Primary schools should predict which children most likely to be unemployed, Government worklessness review to recommend

By SAM MERRIMAN, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Published: 17:02, 7 August 2026 | Updated: 17:05, 7 August 2026 Primary schools should predict which children will be most at risk of unemployment when they leave school, a Government review into youth worklessness is to recommend. Former health secretary Alan Milburn said the first signs a child will end up not in education, employment or training (Neet) after the age of 16 are visible ‘from pre-school’. Mr Milburn, who is leading the review into the more than a million young people who are Neet, said somebody should be ‘responsible’ for identifying those at risk of unemployment. He told The Guardian: ‘The warning signs are there from a very early, early age. Definitely primary schools should be identifying children who are at risk of being Neet. ‘Secondary schools and other services should be intercepting, intervening, supporting and helping those young people to get on a different path.’ The former Labour minister cited poverty, mental health or being in care as ‘correlated factors’ that increase a child’s risk of becoming Neet. But Mr Milburn added: ‘What we don’t do is take that knowledge and turn it into action.’ The final report is due in the autumn and comes after Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he was ‘on a mission’ to curb the number of Neets. Almost a million young people are not in education, employment or training, a group known as NEETs Former health secretary Alan Milburn is conducting a review into the rising number of NEETs He has unveiled plans for more technical education routes for children at an earlier stage, which will put on an equal footing with traditional academic qualifications. Mr Milburn said welfare reform would play a key role in the final report, but argued that a young person reaching the benefit system was a failure in Government policies. ‘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.’ More than a million young people aged 16 to 24 are Neet, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is the highest level for 12 years and Mr Milburn’s interim report in May warned that this could rise to 1.25 million over the next five years, costing the UK £125billion annually. Mr Milburn’s comments come after Education Secretary Lucy Powell said the number of Neets was a direct 'consequence' of education reforms under the Conservative government. Ms Powell triggered a row after she blamed former Tory education secretary Michael Gove, whose reforms are credited with having pushed English schools up the international league tables. Writing in The Times, she said schools are stuck in a ‘straitjacket’ of academic prioritisation and vowed to take a ‘fresh look at what we are teaching our children’. But senior Tories and education experts rubbished the claim and branded the Education Secretary ‘delusional’. Figures from the OECD show that the UK had a youth unemployment rate of 13.8 per cent when Labour came to power in July 2024. Since then that has jumped to 16.4 per cent.