Education is failing to prepare children for adulthood, finds government review

The institutions built to support young people into adulthood “are no longer fit for that purpose”, with schools too focused on exams and getting pupils into university, a damning government review has found.

Former health secretary Alan Milburn’s diagnostic report on “young people and work” warned the “tail of failure will persist” until schools are “held accountable for what happens to their pupils after they leave”.

According to the report, failure to address the problem will result in an increase in the rate of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) from one in eight to one in six within five years.

The report, commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions, concluded that no one event, problem or part of the system was to blame.

“The evidence does not support a single explanation. It supports something harder to accept: that the institutions we built to support young people into adulthood are no longer fit for that purpose, and that the country has known this for some time.”

Milburn will make final recommendations later this year.

1. ‘Hold schools accountable’

Part of the problem, according to the report, is that schools are “measured by exam results, not by whether young people end up in work”, while colleges are “funded for enrolment, not for sustained destinations”.

But the report said the education and skills system “does not fail by accident, but by design. It is designed to produce qualifications rather than working adults.

“Until that changes, until schools are held accountable for what happens to their pupils after they leave, until colleges are funded for outcomes not headcounts, until the post-16 cliff edge is bridged and the young people the system loses are the young people it works hardest to hold, the tail of failure will persist.

“And the nearly one million young people outside education and work will continue to pay the price for a system that saw them coming, watched them fall, and never caught them.”

2. Demands on schools ‘intensified’

However, the report noted “demands on schools have intensified dramatically”.

“Rising SEND prevalence, worsening mental health, higher energy costs, increased staff absence and the need for pandemic catch-up have all eroded the real value of school budgets even where headline figures have risen.”

Schools are also facing high pupil absence, a “crisis in its own right”, and there are rising rates of suspensions and home education.

3. GCSEs a ‘source of dread’

The report noted that “for many young people, school works well”. But “for many of the NEET young people we spoke to, school was experienced very differently, as ‘traumatic’, ‘stressful’, ‘boring’, and something to be endured rather than embraced”.

GCSEs were described repeatedly as a source of dread rather than anything that felt fair or useful.

Of more than 400 NEET young people surveyed, 81 per cent said the current curriculum was too focused on passing exams.

“The criticism of what school did not do was consistent: a perceived focus on academic qualifications, with university promoted as the default pathway and limited discussion of alternatives.”

4. ‘We know enough to act earlier’

In the report, Milburn wrote that “what I find hardest to accept is that we often know enough to act earlier”.

Risk is “identified early”. Poor school readiness, persistent absence, low attainment, SEND, family adversity, poor mental health and weak exposure to work “are not mysteries”.

These signals are seen, recorded and “often” measured, but not acted on.

“No one is accountable for what happens next. And to compound the felony, prevention has been cut at every level: early years, public health, youth services, further education.”

5. Risk of SEND reforms

Strong predictors of NEET status include low prior attainment, school absence and exclusion and special educational needs and disabilities.

But having an education, health and care plan (EHCP) during school is the “strongest single link” to becoming NEET at 17 to 19.

Government SEND reforms are a “welcome step in the right direction”.

But the “question is whether the pace and scale of reform will match the pace and scale of the problem.

“The risk is that SEND need rises faster than the system is capable of reforming. For the young people already in the pipeline, many of whom may be in the NEET statistics within five years, the reforms need to deliver quickly.

“Good intentions announced in Whitehall take time to reach a classroom in Blackpool.”

6. Strengths ‘unnoticed by school’

The report warned that “too often young people are described by what they lack: motivation, resilience, qualifications”, but case studies spoken to “did not fit that picture”.

“They were under strain, yes. But they were also thoughtful, resourceful and often more capable than the systems around them seemed to be able to recognise.”

Young people spoke to the review about “wanting to work with children with learning difficulties, to care for older people, to build computers, write, design, make things, fix things and help people.

“Too often, those strengths sat unnoticed by school, unsupported by services or overshadowed by the labels attached to them: absent, anxious, difficult, behind, care-experienced, NEET.”

7. ‘Generic’ careers guidance

The report warned careers guidance in schools existed as a “statutory duty without enforcement”, with work experience “haphazard”.

Careers guidance was “widely described as generic and lacking practical value”, and a lack of work experience is the “single most-cited barrier to work amongst young people”.

“At present, the provision of work experience is an afterthought for many schools. Students are often told to find their own placements. Unsurprisingly, those without strong networks and connections are more likely to miss out.”

8. ‘Systemic failure’

The report concluded with a warning that Britain faces a “systemic failure at the point where a generation is supposed to transition into adulthood.

“This is not a temporary shock. It is not a post-pandemic hangover. It is not a question of motivation or culture. It is a structural breakdown with profound consequences for economic performance, fiscal sustainability and social cohesion.”

The million young people outside education and work are “not a statistic. They are the sons and daughters of this country.

“Some were identified as at risk before they could read. The system knew. It watched. It documented. It published reports. It commissioned evaluations. It launched pilots. It let the funding expire. And it moved on.”

However, those young people “did not move on. They are still here. Still waiting. Still paying the price for a country that has chosen, repeatedly and with full knowledge of the consequences, to administer the problem rather than solve it.

“This review says: enough. Not another programme. Not another pilot. A system. Built around participation. Accountable for outcomes. Permanent in its architecture. With new ladders of opportunity. Funded at a level that treats young people as an investment, not a cost.

“Resilient to the problems of tomorrow, in a labour market which is likely at the beginning of yet another transformation. And worthy of the generation it is supposed to serve.

“A new mindset is needed. Our country can choose differently. One that prioritises the next generation. This review demands that it does.”