Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to respond to concerns raised by young people during the Greater London Authority’s second London Children’s Rights Inquiry held in November 2017.

The department welcomes the Greater London Authority’s (GLAs) commitment during this event to listen to its young people and bring together different organisations to discuss the important issues of jobs, apprenticeships and training.

We have already put in place a number of policies to improve young peoples’ participation in post-16 education and training. Since 2013, all young people have been required to participate in education or training until they are 18. Local authorities have to track young peoples’ activity to identify those who are not participating in education or training and to encourage and support them to do so.

Additionally, apprenticeships are accessible to people from all backgrounds and we are encouraging take up in a range of ways, including a new partnership with five major cities in England to drive up apprenticeships among underrepresented groups. GLA is one of these cities.

We have also introduced traineeships, which support social mobility by providing quality training for young people who need to develop their skills and experience in order to enter the labour market.