We can’t tackle NEET numbers without fixing 16-19 funding

Our country is on the brink of a grim milestone. Later this month, the number of young people who are NEET (not in education, employment or training) could cross the one million threshold for the first time in 13 years.

Still, every summer, at the very moment when the roots of the NEET problem are taking hold, we allow funding for thousands of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to fall away.

This high-stakes moment is marked by the transition from secondary school into sixth form or college. For the 180,000 year 11s eligible for free school meals, this moment also marks the end of their pupil premium allocation – ringfenced funding to support their education and outcomes. As a result, the minute GCSE exams are over, funding for those from disadvantaged backgrounds falls off a cliff.

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that each of these young people lose about £1,000 in investment and support at this transition.

This makes no sense. The barriers that young people from low-income backgrounds face do not suddenly abate on that last Friday in June. In fact, the Education Policy Institute’s research shows that it is both at and soon after this transition that the patterns of disengagement emerge.

Meanwhile, we still expect these young people to continue to participate in education and training, build their skills, gain qualifications and develop their confidence, all in preparation for the world of work and adulthood. It has been over a decade since the participation age was raised to 18. Sadly, the way we fund education has yet to catch up.

The disadvantage funding cliff edge is particularly nonsensical amid a crisis in NEET numbers. The 16-19 phase in education is the last opportunity in compulsory education to address and prevent disengagement. We should seize it to ensure that young people gain the strongest set of qualifications they can – the single biggest protective factor against becoming NEET. Impetus’s Youth Jobs Gap Index shows that the correlation between having low levels of qualification and being NEET is twice as strong as the correlation between having special educational needs and disabilities and being NEET. Lacking English and maths gateway qualifications is the single biggest shared characteristic of young people who are long-term NEET. Each step up the qualification ladder roughly halves the chances of being NEET in your early twenties.

The NEETs crisis is not just a post-19 problem. This is why Get Further last year joined forces with 13 other leading social mobility and education organisations, launching a campaign calling on the government to introduce a student premium – an extension of the pupil premium to support 16-19-year-olds facing disadvantage. Evidence from across the Student Premium Coalition shows what is possible when targeted interventions are in place. These include tutoring and mentoring, enriched learning experiences, strengthened transition, pastoral and mental health support, attendance and retention programmes, and tailored academic support to help students achieve essential gateway qualifications, including English and maths.

Colleges, sixth forms and training providers are well-placed to be able to identify and deliver the interventions needed to support the attainment and participation of young people in their final years in compulsory study. But their ability to do so is severely constrained by the steep drop in disadvantage funding. The coalition is clear that the student premium, which would be worth around £430m a year from 2027-28, should be new and additional money, as part of the government’s commitment to tackling the NEETs crisis.

Over a decade on from when the participation age was raised to 18, our country is going backwards, not forwards, on NEET numbers. It is time to invest in our 16-19 education system so that it can fully play its part. Only then, will we make a dent in this crisis and prevent lost opportunity.