Last night's Effective Organisation Scrutiny meeting saw councillors agree unanimously to undertake a review of existing provision, with a view to improving capacity for offering training to young people.

Committee member Coun. Julie Gunnell said:

"I'm so pleased the council is now beginning to understand that there is an urgent need for it to change its attitude and policies to seriously help young people into work, and that it needs to play its part as the largest employer in the city''.

However, there are a number of obstacles which need to be overcome before improvements are made, as Coun. Gunnell explains:

"We are starting from quite a difficult point as the council has no resourcing or capacity for improving the type and number of training places it provides to young people. Sadly the council has no centrally held information on what it is doing in the way of training for young people at present.

"This needed addressing and is why Labour put an allocation of £25,000 in its budget to get a programme underway, so that we can start helping young people now. Unfortunately the Liberal Democrats and Greens didn't see that as important and blocked it".

However, following consistent pressure the good news is that Councillors have now agreed the following terms of reference for a forthcoming review:

· Evaluation of current training arrangements
· How apprenticeships can be improved and what outside funding made available. Effective targeting of specific young people's groups including young people with learning and physical disabilities and the young who are not in education, training or employment.
· Establishing a robust mechanism for reporting back and measuring progress.

And Coun. Gunnell says the report to members on the issue highlighted the need for further and urgent resourcing:

"The CAA self-assessment for the team that would naturally take up this area of service development is completely under-resourced and so Members cannot simply expect this to happen. If you are serious about making changes, and in this case improving the life chances of young people in the city, you need to back it up with money, which is what Labour is committed to doing.

"We now need to see if those parties that voted in support of this scrutiny review are prepared to continue and genuinely help young people and set an example to other employers in the city".