Youth Unemployment

Lord Bishop of Chester Excerpts

Tuesday 24th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

I am very grateful to my noble friend; he makes a really important point. It just is not helpful to anyone if we start getting caught in false binaries. We need to work with the grain of what employers need and support them in doing it. They want to hire whoever is best for the job. Our job as a Government in this sort of setting is to work out what it will take to help those young people who most need the help to be the person the employer needs, by getting them the skills they need, getting them in the right place and getting them work experience.

The reason why we have the particular incentive of £2,000 for SMEs to take on 16 to 24 year-old apprentices as new employees is because we know they face additional barriers and costs. We also know that the sector is likely to take on young apprentices. Apprenticeships have spread very wide, and many are prone to taking on young apprentices. We want to lean into the grain of what they naturally do anyway, take away some of the barriers they face in doing that and support them in doing what they want to do anyway, which is good for them, good for the young person and good for the economy.

[The Lord Bishop of Chester]

My Lords, like other noble Peers, I warmly welcome this Statement. I notice an emphasis on technical skills in the Written Statement and the Statement the Minister has made. I declare an interest: I have been married to somebody who has been a professional social worker all her life. I am interested in what we are doing to encourage young people into the caring professions, be that youth work, nursing, educative support, or social care, because it seems to me that this serves not only their good but also the good of our society.

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

The right reverend Prelate makes a very important point. The Government have done quite a bit of work in different sectors. As I have said at the Dispatch Box before, we have done quite a bit of work in social care, looking at how we develop schemes, skills and sector-based work programmes to make sure young people can both be given the skills and also encouraged to go into the sector. This can be a really rich and rewarding career, as his wife has found out, and as I know from people who work in the sector. Initially, people may not immediately see it as an opportunity. Once they get in there, if it is a good fit and if it is right for them, it is astonishingly rewarding. They transform lives. To be given the opportunity not just to change their own life, but in doing so, to change the lives of other people, is wonderful. I therefore assure him that the Government will carry on supporting that.