Councils told to track teenagers at risk of going NEET
The government says thousands of vulnerable teenagers could be missing out on help because councils do not always know what happens to every 16- and 17-year-old after school. Some are in sixth form or college, some are working or training, and some are NEET - not in education, employment or training. If you hear that term in policy debates, it is worth pausing there. NEET is not an identity and it should not be used like a judgement. It is a description of a young person's current situation, and the public issue is this: when a council does not know where a teenager is or what support they need, that young person can slip out of view just when early help matters most.
In new figures published through the Department for Education's Explore Education Statistics service, councils reported 32,100 so-called 'Phantom NEETs' - young people whose activity is not known. Separate official statistics published in March estimated that 57,000 16- and 17-year-olds were NEET. Those are not the same number, and that distinction matters. A teenager counted as NEET is known to be out of education, work or training. A 'Phantom NEET' is different: the council cannot say for certain where that young person is. What this means: the problem is not only young people being out of learning or work. It is also weak information, and weak information makes good support much harder to deliver.
The same council-reported data shows a sharp postcode gap. North Lincolnshire Council said it was missing information for nearly half of its 16- and 17-year-olds, while four councils reported knowing the whereabouts of all of them. Participation in education and apprenticeships also ranged widely, from 71.8% to 94.2%. When people talk about a postcode lottery, this is what they mean. Your chance of being noticed early and offered help should not depend on where you live. A teenager struggling with attendance, anxiety, special educational needs or an unsettled home life needs the same seriousness whether they are in one council area or another.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is writing to every council to set out what better tracking is meant to look like. A separate letter is going to 26 councils with the biggest data gaps, defined here as not knowing the activities of 3% or more of their teenagers. Over the next six months, those councils are expected to agree improvement plans with government support, new tools and fresh guidance. This is why the story matters beyond paperwork. In practice, councils are the public bodies expected to know which young people may need help next and how to reach them. The Department for Education is saying that patchy systems can no longer be treated as normal when missed data can mean missed support.
One of the main tools being rolled out is called the Risk of NEET Indicator, or RONI. It brings together warning signs such as poor attendance, mental health needs, special educational needs and care experience to assign a risk score. The tool is meant to help councils identify concerns sooner, before a young person fully drops out of sight. What this means in real life is quite practical. A higher-risk score could prompt help with securing a college place, arranging mental health support, or setting up taster sessions that pull a young person back towards education or training. The point is early contact, not waiting until a crisis has already formed.
The government is also publishing new guidance for schools and colleges, so the responsibility does not sit with councils alone. Staff in classrooms, sixth forms and training settings are often the first adults to notice when a young person is drifting away, missing lessons or quietly giving up on a plan that once felt possible. That matters because support usually works best when it arrives early. By the time a teenager has left a course or stopped engaging altogether, rebuilding trust can take much longer. Good data cannot replace relationships, but it can help the right adult ask the right question at the right time.
This sits inside a much bigger set of youth employment reforms. The Department for Work and Pensions has commissioned Alan Milburn to lead a major investigation into the barriers keeping young people out of work. The government says more than one million young people overall are NEET, and it has announced £2.5 billion in reforms intended to support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn. There is also a new £2,000 incentive for small businesses that take on a 16- to 24-year-old apprentice. That is designed to make it easier for smaller employers, not only big firms, to offer a first step into work. If you are trying to read the policy clearly, the thread running through it is this: ministers want more routes into jobs, training and further study, not only more pressure on young people to sort things out alone.
From autumn 2026, the Jobs Guarantee is due to expand to all eligible 18- to 24-year-olds on Universal Credit who have been looking for work for 18 months. The offer is 25 hours a week of fully subsidised paid work for six months, at the relevant minimum wage, with wraparound support alongside it. The government is also piloting automatic enrolment into further education for young people without a confirmed place, while promising wider changes to vocational courses, including V Levels and more T Levels. There is also a separate pledge of £3.5 billion by the end of the decade to help young people whose health conditions are holding them back from work. Put together, this is an attempt to say that being NEET is not a personal failure and should not be treated like one. But the real test is still to come. Better tracking only matters if it leads to better support on the ground. Young people do not need to be watched more closely for its own sake; they need chances that are real, early and possible to reach.