One million reasons to open the door
Hi, it's Grace, one of the co-founders of Paws & Pause.
This summer Alan Milburn published the interim findings of his review into young people and work. I read it on a Sunday with a cup of tea and a dog on my feet, and by page three I'd stopped drinking the tea.
Not because any of it surprised me. Because it didn't. Jodie and I have spent the last seven years watching the people behind those numbers walk through our door (or, quite often, pace up and down outside it for twenty minutes first). Seeing it laid out in black and white, in a government report, was a bit like having someone finally describe the thing you've been trying to explain at dinner parties for years.
One million lives (and counting)
Here's the short version, for anyone who doesn't fancy reading 243 pages:
~1 million16–24 year olds not in education, employment or training. That's 1 in 8, and rising.
6 in 10of them have never had a job. Twenty years ago it was 4 in 10.
+70%rise in a decade in those out of work because of a health condition. For disabled young people, mental health is now behind more than 4 in 10 cases.
1 in 5get any meaningful help back into work.
Once someone falls out of work because of their health, it sticks. Almost eight in ten were still out two years later.
And the bit that made me want to hug the author: 84% of these young people told the review they want a job, training or education. The report says, pretty bluntly, that the idea of a generation who can't be bothered is a myth, and a cruel one. Young people aren't the problem. The systems that are supposed to open doors for them are.
There's one line I've read about fifteen times now. It describes a young person who once might have walked into a shop, spoken to a manager and been given a chance, and who now gets screened by a portal, a test or an algorithm "before anyone has looked them in the eye."
That one got me. Because looking people in the eye is pretty much our entire business model.
What we see every day
For anyone new here: Paws & Pause is London's only social enterprise dog daycare. The dogs pay the bills, and the bills pay for our trainee programme, a supported work placement for people rebuilding their lives after mental ill health or addiction. Our trainees join the team on real shifts, with real dogs, real responsibility and real feedback, plus 1:1 coaching and weekly workshops alongside.
The young people in Alan Milburn's report are the people we meet. Some of them are in their late twenties and have never had a paid job. Many have spent years in and out of services. Most have been told, in one way or another, what they can't do.
The report makes a point I wish I'd written myself. The health system is good at diagnosis, treatment and discharge, but for too many young people that journey doesn't lead back to work. It just stops. And instead of asking what someone can't do, it says the first question should be what can they do, and how do we make that happen?
That's the question we ask on day one. And here's what we've learned from asking it:
The first rung has to be real. Not a course about work. Not a CV workshop in a room with no windows. An actual job, with an actual rota, where people are counting on you. (Some of them have four legs and very strong opinions about lunchtime.)
"I didn't have that much hope in the beginning… at the end I ended up getting the job I wanted for a long time."Christie, trainee, now working in the veterinary industry
Dogs make the scary bits smaller. When everything feels like too much, dogs don't. They don't care about the gap on your CV. They teach you to read a room, turn up, ask for help and put things right after a wobble, which, it turns out, is most of what any job needs.
Bad days aren't the end. Recovery isn't a straight line. Neither is a career. What matters is having somewhere you can have a rubbish day, talk it through, and come back on Thursday.
People need to see it's possible. 40% of our own team came through the programme themselves. Nothing we say about "you can do this" lands half as well as the person training you having been exactly where you are.
"This is the first time in my life that I feel settled and happy. New job, new home."Jarreau, trainee, now part of our team
Since 2019 we've supported 85 people. Last year 32 took part and 21 graduated. We're not a silver bullet and we won't pretend to be. But we're proof that when you give people a real chance, most of them grab it with both hands.
What we'd love the final report to say
This is an interim report, and the final recommendations are still to come. So, from a small dog daycare in South London, here's our (unsolicited, but heartfelt) wish list:
Back the first rung. Supported, paid-for work placements with real employers should be part of the answer, not an afterthought. Small businesses and social enterprises are often better placed than anyone to give someone their first chance, but most can't do it without support.
Connect treatment to work. When someone is discharged from mental health or recovery services, "what next?" shouldn't be left to chance. There should be a clear route into real, supported work, so that discharge is a beginning rather than a full stop.
Put people back in recruitment. Not every young person will ever shine in an online assessment. Some of the best people we've worked with would never have got past the portal. Give employers a reason to look people in the eye again.
Listen to people who've been there. The report is at its best when it's quoting young people directly. Lived experience should shape the solutions, not just the case studies.
"I've never had 1-1 sessions with a manager before. It's always been letters in other places."Eddie, trainee
Letters. Not a conversation, not a cup of tea, not someone asking how you're getting on. Letters. That's what we're up against.
Our door's open
We can't fix a million of anything. But we can do our bit, and we're doing a bit more of it this autumn.
Until now every trainee place has been funded through the business and grants, and those places come with waiting lists. So we're opening up the programme. Alongside our funded places, families, individuals and organisations can now pay for a place directly. It's the same programme, the same team and the same dogs, just another way in. (And every paid place helps keep our funded places going. Win, win, woof.)
If you're a young person who's been stuck for a while, or a parent watching someone you love stuck on the wrong side of the door, come and see us. We're running open mornings at Peckham on a normal, noisy day. We don't tidy up for visitors, so you'll see it exactly as it is: dogs, chaos, and people who get it.
And if you're an employer who's read this and thought we could do that, please get in touch. We'd love to talk.
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