Keeping track mapping and tracking vulnerable young people

Abstract

The notion of social exclusion, and the need for its existence and effects to be addressed and combated by government social policy, has gained great prominence in recent years, as illustrated by the establishment and work of the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU). One of the issues of particular interest and concern to policy makers and practitioners has been the fortunes of ‘vulnerable’ young people, especially those who become detached from ‘mainstream’ youth transitions. Such transitions have tended to become longer, more ambiguous or uncertain and more diverse as a plethora of different pathways into the labour market and other domains of adulthood have emerged.