A report, external presented to the CPCA funding committee said the youth forum would be “critical” to making the scheme a success and should include “young people’s voices and lived experiences”.
It said there were record high shares of 16- to 24-year-olds in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough who were economically inactive, at nearly 49% in the year to June 2024, although most of these were students.
Numbers of young people economically inactive due to other reasons had increased on an annual basis, such as being temporarily sick, discouraged, or unable to seek work.
Peterborough had the highest rates of teenagers not economically active, in education or training (NEET), at 4% for 16-year-olds and 6% for 17-year-olds.
The CPCA said: “Having assessed current levels of NEET, economic inactivity and the index of multiple deprivation, we are concerned about Peterborough, Fenland, East Cambridgeshire, and some neighbourhoods in Cambridge and Huntingdonshire.”
The youth guarantee would apply to 18- to 21 year-olds, as well as 16- and 17-year-olds who have disengaged from education or are at risk of doing so.
The new forum would be recruited with the help of local organisations such as youth groups, councils, job centres and volunteer groups.