Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support economically inactive young people in (a) Stoke-on-Trent North constituency and (b) Kidsgrove into (i) education and (ii) employment.

Under our plan to Get Britain Working, we are working closely with the Department for Education to develop a new Youth Guarantee that will ensure that all young people aged 18-21, in England, including those who are economically inactive can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work. This will sit alongside; a new national jobs and careers service to help get more people into work, work health and skills plans for the economically inactive, and the launch of Skills England to open new opportunities for young people. We will set out further detail in the upcoming ‘Get Britain Working’ White Paper.

Currently through the Youth Offer, we provide labour market support to young people aged 16-24 claiming Universal Credit through a range of tailored interventions to help reduce the barriers young people may face, bringing them closer to employment or appropriate training opportunities.

Recent examples of positive collaboration in Stoke on Trent North constituency include working with Movement to Work participants along with a local project Urban Wilderness and YMCA outreach to support vulnerable youth customers towards work offering additional support from Employment Advisors, community work and with the local council. For Work ready customers we are working with National Career Service, the Youth Employment Skills programme, and Stoke-on Trent and Newcastle college to deliver programmes that build on work experience.

In Kidsgrove, we have been working with Stoke on Trent College to promote suitable apprenticeship options with a view to extending this to more local partners. We also have a successful ongoing work experience offer with Browns Recycling.