Careers advice a “ghost” service?

My last school job as a teacher was to be responsible for careers advice.  Later I was a consultant developing careers provision in schools across three boroughs. I took the responsibility very seriously and aimed to provide students with all the information they needed to make informed choices about their future. During that time there were many changes dictated by ministers. Last year the Government transferred responsibility for delivering careers guidance away from local authorities, and passed it on to schools and a mixture of web and phone-based services. There are warnings against this. The charity Barnardos have published research suggesting the removal from councils risks ‘squandering young futures’ as services were failing to reach youngsters.  The charity said the Government risked replacing face-to-face careers guidance with ‘remote online schemes that young people report they can’t use or don’t even know exist'. The charity highlighted the fact that some advice lines cost as much as 40p per minute to call. All this at a time when large numbers of out young people are out of work.