Youth Employment Hubs, a ‘Sure Start for youth employment’, should be at the centre of the new government’s plans to reduce the number of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) – currently 900,000 – according to a new report from cross-party think tank Demos.
A relatively modest investment from the government could help 70,000 young people every year, the think tank argues.
The report, which has been supported by Youth Futures Foundation, is the first major piece of research on Youth Employment Hubs – distinct from the new government’s Young Futures Hubs – which the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) started to set up in 2020 to help young people find work.
Demos conducted site visits, stakeholder interviews and focus groups with young people at existing Youth Employment Hubs and found they are an innovative and effective way of providing high-quality support to young people to help them secure employment or training.
One reason for this is that the Hubs bring together multiple services, such as employment support, careers advice, skills training and mental health services, in a single ‘one stop shop’ building. The report suggests that they could become a ‘Sure Start for youth employment’.
Youth Employment Hubs represent a new way of working, with staff from the DWP providing support to young people at the Hubs instead of at Jobcentres. This is another factor behind their success, according to Demos. In focus groups, young people talked about the positive environment and working culture of the Hubs, compared to what they described as an “intimidating” environment at Jobcentres.
Focus group participants spoke about the “understanding” and “welcoming” environment of Hubs where trust can be built between staff and young people. They contrasted this with the “judgemental” and “unsettling” culture of Jobcentres – characterised by the lack of private spaces, short appointment times and presence of a security guard.
One focus group participant spoke of how visiting a Jobcentre made them feel like they had “committed a crime”, while another talked about the “stigma” of using a Jobcentre.
900,000 young people (aged 16-24) are currently not in employment, education or training (NEET), equivalent to one in eight (12.6%) people in the age group. This is the highest rate since 2015, and has increased by 130,000 since 2022.
It comes amidst a crisis of economic inactivity, with over 900,000 fewer people in work because of the fall in the employment rate since the pandemic. The UK is the only country in the G7 that has a lower working-age employment rate now than in 2019. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts that the UK’s employment rate will still not have recovered by 2029.
Currently, many Youth Employment Hubs face a ‘cliff edge’ with funding coming to an end in March 2025.
The new Labour government has pledged to “establish a youth guarantee of access to training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work for all 18- to 21- year olds”. Today’s report urges the government to capitalise on the existing Hubs programme in order to achieve this ambition.
Among the report’s recommendations are for the Treasury, Department for Work and Pensions and Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to work together to commit £100 million annual funding to Youth Employment Hubs in the upcoming Autumn Budget. Demos argues that this could fund around 350 Hubs, providing support to around 70,000 young people per year. The existing network of Hubs supported 14,000 young people in the year 2023-24.
Andrew Phillips, Senior Researcher at Demos and co-author of The Future of Youth Employment Hubs, said:
“Youth Employment Hubs are a genuine policy success story and one that the new government should embrace wholeheartedly in order to deliver their Youth Guarantee. If the government expands and improves them, they could become the equivalent of Sure Start for youth employment, boosting long-term outcomes for young people who often face socioeconomic disadvantage.”
“Not only can they play a central role in the government’s missions to kickstart economic growth and break down barriers to opportunity, but they can unlock a profoundly different way of delivering public services.
“Liberating frontline professions to experiment with service design and delivery, and encouraging collaboration between organisations in the pursuit of shared outcomes, is exactly the kind of innovation the government should be utilising as it looks to revitalise our struggling public services.”
Barry Fletcher, CEO at Youth Futures Foundation, said:
“To build a prosperous future, we need to take action on youth employment. Youth Employment Hubs could be a central part of the strategy for reducing the number of young people who are not earning or learning, and can help build place-based solutions that help young people enter the workforce.
“The government’s policies should empower young people with better opportunities, paving the way for a brighter future for all. It’s important that young people are receiving the right support, at the right place, at the right time, and we believe that Youth Employment Hubs can help to deliver this across the country.”
