Southwark Council is facing calls to enhance its support for young people seeking employment, with significant concerns raised about current pathways and the urgent need for a comprehensive youth guarantee.

During a meeting of the Education and Local Economy Scrutiny Commission, young individuals, including representatives from the Southwark Youth Parliament and a young researcher, articulated the difficulties they encounter in accessing work experience, internships, and apprenticeships. A notable issue highlighted was the inconsistent approach to work experience provision by schools, with some students being tasked with finding their own placements, often relying on personal networks.

The council aims to address this inconsistency by leveraging social value clauses in contracts and through the work of the Education Business Alliance (EBA), which supports under-18s by connecting schools with local businesses. The EBA supported over 1,700 young people and engaged with over 550 employers in the last academic year. The council is also exploring pre-Year 9 interventions to build essential skills and confidence for work experience.

Janelle Goombs, a young researcher, shared her personal struggles in securing work experience and graduate roles, underscoring the positive impact of her involvement with Groundwork London and Southwark Council. She pointed out that while STEM fields receive considerable promotion, there is a substantial interest in creative industries among young people.

Councillor Tori Griffiths proposed utilising social value clauses within council contracts as a mechanism to generate new opportunities for young people. Nick Wolff, Head of Employment Skills, confirmed that Southwark Council has indeed implemented new social value requirements for contracts over a million pounds and is actively working to ensure these commitments, including the provision of work experience for young people, are met. He acknowledged that work experience for young people is one of the standard asks that we have and that the council needs to push work experience and social value because I think it's clearly a huge opportunity within the council, the building supply chain to get some opportunities where clearly they're needed.

The commission also delved into the roles of schools and parents. While some acknowledged the importance of parental backing, Goombs noted that schools often serve as the primary source of information due to parents' limited familiarity with the UK job market. Questions were also raised about the effectiveness of school careers advisors, citing issues of limited resources and generic advice.

Council officers presented a report detailing existing initiatives such as Southwark Works, Connect to Work, WorkWell, and the Southwark Skills Partnership. These programmes are designed to assist young people aged 16-24 who are not in education, employment, or training (NEET) or face other employment barriers. The report acknowledged existing challenges, including fragmented support systems, a lack of early intervention, and difficulties in tracking young people's post-18 destinations. The meeting provided some success rates for Southwark Works: between September 2023 and March 2026, it engaged 1,056 young people, with 210 supported into employment and 225 into accredited training programmes. The council's Paid Internship Programme, which commenced in 2019, created 269 internships and graduate jobs for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds between 2022 and 2026, exceeding its target.

To address the fragmented support systems and lack of early intervention, business planning across the council, including the recommissioning of Southwark Works services from July 2027, is being framed around these key issues and national policy developments. The future youth employment support system aims to mov[e] the system from reacting to disengagement towards preventing it and foster system leadership by bringing partners together with shared tracking arrangements and accountability. Suzanne Wright indicated the intention to set up a group to kind of look at what data have we got, what does it tell us, what doesn't it tell us, where are the gaps, and how can we be more joined up and that we please work with more closely with Southwark as well, so that we have a continuous offer that goes from young through to adult supports employability across all of those ranges in a really targeted way.

Key recommendations put forward by the commission include the development of a youth guarantee with a clearly defined offer and an accountable lead. Additionally, the commission called for improved data collection on young people seeking education, training, and employment, and stressed the importance of ensuring support is accessible between the present and July 2027.

Public reports pack Tuesday 20-Oct-2026 19.00 Education and Local Economy Scrutiny Commission.pdf