how to make the best out of themselves as a community worker at FARE.

The runner-up was Nigel Birt, who wanted to sort his life out in order to provide a better quality of life for his son and ill father. The road to recovery was not easy, however, his determination to become drug free paid off. Nigel began attending interviews and is working as a chef.

The Roger Sterba Award for Achievement was awarded to Shane Challenger, who has overcome self-esteem and addiction issues on his journey back to work. Shane was inspired to turn his life around by his son and is now working as a Train Cabin Cleaner.

The runner-up was Gary Birchall, who has overcome substance abuse and depression. Gary came to the Working It Out Team in Merseyside for support and advice in changing his path in life. Gary was committed to the programme and completed sessions on drugs and alcohol, as well as a series of qualifications such as First Aid and Health and Safety Level 2.

The ironically named team ASBO 12 from Inverclyde collected the Award for the Working It Out Team of the Year. Six out of the 12-strong group travelled from Inverclyde to attend the Awards and looked excited as their names were read out. The group worked together on a series of community projects, and recorded them in short film, some of which was shown on the evening.  The film has been a huge success and was showed at the Inverclyde Launch where it was viewed by funders, politicians and corporate partners. The project allowed the team to create a lasting message and show others what they can achieve.

Tomorrow’s People also recognised its partner organisations and the crucial role they play in helping people into work.

The James Wigg Practice was named the runner up in the Community Partner of the Year Award for their unwavering support in helping Tomorrow’s People tackle unemployment through locating a Tomorrow’s People Employment Adviser in their surgery

Careers Development Group were named the winner in this category for helping Tomorrow’s People in supporting an estimated 2,800 unemployed people in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

First Bus was named the winner in the Employer of the Year category, having worked tirelessly to help clients of Tomorrow’s People gain the skills necessary to find sustainable employment; since the formation of their partnership in October 2010.

Law firm, Weil, Gotshal and Manges was named the runner up in the category of Corporate Partner of the Year.  Weil has undertaken a huge amount of pro-bono legal work for Tomorrow’s People, helping .the charity to find its way through some complex contracts which has had significant results for the direction of the entire organisation.

The Corporate Partner of the Year award went to the Burberry Foundation for their innovative work with disadvantaged young people in London.

Allan Doyle, Managing Director of APS Printing was named the Tomorrow’s People Ambassador of the year for his enthusiasm and commitment to Tomorrow’s People in setting up work experience placements for disadvantaged young people at APS and indeed encouraging the APS supply chain to get involved too.

A Special Recognition Award was presented to Lord Bates, Tomorrow’s People Patron in the north-east, for quite literally going the extra mile by undertaking two fundraising walks which raised a staggering £25,000 as well as helping to raise the charity’s profile.

To find out more please contact:

Sam Sheerer
Communications and Corporate Engagement Manager
Tomorrow’s People
020 7832 2771/ 07989498506
ssheerer@tomorrows-people.co.uk

A new report by an independent team of economists has highlighted the value to society created by Tomorrow’s People, a national employment charity that for nearly 30 years has been transforming lives through getting long-term unemployed back to work.

Launched today at the Bank of England, the report analyses the achievements of Tomorrow’s People in economic terms, and was produced by FTI Consulting, working through Pro Bono Economics, a charity that provides economists to help third sector organisations to measure and explain their results. By opening itself up to thorough scrutiny by a leading consultancy, Tomorrow’s People is pioneering transparency within its sector.

FTI Consulting analysed the work of Tomorrow’s People over five years from 2007-2011.*

The report estimates that every £100 invested in Tomorrow’s People employment programmes creates value of around £240 for British society.

The report builds on an earlier evaluation of Tomorrow’s People completed by Oxford Economic Forecasting (OEF) in 2004. OEF analysed the first 20 years of data and concluded that for every £100 invested by Tomorrow’s People, society benefited by £160. The latest analysis shows that despite the difficult economic period since the OEF report, Tomorrow’s People has improved the value it returns to society from £160 to £240 for every £100 invested.

Together, the evaluations show that Tomorrow’s People has not only demonstrated its ability to create value for society throughout its 27-year history, but also that this value has increased significantly during a serious economic downturn.

Tomorrow’s People Chief Executive Baroness Stedman-Scott comments:

“We are proud to have had our work evaluated by economists from a leading consultancy. We believe that everyone who has a stake in our work and the results we achieve – the Government, local authorities, our supporters and others – should be able to see analysis that has been carried out independently, and understand the basis on which this was done. We hope this is a first step in defining terms and creating measures that others can adopt, ultimately producing transparent reporting across all organisations in our sector.”

Creating value

For their report FTI Consulting analysed the charity’s two main employment programmes: Welfare to Work for unemployed adults and Working It Out for young people. Their analysis confirms that an investment in Tomorrow’s People is a positive investment in individuals, society and the economy.

The report reveals that, based on the results of the five years from 2007-2011, the work of Tomorrow’s People in reducing unemployment can make a significant contribution to the British economy in the long-term. This is achieved through higher tax revenues; reduced benefits payments and the potential to reduce public spending on health and criminal justice services.

The estimates are:

• over £56.4 million in benefits saved
• an additional £10.8 million in tax receipts
• potential reductions in government expenditure on health and criminal justice of £12.7 million.

The authors of the report, FTI Consulting, describe these as conservative estimates, which may underestimate the true economic impact of Tomorrow’s People employment programmes. In addition to the economic benefits measured by the study, FTI Consulting highlights other benefits of successfully moving unemployed people into sustainable jobs, including improved life and job satisfaction, reduced social isolation and other social, environmental and community factors that are difficult to define in economic terms.

Author of the report Pratik Dattani of FTI Consulting comments:

“This report highlights the need for more consistent methods of measuring the impact of charities across the sector.  Currently the quality of data gathered and evaluation methods vary widely between charities which makes meaningful comparisons across the third sector difficult.  The introduction of the Work Programme and increasing popularity of social impact bonds, coupled with a reduction in Government spending, means that there is a pressing need to create a clear and consistent way of benchmarking charities to help individuals, organisations and the Government when deciding where to channel funds.  We believe this report is an important first step in creating a robust methodology which can be rolled out across the sector.”

Key figures from the report

• During the period covered by the report, Tomorrow’s People helped more than 13,000 people achieve jobs or other successful outcomes.
• Of those, 6,500 adults and young people moved into full-time employment, education or training.
• The cost of getting an adult into work through our Welfare to Work programme was £4,600.
• The estimated return on this investment was £234 of benefits to society for every £100 of costs.
• The cost of getting a young person back into education, employment or training through Working It Out was £5,600.
• While more expensive per person than Welfare to Work, the estimated return from Working It Out was nonetheless proportionately higher, at £286 of benefits to society for every £100 of costs.
• Taken together, the two programmes produced an average of £242 of benefits to society for every £100 of costs.

Crucially, Tomorrow’s People helped individuals into sustained employment. Over a third of Welfare to Work clients got a job. Many of Tomorrow’s People Welfare to Work clients are long-term unemployed and face complex barriers to work including depression, substance misuse, lack of skills and qualifications or a criminal record. Yet the FTI Consulting report makes clear that, of those who got a job through the Welfare to Work programme, 83% of them were still there after three months, and 71% of them were still in work a year later.

Andy Haldane Executive Director for Financial Stability at the Bank of England comments:

“We are delighted that, through collaboration with FTI consulting, we could assist Tomorrow’s People in demonstrating the effectiveness of the work it does. This report will contribute significantly to a conversation about how players in the welfare-to-work sector, and the third sector more broadly, can measure and demonstrate their impact.”

Since 1984, the charity has helped over 440,000 long-term unemployed people in the UK on their journey back to work. They help break the cycle of unemployment and welfare dependency so that people can move into employment and self-sufficiency, improving their lives and those of their families and communities.  The Working It Out model is simple and its achievements are impressive – 79 percent of young people who complete the 16 week programme move on into employment, training, volunteering or further education.

Brian Gibson, National Manager, Young People’s Services at Tomorrow’s People, said ‘”We are delighted that the new Minister for Children & Young People, Angela Constance MSP, was here with us today at the launch of our Working It Out programme in Inverclyde.  Her presence further endorses the support that we already receive from the Scottish Government via Inspiring Scotland, which allowed us to expand into the Inverclyde area.

“With nearly one million young people in the UK and one in five young people aged 16-24 in Scotland, not in employment, education or training, it is more important than ever that we give our young people the support and tools they need in order to succeed in today’s challenging economy.

“Tomorrow’s People is passionate about helping the hardest-to-reach young people overcome barriers, such as a lack of family support, low literacy and numeracy skills, and a lack of aspiration and motivation. . In Scotland to date, the lives of over 500 young people have been transformed by the intensive practical support that the Working It Out programme offers.

“It’s also vitally important for Tomorrow’s People to have strong links with local employers and businesses in Scotland who can offer non financial support such as visits to the workplace, mentoring and work experience placements, all of which helps to provide an important insight into the world of work”.

Angela Constance, Minister for Children and Young People, said:

“This Government is making sure that all our young people have the right support, skills and opportunities to access and sustain jobs.

“That is why we are investing more than £13 million in Inspiring Scotland to help encourage ventures such as Tomorrow’s People. With this funding we can build on the work of recent years and do much more to help young people into the workplace.

“The work of Tomorrow’s People is delivering exactly that. Its main aim of helping prepare young people for the world of work and equipping them with a “can do, will do” attitude is being realised by everyone involved.”

Liz Docherty,Task Force Leader, Working It Out Inverclyde, continued “Many of the young people who come through the Working It Out programme as volunteers have already been through most of the other training opportunities available in their areas and have not completed them. They tell us they stick with our programme because it offers them something different, where they feel like they have the opportunity to be independent and shape the activities within the project.

“The young people who attend Working It Out have all taken a positive step by joining the programme which shows their commitment to turning their lives around. They have so much to give and we just help them to recognise that and to reach their full potential.  Such has our success been so far in Inverclyde, we have a waiting list of young people wanting to go on the Working It Out programme!”

Tomorrow’s People believe that young people need a hand up not a hand out!

Notes to Editors

Young people who have been through the programme and who are now in work and training have explained how Working It Out has helped them turn their lives around.

Andrew joined the Working It Out course having failed a number of previous employment programmes. At first he was drinking heavily and wasn’t particularly reliable. As the Working It Out staff, Liz Docherty and John Thomson, began talking to him about his career prospects, Andrew cut down his drinking and formed an ambitious plan to become a PE Teacher. He applied to college which he starts this September and will go onto university from there. He is well on his way to pursuing his goal!

As part of the 16 week Working It Out programme the young people take part in a series of community challenges.  The group has to plan, resource and deliver the challenges from start to finish. In order to achieve their goal, the group has to work together as a team and through the challenge activity they develop various skills which are needed in the workplace.  Recent challenges include renovating a church hall, clearing and tidying community gardens and parks and producing a film about the local community.

As well as undertaking community challenges, the young people benefit from intensive, personalised and practical support from Tomorrow’s People staff. This includes help with CV writing, jobsearch, interview techniques and literacy and numeracy support.  Tomorrow’s People recognises that building confidence and motivation is crucial in helping young people move forwards and this forms an integral part of the programme.

John Thomson, Task Force Coordinator, Working It Out, explains that, “The ethos of Working It Out is that every participant is an individual, with their own aspirations and needs. The flexibility of the programme allows staff to create opportunities that meet the requirements of each young person, giving them the chance to realise their full potential.”

Craig came along to Working It Out lacking confidence, motivation and direction. He told Liz and John at Working It Out that he was interested in catering but didn’t know how to take the next step. In order to improve his self-esteem and to learn about the catering industry, Craig took part in a work experience placement with local catering company – The Cottage. To demonstrate to Craig and other team members how easy it is to travel outside of Inverclyde, Tomorrow’s People staff arranged to take a small group to Glasgow to visit a number of colleges. As a result of his placement and his visit to Glasgow, Craig has applied to study Professional Cookery at Glasgow Metropolitan College.

The young people are encouraged to take part in work experience placements which will help them develop their CVs, build confidence and fundamentally, get a taste for the world of work. Some of the young people will come from families where no-one has worked across two or three generations so a placement helps them to understand what it’s like to get into work on time every morning.

When Robyn began the Working It Out programme she was quiet, lacking in confidence and struggled to interact with the other team members. However, she was eager to take part and was appointed a Challenge Manager for one of the group’s Community Challenges. A huge boost to Robyn’s confidence came when she took part in work experience placements with The Cottage and D’ Cake Company which helped her to understand what is involved in working in the catering/ hospitality industry. Along with a tour of Greggs bakery, this has fuelled Robyn’s passion for cooking and is the start of pursuing her dream career in baking!

Robyn says that she can hardly believe the difference in herself from a ‘shy and isolated girl’ to someone who is ’motivated, determined, confident and self-believing’

Tomorrow’s People

Tomorrow’s People is a specialist national employment charity which since 1984 has helped over 440,000 long-term unemployed people on their journey back to work. The charity helps break the cycle of unemployment and welfare dependency so that people can move into employment and self-sufficiency, improving their lives and those of their families and communities. Up until the recent economic downturn 90% of the people we helped to find work were still there after three months, and 76% were still employed after a year.

‘Working It Out’ is run in nine locations across England and Scotland and targets socially-excluded, vulnerable young people between the ages of 16-24 that other agencies find hard to reach. The initiative works with 12 young people over 16 weeks on a programme which helps them to overcome their complex and multiple barriers and build a route to self sufficiency through work, training or education. The intensive personalised and practical support that the youngsters receive from the Tomorrow’s People staff is key to helping them to move forwards in their lives.

A recent independent evaluation of the Working It Out programme carried out by Tank Consulting shows that 79% of the young people who complete the programme go onto employment, education or training. Crucially, 77% of them are in employment, education or training six months later.

Inverclyde has 380 registered NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training)/MCMC (More Choices, More Chances), representing 8.7% of the known level and rate for NEET in Scotland.  Inverclyde Council has identified an ongoing need for a pre-Get Ready for Work intervention.  Working It Out is a very useful addition to the current suite of options offered by Careers Scotland and the 15-19 employability Service, delivering on the MCMC strategy and 16+ Learning Choices.  In 2011-12 Tomorrow’s People will offer targeted support to young people in Greenock, Gourock and Port Glasgow.  In these areas, where territorialism is a major barrier to mainstream engagement Tomorrow’s People will work in partnership with the Inverclyde Peace Initiative.

While welcoming the aims of the Work Programme to get long-term unemployed people off benefits and into work, Tomorrow’s People fears that a rump of the most socially-deprived people in Britain’s worst unemployment blackspots will be ignored by some of the very organisations supposed to be helping them.

The Government is paying commercial providers to find people jobs and ensure they stay in them long-term – but the charity believes that providers will simply avoid tackling hard to help claimants in areas where there are no jobs to put them in.

“Given enough time, money and effort, you can transform the lives of long-term benefits claimants and turn them into people who are extremely attractive to employers – but if those employers don’t have jobs to offer, you won’t get paid at the end of it,” says Tomorrow’s People Chief Executive, Baroness Steadman-Scott.

“Commercial organisations can’t afford to take that risk. Which means that the Government’s good intentions could suffer unless it does something to address that problem.”

She points to a report produced jointly by Tomorrow’s People and the Centre for Public Service Partnerships which reveals that parts of the country with the highest levels of unemployment would need hundreds of thousands of new jobs even to reach the national average level of unemployment.

Any provider trying to find long-term employment for jobseekers in Hastings, for example, would face quite a battle, the report suggests.

“Jobseekers need to believe there are jobs so that they can see themselves making a realistic transition from benefits to work,” it says.

“There were 3,085 Jobseekers in Hastings in February but only 315 vacancies – or one job for every 9.8 unemployed people – and another 5,840 people claimed incapacity benefits.

“That means 19.6% of the working age population in Hastings receive key out-of-work benefits compared to 8.7% across the South East.”

And nationally, at least five people chase each vacancy, with up to 35 seeking each vacancy for low-skilled elementary-level jobs in depressed labour markets such as the West Midlands.

The report urges the Government to consider funding specialist organisations to develop and experiment with schemes that would specifically target those furthest from employment and complement the Work Programme.

Tomorrow’s People says the Government needs to come up with a way of measuring success in getting people into work that everyone involved can use and understand – and, radically, it suggests that the unemployed people themselves should be allowed to rate the services they have received.

“This will help all prime and sub-contractors to prove the value, impact and cost-effectiveness of their activity,” says the report. “It would also enable others to experiment with innovative models of provision and to demonstrate their impact against a set of commonly agreed benchmarks.”

The charity, which has helped more than 440,000 long-term unemployed people back into work since 1984, says the Government should require all providers to share best practice so that everyone can benefit from the most successful methods.

“The Government should consider establishing an innovation scheme to complement the Work

Programme which would fund and evaluate innovative, locally-focussed projects with a view to sharing learning and quick adoption of approaches that succeed in helping long-term unemployed people find work, sustain work or achieve measurable progress in becoming work-ready,” says the report.

“Such schemes would be co-ordinated by local authorities working with local stakeholders and should be open to those long-term unemployed people who choose to join them for a specified time with agreed goals.”

It urges the Government to ensure that contractual incentives for prime contractors are sufficient for them to pay for the long-term support needed by the most disadvantaged individuals such as those with very low skills, disability, mental and physical health conditions and those with caring and other responsibilities.

It also needs to ensure that there are enough new jobs for the contract funding and incentive model to be effective and that geographic, economic and labour market disparities are addressed.

“The Work Programme payments are for sustained employment, with no reward to providers for helping clients achieve successful progression along the way, overcome personal problems, build new skills, or undertake work experience, positive volunteering or community work.

“The sad fact is that after more than a decade of public initiatives, including the New Deals, Employment Zones and disability employment services, the UK still has about five million people on out-of-work benefits, with two or three generations of families trapped in the benefits system.”

Significantly, the report points out that the Government has set the bar for success at an historic high with the minimum standard of success required under the Work Programme being the same as the highest level of success the New Deal programme ever achieved in 12 years.

Tomorrow’s People calls on the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to load the incentives so that providers can’t be seen to have succeeded if they have left some of the hardest to place claimants with no support.

“Economic growth is vital to the success of the Work Programme,” says the report. “The biggest concern is that there is already a jobs deficit and it is unrealistic to expect a large and sustained shift in the numbers of long-term unemployed people gaining and sustaining work.”

“The experience from previous economic recoveries suggests a risk that growth will create jobs requiring high-skilled and specialist labour which could prove a challenge to the long-term unemployed – and to the Work Programme.”

Tomorrow’s People will use an award of £496,592 from the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities programme, to continue and develop the programme in South London across the next three years.

The project works in partnership with the Metropolitan Police to identify young men aged 16-24 years old who want to turn their lives around and leave behind gang life. Three projects have run to date, with 77 per cent of the participants successfully going on to employment or training.

The young people attend a six-week employment training course run by employment charity Tomorrow’s People. The course covers a range of different subjects including job skills, CV writing, work experience placements and peer mentoring. Experienced project staff work one-to-one to help participants overcome barriers to employment.

One ex-gang member, Dennis, has been through the In-2 Work programme and is now working full-time in high street retailer Boots, as well as running his own community website. He is grateful to Tomorrow’s People for the support he received and now mentors other young men participating in the project.

Project Manager, Karen Stone, says: “Lambeth has a particularly serious gang problem, with a significant number of London’s gangs being located here. Many young people are growing up in a household where no one has worked for several generations. These young people don’t even believe that work is an option, and bad experiences at school have probably reinforced that. We show them the positive benefits of work and how their skills and experience would be valuable in the workplace. Often it simply comes down to giving them some self belief and helping to develop a plan that works for them.”

Baroness Stedman-Scott, Chief Executive of Tomorrow’s People, says, “We have been delighted with the outstanding achievements of the young people who have taken part in the In-2 Work programme. It shows that with intensive, practical support, individuals can realise their true potential. We look forward to engaging with many more young people in South London across the next three years as a result of the funding we have won from the Big Lottery Fund.”