VCS-led employability services are not optional or a ‘nice to have’; they are a vital part of a young person’s pathway to opportunity and independence. They step into the gaps created by the current system - gaps that this report clearly brings into focus.
These services provide critical, often life-changing support to young people who are furthest from the labour market: those who have experienced trauma or abuse; those leaving care or facing homelessness; and those dealing with poverty, poor mental health, exclusion and low confidence.
Crucially, they address the limitations of mainstream provision by offering tailored, person-centred support. They help young people navigate a complex system, stay connected to their communities, and make sustained progress towards education, training and employment.
The report highlights what it describes as a “shocking and shameful” lack of investment in meaningful employment support, calling for access to be radically improved. It recognises that the right support, at the right time, is essential to helping young people enter—and sustain—meaningful employment and training. These are precisely the types of interventions the sector is demonstrably skilled in delivering: evidence-based, targeted and effective. Yet in Northern Ireland, this vital community-led infrastructure has never been more at risk.
Under the UK Government’s new Local Growth Fund, cuts to employability support are dismantling the very systems young people rely on. NICVA’s emerging evidence shows that over 70% of funding for programme delivery has been lost, leading to a sharp contraction in services and leaving thousands fewer young people able to access support. Many programmes reached capacity within the first month of delivery, underlining the scale of need.
This matters because the same young people highlighted in the Milburn review - those at greatest risk of becoming NEET- are among those most affected by these cuts.
Cutting this support now is not only short-sighted; it is indefensible. It abandons young people at a critical point in their lives and leaves VCSE organisations to absorb the consequences of a policy failure they did not create. The result is a growing gap between need and provision- one that risks storing up far greater social and economic costs in the years ahead.
NICVA’s recent Impact Survey highlights the scale of damage to voluntary and community sector (VCS) led employability programmes following the introduction of the Local Growth Fund on 1 April 2026. Initial findings point to a severe contraction in provision, particularly affecting services for young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), which have been among the hardest hit.
Critically, tailored, intensive wraparound supports- widely evidenced as essential in helping young people overcome barriers and progress into employment or training- have been significantly reduced or lost altogether. The emerging data is stark: for every £1 previously invested in programme supports, only 29p now remains. This is not a marginal adjustment; it represents a systemic withdrawal of support with serious implications for young people and the organisations that serve them.
We fully agree with Alan Milburn’s report that this crisis is urgent and requires a long-term strategy focused on a whole-system reset. However, without immediate intervention - at both Westminster and Stormont - services across the VCSE sector will continue to be eroded, skilled staff will be lost, and more young people will be pushed further away from opportunity, stability and participation.
If that action does not come, the consequences are clear: more support will disappear, inequalities will deepen, and more young people across Northern Ireland will be failed by a system that should be protecting their future, strengthening our economy, and expanding opportunity for generations to come. This is precisely the trajectory the Milburn report warns against - and one that must be urgently reversed.
