Youth Guarantee - No-one Left Behind: initial report

Risk and Mitigation

The key risks are:

1. The impact of Covid on the employment or education prospects for young people is greater than forecast

Mitigation - be bold with the ask in terms of opportunities and jobs, make sure the Guarantee can be scaled.

2. There is a resistance to moving to the new simplified model by certain groups or bodies.

Mitigation - constantly reinforce the message that the most important person in all of this is the young person and their future and everything else just enables the Guarantee to be delivered.

3. Kickstart becomes a separate or loosely connected programme rather than part of the Young Person Guarantee for Scotland.

Mitigation - regular and consistent engagement with DWP to ensure alignment.

4. There is insufficient pace to start implementation resulting in the Guarantee always being behind the need.

Mitigation – Clear ownership and accountable person - be clear on the short-term actions needed to start the Guarantee and focus on rapid execution of them. Effective leadership from all stakeholders to challenge any barriers that arise.

5. Despite the demand-side recommendations, opportunity creation just simply does not match the need of the young people.

Mitigation - ensure the financial support and other actions necessary to deliver the demand-side stimulus gets to the point of need quickly and with minimum conditions and rules. Make it simple for all employers of all sizes to engage with the Guarantee and as a result create peer pressure to come forward with more opportunities.

6. The financial challenges for Colleges and Universities results in sustainability issues.

Mitigation – Currently under discussion

7. Time taken to adopt and implement some of the more radical solutions leads to loss of impact and delay in delivery

Mitigation - through the development of a robust implementation plan challenge all parties to move at pace with delivery, be challenging with timescales.

8. Failure to agree with UK Government/DWP on how the Young Person Guarantee will wrap around the Kickstart programme.

Mitigation - regular and consistent engagement with DWP to ensure alignment.

9. There is insufficient clarity about funding streams

Mitigation - work across Scottish Government to ‘follow the money’ to ensure transparency of where the money is allocated and the outcomes we expect.

10. There is insufficient flexibility and longevity/stability with the current 3rd sector contracts in place to allow the sector to build the capability to support the Guarantee.

Mitigation – extend/renew existing contracts for a minimum of 2 years to align with the Young Person Guarantee Ambition timescale.