Primary schools in England should be required to identify children at risk of leaving education at 16 without finding a job, a government review is to recommend.
Alan Milburn, who is leading a review into Britain’s crisis in youth worklessness, said he would call for sweeping changes in education policy alongside a shake-up of the benefits system to address the problem.
Speaking to the Guardian, he said ministers needed to “make somebody responsible” for identifying and supporting the children who risked becoming Neet (not in employment, education or training) after their GCSE year up to the age of 24.
“The warning signs are there from a very early, early age. You know, frankly from preschool,” he said.
“So, definitely primary schools should be identifying children who are at risk of being Neet. And secondary schools and other services should be intercepting, intervening, supporting and helping those young people to get on a different path.”
In an interview during a visit to Dublin this week, the former Labour health secretary said the recommendation would form part of his final report into Britain’s youth worklessness crisis, which is expected this autumn.
Britain’s young adults are bearing the brunt of a rise in unemployment, with the number of 16 to 24-year-olds who are Neet surpassing a million earlier this year for the first time in more than a decade.
Representing as many as one in eight young people, the rate has swelled at a significantly faster rate than in other countries amid a sharp rise in mental ill-health and a tough jobs market.
Milburn’s review comes as Andy Burnham puts tackling the crisis in youth employment at the top of his agenda for government, including changes in his first weeks as prime minister to retool technical education and apprenticeships.
Labour is also gearing up for a fresh tilt at welfare reform amid concerns over a spiralling benefits bill and the hit to the economy and people’s lives from a prolonged period out of work.
Milburn said welfare reform would form a critical plank of his final report, but cautioned that any steps to restrict benefit payments for young people would need to be accompanied by higher levels of education, health and job support.
He said that by the time a young person reached the benefit system it represented an “upstream failure” in education, skills and health policy because a functioning system could have helped them to find a job.
“I think we’ve got to turbocharge that education; that support. We’ve got to turbocharge opportunities for young people; we’ve got to make it easier for young people to get a job,” he said.
“And alongside opportunities, of course, there has got to be some obligations. Of course.”
Burnham has said he is determined to reform the welfare system as part of his efforts to fix Britain’s dismal track record on youth employment, but would also provide more support for young people.
Speaking on a fact-finding mission to the Republic of Ireland, which has recorded the fastest fall in Neet rates in the EU over the past decade, Milburn said that far too often youth disengagement began long before the age of 16.
Suggesting that it can start before a child even reaches the school gates, he highlighted a study in Bradford that found children who were not school-ready at the age of 4 to 5 were almost three times as likely to become Neet by the time they reached the age of 16 to 17.
“We know what the correlated factors are [for a child at risk of becoming Neet] – whether that is poverty; mental health, or being in care. What we don’t do is take that knowledge and turn it into action.”
Under the proposal to be outlined in his final report, schools in England would be expected to flag a child’s risk of becoming Neet from the end of primary school, including by drawing on attendance records.
The Department for Education would also be asked to refresh its pupil premium guidance to emphasise that the extra money schools in England receive for supporting the most disadvantaged children could be used for tutoring and mentoring schemes for those at risk of becoming Neet.
Official figures show rates of school absence have ballooned since the Covid pandemic, with the number of pupils persistently absent – missing at least a 10th of school time – almost doubling to 1.3 million pupils in 2024 and 2025. Rates of severe absence – missing half of class time – and persistent absenteeism have also dramatically increased.
Milburn’s interim report in May warned that persistent absenteeism was associated with a 3.9 times greater risk of a young person being Neet by the time they reached the age of 16 to 18, and a 6.3 times greater risk of a young person being locked out of earning or learning for a sustained period.
While some schools have strategies using so-called “Roni” (risk of Neet indicator) tools, the practice is not widespread or mandated.
“We’ve got to get upstream because what we’re doing is we’re paying – this country, and young people – are paying the price of failure,” said Milburn.
