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Young people from YMCAs across England took up the chance to question an MP around job centre support in a Twitter Q&A last night (Monday 26 October).

In total, about 20 young people from YMCA schemes jumped on the #youngjobseekers hashtag to pose questions to Chloe Smith, MP for North Norwich.

Questions ranged from ‘How can job centres be made to feel more personal to people like me?’ from Nathan, at YMCA Exeter, to ‘How can young people be made to feel less like statistics and more like people?’ from Dale, at YMCA Norfolk.

The hour-long Twitter debate was organised by the Parliament Outreach service following the release of YMCA’s ‘Safety Net or Springboard?‘ report earlier this month, which called for an overhaul of job centres.

This research uncovered evidence of a “dehumanising and demoralising” employment support service that was, in some cases, leaving young people even further from long-term work.

The online Q&A will be followed up today by a Westminster Hall debate around job centre support where some of the questions and experiences raised will be cited by Chloe Smith MP.

Denise Hatton, Chief Executive of YMCA England, said: “It was clear from the views expressed in our research this month that job centres are not fit for purpose and are failing to fulfil one of their two primary roles, namely to provide young people with effective public employment services.

“Our young people expressed strong views to YMCA and it is encouraging to see them tackling the issue head through this online debate.

“It is our aim that young people have a real say on how the job centre supports them to ensure they get the support they need at what is a difficult and, as we found, often demoralising time of their lives.”

‘Safety Net or Springboard?’ was put together by YMCA England after a series focus groups with young people across the country.

Following its findings, YMCA has called on job centres to be overhauled and targeted with a new ‘service obligation’ to match the Youth Obligation being placed on young people from April 2017.

This would see job centres providing each young person with a single work coach specifically trained to support their needs, the option to participate in relevant training for more than 16 hours a week without losing benefits and the option to access in-work support once they have found employment, among other recommendations.

Read ‘Safety Net or Springboard?’ here.

The Westminster debate will run from 4.30pm to 5.30pm on Tuesday 27 October and will be available to watch online at Parliament TV: https://parliamentlive.tv/home/_404?aspxerrorpath=/event/index/a2966de9-fd10-4000-a2f2-a7408fe34831

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For more information or to request an interview with a YMCA representative, please contact Andrew Mortimer, Communications Manager, at andrew.mortimer@england.ymca.org.uk or call 020 7186 9543.

Notes to editors​

  • Founded in 1844, YMCA in England is made up of 114 member YMCAs working to ensure that young people have opportunities to thrive and contribute positively to their communities.
  • YMCA operates in over 530 different communities in England impacting upon the lives of over 600,000 people every year.
  • YMCAs provide almost 10,000 beds for young people every night. YMCA is the largest voluntary sector provider of safe, supported accommodation for young men and women.
  • YMCA enables nearly 43,000 people every year to engage in education, skills and training to enable them to improve their opportunities in the job market.
  • YMCA is the largest voluntary sector provider of health and wellbeing services promoting physical activity.