Insight: Why today’s NEET challenge needs a different response

Alan Milburn’s interim review into young people who are NEET was published by the Department for Work and Pensions yesterday. Donna Murrell, Managing Director of Reed in Partnership, responds:

This report is an important and welcome contribution to an urgent social and economic challenge. The picture is stark. Alan Milburn warns that, without swift action, the number of 16 to 24-year-olds who are NEET could rise to 1.25 million within five years. At the same time, six in ten young people who are NEET have never had a job, despite 84 per cent saying they want work or training.

These findings matter because they point to a much deeper challenge than youth unemployment alone. As the review makes clear, today’s NEET crisis is increasingly characterised by long-term economic inactivity and labour market detachment rather than cyclical unemployment linked to wider economic downturns – a trend also highlighted in recent Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis. Far from lacking ambition, most young people who are NEET say they want work or training. The report’s central conclusion is that too many are being failed by systems that are no longer providing clear pathways, sufficient support or enough opportunities to participate.

The Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden has rightly placed renewed focus on the long-term risks of young people missing out on a productive first step into adult life. Alan Milburn’s interim review reinforces the urgency of that challenge and the need for more fundamental systems change to strengthen the route from education into employment.

Too many young people are still experiencing cliff edges between education, training and work, without the support needed to navigate setbacks or re-engage when early opportunities break down. Becoming NEET is rarely about a lack of drive or ambition. More often, it happens when the system fails to offer clear next steps, timely support or a way back in when things go wrong. The report highlights how the traditional first rungs of the labour market have weakened over time, with fewer entry-level opportunities available in many of the sectors that have historically provided young people with their first experience of work.

This is particularly true for young people with mental health challenges, neurodivergent conditions or wider disadvantages. The review is right to recognise that many of these young people still want to work and contribute, yet too often receive little meaningful support at all.

In the UK, young people broadly move into adulthood via one of three lanes: university, apprenticeships or direct entry into work. All three matter. All three need to be credible, accessible and valued. Yet pathways outside university often remain more fragmented and harder to navigate.

At Reed in Partnership, we have consistently argued for clearer and better-connected routes into employment through our recent papers, A three-lane superhighway into work and Making stronger post-16 pathways a reality. Both papers make the case for stronger transition support, better alignment between education and labour market demand and more responsive support when young people disengage from work or learning.

We have also been pleased to contribute directly to the wider conversation shaping the review. Earlier this year, we hosted a roundtable through our London Careers Hub bringing together employers, educators and policymakers to discuss practical solutions to reducing youth unemployment and inactivity. Alongside this, we are supporting new research by IPPR, jointly with the Youth Futures Foundation, examining how we tackle the growing challenge of the now more than one million young people who are NEET.

We are also already part of the practical response to this challenge through our delivery of the government’s Jobs Guarantee, a part of its Youth Guarantee programme. Working with employers and partners, we are supporting young people to access employment, skills and training opportunities, while helping to build the more joined-up pathways into work that the review calls for.

The interim report is right to focus on the changing nature of the labour market itself. Entry-level opportunities have become weaker and less accessible over time. Supporting more employers to create and sustain entry-level opportunities for young people will therefore be critical, alongside stronger pathways into apprenticeships, training and work experience.

Ultimately, Alan Milburn’s review reinforces the case for more fundamental reform. The report argues that the current system is too fragmented, too reactive and too heavily weighted towards managing the consequences of inactivity rather than preventing it in the first place. It raises important questions about how education, employment support, health services and the welfare system can work together to keep more young people connected to opportunity.

There is a huge amount of work to do, and we now await the review’s final recommendations. But the interim report provides a compelling diagnosis of the challenge. The government should be ready to move quickly. One of the report’s most striking findings is that for every £1 spent on employment support for young people, £25 is spent on benefits. Rebalancing that equation – investing earlier, intervening sooner and strengthening pathways into work – could be one of the most important opportunities available to policymakers.