A major new report by former health secretary Alan Milburn has warned that Britain’s support system for young people is “no longer fit for purpose”, with nearly one million 16 to 24-year-olds currently not in education, employment or training.
The report reveals that the UK’s NEET rate - the proportion of young people classified as not in education, employment or training - has barely fallen below 10% over the past quarter of a century. It warns that without urgent reform, the figure could rise to more than 16% within five years, leaving over 1.25 million young people unable to fully participate in society.
Milburn’s findings paint a picture of a system that identifies struggling children early in life but repeatedly fails to intervene effectively.
“The education system knows who will struggle,” the report states, pointing to warning signs visible at ages five, 11 and 16. While schools and authorities have “the data, the evidence and the research”, the report argues they lack “the architecture, the funding or the accountability to act on what they know”.
The report is critical of the way schools, colleges and careers services are measured and funded. It says schools are judged primarily on exam results rather than whether pupils move successfully into employment, while colleges are funded based on enrolment numbers rather than long-term outcomes.
It also claims careers guidance has become “a statutory duty without enforcement”, and describes work experience opportunities as “haphazard”.
In one of its strongest criticisms, the report argues that the education and skills system “does not fail by accident, but by design”.
“It is designed to produce qualifications rather than working adults,” the report says.
It adds that meaningful change will only happen when schools are held accountable for what happens to pupils after they leave education, colleges are rewarded for outcomes instead of “headcounts”, and greater support is provided to prevent vulnerable young people falling off a “post-16 cliff edge”.
“Until that changes,” the report concludes, “the tail of failure will persist.”
