An independent review into the growing number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) is “long overdue” and must finally join up piecemeal government initiatives, experts have said.
Last week, the government announced former social mobility tsar Alan Milburn will lead an “uncompromising” investigation into the causes of the NEET rate that has risen to almost one million.
While the appointment has been widely welcomed, sector leaders have urged Milburn to ensure the review breaks down long-standing “policy silos”.
Writing for FE Week (click here), Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said the review could succeed where others have failed – by connecting education, employment and health policy.
“The review can do something governments rarely manage: breaking down the policy silos,” he said.
“For too long, we’ve treated education, employment and health as separate domains when they are deeply connected. The danger now is ‘initiativitis’: a flurry of disconnected reforms – the curriculum review, the youth guarantee, the white working-class review – without a unifying vision.”
Former education secretary Lord Blunkett said he was “incredibly supportive” of Milburn’s appointment, praising his past work in Barnsley on social mobility and youth opportunity.
“Yes, I think it is long overdue and we need to join up the dots so that the variety of initiatives can be scaled up rapidly,” Blunkett told FE Week.
‘Initiativitis’ fears
Over the past 16 months, the government has announced £25 million to double the number of youth hubs, £90 million for youth guarantee trailblazers, launched foundation apprenticeships, conducted an independent review of curriculum, assessment and qualifications in England, and created a “job guarantee” for young people on long-term benefits.
Last month’s post-16 education and skills white paper also contained a range of measures to combat rising young NEET numbers, including auto-enrolling school-leavers on post-16 courses and tracking attendance of 16 to 19-year-olds.
Experts cautioned that the sector had seen a plethora of “reviews” over past decades without achieving meaningful change.
They added, however, that new reviews are necessary when times and causes of NEETs have changed.
For example, the rise in the number of young people who are economically inactive due to health conditions and disabilities has worsoned since the pandemic.
The government announced earlier this year that it plans to slash health and disability benefits for young people in a bid to push them into employment or training, as part of efforts to cut the country’s “ballooning” benefits bill.
Milburn’s review, to be assisted by a panel of expert advisers, has been tasked with “understanding the drivers of the increase in the number of young people who are NEET and claiming health and disability benefits, including childhood experience” and will “investigate the root causes of this rise in economic inactivity among disabled young people and those with health conditions”.
Milburn said the review will be “uncompromising in exposing failures in employment support, education, skills, health and welfare, and will produce far-reaching recommendations for change to enhance opportunities for young people to learn and earn”.
One system fits all
Laura-Jane Rawlings, chief executive of Youth Employment UK, told FE Week: “We currently have lots of pieces of the puzzle, but nobody has looked at these pieces holistically to really see where the gaps are.
“Over the last couple of decades, we’ve seen loads of reviews, reports and millions in investment, yet youth unemployment levels remain stubbornly high. So it’s fair to ask: what’s really going to be different this time?”
Rawlings urged Milburn to focus on the key “transition points” where young people fall through the cracks, from failing GCSEs in English and maths to struggling to access careers advice or opportunities locally.
“Government has funded a lot of good work, from the What Works Centre to Talent Match and the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers, but it’s all been piecemeal. No one has brought it together to understand how it fits as one system,” she added.
“If this review genuinely joins up the dots between skills, health, welfare and employment, and reflects today’s labour market, then it could make a real difference. But it must avoid becoming just another exercise in cost-cutting or another ‘test and learn’ that never gets to the learning.”
Stephen Evans, chief executive of the Learning and Work Institute, added that while reviews can play a role, the government already has a wealth of evidence on the issue.
“The urgency of this challenge, given the negative impact of being out of work and education when young, means we need to focus on rapid delivery of the government’s youth guarantee,” he said.
“Doing so requires proper resourcing and joining up work, skills and health support.”
Milburn will submit an interim report to the Department for Work and Pensions next spring, followed by a final report in the summer.
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