The Milburn report should not surprise anyone who has been listening to young people. Young people are clear: they want to work, contribute and build a future. We hear that through our youth voice census, youth ambassadors, employer network and local partnerships. What frustrates them is not a lack of ambition, but a system that is too often fragmented, underfunded and too late. That is the challenge now. Not whether we agree with the diagnosis, but whether government, local areas, FE, employers and funders are prepared to build the participation system young people need. Our youth voice census gives us one of the clearest annual pictures of how young people experience education, employment, wellbeing and local opportunity. In 2025, more than 8,000 young people shared their views with us. Their message is consistent: aspiration is not the problem. Access is. Young people tell us they value work experience, careers education, supportive adults and clear pathways. They know that skills, confidence and experience matter. But too many cannot access the opportunities that help them build those things. The first rung of the ladder has not disappeared, but it has become harder to reach. Further education has a vital role in changing that. Colleges are anchor institutions in their communities. I see that clearly through my role as a governor of Bedford College Group. Colleges sit close to young people, employers, families and local labour markets. They are often where young people find a second chance, a vocational identity, a trusted adult, or the confidence to believe work is possible. But FE cannot be the whole answer. Youth employment is everyone’s business. Colleges cannot keep being asked to absorb the consequences of problems that began much earlier: poor careers education, school absence, unmet SEND needs, mental health pressures, poverty, transport barriers, digital exclusion and weak local labour markets. Nor can they build pathways into work without employers, councils, schools, health services, Jobcentres, youth organisations and funders working around shared outcomes. Colleges are doing extraordinary work. But goodwill is not a funding model, and isolated effort is not a system. Time to deliver It is welcome to see youth voice census evidence reflected in the national conversation. But evidence alone is not enough. We now need delivery. Our work with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority is a strong example of what that can look like. We are supporting CPCA to design a ten-year youth employment strategy rooted in youth voice, local need, employer engagement and system change. It is not another short-term project. It asks what a local youth guarantee should actually do: who is at risk, where the gaps are, how employers are mobilised, how FE and providers connect around transitions, and how funding can be aligned to prevention rather than crisis response. That is the work we now need to see everywhere. Every local area should be asking: do we know which young people are at risk of becoming NEET? Do we know who is missing from the data? Are colleges, schools, employers, councils, youth services, health services and Jobcentres working around shared outcomes? Are young people able to access work experience, mentoring, employability support and real opportunities close to where they live? And crucially: how are we going to fund it? We cannot keep announcing national ambitions while asking local areas to stitch together delivery from short-term and unstable funding pots. If youth employment is central to growth, productivity and reducing welfare dependency, it has to be funded as economic infrastructure. That is why Youth Employment UK is exploring funding gaps in the current system, including how levers such as section 106, social value and ESG can be used more strategically. Fund long-term Where major developments, regeneration schemes or public procurement create economic value in a place, they should also create pathways for young people in that place. There will always be voices who argue that organisations in the youth employment space have failed because the problem has not gone away. That misunderstands the scale of the challenge. Charities, colleges, employers and local partnerships have often been holding together a system that is too fragmented, too short-term and too thinly funded. Milburn gives us a national moment. We should use it well. At Youth Employment UK, we look forward to supporting the next phase of the review and helping the Milburn team draw out recommendations grounded in evidence, youth voice and practice. The diagnosis is clear. Young people have been clear. FE is ready to play its part. Employers have a role to play. Local areas need the tools and funding to act. Now we need to build the system young people have been asking for, and fund it for the long term.