News

There have been a number of ministerial changes announced in the recent reshuffle.

The new Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work is Chloe Smith MP. She replaces Justin Tomlinson who has been appointed Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. Chloe is the ninth person to occupy the role since 2010.

DFN Project SEARCH is running a series of workshops where they will present and discuss the data they collect around their Supported Internships. They use this data to to help them understand what's working well and what isn't. They've analysed this information for their 2020-2021 cohort and will share it at the workshops. Topics covered will include overall employment outcomes, average salaries and hours and Intern demographics and more.

The events can be booked through Eventbrite.

BASE is one of 80 signatories to a letter to the Prime Minister calling on him to drive forward a coordinated cross-departmental approach to tackling short-term and long-term youth unemployment to ensure that there will be no ‘lost generation'.

The 80 organisations have come together through the Youth Employment Group to warn that despite government efforts for youngsters to get the help that they need to get into work through investment in employment support, education, training and jobs, the challenge for young people is far from over.

The Education & Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) issued revised funding rules for apprenticeship providers last month. These include substantial amendments to the section about apprentices who need access to learning support. 

Learning support funding is available to meet the costs of putting in place reasonable adjustments, as set out in section 20 of the Equality Act 2010, for apprentices who have a learning difficulty or disability as defined in Section 15ZA(6) of the Education Act 1996 (as amended by section 41 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009):

(a) the person has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of persons of the same age, or

(b) the person has a disability which either prevents or hinders the person from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided by institutions providing education or training for persons who are over compulsory school age.