It’s great that there’s so much focus being put on creating positive options for young people, and I hope that some of the new ideas and initiatives work. I was interested to read a couple of stories in the last 10 days:

• Swindon has been chosen as one of 11 pilot areas for Raising the Participation Age – which extends the age that young people must (?) be in education or training to 17 (and eventually to 18). This could be a really good idea, if it brings new options. Or really bad, if it attempts to force young people to do things they don’t want to, like staying in formal education because of a lack of choice. Inner Flame would love to be involved in the pilot; we can offer a new approach based on helping people to identify what they really want, and therefore to "see the point" of whatever choices they make.
• A Local Government Association report "Hidden Talents II", claims that the current policies for managing young people "Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET)" are not working, and makes some challenging recommendations:
  • To focus on what young people CAN do, and to value all the contributions they can make to society (e.g. as carers and volunteers), rather than focusing on what they are "not" (as the term NEET obviously does). They suggest ditching the term NEET entirely, which could be a good thing – but not if it just means picking a more politically correct term but keeping the same policies!
  • To move away from an over-managed, overly prescriptive model of central government control. This could apply to so many aspects of our government today!
  • To encourage local government to maximise the contribution from the voluntary sector, to make commissioning of services less prescriptive and remove unnecessary reporting requirements, and introduce new ways of supporting the third sector, such as match funding.

It all sounds like a breath of fresh air. We hope it these recommendations are taken forward and the fresh air doesn’t go stale in the process of implementation!