Newcastle City Council’s cabinet has been presented with findings and recommendations to improve the support available to help Newcastle’s young people into post-16 education, work, and training. The nine-month cross party Task and Finish Group was set up to explore what can be done by the local authority and its partners to support those young people are who are classed as ‘NEET’ – not in education, employment or training and make sense of how to prepare young adults for the ”world of work”.
Young people aged 16-19 are required to be in some form of full-time education, to have started an apprenticeship or traineeship, or spend 20 hours or more a week working or volunteering while in part-time education or training. Local authorities like Newcastle have broad responsibilities to encourage, enable and help young people participate in education or training. Specifically, this is:
”To secure sufficient suitable education and training provision for all young people in their area who are over compulsory school age under 19 or aged 19 to 25 for whom an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan is maintained”.
Not in education, employment, or training (NEET)
Anyone who is not in any form of education or training and not in employment is considered to be NEET. As a result, a person who is NEET will always be either unemployed or ”economically inactive”.
In the UK there has been a sharp increase in the number of young people who are aged 16 to 24 who are NEET. In the period December 2023 to April 2024 an estimated 900,000 are NEET. One in eight young people nationally are NEET with those lacking ‘good’ qualifications and with poor mental health facing particular disadvantages. For 16 to 24-year olds the North East had the highest NEET rates in mainland Britain at 17%.
The increase in the number of young people who were NEET in the latest figures was driven by young men, among which there was an increase of 37,000 on the year to 467,000. Data in 2023 reveals that one in five young people of those NEET currently have a mental health condition compared to one in 13 in 2012. The conditions reported for mental health include depression, bad nerves, anxiety, mental illness or suffering from phobia, panics or other nervous disorders. All types of health conditions are over-represented for those who are NEET when compared to to the total 16-24 population. Those with learning disabilities, which includes autism, make up 8% of people who are NEET.
Key characteristics
The key characteristics of young people who were NEET, using data from the ONS Labour Force Survey, shows:
- The proportion of 16-24 year-olds who were NEET was higher for those with disabilities (24%) than those without (8%).
- A higher proportion of 16-24 year-olds without any qualifications were NEET (24%) than the proportion of those qualified to GCSE level and above.
- The proportion of 16-24 year-olds who were NEET was highest for those from either a Pakistani/Bangladesh background (13%) and the lowest for those from Indian/Chinese backgrounds (6%).
Newcastle context
The combined number of young people who are NEET/not known in the city remains high but comparable to statistical neighbouring council and other core cities. According to research by Newcastle City Council, characteristics of young people who are NEET include:
Poor school attendance
Poor school attendance has a direct correlation with youngsters becoming NEET post year 11. Disengagement from school impacts on exam results, young people’s confidence, motivation and readiness to enter post-16 education and training. 85% of young peopple who were NEET at the November 2022 Activity Survey were still NEET in August 2023.
Young people with an EHC plan
20% of young people with an EHC Plan are NEET at age 16-18 compared to an overall NEET figure of 7%. The city has a greater percentage of young people attending Supported Internships – 4% compared to England’s 0.5%. These are one year study programmes for young people with SEND preparing them with for jobs.
Looked after children/care leavers
The figure for NEET for these two groups are consistently around the 30% rate.
Young people Involved in the Youth Justice system are more likely to be NEET – 42% in Newcastle.
Mental health
Local data relies on young adults reporting mental health issues. 78% of the cohort identified as NEET have declared a mental health issue.
Young parents
In May 2023 there were 33 young parents between the ages of 16-18. 91% of whom were NEET, preferring to remain at home to care for their baby/child
Spacial differences persist across the city with the most disadvantaged electoral wards having the highest number of NEETS. In the deprived ward of Elswick the NEET rate stands at over 15% compared to with affluent Gosforth with a tiny rate of 0.48%.
A tragedy
The issue of young people who are NEET, or at risk of becoming so, is a tragedy for both our city, due to the wasted talent and potential, and for the young adults themselves. Of course, the group welcomes the positive work that the Council and its partner organisations are doing such as free travel for the city’s carers and care leavers. But more is needed to support those young people most in need.
The work of the group drew upon a wide range of sources including Prof Robin Simmons of Huddersfield University and Newcastle’s Lord John Shipley, Chair of the Lords Youth Unemployment Committee. We found that there a number of barriers that some young people, mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds, face in accessing education, paid work, and job-related training. The review highlighted that due to the cost-of-living crisis, increasing numbers of young people need a job due to low household incomes and that they can’t consider an unpaid study programme or education place.
Other barriers were the location of training providers, their access, and associated costs such as travel as well as study programmes being mostly full-time. In response to our findings the new report made number of policy and practical recommendations including:
- An increase in the number of Level 1 post-16 study courses.
- An increase in the number of part-time vocational study programmes.
- Increased funding to support Newcastle City Learning.
- Fund ”mentoring” for young people and support those at risk of becoming NEET.
- More opportunities for apprenticeships, work experience and supporting internships.
- More careers advisors especially for young people with Special Educational Needs.
And we envisage that Devolution and the establishment of the NE Combined Authority ,with its emphasis on skills and employability, will have a major role to play in meeting the needs of this group both in the city and wider region.
The newly elected UK government has already pledged its commitment to tackling youth unemployment. The government will establish a ‘youth guarantee’ of access to training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work for all 18- to 21-year olds, to bring down the number of people who aren’t ”learning or earning”. They have promised two weeks worth of work experience for every young person, and improve careers advice in schools and colleges. These are important steps to prevent the re-emergence of a lost generation both in the city, the region and elswhere in Britain.
Members of the Supporting Young People Into Education, Employment and Training Task Group were Cllr Stephen Lambert, Cllr Peter Lovatt, Cllr Christine Morrisey and Cllr Charlie Gray.
Stephen Lambert is a Newcastle City Councillor. He is Chair of the Task and Finish Group and Vice-Chair of the Economy, Skills and Jobs Scrutiny Committee.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER AND GIVE CITIZEN JOURNALISM A BOOST!
