The chief executives of NCVO and Acevo have fired off a joint letter to Chancellor George Osborne ahead of his Autumn Statement next Tuesday, urging him to commit to a job-creation fund for young people with a focus on the voluntary sector.

Sir Stuart Etherington and Sir Stephen Bubb were moved to write the letter in response to the rising youth unemployment figures published recently and employment minister Chris Grayling’s announcement two weeks ago that long-term unemployed people would have to do compulsory work placements in the charity sector.

They said they wanted to draw Osborne’s attention to “another potential solution” which could help tackle youth unemployment.

They point out that there are currently 423 voluntary sector organisations involved in the Work Programme, but only two are prime-providers.  This represents an “incredibly small proportion” of the UK’s 170,000 sector organisations and demonstrates the “untapped potential” in the sector to “take on and train more young people than it is currently doing so”.

They conclude by urging the Chancellor to “consider a structured job-creation fund aimed at young people with a central role for the voluntary and community sector”.

“This fund would focus not only on creating jobs and helping to place people into existing roles or apprenticeships but also ensuring that young people, particularly those in deprived areas, are job-ready,” they wrote.

On 8 November, Chris Grayling announced that people who have been without work for two years, been through the Work Programme and still not found a job, will be required to do a six-month “community work programme” for 30 hours per week.

The provider guidelines suggest that such placements would be appropriate at local authorities, government departments and agencies, charities and third sector organisations, social enterprises, and environmental agencies.

Future Jobs Fund

The scheme will replace the Future Jobs Fund, which paid participants the minimum wage for a six-month period working 25 hours per week.  The Future Jobs Fund was the brainchild of Acevo and sector bodies have been critical of the government's decision to scrap it.

The new community work placement programme has been derided by critics as a new government plan to “use forced labour to replace the gaps left in public service delivery”.

Chris Grayling said: "We want a welfare state which is a ladder up which people climb not a place in which they live.

"If people who are fit for employment, still haven’t managed to find a job after the intensive support provided by the Work Programme, we want them to do community work and get into the habit and routine of work. No one should expect to be able to sit at home doing nothing."