Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of long-term youth unemployment in (a) Coventry North East constituency and (b) Coventry; and what (i) financial and (ii) other steps she is taking to tackle long-term youth unemployment in those areas.

The sample size of the Annual Population Survey is too small to provide robust estimates of the trends in long-term youth unemployed in the areas identified.

DWP offers significant support to unemployed people across Coventry to access employment opportunities through our network of Jobcentres. Our Work Coaches provide support on finding a job, help with retraining or skills advice, CV, job applications and access to the new vacancies, as well as signposting to our Jobhelp website.

The Youth Hub in Coventry continues to provide outreach support, which can be accessed by young people in Coventry at Coventry Jobshop in the City Centre. We have also partnered with employers in the Coventry area to deliver Sector Based Work Academy Programmes open to all age groups and length of unemployment. For longer term support we work with many local training providers and the Coventry City Council Jobshop to fill ‘Building Better Opportunities’ programmes for the longer term unemployed and those further from the labour market.

DWP is also currently working with West Midland Combined Authority to promote and fill Commonwealth Games 2022 opportunities, matching young people to employers linked to hospitality, security, customer service and the sports industry across the local area.

The Kickstart Scheme provided grant funded, six-month jobs with participating employers for 16-24 year olds on Universal Credit and at risk of long-term unemployment. As of the 31st January 2022, in Great Britain over 130,000 Kickstart jobs have been started by young people and over 235,000 jobs have been made available for young people to apply to through the scheme. More recent statistics will be published in due course.