Our response to the government's Young People and Work report

People’s Health Trust welcomes the publication of the government-commissioned interim report, Young People and Work. The report offers clear recognition that rising youth unemployment is not the result of individual failure or a lack of motivation but the culmination of decades of structural failure across employment, education, health and public policy.

Resolving this decades long problem will require a much strong and cohesive cross-government and civil society response to finally create a system which transitions young people from education into work and a healthy and hopeful adulthood.

We are particularly pleased to see how forthright the report is in rejecting narratives that blame young people themselves. ‘NEET’ is, as Alan Milburn said , an ugly word, with ugly consequences. One of those consequences is that young people themselves have been blamed for their circumstances, characterised as unskilled, disengaged or unwilling to work. In reality, “of the NEET population, nearly 30%  are now  getting good  GCSEs or equivalent, over 21%  have a Level 3 qualification and 15%  have a degree” Regardless of qualifications, most young people are seeking education, employment or training that offers security, opportunity and hope for the future.

We support the report’s recognition that work is about far more than income alone. “It is about connection. It is about self-respect. It is about independence.” That understanding is critical. Exclusion from good work can have lasting impacts not only on financial security, but on health, confidence, relationships and belonging. This reflects what communities have consistently told us through our funding programmes across Great Britain, and it is why our Good Work for Young People’s Mental Health programme is about more than simply moving young people into any employment regardless of quality. Through the programme, we have seen that successful transitions from education to employment cannot be separated from wider issues which impact mental health including  housing insecurity, education failure, transport, discrimination, good job availability, digital exclusion and the decline of trusted community infrastructure, including youth clubs and sports facilities.

The report is right to identify that this challenge is structural and cumulative. The decline in secure entry-level work, the erosion of youth (including careers advice) services, widening regional inequalities, insecure housing and rising mental ill-health have combined over many years to make the transition into work far harder for many young people. Increasingly automated and impersonal recruitment systems have also created barriers for those without existing networks, confidence or experience. The review is also right to make the stark observation that “there is no system in Britain that takes young people from education into work as adults. There are institutions, programmes and many good intentions. But there is no actual system.” As we see often in transitions, responsibility is fragmented across a range of sectors and actors, lacking central oversight and with inevitable gaps and duplication. When it comes to moving into employment, young people are expected to navigate disconnected systems at exactly the point in life when structure and support are most needed. This fragmentation particularly disadvantages young people already facing barriers such as poverty, poor mental health, insecure housing or discrimination.

But this situation is not inevitable. Other countries have shown that different outcomes are possible. Ireland, for example, has made significant progress in reducing youth unemployment and economic inactivity through sustained investment in education, skills, labour market participation and economic opportunity. The UK’s current position is therefore not an unavoidable consequence of global trends, but the result of policy choices that can be changed. The risk factors associated with becoming NEET are already well evidenced and understood, meaning early intervention could reduce the economic and human cost of waiting until it happens.

Importantly, the report challenges the assumption that rising mental ill-health alone explains the UK’s exceptionally high NEET rates. For example, young people in the Netherlands report similarly high levels of anxiety and mental health conditions to those in the UK, yet their NEET rate is less than a third of ours.

That principle is fundamental not only to our Good Work for Young People’s Mental Health programme, but to all of People’s Health Trust’s work. The central question for public policy should not simply be how services respond to illness once it occurs, but how we help people live longer, healthier and fuller lives well before the need health services. That requires a much broader understanding of health - one rooted in the social determinants of health and the conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work.

This reinforces the need for a genuinely cross-government - and cross-society - approach to improving health and reducing inequalities, including working with trusted voluntary and community sector organisations. Young people’s ability to access and sustain good work is shaped not just by healthcare, but by housing, transport, education, social security, discrimination, community infrastructure and the quality of local economies. Health inequalities cannot be addressed by the NHS alone.

The interim report makes a compelling case that youth unemployment is both a social justice issue and a public health issue. Preventing a “lost generation” will require sustained investment in the conditions that enable young people not only to access work, but to build a stable and healthy adult life within it.

People’s Health Trust looks forward to engaging with the next phase of the review and continuing to share learning from communities working to create healthier places, fairer opportunities and access to good work for all young people.