Neets crisis: Leeds pilot scheme cutting persistant school absence by a third
Yorkshire and the Humber consistently has some of the worst school absence rates in England.
A special scheme being trialled in Leeds could help prevent the so-called Neets crisis before children even finish school.
Almost one million young people aged between 16 and 24 are currently not in education, employment or training, referred to as Neets.
Former Cabinet minister Alan Milburn, who is set to publish a major report on this in the coming weeks, has said it is “the most significant challenge facing the country today”, which costs the Exchequer £125bn each year.
A new pilot scheme in Leeds, led by employers, is seeking to tackle the issue at school, before children fall out of education and employment.
The Shaping Our Future programme is a four-year pilot developed by the Ahead Partnership, in collaboration with Cockburn Multi-Academy Trust, the Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation and employers across West Yorkshire.
It works with young people from Year 8 onwards who are deemed at risk of missing lessons.
Research from the Department for Education found that every additional day missed at school is associated with around £750 lower lifetime earnings.
Yorkshire and the Humber consistently has some of the worst school absence rates in England.
The region was behind only the North East for the overall absence rate, persistent absence rate and unauthorised absence rate in the last school year. Overall, 7 per cent of teaching sessions are missed.
At the cost of around £1,000 per person, the Shaping Our Future programme provides workplace visits, mentoring and career experiences to reconnect youngsters with schooling and future opportunities.
One in three persistently absent pupils, so those who miss more than 10 per cent of their lessons, are returned to regular attendance.
Andy Clarke, partnerships director at Ahead Partnership, said: "Too often we wait until a young person has already disengaged from education before we intervene.
“Shaping Our Future is built on a different principle: identify those most at risk early and give them sustained exposure to positive role models, workplaces and future opportunities.
"Attendance is one of the strongest predictors of future outcomes, so seeing nearly a third of persistently absent pupils move back above the 90 per cent attendance threshold is extremely encouraging.
"These are young people who are often written off statistically long before they leave school. Through Shaping Our Future, we're showing them that their ambitions matter, their futures matter, and that their background does not have to define what comes next.”
Terri Nelson, careers and curriculum enrichment at Cockburn School in Beeston, said: “The challenge of preventing young people from becoming Neet starts long before they leave education. The warning signs are often there years earlier, which is why early intervention is so important.
“Through Shaping our Future, we've seen students grow in confidence, engage more positively with school and begin to see opportunities for themselves that they may not previously have considered.
“Academic results matter, but so do aspiration, self-belief and having a clear sense of direction. This programme is showing that when schools are given the tools and support to intervene early, it can change the trajectory of a young person's future."