Primary schools to be forced to identify children at risk of future unemployment
A review published in May revealed the number of young people neither working nor learning could reach 1.25 million within the next five years
Primary schools in England will be required to identify children at risk of leaving education without a job or a place in training.
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Alan Milburn, who is leading the review into Britain's youth unemployment crisis, said warning signs can emerge “from preschool”.
He said ministers must “make somebody responsible” for identifying and supporting those at risk of becoming Neet - not in employment, education or training - after GCSEs and up to age 24.
Mr Milburn is expected to call for a major overhaul of education policy alongside changes to the benefits system.
“Definitely primary schools should be identifying children who are at risk of being Neet,” he told the Guardian.
He added that secondary schools and support services should step in early to help young people onto “a different path”.
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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.
It comes after a review published in May revealed the number of young people neither working nor learning could reach 1.25 million within the next five years.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS revealed there were an estimated 1,012,000 young people aged 16 to 24 years in the UK who were NEET in January to March 2026.
Mr Milburn’s review comes as Andy Burnham makes tackling youth worklessness a central priority for government, with the PM moving quickly on reforms in technical education and apprenticeships during his first weeks in office.
Mr Milburn previously told LBC that he believes the social contract is broken.
"84 per cent of them want to be in work or training," he said, "so there's no shortage of effort.
"The problem is a shortage of opportunity and, frankly, a shortage of support. "This is 6 in 10 of these young people now have never, ever had a job.
"Honestly, if you haven't had a job by the time you're 24, the chances of getting a job by the time you're 34 are so much lower.
"We're laying to waste a whole generation. I call it a lost generation."
Mr Milburn said welfare reform would play a key role in his final report, but argued that a young person reaching the benefit system was a failure in education, skills and health policies.
Mr Milburn said poverty, mental health problems and time spent in care were among the factors linked to a higher risk of becoming Neet.
But he warned that policymakers were failing to act on what is already known.
“What we don’t do is take that knowledge and turn it into action,” he said.
“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.”
Education Secretary Lucy Powell blamed Lord Gove’s reforms for the Neet crisis and suggested many could be scrapped.
Figures published earlier this year showed one in seven young people classed as Neet had a university degree, with youth worklessness estimated to cost Britain nearly £125bn a year.