Thousands of care leavers in England ‘locked out’ of work as firms slow to adapt
Thousands of young people leaving care in England are being left “locked out” of work by employers who say they are open to hiring but make few changes to adapt, a charity has warned.Calling on employers to act on their promises, the Drive Forward Foundation said care leavers were almost three times more likely to be out of work than their peers.As ministers push to tackle a youth jobs crisis, the charity, which helps care leavers to find work, said this employment gap had remained “stubbornly consistent” despite a decade of youth jobs initiatives.Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 40% of care-experienced people aged 19 to 21 are not in employment, education or training (Neet), compared with 12.7% of their non-care-experienced peers.
The overall number of 16- to 24-year-olds who are Neet has increased to almost 1 million across the UK, the highest level in more than a decade.The government is battling to bring down youth unemployment, with pledges to undertake welfare reform and to provide subsidies for employers to encourage them to hire young adults.Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, last week announced a £1bn youth employment scheme.Companies will receive a £3,000 grant for each hire of a person aged 18 to 24 who is on benefits and has been looking for a job for at least six months.Ministers have also paved the way for a slower rise in the minimum wage for younger workers.
However, the report from Drive Forward highlighted that, while many employers say they want to help young people leaving care, they then often make very few changes to their hiring processes.A survey of 500 employers commissioned by the charity found that although more than 80% said they would consider hiring care-experienced young people, relatively few had adapted recruitment processes to account for non-linear work histories or gaps in CVs.Almost half of employers said they never adjusted job descriptions or recruitment language to remove unnecessary barriers, and one in four reported having no specific measures in place to support care-experienced candidates into work.Russell Winnard, the chief executive of the Drive Forward Foundation, said: “Care-experienced young people are often assessed against assumptions that simply don’t reflect their lived reality.When recruitment systems aren’t designed with this in mind, capable and motivated people are screened out before they ever get a chance.
”In response to its findings, the charity said it was publishing a new toolkit to help employers looking to improve access to work for care leavers.Drive Forward has partnerships with more than 40 employers working to employ care-experienced young people, including John Lewis, Camden council, the Salad Kitchen, the civil service, Candyspace and the crown estate.Winnard said: “Employers who adapted their practices often saw strong results.When businesses take a more flexible and informed approach, they don’t just change outcomes for young people – they strengthen their own workforce”.A government spokesperson said: “We are committed to ensuring every young person has the opportunity to earn or learn.
We provide targeted support for care leavers, including access to higher housing allowance rates up to age 25 and tailored Jobcentre Plus support,“Our latest major intervention will help to create 200,000 jobs for young people, backed by almost £1bn,The broader support package, totalling £2,5bn, will support almost 1 million young people and help deliver up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn,”
Meningitis B vaccine scheme widened to include some year 11 pupils in Kent
The meningitis B vaccination programme will be expanded to include year 11 pupils at schools affected by the outbreak in Kent, health officials have said.Figures from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show the number of cases of meningitis have fallen from 29 on Sunday, when 20 cases were confirmed and a further nine were under investigation, to 20 confirmed cases with a further three under investigation, as of 12.30pm on Monday.Officials started vaccinating University of Kent students on Wednesday 18 March. The following day, on a visit to the campus, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, said the programme would be expanded to more people, including sixth form pupils at four schools with known or suspected cases of MenB
Argos faces backlash over ‘influencer kit’ for toddlers
Argos has ignited a debate among parents and child development campaigners after promoting a wooden “influencer kit” aimed at toddlers.Critics have warned that the play set could normalise the precarious world of digital labour and prematurely expose children to the pressures of online visibility.The toy, designed for children aged two and over, is made entirely from wood and includes a tripod stand, a miniature camera with an adjustable aperture lens, a smartphone model, a tablet, and a microphone. All the items can be stored in a carrying pouch.Argos currently advertises the £15 product on its website as a tool designed to “cultivate children’s storytelling skills and creativity through career role-play”
UK medical council overhaul may mean more doctors struck off for racism and antisemitism
An overhaul of the General Medical Council is expected to lead to more doctors that face accusations of racism and antisemitism on social media being struck off.The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has launched a consultation on changes to the legislation governing the regulation of doctors, saying the move will lead to the biggest reform of the medical regulator, the GMC, in four decades.However, the line when it comes to the expression of anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian views is expected to be a continuing point of contention.Doctors facing disciplinary proceedings over wearing symbols and over social media posts have been bringing lawsuits against hospital trusts over the last year, arguing that their beliefs are protected under the Equality Act 2010.The DHSC says there have been “too many” recent examples of doctors using racist and antisemitic language, particularly on social media, without swift action
Property company denies trying to mass-evict tenants before England’s no-fault evictions ban
A property company accused of trying to mass-evict tenants in the weeks before no-fault evictions are banned has denied doing so, saying it is simply implementing “routine and lawful tenancy management”.A statement from Criterion Capital, set up by the billionaire property magnate Asif Aziz, was issued in response to Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, who wrote to the company to seek “urgent” answers about its plans.Criterion has reportedly sent section 21 notices, which give notice of proposed eviction, to large numbers of its tenants. At prime minister’s questions this month, the Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh said she knew of at least 130 such notices issued by Criterion at just one development, Britannia Point, in her south London constituency of Mitcham and Morden.In a letter to the directors of Criterion, seen by the Guardian, Pennycook said that if the company was seeking to remove tenants before the Renters’ Rights Act comes into force on 1 May, banning so-called no-fault evictions in England, it would be the actions of a “thoroughly unscrupulous landlord”
No new meningitis cases linked to Kent outbreak found, health agency says
No new cases of meningitis linked to the outbreak in Kent have been detected, raising hopes that it has been well contained and has not led to people elsewhere catching the disease.The number of people affected remains at 29, of which 20 are are confirmed and nine probable cases in what health officials say is an “explosive” outbreak – the biggest to occur in the UK in a generation.Two of the 20 people confirmed with the disease have died: Juliette Kenny, 18, a secondary school student, and an unnamed University of Kent student. The other 18 are thought still to be in hospital.Nineteen of the 20 confirmed cases were of meningitis B
‘Not just a Jewish service’: Hatzola ambulances serve whole community, say volunteers
‘Accountants, plumbers, surveyors – whatever it might be, they’ve all got day jobs. Everyone has got kits in their car, everyone responds from wherever they are,” said Yossi Richman, on life as a trained volunteer paramedic at Hatzola, the ambulance service funded by Jewish giving.Richman also serves as a governance lead at Hatzola in Golders Green, north London, where four ambulances were attacked by arsonists in the early hours of Monday morning.The attack has left Jewish communities reeling. But alongside the concerns about community safety amid rising antisemitism, there’s a determination to protect the humanitarian civic principles Hatzola represents
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