Birmingham urgently needs a new deal for kids, says leading thinktank

Birmingham is the youngest major city in Europe - nearly four in 10 (38 per cent) of the city are under 25. This offers a unique opportunity for propelling the city forward if young people in the area are equipped to realise their full potential. But the report’s alarming new findings include:

• Coming out of the pandemic, nearly one in five young people in Birmingham were out of work – much higher than the then national average of 13.5 per cent

• Top level A Level exam grades are below the national average and only one in five adults in the West Midlands say there are good job opportunities for young people leaving school compared to one in four across the UK

• Covid school closures hit the area hard. Children missed more lessons during the height of the pandemic than any other part of the UK

• On a key measure of child poverty, entitlement to free school meals (FSM), the region does badly - with a rate of nearly 27 per cent compared to the national average of 23 per cent

The report, A New Deal for Young People in the West Midlands, shows how the region is being let down by local and central government. It is based on detailed research among education leaders and charities to identify challenges but also successful interventions that could be rolled out more widely to address the issues. The report has been supported by The Rigby Foundation, the charity set up by the Rigby family, owners of Rigby Group, a top ten UK family business based in the West Midlands.

The report warns that young people are held back by low aspirations and lack social and communication skills. Social mobility is stagnant, and generations of families are unemployed. The report highlights how children in the West Midlands, on average, missed the most amount of school between March 2020 and March 2021. This unenviable record continues into attainment for the West Midlands with fewer people staying in education or employment after completing Key Stage 4 (end of GCSEs) and lower than average grades marked as A or A*. 

The report makes it clear that this poor performance in the West Midlands goes beyond education. It points to how “there is also a higher proportion of adults working in lower-paid occupations, and higher rates of economic inactivity and unemployment among working-age adults.”

Birmingham is ranked the seventh most deprived local authority in England. Over 130,000 children in the city endure the worst levels of deprivation. Coming out of the pandemic, almost one in five young people in Birmingham are out of work, much higher than the national average. Young people in the West Midlands are the least likely of any region to have had some kind of work experience, despite over half (55.3 per cent) identifying work experience as the single biggest thing that could make a difference to their employment prospects. 

Only one in five adults in the region say there are good job opportunities for young people leaving school compared to one in four across the UK. Only a quarter (26 per cent) of 18 – 21-year-olds in the West Midlands agreed that disadvantaged young people had the support they needed to succeed. 

The report argues that young people are the key to turbocharging the region’s prosperity, and they urgently need a new deal for education, employment and skills to unlock their potential.  Ahead of the General Election on 4th July, it calls on central and local Government to work with local philanthropists, employers and businesses to create a brighter future. 

Sophia Worringer, Deputy Policy Director at the Centre for Social Justice, said:

“Raising the economic and social prosperity of Birmingham and the West Midlands depends on equipping the next generation with the education, skills and aspiration they need to succeed in work.  The region has so much potential given its uniquely young population, so investing in their future is the key to benefiting us all.

“We have spoken to charities, school leaders and employers who are all seeking to improve the life chances of young people across the West Midlands and Birmingham, and they told of low aspiration; young people lacking social and communication skills; stagnant social mobility and difficulty securing their young talent pipeline.  But for all this, young people themselves are much more optimistic. We are urging government to work with local stakeholders to capitalise on this optimism.”

In the foreword to the report, Steve Rigby, CEO of local business, the Rigby Group, said:

“The question for me is personal. How can we turbocharge the opportunities for young people living right here in the West Midlands, the place where I grew up and where Rigby Group, our family business, has worked for decades?  The scale of the problem is daunting.  

“Ambition in our young must be matched with an environment that allows them to prosper locally in well paid roles, so it is clear then that there is a great need in the West Midlands for a new approach to helping the next generation to thrive, and the Rigby Family want to be a part of the solution.”

The report’s seventeen key evidence-based recommendations include: 

• West Midlands Parents Participation Strategy and 84 attendance mentors across the region to get absent kids back to school

• Guaranteed two weeks of work experience for West Midlands school children before the age of 18.  

• Five hours a week of extracurricular activities in school, supported by local grassroots organisations.