This report aims to build understanding amongst local and national policy makers on the most effective ways to improve employment outcomes for young people in the UK. It argues that cities are more likely to have a good grasp of the specific barriers their young people face, how to target the most disengaged and what training and employment opportunities are available.

The key recommendations are:

• National Government should ensure local partners have longer-term certainty over funding;
• National Government should enable local partners to bring services together around the individual, to ensure coordinated support for young people;
• The Department for Work and Pensions should devolve commissioning of the Youth Contract and Work Programme to cities post-2016;
• Local partners need to invest in robust assessment and evaluation of programmes to understand what works; and
• Good national and sub-national networks should be in place to identify and share best practice between providers, cities and other stakeholders.

Supported by the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership