MANAGEMENT INFORMATION POSITIVE STEPS CAREERS GUIDANCE SERVICE ROCHDALE – December 2019 SUPPORT | CHALLENGE | CHANGE Page 1 of 25 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This month’s overall figure of those Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) has remained stable, increasing slightly this month from 2.7% to 2.8%, and remains notably lower than the same month last year, a figure of 3.2%. Within this, the year 12 NEET figure remained strong, remaining the same as last month at 1.7%. Participation in learning has fractionally decreased from 95.9% to 95.8% but again remains significantly higher than December of last year, which was 93.1%. December was a challenging month for progressions due to the Christmas holiday, with less available start dates in employment and training, and many young people preferring to wait until January to start training. Unknown or Lapsed has been a real focus for us again this month and we are really pleased to see the actual numbers of young people in the Year12/13 cohorts reducing to 43; this equates to a percentage of 0.9%. We are also pleased to see that this hasn’t caused a significant rise in NEET. We have employed a range of new strategies to achieve this, including wider use of early evening calls and home visits. We continue to review this group each month to make sure that our work is targeted and effective and we will continue to build on this good work. We have invested some time in Marketing the service and we have seen a significant increase in telephone referrals, not just from professionals but from clients themselves, which is very positive. The percentage of young people that are NEET in the Rochdale locality has remained the same and we have several young people awaiting a start date for a Study Programme who are currently engaging with the Skills Support for Growth Programme. The Ward areas which have seen the increase in the number of young people who are NEET are Bamford, Smallbridge & Firgrove and Spotland & Falinge, the Ward areas which have seen a decease in the number of young people who are NEET are Balderstone & Kirkholt, Castleton, Kingsway and Milkstone & Deeplish. We have seen an increase in NEET in Middleton locality from 2.1% to 2.4%, an increase of 4 young people, all of whom have come from West Middleton causing an increase from 4.3% to 5.8%. A closer look at this picture tells us that 7 young people became NEET in this ward in December (balanced against 3 becoming EET). 5 of these young people have been withdrawn from college for a variety of reasons including issues with behaviour and attendance. We received referrals from YJS, Children’s Social Care, the SEN team and the college themselves regarding these leavers meaning that these young people have been quickly identified and engaged. Our Career Advisers (Anna and Cherry) are continuing to support these young people through the Lighthouse Project and outreach where needed. We are disappointed to see a decrease in the number and percentage of young people with SEND who are EET, however the percentage remains above 90%. We attribute this to the continued work to track and home visit this cohort of young people. After a strong start to the academic year we have seen a decrease in participation of Cared for Children of 8 young people. As a complex client group this has been due to a wide range of sometimes very challenging issues including leaving EET due to Mental and Physical Health issues and disruption due to changes to housing. Our specialist Career Adviser based with the cared for children team has continued to offer support not only to NEET young people but to those in EET to try and support them to sustain EET where possible. This includes liaising with Training Providers and Employers to advocate on these young people’s behalf. This month Nicola has also supported a care leaver who has returned to Rochdale after some time living out of area. He is a young father and is keen to work, only recently receiving an NI number and being able to do so. Nicola has supported him to create a CV and complete job search and he has already secured a place on a Retail course with ELP which will give him access to jobs in the new retail development in Rochdale. Our ongoing Professional Practice sessions allow a means for Career Advisers to share and develop ideas and good practice across the team. We have held NEET and Unknown strategy meetings to look at our broader resource allocation and to share good practice but continued to also meet within locality teams to ensure that our approach is tailored to the needs of each township. This has included sharing ideas about engaging with “hard to help” clients with issues with motivation and anxiety and the ways that “small steps” can be used for initial engagement, including our blended guidance model that incorporates traditional career guidance and motivational interviewing using NLP techniques including the “chimp” model. Angela Davey and Lucy Smith Page 2 of 25 YEAR 12/13 NEET AS PERCENTAGE OF COHORT 4.0% 3.5% 3.0% 2.5% 2.0% 1.5% 1.0% 0.5% 0.0% Novembe Decembe April May June Quarter 1 July August Sept Quarter 2 October Quarter 3 January February March Quarter 4 r r LAST YEAR'S PERFORMANCE 3.6% 3.3% 3.6% 3.6% 3.0% 3.2% 3.2% 3.1% 3.4% 3.5% 3.6% 3.5% ACTUAL (Yr 12/13) 3.5% 2.8% 3.5% 3.3% 2.6% 2.7% 2.8% 2.7% 0.0% NEET AS % OF COHORT April May June July August Sept October November December January February March ACTUAL NUMBERS 170 160 169 131 134 139 COHORT SIZE 4,899 4,897 4,893 4,964 5,004 4,988 NUMBERS 12 months ago 181 187 184 146 156 154 166 170 176 Left FE to NEET Q1 Q2 Q3 so far Q4 IN YEAR Target is 'less than last year' 20 26 36 82 ACTUAL 17 43 60 Page 3 of 25 YEAR 12/13 NEET BY WARD West Middleton 5.8% West Heywood 2.2% Wardle and West Littleborough 0.0% Spotland and Falinge 4.0% South Middleton 0.0% Smallbridge and Firgrove 4.8% North Middleton 2.1% North Heywood 3.4% Norden 1.4% Milnrow and Newhey 2.2% Milkstone and Deeplish 2.3% Littleborough Lakeside 1.6% Kingsway 3.6% Hopwood Hall 1.2% Healey 4.3% East Middleton 2.1% Central Rochdale 3.6% Castleton 0.9% Bamford 3.4% Balderstone and Kirkholt 3.3% Borough 2.8% 0.0% 1.0% 2.0% 3.0% 4.0% 5.0% 6.0% 7.0% Page 4 of 25 EET Total Ward NEET NEET Unknown - UNKNOWN TotalNEET Percentage UNAVAILABLE NEET NEET NEET NEET AVAILABLE Cohort Borough 4889 129 12 61 5091 5030 141 2.8% Balderstone and Kirkholt 289 8 2 4 303 299 10 3.3% Bamford 168 6 0 7 181 174 6 3.4% Castleton 222 2 0 1 225 224 2 0.9% Central Rochdale 319 12 0 4 335 331 12 3.6% East Middleton 236 4 1 2 243 241 5 2.1% Healey 180 7 1 4 192 188 8 4.3% Hopwood Hall 248 3 0 3 254 251 3 1.2% Kingsway 378 13 1 4 396 392 14 3.6% Littleborough Lakeside 187 3 0 1 191 190 3 1.6% Milkstone and Deeplish 376 9 0 3 388 385 9 2.3% Milnrow and Newhey 220 5 0 0 225 225 5 2.2% Norden 144 2 0 4 150 146 2 1.4% North Heywood 200 5 2 6 213 207 7 3.4% North Middleton 233 4 1 1 239 238 5 2.1% Smallbridge and Firgrove 337 15 2 3 357 354 17 4.8% South Middleton 180 0 0 1 181 180 0 0.0% Spotland and Falinge 291 11 1 3 306 303 12 4.0% Wardle and West Littleborough 194 0 0 1 195 194 0 0.0% West Heywood 225 5 0 4 234 230 5 2.2% West Middleton 262 15 1 5 283 278 16 5.8% Page 5 of 25 YEAR 12/13 NEET AS PERCENTAGE OF COHORT WORST WARD 7.0% 6.0% 5.0% 4.0% 3.0% 2.0% 1.0% 0.0% Novembe Decembe April May June Quarter 1 July August Sept Quarter 2 October Quarter 3 January February March Quarter 4 r r LAST YEAR'S PERFORMANCE 6.0% 5.7% 5.6% 5.8% 5.5% 5.4% 5.4% 5.4% 4.9% 5.9% 5.6% 5.5% ACTUAL (Yr 12/13) 5.6% 5.5% 6.0% 5.7% 4.2% 4.3% 5.8% 4.8% NEET AS % OF COHORT - WORST PERFORMING WARD April May June July August Sept October November December January February March COHORT SIZE 11 10 11 14 12 16 NUMBERS 12 months ago 14 16 13 17 16 15 Page 6 of 25 YEAR 12/13 NEET BY TOWNSHIP Pennine 2.6% Heywood 2.7% Middleton 2.4% Rochdale 3.1% Borough 2.8% 0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% Township EET NEET AVAILABLE NEET UNAVAILABLE UNKNOWN Total - Unknown Cohort NEET Total NEET Percentage Borough 4889 129 12 61 5091 5030 141 2.8% Rochdale 2367 70 5 34 2476 2442 75 3.1% Middleton 1159 26 3 12 1200 1188 29 2.4% Heywood 425 10 2 10 447 437 12 2.7% Pennine 938 23 2 5 968 963 25 2.6% Page 7 of 25 YEAR 12/13 MONTHY COMPARISON - SIX WARDS WITH HIGHEST NEET RATES YEAR 12/13 MONTHY COMPARISON - SIX WARDS WITH HIGHEST NEET RATES (This month's performance in the six highest wards from last month) 3.3% Balderston and Kirkholt 4.0% 3.6% Kingsway 3.8% 3.4% North Heywood 3.4% 3.6% Central Rochdale 3.6% 5.8% West Middleton 4.3% 4.8% Smallbridge and Firgrove 4.2% 0.0% 1.0% 2.0% 3.0% 4.0% 5.0% 6.0% 7.0% Smallbridge and Firgrove West Middleton Central Rochdale North Heywood Kingsway Balderston and Kirkholt Dec 4.8% 5.8% 3.6% 3.4% 3.6% 3.3% Nov 4.2% 4.3% 3.6% 3.4% 3.8% 4.0% Page 8 of 25 YEAR 12/13 ANNUAL COMPARISON - SIX WARDS WITH HIGHEST NEET RATES (This month's performance in the six highest wards from twelve months ago) 4.4% Wardle and West Littleborough 0 5.4% Balderstone and Kirkholt 3.3% 3.8% Castleton 0.9% 4.0% Smallbridge and Firgrove 4.8% 2.1% North Middleton 2.1% 4.6% North Heywood 3.4% 0.0% 1.0% 2.0% 3.0% 4.0% 5.0% 6.0% Wardle and West North Heywood North Middleton Smallbridge and Firgrove Castleton Balderstone and Kirkholt Littleborough Dec-18 4.6% 2.1% 4.0% 3.8% 5.4% 4.4% Dec-19 3.4% 2.1% 4.8% 0.9% 3.3% 0 Page 9 of 25 NEET VOLUMES BY SCHOOL ATTENDED IN YEAR 11 The following tables are based on those who were in a school in the borough at Year 11, regardless of where they reside.