Milburn review urges primary schools to flag children at risk of NEET status
Alan Milburn’s final report on youth worklessness recommends that primary schools identify pupils at risk of becoming NEET by age 16, citing attendance records and pupil premium funding as key policy tools.
A government review led by former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn is set to recommend that primary schools in England formally identify children at risk of becoming NEET—defined as not in employment, education, or training—by the age of 16. The proposal, which forms part of the final report into Britain’s youth worklessness crisis, suggests that early intervention through attendance monitoring and targeted funding is essential to reversing rising youth unemployment.
The review highlights that warning signs for future disengagement can be detected well before secondary school, potentially from preschool. Milburn pointed to a study in Bradford indicating that children not school-ready at ages four to five were almost three times as likely to become NEET by ages 16 to 17. The report argues that while correlated factors such as poverty, mental health issues, and care status are known, the system has failed to translate this knowledge into actionable early support.
Official figures underscore the urgency of the proposal, with the number of 16-to-24-year-olds classified as NEET surpassing one million earlier this year for the first time in over a decade. This represents approximately one in eight young people, a rate that has swelled at a significantly faster pace than in other countries. The review notes that persistent school absenteeism, defined as missing at least 10 per cent of school time, has nearly doubled to 1.3 million pupils between 2024 and 2025, following the pandemic.
Milburn’s interim report in May established a strong statistical link between absence and future worklessness, warning that persistent absenteeism is associated with a 3.9 times greater risk of being NEET by ages 16 to 18. The final report recommends that schools use attendance records to flag these risks from the end of primary school. While some institutions already utilise risk indicator tools, the practice is not currently widespread or mandated across the sector.
To support these measures, the Department for Education is being asked to refresh pupil premium guidance, emphasising that extra funding for disadvantaged children should be directed toward tutoring and mentoring schemes. The recommendations are expected to accompany broader welfare reforms under Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s agenda, which aims to retool technical education and apprenticeships while addressing the spiralling costs of the benefits system.
During 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 argued that waiting until a young person reaches the benefit system represents an upstream failure in education, skills, and health policy. He stated that any steps to restrict benefit payments must be accompanied by turbocharged opportunities and support, ensuring that obligations are matched with viable pathways to employment.
