Social Exclusion Unit, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
(2005)
Final report published November 2005
This is an interim report on the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU)
project Making the Transition: Young Adults with Troubled
Lives, which focuses on the delivery of services aimed at
young adults with severe or multiple problems as they make
the transition to adulthood. It aims to identify what causes
these problems, to assess the extent and effectiveness of
the available services and to agree practical actions to
improve them. Information was gathered by looking at pre-existing
research and new evidence gathered from field visits, 150
questionnaire responses, regional road shows and discussions
with experts inside and outside Government.
Three key areas for action are identified. The first of
these is 'age boundaries'; it is suggested that a blurring
of these, and vertical integration of services, are necessary
to stop young people from falling between age-ranges. The
next is 'holistic services and the trusted adult', which
is concerned with creating partnerships between different
agencies (eg Jobcentre Plus and Connexions) so that young
people can deal with a number of problems at once, and with
providing them with a trusted adult to guide and advise
them. The final one is 'thinking and behaviour'. This is
based on the idea that the way in which young people think
and behave should be an all-important factor in designing
policies aimed at them, particularly those geared towards
keeping them in education and or work.
Policymakers need to consider issues such as low self-esteem
and difficulty with developing a long-term perspective,
both of which can hamper disadvantaged young people's ability
to make choices about their futures. Initiatives such as
Education Maintenance Allowances, which provide up to £30
a week to young people from poorer families staying in education,
are examples of policies developed with such issues in mind.
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