Agenda item
Careers Advice for Young People in Brent
This report was requested by Brent Youth Parliament.
Minutes:
Angela Chiswell (Head of Youth Support Services) presented a report updating the committee on the provision of careers advice for young people in Brent. The report detailed the duties of the council, how these were met and outlined significant legislative changes affecting the delivery of careers advice. It was noted that this report had been requested by the Brent Youth Parliament in response to careers advice being frequently highlighted by their members and young people in Brent as an issue of importance.
Members were advised by Angela Chiswell that the Education Act 2011 placed a duty on schools to secure and fund through the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) access to independent, impartial careers guidance for their students in yeas 9 to 11 from September 2012. This duty was extended to encompass years 8, 12 and 13 with effect from September 2013. Academies and Free schools were subject to the same requirements through their funding arrangements and the Department for Education (DfE) intended to extend an equivalent requirement to Further Education and Sixth Form Colleges through their funding agreements. These arrangements replaced the previous duty for Local Authorities to provide careers information, advice and guidance for young people in schools. However, the majority of Brent’s Secondary Schools, including Special Schools and alternative education providers had agreed to commission careers information, advice and guidance through Brent Council’s Youth and Connexions Service.
Angela Chiswell explained that Local Authorities were still required to meet a range of related duties, including making available support to those under the age of 19 to enable them to participate in education and training; to track and record young people’s post-16 participation; to ensure all 16 and 17 year olds received suitable offers to continue in education or training; and to have arrangements in place to identify those young people who were not participating. The council met its current responsibilities via an in-house team of eight Connexions Advisers who provided intensive support, a Connexions Services contract which was currently out to tender for the period 2014 to 2017, and through the maintenance of the Integrated Youth Support database by Ealing Council on behalf of the West London Boroughs and Pan-London database by Central London Connexions.
It was emphasised that Brent’s performance in meeting its duties in this area was good. Angela Chiswell explained that the Youth and Connexions service consistently achieved the key performance target for the number of 16 to 18 year olds in the NEET group, with a performance that was the third best in England measured over the period November 2012 to January 2013. Furthermore, in June 2012, Brent exceeded the national and London averages for the proportion of 16 to 17 year olds in education or training. The committee was advised that the Youth and Connexions Service had responded to the new arrangements by developing service delivery to reflect the changing role for the local authority. It was highlighted that following the closure of the Connexions Centre in Willesden on 31 August 2012, a number of access points had been established across Brent including at the new Roundwood myplace Youth Centre and the Brent Civic Centre. In addition, a wide range of mechanisms for delivering careers advice had been utilised in the past year and these were expounded for the committees information.
Members of the committee and representatives of Brent Youth Parliament, raised a number of queries in the discussion following. It was queried whether the council monitored the quality of careers advice being provided in schools. Further information was requested in relation to the advertisement of the careers services available to young people in Brent. Concerns were raised about the emphasis within careers advice provided on academic routes of progression and queries were raised about how this issue was best tackled. The committee sought details on the numbers of schools buying into the council’s careers service and it was queried whether there was any discernible correlation regarding the types of school opting to pursue this option.
Responding to the queries raised, John Galligan (School Improvement Lead -Secondary/14-19) advised that there was no correlation between school type and the decision to procure a careers advice service via the council. He further explained that as the statutory responsibility for provision of careers advice had transferred to schools, the council was not monitoring Schools’ compliance. The movement of this duty to schools was underpinned by the concept that schools understood their pupils best and would therefore be able to deliver or procure the most appropriate form of provision. There were however, concerns that the new arrangements would lead to a loss of uniform quality assurance. Ofsted had carried out a thematic survey, visiting Brent in the process, and had found that there was a difference in quality of provision across schools. In response to its findings, Ofsted had published a series of recommendations and amended its schools inspection regime to include an assessment of the quality of careers guidance. The regularity of Ofsted inspections depended on how well schools had performed previously. A school awarded an outstanding rating by Ofsted might not be subject to further inspection for several years; however, a school which had been found to require improvement might be inspected as regularly as every term.
John Galligan further explained to the committee that the council did not have the resources to carry out its own inspection of careers advice provision in schools. However, the council supported a Brent 14-19 Partnership which included all schools, training providers and colleges. A key priority set by the partnership was to ensure that all pupils had access to high quality advice and guidance. Furthermore, the College of North West London had proposed to commit resources to re-establish a network, previously supported by the council, to allow Brent Schools to share best practice and discuss issues regarding careers advice provision. With regard to concerns expressed relating to provision being biased towards academic pathways, it was explained that the DfE Statutory Guidance clearly stipulated that schools were required to ensure information was made available on all pathways. However, it was agreed that a meeting with representatives of Brent Youth Parliament would be beneficial in addressing this issue. Angela Chiswell added that the council’s careers services were advertised in several ways; in some situations by direct mail to young people and most often through schools, emails and via the B My Voice website. Various successful events were held which enabled young people to be brought into direct contact with a range of different services offering opportunities.
Members commented on the importance of utilising the existing resources of schools including the teachers, governors and parents associations, in the work of the Brent 14-19 Partnership. John Galligan agreed, noting that this was similar to one of the recommendations made by Ofsted.
RESOLVED:
That the report be noted.
Supporting documents: