Link up Leigh Park: closing the opportunity, attainment and health gap for young people in Leigh Park

Havant Borough Council

About the project

Leigh Park in Havant has areas within the top five per cent most deprived in England, and health and economic outcomes in the region are significantly worse than the averages for Hampshire. In 2019, Leigh Park was identified by Local Trust as one of six ‘left behind’ places in the south east of England. ‘Left behind’ places have higher rates of unemployment and child poverty, and people living there are more likely to have poorer health than in other deprived areas.

Being in meaningful work with fair pay and opportunities for progression has a positive effect on health, creates social connections, and lifts people out of poverty, reducing the risk of poor long-term health outcomes.

This project led by Havant Borough Council focused on removing societal, health and economic barriers to 16-to-24-year-olds accessing high-quality, high-value work; working with local employers to encourage a higher uptake of apprenticeships, work placements and employment for young people; developing sustainable pathways to employment and training; and implementing a physical and virtual one-stop-stop to provide services for young people in Leigh Park.

Key achievements

The first stage of the project was to thoroughly explore the factors influencing such high levels of health inequalities and deprivation. This exploration was led by the University of Portsmouth, as well as through real-time feedback from services working within the community and service users. The findings of the University’s Participatory Insight Programme and the Youth Engagement Survey helped shape several pilot interventions and schemes.

The project activities all worked towards the objective of reducing the barriers experienced by 16-24-year-olds in Leigh Park to move towards education and/or employment, with a particular focus improving the confidence, mental health and wellbeing of this age group, as well as reducing financial challenges.

A mentoring scheme was rolled out to support the most at-risk individuals transitioning from school to further education, with the aim of helping them remain and gain the initial qualifications necessary to move closer to employment. The Link Up Youth Hub, a youth employment service based in Havant, worked to support those not in education, employment or training (NEETs) to return to education and training to gain employment. Based on the research and feedback from within the community, the approach taken by the youth hub service was to closely work with a variety of partners to provide the wraparound support necessary to reduce barriers relating to social, environmental and financial factors. At the same time, work coaches offered one-to-one support to develop employability skills and complete job searches/applications.

A Youth Employment Scheme was set up to open local opportunities for candidates accessing the Link Up Youth Hub, many with additional needs and/or underlying challenges. This scheme also enabled Havant’s Economic Development Team to build relationships with employers to encourage a shift in how they recruit, provide a supportive working environment and offer quality jobs. The scheme engaged more than 25 local businesses, working closely with 20 of those to deliver funded work placements and employ 39 young people, of whom 62% sustained employment, with a small percentage returning to training/education.

Key reflections and learnings

In 2024, researchers from the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance at the University of Portsmouth evaluated the socio-economic impact of the Link Up Youth Hub service. Highlights from the assessment demonstrate that an investment of £140k per year over a five-year period has a return on investment of £26 million, broken down into three overarching impacts: finance, crime and health.

An overarching theme arising from this project was the difficulty experienced in engaging with local businesses/employers, and the project team had to find ways to build this engagement. Kaitie Howard, project lead, explained: “The project involved building strong relationships with employers and providing incentives to engage, such as funded work placements and free business support. These incentives embedded trust in working with us, and more willingness to get involved with additional projects and offers.”

Sustainability plans

To improve recruitment practice across employers in the borough, the project team is working with Hireful, a recruitment software provider, to develop a recruitment platform Link Up Local. The aim is to build relationships with employers to understand how they are achieving their social value responsibilities by recruiting from the local community. 

A Hampshire Skills Partnership Steering Group is being developed to bring together education, businesses, training providers and local government to ensure that agencies are working collaboratively to impact the county’s skills agenda.

Advice for others

There were challenges around the requirement for an academic partner in this project, including around timelines when delivering an iterative and evolving project. However, working with the University of Portsmouth led to positive experiences such as being introduced to another school (Accounting, Economics and Finance) at the University which led to economic impact assessment work, the output of which has been shared at a number of events, and the findings have been used as a tool to inform, influence and share for replication. 

Business engagement is difficult and takes time, as Kaitie explained: “It took the duration of the project to have a team that understands Havant’s business landscape and that could deliver a strategy that engages businesses.” Much of this was down to having to develop a new team’s knowledge of the local area with limited capacity available. It is important for similar projects to allocate proper resourcing to this engagement work.

Contact information

For more information about this project, please contact Kaitie Howard, Havant Borough Council.