NEET – Next Steps for Young People.
On Tuesday 10th March we held our latest conference on how to make lasting changes to avoid young people becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training), hosted by the ‘Centre for Britain and Europe’ at the Arthur C. Clarke Building – University of Surrey.
It was a great opportunity to review the progress that has been achieved since our first conference just under a year ago, after the research I commissioned on the NEET situation in Surrey had been published. I am pleased to say that in the past few month some significant advances have been made. I had the honour of supplying the opening remarks and handing over to Professor Amelia Hadfield, Maya Chew and Meg Ward from CBE, who then gave us a summary of the progress made. This was followed by a panel discussion outlining how a NEET Community of Practice would be created and sustained with Professor Hadfield, Dee Torvill, Catherine Powell, Leah Boxell and myself.
Leah Boxell’s presentation which followed, was a powerful and inspiring offering which included some of her own experiences as a young NEET person, and she went on to explain how she intends to put it to good use to help others, initially in a pilot project in North Leatherhead. Her experience and the confidence in her delivery earned her a well deserved round of applause from the audience.
I then introduced an initiative that I recently launched with HHJ Patricia Lees and The Clink charity; renovating the kitchen in the Crown Court to become a training centre for 40 young people aged 16-18 each year with the cohort coming from care leavers, NEETs or those on the edge of the criminal justice system. Jonny Whitfield from The Clink explained how they will run a 12 week programme teaching skills and studying for up to 5 City & Guild Courses, whilst the young people are being mentored and helped with any behind the scenes issues. The Clink run a similar cafe in Herne Hill, and to date every young person who has completed the course has entered full time employment.
We then had an emotional presentation ‘Youth Voice’ which featured two young students currently at Brooklands Technical College but both had previously spent time being NEET. They bravely related their stories to Emma Toby, which brought home to the audience the realities of being NEET and the challenges they faced. Another powerful offering which reminded us why we are trying so hard to change the way things are done and address the issue with such determination.
The penultimate section was another success story where we were joined by Neelam Devesher MBE DL to introduce Sarah Davies – Surrey County Council‘s new NEET Partnership Coordinator, who will act as an interface between all Council departments which work with young people, liaise with the third sector, procure services from third parties and be a core part of the NEET Community of Practice. This was a role I had been very keen to see created, to put young people at the heart of everything and help prevent them from becoming NEET.
Finally the event wrapped up with a lively Q&A with members of the audience sharing their experiences and offering ideas. It was a constructive, interactive session, which showed the power of collaboration in coming together to solve problems.
As High Sheriff I am immensely grateful to the team at The Centre for Britain and Europe who have coordinated much of the work with a great level of professionalism and to the many people who have supported this initiative. One of the roles of High Sheriff is to convene and connect and it is a very rewarding experience when that process works as well as it has done so far.
More images available to view at – https://4730.tifmember.com/p/83064pfr/next-steps-for-young-people-view
Photography – Andy Newbold
