Labour considers witholding cash from schools if young people become Neet
A proportion of schools’ funding should be dependent on pupils’ progress post-16, a group of experts has recommended to the Labour Party.
Labour’s independent skills taskforce has concluded that making schools more directly responsible for pupil destination outcomes is the best way of reducing young people who are Neet (not in education, employment or training).
It wants schools to be given a responsibility to track the destinations of all pupils, with an element of funding – potentially 10 per cent per pupil – conditional on passing learners onto the next stage of their education or training.
The report says: “We believe that such an obligation in itself would incentivise collaboration between schools and colleges in the interests of young people. Our proposal would be to set the level of withheld funding at a level which drives institutional behaviour so we suggest an approach based on withholding 10 per cent of per pupil funding for every young person who fails to secure a next step, but this proportion will need testing and modelling.”
Schools that had funding withheld would instead be required to use that money to provide an enhanced careers guidance service in an effort to cut the number of future Neets, the taskforce’s report proposes.
A new national framework for information, advice and guidance in schools should be brokered by local enterprise partnerships based on the needs of the local labour market, and delivered in partnership between local employers and schools.
Young people would also be expected to continue studying maths and English until they are 18, with a new baccalaureate developed to measure the skills and learning school leavers have achieved, which would make it easier for employers to assess young people’s abilities.
Professor Chris Husbands, chair of the taskforce, said: “Successful economies and societies depend on developing all their young people. In Britain, we have a poor record of delivering high skills and effective qualifications for the forgotten 50 per cent: the half of young people for whom the current qualifications regime simply does not deliver.
“The taskforce has set out plans for radically improved information and advice which will help young people negotiate an ever more complex labour market, and for a deliverable National Baccalaureate – a simple framework for qualifications and skills which will make it easier for all young people to make the transition to adulthood.”
The taskforce was established in November 2012 and published a previous report last year on apprenticeships. Its proposals will now be considered by the party as it draws up its manifesto for the election in May 2015.
Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt said: “The talents of the forgotten 50 per cent – those young people who wish to pursue a vocational route through education – are being overlooked by this government.
“Labour will deliver for the forgotten 50 per cent through a Technical Baccalaureate with rigorous vocational qualifications, requiring schools and colleges to collaborate to reduce Neets and transforming careers advice by working with local employers so young people have the best chance of succeeding in the job market.”
Source: CYPNow
