North West Youth Employment Convention

Wednesday, 23 November 2011

Nick Page

What Poverty Means For A Family

Children and families are officially considered to be living in poverty if the household is either out of work and in receipt of benefits, or in receipt of tax credits where

the reported income is less than 60% median income.

In 2008, 60% median income level was equivalent to income levels before housing costs of:• £225 per week for a single adult with two dependent children under 14.

• £294 per week for a couple with two dependent children under 14.

This mean that families living in poverty may have less than £11 per day per person

to buy everything they need.

“I couldn’t afford the school uniform for my daughter so I had to take things to Cash

Converter to pay for it”

“My children never get pocket money because I can’t afford it and they

don’t tell me if they have holes in their shoes

because they know I don’t have the money to buy new

ones”

Poverty And Work

9,305

Almost 3,000 Salford children live in working poverty.

1,110

2, 560

1, 655

Couples Lone Parents

Almost 4 in 5 children living in out of work poverty in Salford are from lone parent households.

Out Of Work

In Work

For Some Areas Of The City And Family Groups, The Risk Of Growing Up In Poverty Is Significantly Higher....

Lone parents families

Teenage parent

families

Families living with

disability

Families in poor housing

Black and minority

ethnic families

Large families

..... The Costs Of Poverty Are Staggering

5

The average cost per Looked After Child

across all placements is £774

per week. * A child supported in

their family per average week is

£157Cost to NHS re

Teenage pregnancy

£63 million per year

*Local authority foster

care for children

£676 per week

Cost of Social Worker contact

£58(30 minute)

*Incredible years

parenting programme

(12 parents per group) - £1559

Above figures are estimates from the Think Family

Toolkit (2009) and University of Kent, Unit Cost of Health

and Social Care 2010.

Benefit payments to a teenage mother, unemployed during 3yrs following birth

of child is £19K - £25k

School Exclusion - £63,851 lifetimeTruancy £44,468/lifetime

Cost of taking a child into

care£36,653

Parenting Order£781

Taking A Lifecycle Approach

Adult yearsAdults achieve economic independence and wellbeing,and provide a stable and supportive environment for their families

Early yearsEvery child is entitled to the best

possible start in life that builds upontheir individual needs, so that they

meet their developmentaland educational milestones

and become confidentand capable learnersready to start school

Teenage yearsAll young people have the skills and aspirations to make informed choices and reach their potential.

Childhood yearsAll children have

equal opportunityto thrive and develop

the foundations forfuture success in their

adult years.

Taking The Next Big Step

The Salford strategy proposes a set of major step changes to improve the way we work together:

• Neighbourhood early intervention and prevention• Employer engagement• Joining up investment• Skills and adult learning• Financial inclusion

The Salford NEET contextNEET Reduction –

• 16-18 NEET reduced by 43% between 2006/7 and 2010/11 (Source: National Connexions data)

• Performance over last 12-24 months often better than the England average and those of statistical neighbours (including performance relating to vulnerable groups) (Source: National Connexions data)

• Between 2006 and 2010 - 56% reduction in the proportion of Salford school leavers who are NEET and a 14% improvement in those going on to participate in learning over the same period (full time further education, government supported training, apprenticeships and jobs with training to NVQ2) (Source: Connexions Annual Activity Salford School Leavers)

Significant factors in NEET reduction

• Culture – focus on getting young people in to education, employment or training and supporting them to stay there

• Partnership and collaborative working – involving organisations working with young people, everyone's business

• Innovation – e.g. use of life coach, using discretionary funding (NRF and ESF) to develop provision to engage targeted and vulnerable (including pre 16 not engaged).

• Responsiveness/flexibility – changing practice all the time in response to developments and using performance information as basis.

• Equality – increasing ambition, access and success – stretch targets for vulnerable groups and wards/neighbourhoods

• Value for money and value added - better use of partnership working

Operational prioritiesSystematic approach to NEET prevention and reduction

including– analysis of NEET group – by school, ward, gender, ethnicity

which is shared with partners– early identification and prioritisation of potential NEETs– work with primaries to raise aspirations– tracking - home visits, telephone out of hours, constant

conversations– commission opportunities – e.g. Activity Agreement, ESF– financial support– deliver job clubs, job search and life coaching – ensure

sustainable progression

Strategic priorities going forward

• Deliver joined up services that achieve results• High quality advice and guidance (targeted

and universal) that improve outcomes• Ensure a range of provision is available that

meets the needs of all young people• Work with employers to create opportunities

and promote learning