Nearly one million young people in Britain are outside education, employment or training. That should trouble anyone concerned about growth, fairness or the country's future. It should also trouble those of us who have argued for more power to be devolved from Whitehall. If devolution means anything, it must be able to deal with problems like this.
For young people, these failures meet in a place. The college, bus, employer, Jobcentre, school and GP are all local. So are the consequences when they fail to connect. That is why youth employment should test the next phase of devolution. Moving responsibility around government is not an achievement in itself. The test is whether lives improve.
