Purpose

The decision enables the signing of a grant
agreement to provide the above funding.

Content

To
provide £150,000 grant funding (£50,000 per annum in
each of 2025/26, 2026/27 and 2027/28) for Oxfordshire Youth’s
Business Guardians programme.
 
This decision is not
exempt.

Reasons for the decision

Oxfordshire County Council has identified the Business
Guardians programme delivered by Oxfordshire Youth as a key
deliverable as part of Oxfordshire Works (the county’s
Local Get Britain Working Plan).
 
It is intended that grant funding will enable Business
Guardians to reach 500 of the most disadvantaged young people in
the county, who are most at risk of exclusion from the labour
market, by the end of the third year.
 
The grant funding will enable Oxfordshire Youth to
work with employers to tackle youth
unemployment, pursuant to the aims
and objectives of Oxfordshire Works (the
local Get Britain Working Plan). It will further
enable Oxfordshire Youth to provide industry-specific
workshops, events, work placement and work experience
offers; to organise CEO mentorship programmes including
1-1 mentoring for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds; and
form a CEO Leadership Council, contributing 2 days annually to
advance strategic impact.
 
In addition, Oxfordshire County Council will join the
programme as principal sponsor and strategic partner.
 
The programme delivers a range of outcomes aligned with
OCC’s priorities (including reducing youth unemployment and
those not in employment, education or training; supporting care
leavers; and closing identified skills gaps), will enable OCC to
provide strategic leadership, promotes data integration and
insight, and future proofs Oxfordshire’s
workforce.

Alternative options considered

Do nothing. Given the challenges for young people
identified in Oxfordshire Works, this was not considered
viable.
Increase resource at Oxfordshire County Council.
OCC could directly employ staff to create a similar programme,
working with Enterprise Oxfordshire. Given the existence of
Business Guardians, which already has significant buy-in from the
private sector, this option was rejected as it would create
unnecessary competition and fragmentation.

3.   
Identify a market
solution. As above, it would be possible to identify a market
solution but this was rejected as it would create unnecessary
competition and fragmentation.