According to their report, Wales has a higher proportion of Neets than anywhere else in the UK and the committee noted that "it is deeply worrying that so many of our young people are still being failed by the system."
Predictably, the Welsh Assembly Government dismisses this findings by stating that it has invested £49m into training and education for NEETs.
However, is that money actually reaching its intended recipients?
One of the main sources of funding for programmes to support young people is European Convergence Funding. Indeed, there is an entire European Social Fund measure that is dedicated to “supplying young people with the skills needed for learning and future employment”.
According to the Welsh European Funding Office, £108 million of European funding has been allocated to the measure. So far, ten projects have been approved which will draw down £62.3 million of funding.
However, given the report from the Enterprise and Learning Committee, the question is whether this money has made a difference.
Well, it would seem that if we examine the summary of expenditure claims for these European funded projects, there may be a problem. The table below shows the EU Grant paid by WEFO to project sponsors. This seems to suggest that, as of 15th June 2010, there has only been £3.7 million of eligible expenditure to those European funded programmes targeted to helping young people and only £2.3 million of EC grant drawn down.
If that is really the case, then the Welsh Assembly Government certainly has some serious questions to answer as to why European funding, which is probably the only pot of money we have that is protected from the UK Government’s expenditure cuts, does not seem to have been spent on those that need it the most.
Given the concerns expressed by the Enterprise and Learning Committee, you have to ask why no-one has picked up on this issue and made inquiries as to the progress of those projects that are being funded to support NEETs through European funds.
But the issue may be more widespread than that.
As the table below shows, if we examine all projects funded through European funds, then of the £1.4 billion committed to date, only £286 million has been claimed and spent by those running programmes (and WAG is the organisation which has the largest number of projects in both value and number).
There was a time when the Welsh political classes and press had an enormous interest in the management of European programmes in Wales and an early failure even cost Alun Michael his job as First Secretary back in 2000.
If Wales has hundreds of millions of pounds available to help our economy and it is simply not being spent, then urgent questions need to be asked as to why, during a time of economic hardship, we are simply not accessing the only source of financial support that is relatively immune to UK Government cuts.
