The first funding stream from the £1bn Youth Contract will be a £126m, three-year, payment-by-results programme for 16 to 17-year-old NEETs.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who announced the details today, said charities and business are invited to bid for contracts worth up to £2,200 for each young person successfully helped. The deadline for the first stage of tendering is in two weeks on 5 March 2012.
The programme will start in July 2012 and end in 2015. Help will focus on at least 55,000 young people aged 16-17, who are not in education, employment or training (NEETs).
Announcing the £126m funding package, Clegg said: “Sitting at home with nothing to do when you’re so young can knock the stuffing out of you for years. It is a tragedy for the young people involved – a ticking timebomb for the economy and for society as a whole.
"That’s why I am calling on charities and other organisations at the coalface to work with government to help tens of thousands of lost teenagers onto a brighter path.”
Earlier this month, employment minister Chris Grayling said he especially expected charities to be active in the delivery of the section for 16 to 17-year-olds in the Youth Contract.
The Youth Contract is being jointly delivered by the Departments for Education; Business, Innovation and Skills; and Work and Pensions.
Data from the 2011 Labour Force Survey for quarter 3 showed that 150,000 16 to 17-year-olds (11.9 per cent) were not in education, employment or training.
