PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Employment Schemes: Young People (11 July 2014)

Delivery of the Youth Contract programme for 16- and 17-year-olds began in September 2012. For the period from September 2012 to the end of March 2014, the Department for Education has spent a total of £18.4 million in delivering the programme. Any underspend identified in the period 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2014 for the Education Funding Agency-managed strand of the programme was transferred to the Exchequer as part of the budget exchange scheme.

A budget of £2.9 million is assigned to the Core Cities strand of the programme for each financial year. This funding is devolved to the respective local authorities.

For the EFA-managed strand of the programme, payments are made on a ‘payment by results' basis. A contractor can receive three outcome-related payments: an initial payment, a re-engagement payment and a sustained engagement payment. Delivery data for the EFA-managed strand of the programme for the period September 2012 to the end of March 2014 was published on 26 June 2014 and is published online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/youth-contract-delivery-data.

This shows contractors delivering the EFA-managed strand of the Youth Contract achieved 18,570 enrolments, 9,949 re-engagements and 3,445 sustained engagements. The contracted profile for the period 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2016 shows: 21,500 participant enrolments; 23,000 participant re-engagements into positive outcomes of education, training or employment with training; and 23,500 participants to sustain in a positive outcome of education, training or employment with training for five out of six months.