The Campaign for a UK Year of Service
Summary
In 2024, UK Year of Service committed to implement a national campaign over a one-year period to scale its successful pilot program that places young persons in employment opportunities with frontline charities for nine to12 months. The campaign will advance awareness through meetings with policymakers; conduct targeted events to bring together a wide range of public and private stakeholders, including the media; and generate the resources from government, corporate, and philanthropic institutions necessary to extend service opportunities to 4,000 young people across the U.K. Lord David Blunkett, a former education secretary and home secretary, and Stephen Greene CBE, the founding chair of the National Citizen Service, will lead the campaign with the ultimate goals of providing U.K. youth with an opportunity to jump-start their career by actively working to solve problems in communities across the country, improving social cohesion, and positioning young people as driving force to help address some of the U.K.’s greatest challenges.
Approach
UK Year of Service (UKYOS) is a national program that places young people in front line charities for 9-12 months. Young people provide leadership to support areas of greatest need in Britain, primarily around issues in key sectors such as healthcare, education and climate resilience. All placements pay a real living wage, and increase the skills and confidence of young people to lead the lives they want.
After a pilot phase, the program is ready to enter a “scaling-up” phase. To achieve this, UKYOS commits to launch a national advocacy campaign by 2025 to advance awareness, generate support and actualize the resources necessary to increase service slots to 4,000 young people across the UK.
More specifically, UKYOS’ national campaign will achieve three components:
First, advance awareness through meetings with policy makers, including Secretaries of State and Ministers. Additional engagement will occur with senior advisors and officials, and the newly created public body, “Skills England”. UKYOS will plan targeted events to bring together wider stakeholders, including the media.
Second, generate support from policy makers, as well as the business community, non-profit organizations and alumni. UKYOS recently launched a Business Advisory Council and a Programme Partner Council to leverage the expertise and influence of industry leaders and delivery partners.
Third, actualize resources from a variety of sources, including governmental commitment (both the Growth and Skills levy reform and new funding) , employer partners, and foundation/corporate philanthropy.
The campaign will be led by Lord Blunkett, a former Education Secretary and Home Secretary, and Stephen Greene CBE, the founding Chair of the National Citizen Service. It will engage a total of 274 stakeholders: 57 government officials and policy makers, 140 business council members, and 77 program delivery partners.
UKYOS has a proven model. The first pilot engaged more than 400 young persons, 57% of whom were on government benefits, with 90% of employers noting improvements in participants’ skills and job readiness.
Action Plan
July – October 2024: Launch Business Council, Launch Programme Partner Council, engage government in conversations about scale. Current UKYOS programme year ends; continue push for funding to continue another year of pilot while working towards greater investment.
October – December 2024: Leverage Business Council and finalize business plan; work to engage key members of government around spending review ahead of CSR to make the case for UKYOS investment. Develop and launch communications campaign to raise public awareness about UKYOS in partnership with programme partners. Continue to push for UKYOS funding to continue another year of programme.
January – March 2025: Continue to engage government and UKYOS councils as budgets are finalized: CSR and budget plans announced in late spring 2025. Continue to roll out a communication campaign, raising awareness of UKYOS. Solidify UKYOS as UK Government policy.
April – June 2025: Depending on outcome of March Government budget announcement, determine next phase of campaign. Regular advocacy with Business and Programme Partner Council members. Continue to engage government and UKYOS councils and push for funding.
July – December 2025: Continue to engage government and UKYOS Council members and operationalize UK Year of Service. If necessary, continue to push for greater government support.
Background
Young people are the UK’s greatest untapped resource, brimming with potential to drive social and economic growth. However almost 50% of young people feel education has not equipped them with the skills they require to get the jobs they want. As such, there are currently 900,000 young people in the UK not in full-time education, employment or training, and millions more are in temporary or unsecured roles, unsure of where to turn. In addition, 40% of 16–24-year-olds report feeling lonely, making them amongst the most disconnected groups in UK society.
Since it was first piloted in 2021, the UK Year of Service programme has enabled more than 400 young adults to serve full-time in meaningful roles, and engaged with more than 80 employers, primarily grassroots nonprofits and charities. With greater investment from government and the private sector, UK Year is poised to provide thousands of UK youth with an opportunity to jump start their career, actively work to solve local problems in communities across the country, improve social cohesion, and position young people as driving force to help address some of the UK’s greatest challenges.
Progress Update
Partnership Opportunities
UKYOS is seeking additional financial resources to support the campaign, as well as additional partners in the UK with capacity and desire to support the work of UKYOS. Aimed at policy makers, UKYOS also plans to launch a targeted media campaign to tell the important story of our UKYOS participants and would welcome media support and opportunities to elevate this work from CGI participants., UKYOS would welcome the opportunity to share best practices developed during the pilot phase. UKYOS has learned what works in terms of young people recruitment; relationship with front line organizations, how best to maximize impact on community, young people and the organizations; survey and data collection; public policy campaigns.