Funding for eight “youth guarantee” pilot programmes designed to tackle the rising youth NEETS crisis has been extended into 2027.
The programmes, dubbed “trailblazers”, are testing a range of initiatives aimed at reducing youth inactivity and unemployment in eight devolved English regions.
It means that the programmes launched in Spring but only funded until March 2026 will now continue until March the following year.
News of the funding extension comes as new Office for National Statistics figures revealed that 948,000 young people aged 16 to 24 years old were estimated to be not in employment, education or training (NEET).
The “stubbornly” high figures for January to March this year show a 0.3 per cent increase on the previous quarter, caused by an estimated 25,000 increase in young women classed as NEET.
Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said: “This government will not stand by while so many young people are not in education or training – robbing them of their potential and our country of its future.
“The extra £45 million in funding I have announced today will help us ensure that no young person will be left behind as we unlock economic growth and secure prosperity for all under our Plan for Change.”
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said the schemes, all of which are run by mayoral combined authorities and the Greater London Authority, will “pave the way” for the national rollout of a youth guarantee that will ensure all 18 to 21-year-olds are “earning or learning”.
However, the government is yet to confirm when a national youth guarantee programme may begin.
The eight youth “trailblazer” areas are located in Liverpool, West Midlands, Tees Valley, East Midlands, West of England, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, and two in London.
Although the funding is being made available for the same areas, the government did not confirm whether it would continue to fund the same schemes or seek to fund new initiatives.
Lizzie Crowley, senior skills adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD), welcomed the announcement but said “bolder action” is required.
She added: “The latest NEET figures show no improvement, with stubbornly high numbers persisting.”
The youth guarantee trailblazer programme was announced in November last year, alongside the government’s Get Britain Working white paper, and officially launched in May this year.
Initiatives being funded in the 2025-26 financial year include Kickstart-style paid work placements, tailored support for care leavers, and “enhanced destinations tracking” systems to gather extra information on 17 to 19-year-old school and college leavers.
Each area has been allocated £5 million, with the remaining £5 million being used to run a national evaluation to inform the government’s “future roll-out approach”, as well as potential “additional support” for local areas during the year.
Laura-Jane Rawlings, CEO of Youth Employment UK and chair of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough trailblazer, said: “I think it’s a good indication that we’re seeing continued funding, because we know that these programmes for some young people do need longer. You can’t just switch them off and expect them to be in a positive destination.
“But I worry that we don’t quite know what works and are committing to spending before we have a full picture.”
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “The number of young people who are currently not in education, employment or training is unacceptably high, which is why we’re determined to spread opportunity into all corners of the country.
“The Youth Guarantee is just one of the steps we’re taking to get young people into skilled work and training, with reforms to the apprenticeship system to direct more funding to young people, cutting red tape to make it easier to start or complete an apprenticeship, and introducing foundation apprenticeships to give young people a route into careers in critical sectors.”
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