Alan Milburn’s NEET diagnosis must lead to local level solutions

The stark rise in young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) is a major cause for concern. Detachment from the labour market at an early stage makes it much harder to acquire the skills and experienced needed to stay in employment, with damaging consequences for individuals – and, in turn, creating complex challenges for government.  

A new review led by Alan Milburn, who served as health secretary in the Blair government, warns that urgent action is needed to avoid a “lost generation”. It is a welcome intervention, and one which sets up some big choices for this – or a future – prime minister.

The Milburn review is right that a lack of joined-up support has driven a rise in the number of NEETs  

There are often multiple factors that lead to someone being NEET, and their journey towards being out of work rarely starts at 16 or 18. The report diagnoses a lack of coordination across the support available for young people as a cause of these issues, which is often driven by siloes between services such as schools, further education colleges, local government, employment support and the NHS.  

The welfare system in particular does not facilitate participation. The review finds that for every £25 spent on benefits for this group, only £1 is spent on employment support – and only one in five young people out of work are engaged in ‘meaningful’ employment support. Milburn’s review echoes findings from our recent report, which focused on those of all ages inactive due to ill health. We identified missed opportunities created by a lack of join-up between services, particularly for those with health conditions who are likely to engage with a variety of public services. The messy patchwork of siloed programmes, funding streams and accountability frameworks works against efforts to collaborate.  

The proportion people out of work due to ill health has risen significantly across all age groups, but is particularly stark for younger people. Since 2005, the figure has more than doubled. However, this group typically get far less employment support than those who are unemployed. Addressing this gap should be a key focus for the next stage of the review. 

Milburn’s final report should recognise the opportunities of devolving employment support

This interim report is diagnostic – the final report on solutions is due in the autumn. But it signals that Milburn believes “structural reform” is needed, with better integration of support and clearer accountability for outcomes, rather than “another short-term scheme layered on top of fragmentation”.  

The review rightly recognises the “strong case for local leadership” in tackling this issue, echoing our report’s view that large, national programmes have strengths but too often held back the innovation needed to reach and support people with complex needs. We also found that local and regional government is often best placed to join-up and tailor support for local communities, engage with local employers and reach those who face the biggest barriers to employment, but top-down approaches have limited integration of support. 

With the stark variation in NEET rates across the UK underlining how much this national problem scan vary in size and scale across the country, Milburn’s final report should set out solutions which recognise the opportunity of devolving employment support to strategic authorities through integrated settlements. This should better enable join-up on support while maintaining effective accountability for key outcomes. The final report should be clear about the leading role mayors should play in driving progress.

There will, however, still be a role for national government. Ministers and officials must continue to evaluate new approaches, using the opportunity of more local design and delivery of support for NEETs – and others who are out of work due to ill health – to improve our understanding of what works.

Milburn's ambitious mission-led approach will require political backing to be successful

Milburn has adopted a mission-led approach for the NEETs review. This is evident in the report’s system-wide lens on the problem, focus on outcomes and implication that the upcoming solutions will require collaboration across different parts of the state.  

This government came into office with five missions at its heart, but this has not survived contact with the reality of governing and missions are now rarely talked about. While this is in part due to inevitable distractions of crises at home and abroad, the ultimate failure of mission-led government, and the risk for the Milburn review, has been the inability of ministers – and particularly the prime minister – to prioritise and make the difficult choices that mission-led government demands.  

For example, an increase in employment support for young people – as this interim report implies is needed – would have to be funded by cuts elsewhere (such as benefits or other departmental spending), or by raising taxes. And NEETs will not be a natural priority focus for any one department unless the prime minister forces the issue. The interim report has helped build the case for change, but success will depend on the final report making practical recommendations that recognise these difficult trade-offs, and the backing of a prime minister (whoever that is come the autumn) who is committed to making this a priority for the whole of government.