Sefton, a borough in Merseyside, has halved its rate of young people not in education, employment or training since launching an early support scheme in 2019.
Just 3.8% of 16- to 17-year-olds in Sefton were classified as Neet in the most recent figures for March, compared to more than double that rate before the programme began.
The scheme, run through a charity called Career Connect, targets under-16s identified by the council as being at risk of becoming Neet, offering them one-to-one careers support.
Before 2019, Sefton Council had only offered careers support to those aged over 16, but the council decided to shift its approach to reach younger and more vulnerable young people earlier.
Today, nearly a third of all career support interventions carried out by Sefton Council, 31%, are directed at those under the age of 16.
Sixteen-year-old Chloe, who left school at 14 due to severe anxiety and was home-educated in Sefton, was among those identified by the council as needing early support.
Her careers adviser, Kate Timmins, visited her at home, accompanied her to open days at a local college, and helped her secure a place on a vocational childcare course.
“I wouldn’t have been able to go to college now if I didn’t have Kate’s help,” Chloe said, adding that Timmins “knew everything and I didn’t have to keep repeating myself.”
Chloe’s mother, Danielle, described the transformation in her daughter’s life since receiving support, saying: “She’s gone from being stuck in her bedroom all day to now getting up and going to college every day.”
Sarah Vaughan from Career Connect, who runs the scheme for Sefton Council, said they have worked with around 5,000 under-16s since 2019, frequently making home visits to reach isolated young people.
“We’re finding more and more social isolation. Sometimes on home visits the young person is talking to us from the top of the stairs,” Vaughan said.
“Our staff are really good at giving young people hope. There’s a lot of fear among young people that they’ve failed at the age of 14, 15, 16 and that’s the rest of their life,” she added.
Claire Maguire, service manager for Employment and Learning at Sefton Council, said the old system allowed too much “drift and delay,” meaning months could pass before any support was provided.
In Leeds, three schools from the Cockburn Multi-Academy Trust have been working with the charity Ahead Partnership on a pilot scheme targeting students from the age of 12.
Around 60 Year 8 students with poor attendance, special educational needs, or risk factors such as poverty have been taking part in the scheme since the end of February.
Terri Nelson, assistant head at Cockburn School, said that within three months of the pilot starting, 58% of participating students had already improved their school attendance.
“It’s about them being able to see the end game and being able to work back from there,” Nelson said, describing raising aspirations as a core part of the school’s development plan.
Students have already visited a bus depot and a youth charity, with a construction site visit planned, and Nelson said pupils themselves have asked for workshops on wellbeing and handling stress.
A major review published this week by former Labour minister Alan Milburn warned that Britain faces a “lost generation” without urgent action for the more than one million young people aged 16 to 24 who are not earning or learning.
Milburn warned that young people were being failed by the whole system and too often put on “a path to a life not in work, but on benefits.”
Nye Cominetti, principal economist at the Resolution Foundation, said the UK’s Neets crisis has been “decades in the making,” driven partly by weak non-university routes into work, a weaker labour market, and rising poor mental health.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told the BBC that schools had an important role to play but that the country “can’t expect schools to do this alone,” pointing to T-levels, new V-levels, and apprenticeship reforms as part of the government’s response.