Phillipson demands action to trace ‘phantom NEETs’

More than two dozen councils with the worst records of tracking teenager outcomes have been given six months to improve.

The Department for Education said 32,100 so-called “phantom NEETs” aged 16 and 17 were recorded by local authorities on the basis their activity was not known.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson told 26 councils facing the “greatest challenges” they must agree improvement plans by the end of the year. 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 local authorities 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 held on young people.

Phillipson said 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

The DfE data reveals North Lincolnshire reported the highest “not known” rate for the whereabouts of its 16 and 17-year-olds at 48.3 per cent. It was 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. The DfE has been asked to name the 26 authorities singled out by Phillipson.

The number of young people aged 16 to 24 out of work, education or training topped one million last month, and a landmark report from Alan Milburn said the current one-in-eight NEET rate could rise to one in six without action.

While the DfE’s announcement covers 16 and 17-year-olds, Milburn warned there was a “stark post-18 cliff edge in tracking and support”. Latest estimates suggest there are 57,000 teenagers aged 16 to 17 classified as NEET.

The DfE’s data, built on estimates and not official statistics, suggests only four English local authorities, Redcar and Cleveland, City of London, Thurrock and Cheshire East, were fully aware of the education, employment and training status of their 16 and 17-year-olds.

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. The DfE said the tool would help councils identify at-risk youngsters sooner.

It 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.

The tool was first mentioned 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.

Other measures floated in the white paper included automatic enrolment at a local “default” college or training provider for young people with no job, training or college place lined up.

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”.

She 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 the 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.”