Young People and Work: Milburn Interim Report
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham (Andrew Ranger) on securing this vital debate. The interim report of the Milburn review is as stark as it is comprehensive. It is a damning indictment of a broken system that has left more than a million young people across the country not yet in employment, education or training. That is more than a million young people whose talents, aspirations and potential are at risk of being wasted, leaving long-lasting scars on themselves, their families, their communities and the taxpayer. Such a figure reflects not individual failure but a systemic failure at the heart of Government policy over many years. For too long, young people have been failed by Governments that lacked the very ambition that they themselves hold. Conservative Governments in Westminster and the SNP Government in Holyrood have presided over a steady erosion of opportunity. Those parties’ level of interest in today’s debate is instructive. They failed to equip young people with the skills they need, they failed to provide the support that young people deserve, and they failed to recognise that lack of opportunity is a driving force behind rising youth joblessness. We see the career ladder being weakened everywhere. Entry-level jobs have declined dramatically, with 1.6 million fewer opportunities available across the country. The traditional Saturday jobs that many of us had when we were growing up—I worked in our local veterinary surgery—have been disappearing for years, while apprenticeship starts have fallen by 35% over the last decade. The hiring process itself is broken. Young people desperately want to work, and they need to be given the opportunity to do so. These complex, multifaceted challenges deserve a comprehensive plan that is equal to the generational scale of the crisis, so I urge the Minister and the Government to set a clear direction that fixes youth mental health services, reforms technical education, bridges the transition gap between compulsory education and employment, and transforms the culture in our jobcentres.