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11 May 1999
GORDON BROWN OUTLINES GOVERNMENT PLANS TO HELP BRITAIN'S 'LOST' YOUNGSTERS
£40 Educational Maintenance Allowance in Stay-at-School Initiative for 16-18 year olds
A new future for the 150,000 16-18 year olds not in work, education or retraining was outlined today by the Chancellor Gordon Brown.
Speaking to the Foyer Federation Conference in London the Chancellor said that the current support system for 16-18 year olds was "perverse and indefensible" and outlined a system of Educational Maintenance Allowance of up to £40 a week to persuade teenagers to stay on at school.
The Chancellor said:
"This is a wasted generation. There are 150,000 teenagers who are neither in work, education or training.
"This system of Education Maintenance Allowances of up to £40 we propose is developed to persuade them to stay in school. They will offer real scope to make a difference to the lives of many young people who are in danger of losing out."
The allowances will be paid in pilot areas where more young people leave school early than is the national norm. The Government will pay up to £40 a week for young people in families where the household income is below £13,000.
Educational Maintenance Allowances will start in September this year in 12 pilot areas. The areas are: Bolton, Nottingham, Cornwall, Doncaster, Gateshead, Leeds, Middlesbrough, Oldham, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Walsall and the four London boroughs of Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Greenwich.
The Chancellor said that more must be done than just home the homeless. He said:
"Our ambition is not limited to bricks and mortar; it is to enable young men and women bridge the gap between what they are and what they have in themselves to become. So we must not only deal with the consequences of poverty, we must tackle its causes.
"We are determined to provide a new future for the many thousands of people who had been written off for too long, unable to realise their potential.
"Our challenge amongst young people is to persuade them to stay on at school or college, to take careers advice and to recognise the need for even the most basic qualifications is they are to secure a job."
This was one of the most powerful motivating force behind the introduction of the new Educational Maintenance Allowance.
The Chancellor said the allowances "will make a real difference to the lives of many young people from disadvantaged backgrounds". And there would be a true partnership between the Government, educational authorities, schools, colleges and foyer and housing agencies to make them a success.
The Chancellor said:
"What most people remember of the 1930s is unemployed men standing on street corners. What people identify with the 1980s are youngsters begging and sleeping rough in our city streets.
"I want the 1990s and the new Millennium to be remembered for inclusion - when individuals, the voluntary sector and Government work together with a shared purpose."
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The full extract from the Chancellor's speech on Educational Maintenance Allowances is attached.
EXTRACTS FROM THE CHANCELLOR'S SPEECH TO THE FOYER FEDERATION CONFERENCE ON TUESDAY 11 MAY
The welfare to work programme helps young people after 18 find jobs and find the skills for jobs.
At sixteen the challenge is different - it is to persuade young people to stay on at school or at college, to recognise the need for even the most basic qualifications if they are to secure a job. and to secure the best careers advice about how to get both jobs and skills for jobs.
It is this, the sixteen plus problem, that is the most powerful motivating force behind our proposed educational maintenance allowances.
Too many young people leave school early leave school without qualifications and leave school never to reappear in education to obtain the skills they need.
We want more and more teenagers from lower income families staying on at school and going to college and then university and want to use resources we have to break the cycle which leaves children from poorer families without the qualifications they need.
As David Blunkett and his department have shown One in five of our 16 to 18 year olds live in relative poverty.
The current system is out of date, confusing and often perverse and counterproductive . it is indefensible.
A young person on a national traineeship can receive more than a 16-18 year old studying for higher level qualifications.
A young person who lives at home and is in full time education receives no payment for themselves but parents in income support or JSA receive £30 a week.
Too many fall through the net and receive no help with the education that is vital to themselves and the country.
Clearly the incentives are working the wrong way.
So in 12 pilot areas of Britain from September Educational Maintenance Allowances will be paid in the following pilot areas: Bolton, Nottingham, Cornwall, Doncaster, Gateshead, Leeds, Middlesbrough, Oldham, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Walsall, and the four London boroughs of Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Greenwich.
All these areas have more young people leaving school early than the national norm.
We will pay up to £40 a week for young people in families where household income is below £13,000 in the pilot areas.
What they have to do is sign a learning agreement with the school and college and stick to it.
And young people who are regarded as estranged from their parents will be assessed separately.
This offers a real scope to make a difference to the lives of many young people who are in danger of losing out.
And we will work in partnership with educational authorities, schools, colleges and foyer and housing agencies to put in place not openly effective delivery arrangements for maintenance allowances but effective monitoring of the programme.
If successful the programme will go nationwide.
Because opportunity is the key not just to social justice but future economic success, we will ensure that there will be second chances too and if necessary third chances.
So you can see that I want a Britain where what matters is not your background or the school you went to, but the ambitions and aspirations you have.
A Britain where the opportunity is available to everyone and where everyone has a contribution to make.