Entry to Learning

Brighton & Hove City Council in partnership with East Sussex County Council was awarded the opportunity to deliver one of four DCSF funded Entry to Learning pilots in England commencing in January 09. This pilot, which came to an end in March 2011 has provided us with the opportunity to develop an exciting and innovative approach to securing better outcomes for young people aged 16-17 who are not in education employment or training (NEET).

Background

The Children’s Plan included a commitment to develop a new Entry to Learning programme to provide young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) with opportunities to succeed in education and training by strengthening the progression between third sector re-engagement activity and formal learning.

Focus of pilot
Many Local Authorities, together with the LSC, were already successfully commissioning provision from the third sector to re-engage young people. This pilot aimed to enhance that provision by looking at three specific issues:

  • how local authorities could work most effectively with the third sector at a local level to commission the provision that young people needed;
  • which models of voluntary sector commissioning would result in the best support for young people to participate in learning; and
  • how we could better develop progression routes from third sector provision into more formal learning under Foundation Learning

 

There were three key components to this:

  • The Trusted Adult – The presence of a trusted adult or mentor is essential to provide continuity of support throughout the young person’s reengagement and to broker their access to further learning and development opportunities. Under Entry to Learning, a single trusted adult would be the young person’s key point of contact from the beginning of the programme until they were firmly settled back into formal learning;
  • Bridging Provision – There is often a big step between reengagement provision and the return to formal learning. Some local areas have already successfully begun to bridge this gap with intermediate provision that gives young people access to semi-formal learning; and
  • Financial Incentive – To date, most reengagement provision has not attracted Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA). The pilot wanted to test what influence provision of a financial incentive would have on encouraging young people to take part in the third sector provision and then subsequently to return to formal learning.

 

How it worked

Sussex Central YMCA and CRI jointly delivered the programme across Brighton & Hove and East Sussex.

Geographic Split

Sussex Central YMCA covered the area from Hove in the west to Seaford in the east and CRI covered Seaford to Hastings.

Trusted Adults

The trusted adults (whose actual job title was E2L Support Workers) worked alongside Connexions Personal Advisors providing reengagement and support for Entry to Learning participants and were based within the CRI Connexions centres in Eastbourne and Hastings and the Youth Advice Centre in Brighton & Hove.

Eligibility Criteria

These included:

  • Aged 16/17
  • Classified as NEET
  • Chosen progression route is into formal education
  • Does not currently meet entry requirements into formal education
  • Dropped out of post 16 education or learning
  • Tagged ‘between EET’ on CCIS (Aspire)
     

A full local Evaluation will be available soon

 

Contacts

(for more information please contact):

E2L Project Manager:      
Kirsten Trussell (BHCC)      
kirsten.trussell@brighton-hove.gov.uk  
01273 294921      
07825862511