More than two dozen councils have been ordered to improve how they track teenagers after new data found the education, employment or training status of 32,100 16- and 17-year-olds was unknown. The Department for Education said 32,100 so-called “phantom NEETs” were recorded by councils on the basis their activity could not be confirmed. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has told 26 councils facing the “greatest challenges” they will be required to agree improvement plans over the next six months. Every other council will receive a letter setting out expectations for improving how young people at risk of becoming NEET are tracked and supported. It follows an FE Week investigation in March which found councils held no record of whether 44,000 school leavers had received an appropriate post-16 offer through the ‘September guarantee’ policy. Councils blamed poor data sharing, staff pressures and delays receiving information from schools and colleges for the poor quality of information they hold on young people. Phillipson has said today accurate and timely tracking was “not a box-ticking exercise” but “the difference between a young person getting support early or falling through the cracks entirely”. “While local authorities do incredibly difficult work, often against real constraints, it’s not consistent enough,” she added. Tracking gaps New DfE estimates showed North Lincolnshire reported the highest “not known” rate for the whereabouts of its 16- and 17-year-olds by far at 48.3 per cent. They were followed by Somerset at 19.6 per cent, Herefordshire at 17.6 per cent and Northumberland at 15.7 per cent. Peterborough’s figures were suppressed because complete returns were unavailable. DfE has been asked to name the 26 councils receiving separate letters. It comes as the number of young people aged 16 to 24 out of work, education or training topped one million last month, alongside a landmark report from Alan Milburn which said the current one in eight NEET rate could rise to one in six without action. While DfE’s announcement today covers 16 and 17-year-olds, Milburn also warned there was a “stark post-18 cliff edge in tracking and support”. Latest estimates suggest there are 57,000 16 to 17-year-olds classified as NEET. DfE’s data, which are estimates and not official statistics, suggests only two local authorities in England were aware of the education, employment and training status of 16 and 17-year-olds. They were Redcar and Cleveland and City of London. RONI on the table Councils will be supported by a new risk of NEET indicator (RONI) tool which is designed to collate information on attendance, special educational needs, mental health needs and care experience. DfE said this will help councils identify young people at risk of becoming NEET sooner. The tool could, for example, trigger interventions such as a place at a college, mental health support or taster sessions to entice young people back into education or training. It was first trailed in the government’s ‘get Britain working’ white paper in 2024. It was then restated in the post-16 education and skills white paper, published in October, alongside new guidance for schools and colleges on identifying at-risk young people. The department said that guidance will be published today. Other measures floated in the white paper included automatic enrolment at a local “default” college or training provider for young people without a job or a place in education or training post-16. Laura-Jane Rawlings, chief executive of Youth Employment UK, said poor council tracking was a “structural weakness in how we identify and support young people before they fall through the cracks.”. Rawlings added: “Youth Employment UK’s 2023 research for The Careers & Enterprise Company found that access to and sharing of NEET data was the single biggest driver in preventing and reducing NEET among 16- and 17-year-olds. It also found a patchwork of local systems, inconsistent Risk of NEET Indicators, and major challenges around capacity, data-sharing and accountability. “It is welcome that DfE is now recognising the scale of the problem, but better data alone will not support a young person. Councils need the capacity, tools, guidance and local partnerships to act on that data. A credible youth guarantee has to start with knowing who young people are, where they are, what barriers they face and what support will help them move forward.”