Social Exclusion Unit Launches New Focus on Young Adults

Date published: 25/10/2004

Two new in depth projects looking at how mainstream services could work better to meet the needs of socially excluded people were announced today by Social Exclusion Minister Jeff Rooker. The Social Exclusion Unit will investigate both the barriers faced by young adults with severe or multiple problems during their transition to adulthood and the problems experienced by socially excluded older people.

Jeff Rooker, Minister for Social Exclusion in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, launched the Unit's new projects, saying: "Young adults and older people are two groups who can be at real risk of social exclusion. The journey to adulthood is a crucial stage in life and can throw up a multitude of problems such as homelessness, unemployment and drug use. We have made progress in targeting this age group and have seen unemployment fall dramatically amongst 18 - 24 year olds since 1997. But 5% of pupils still leave school with no qualifications and the proportion of 16 to 18 year olds not in education, employment or training has so far remained unchanged. So there is still more to do.

For the first time, we will be looking at the complex issues faced by young adults, looking at real reasons why peoples' lives become troubled and considering what more can be done to improve the delivery of services. "Older people face a different set of problems but are also particularly at risk of social exclusion. They have wide-ranging needs but are too often a low priority, which can lead to exclusion from services. Pensioner poverty can make this worse but factors such as exclusion from community activities, loneliness and discrimination can also have a devastating effect on people's lives.

The project will aim to improve the well being of excluded older people through a thorough exploration of how services are delivered on the ground and the problems that lead to exclusion. The outcome of the project will feed in to the Department for Work and Pensions' older people strategy. "Young Adults with Troubled Lives" and "Excluded Older People" will each begin with an informal questionnaire aimed at those who provide services for these groups, which will be followed up by face-to-face consultation events for young adults and older people themselves." Welcoming the questionnaire, Jeff Rooker continued: "We are calling on as many people as possible to feed in their views and experiences so that we kick off the project with a fully comprehensive view of what's going on.

 It is essential to understand what is happening on the ground to ensure that the appropriate solutions are found and that everyone benefits from high quality public services. Through understanding the web of problems that excluded groups' face, we can also act to prevent social exclusion happening in the first place, and reintegrate those who become excluded back into society. "The Government is committed to building thriving, sustainable communities - environments in which we would all like to live. They will only be sustainable if they are fully inclusive and cut to the core of social exclusion. These new programmes are vital to realising that goal."