Youth Advice Service

• Youth Advice Service fulfils Luton Council’s duty to encourage, enable and assist young people aged 16 and 17 to participate in education or training
• Identify young people in the area who are covered by the duty to participate and encourage them to find a suitable education or training place
• Track young people’s participation
• Identify those who are not participating or are not in employment, education or training (NEET) to give support to re-engage as soon as possible
• Use the information obtained from robust tracking to ensure that suitable education and training provision is available and that resources can be targeted effectively

Since 2015, young people have been required to continue in learning or training until age 18. Young people have a choice about how they continue in education or training but must do one of the following;

• stay in full-time education, for example at a college or sixth form
• start work based learning such as an apprenticeship or traineeship
• spend 20 hours or more a week working or volunteering, while in part-time education or training

When a young person aged 16 to 19 leaves full time non advanced education or approved training, entitlement to Child Benefit will usually end a few weeks later. For further information on Child Benefit when your child turns 16.

If you are a parent living in Luton applying for a Child Benefit extension you will be told to register with our office. Call 01582 548340 and speak to an adviser to register.

Youth Advice Personal Advisers are professionally qualified L6 and L7 Careers Advisers. These PAs work with NEET young people aged 16 to 18 years old to:

• raise the aspirations of NEET (and targeted groups of young people at risk of NEET)
• provide personalised careers information, advice and guidance
• facilitate action planning and career pathway planning
• identify and support young people to overcome barriers to engagement
• work with professionals, support services, providers and employers
• advocate and negotiate on the young person’s behalf
• support young people to obtain a September Guarantee offer
• support young people that are making benefit claims
• advise and support teen parents to re-engage when possible

If you are looked after or a care leaver there are specialist personal advisers in the virtual school that can support you. Find out more about Luton’s virtual school.

If you have special education needs and a current education, health and care plan (EHCP) a specialist personal adviser from the Transition Team can support you. Find out more about the Transition Team

If you are in Year 11 and educated at home we are here to support you. We work closely with the Elective Home Education team to ensure that you have a dedicated Personal Adviser assigned to you to provide careers advice, explore your Post-16 options, share opportunities and guide you through this important phase.

• You can expect your PA to complete an Initial Assessment to get a holistic view of you as a young person. They want to understand your aspirations, skills, strengths, barriers, and qualifications etc. to understand how best they can support you to achieve your goals
• Career Exploration and Pathway Planning
• Share resources and tools with you to aid your employability
• Help completing CVs, application forms and job searches
• Support in searching for education and training opportunities including traineeships and apprenticeships
• If there are other barriers in your life that are stopping you from moving forward a PA will make referrals to specialist services that can offer you support. These services include mental health, drug & alcohol, housing, benefits, childcare, transport and health issues

To keep up to date with the latest education, employment and training opportunities follow Youth Advice Service on our social media platforms listed in our contact details below.

Tracking young people’s participation is a key element of our duties and a statutory requirement. Contact Assistants from the Youth Advice Service support the promotion of participation by tracking all 16 to 18 year old residents in Luton capturing:

• Intended destinations: where young people intend to go Post 16 and what applications have they submitted
• September Guarantee/offer of learning: what opportunities young people have a confirmed offer for in Year 12 and 13
• Destinations for the Annual Activity Survey and destination measures: where young people go in Year 12 and 13
• Current activity: at regular intervals the team identify new starters, drop outs (those becoming NEET) and not known via contacts with young people, colleges, sixth forms and training providers

To help you in the best way that we can we hold relevant information about you on a computer database that can only be seen by Luton Council staff who are supporting you.

Information about your progression may be shared with schools, colleges and training providers, however we will only pass on relevant information about you with your consent.

What types of information do we keep about you?

Personal information such as your name, address, date of birth, phone number and email and sensitive information such as your gender, ethnic background, any health issues and special needs.

Discussions that we have had, your career ideas, leaflets and information given to you (by our team)

Qualifications that you have or hope to get and school, college, training and employment history.

Why do we need this information?

• So that we can identify you correctly
• To contact you with information and vacancies that only matter to you
• To track your progress when you leave Year 11 to assist you and offer you support to participate in education, employment and training. Youth Advice Service with Luton Council have a statutory duty to do this on behalf of the Department of Education
• To ensure that you have access to a Personal Adviser (PA), everyone is treated fairly and you receive the best service possible

We are committed to guarding the privacy of all young people and the data that you give to us is kept safe and only shared securely with other organisations if:

1. You give us permission to pass this information to others, such as colleges, training providers, employers and agencies if you and your PA feel it would help you.
2. Or if you or others are at risk of major harm or there is a legal requirement to share your data with others.

Due to the Data Protection Act 2018 it is your right to be able to see a copy of all data that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of this data please make a request in writing (by letter, online form or via email) to the Information Governance Team [email protected]