Peninsular-wide careers and skills services for young people aged between 14 and 25 will continue, but the company behind some of them will now close.
Peninsular-wide careers and skills services for young people aged between 14 and 25 will continue, but the company behind some of them will now close.
CSW Group (previously known as Careers South West) delivers advice and support services to young people across the area. Owned by Cornwall Council, Devon County Council, Plymouth City Council and Torbay Council, the company has been supporting young people around careers and the transition between education and employment for 30 years.
Over the past three years however, since becoming a Teckal organisation, the company has experienced a period of rapid change across the market. The end of the European Funding programme in 2022, and wider financial pressures on local government and the public sector have decreased the number of opportunities coming forward. At the same time, local councils across the UK have sought to rationalise and simplify their services, seeking to reduce cost and adapt to a new environment.
Whilst CSW has worked hard to meet this challenge, improving the short term financial position of the firm and sustaining their strong offer to schools and young people, owners have reluctantly concluded that a change in approach is now needed. As such the decision has been taken to close the company.
The need to provide high quality support to young people as they move from pre to post 16 education/training is in no doubt – last year CSW Group helped more than 2,000 young people in Devon move from situations where they were not in education, employment or training, into a job or course of study. All four Council owners agree that support for young people in Devon and Cornwall around careers and training must and will continue.
As such, staff currently employed by CSW Group to provide the Transitions advice as well as staff who track and record data that is reported back to the Department for Education will, it’s intended, transfer to the councils, with each authority delivering continued support for young people with careers advice within their individual boundaries.
Cornwall Council, however, is yet to decide whether to transfer CSW Group’s staff in-house, or whether to commission another expert provider to take those staff on.
In a joint statement today (Thursday 11 July) the four councils say:
“Following a review of the ownership contract of CSW Group, the four owners (Cornwall Council, Devon County Council, Plymouth City Council, and Torbay Council) have reluctantly concluded that the company’s funding and operational position has changed such that the company is no longer viable.
“As such, the cabinet committees of each authority have agreed that a new approach must be taken that ensures there is minimal impact on the young people who use the education and employment support services provided by CSW.
“All owner authorities are also committed to retaining the company’s significant expertise, which for Devon, Plymouth and Torbay means reintegrating CSW Group staff ‘in-house’. Cornwall will take the same approach and/or commission an expert provider to take them on.
“Whilst clearly a difficult moment of change for staff, owners and customers, we believe that now is the right time to make this change if the expertise and high-quality service that has benefitted the Peninsula for the past 30 years is to be preserved.
“We would like to thank the staff of CSW Group for their commitment and dedication to supporting young people for three decades and will work with them to make this transition as smooth as possible.
“Detailed planning is already under way to coordinate the final transition of CSW Group’s operations on April 1, 2025.
“Owners and management will be seeking to work closely in support of wider staff members and customers who are not to be part of the transfer process, helping them to find new opportunities within the peninsula where appropriate.”
The aim is for CSW Group to close by end of June 2025.
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