The Department for Education has recently released its latest ‘NEET scorecard’ [1] . This dataset contains information on the proportion of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) in each local authority (LA) in England at the end of 2012 and 2013 [2].

At Learning Plus UK Data, we have used these data to compare the percentages of 16-18 year olds NEET across LAs and regions in England. All figures can be accessed via our interactive infographic. 

% 16-18 year olds not in education, employment or training 2012

The three LAs with the greatest percentage of young people not in education, employment or training in 2012 were all in the North East, with Redcar and Cleveland, Middlesbrough and Durham having percentages of 10.6, 10.5 and 10.4 respectively. City of Kingston Upon Hull (Yorkshire and the Humber) and Camden (Inner London) were close behind, with 10.3% and 10.2% of 16-18 year olds NEET. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly given these figures, it was the North East which showed the greatest NEET percentage regionally, with 8.2% of 16-18 year olds. The North West and Inner London (both 6.6%) also displayed high percentages of 16-18 year olds NEET.

LAs with the lowest percentage of 16-18 year olds NEET, were Harrow (Outer London), Rutland (East Midlands), Brent (Outer London), Nottinghamshire (East Midlands) and West Sussex (South East), with 2%, 2.4%, 2.4%, 2.6% and 2.8% respectively. 

This was reflected regionally with Outer London and East Midlands achieving the lowest rate of 16-18 year olds NEET (4%, 5.1%). The South West achieved the third lowest rate with 5.5%. 

In 2012, London featured both the highest and lowest rates of 16-18 year olds NEET with Inner London having one of the greatest percentages (6.6%) and Outer London having the lowest percentage (4%). 

% 16-18 year olds not in education, employment or training 2013

In 2013, the North East remained the region with the highest rate of 16-18 year olds NEET, with 7.7%. However, whilst Middlesbrough continued to have the second highest rate amongst the LAs (9.7%), it was Newcastle upon Tyne (9.8%) and Stockton-On-Tees (8.6%) appearing in the bottom five this time. Telford and Wrekin (West Midlands) and Halton (North West) took third and fifth place with 8.8% and 8.4% of 16-18 year olds NEET.

Outer London continued to do well with Harrow and Barnet showing just 1.8% and 2.3% of 16-18 year olds NEET. Rutland kept its position with the second lowest percentage of 16-18 year olds NEET (1.8%), with Surrey (South East) achieving the same low rate. 

Notably, Inner London became the region with the lowest percentage of 16-18 year olds NEET (3.8%). This is of even greater interest when you consider that the region had one of the highest percentages in the previous year. 

Regionally, the North East (7.7%) and North West (5.8%) remained in the bottom three, with the West Midlands (6.1%) replacing Inner London. 

% point change

The percentage point change between 2012 and 2013 has proved interesting, as well as encouraging. Not one region in England has seen an overall increase in the percentage of 16-18 year olds NEET. Outer London has remained the same at 4%, but all other regions have seen a decrease. 

Inner London has seen the greatest percentage point change, with a 2.8% decrease. This is quite a notable change as the region with the next greatest percentage point change was the North West with a 0.9% decrease. 

Although there have been no increases in percentages of 16-18 year olds NEET regionally, 38 of the 150 LAs have seen an increase. The top five being, Coventry (West Midlands) with 2.1%, West Sussex (South East) with 2.1%, Telford and Wrekin (West Midlands) with 2%, Warwickshire (West Midlands) with 1.9% and Salford (North West) 1.9%. 

The data show an optimistic picture overall, with the majority of England showing a decline in the rates of 16-18 year olds not in not in education, employment or training. Inner London in particular has displayed a very positive change to the destinations of their young people. 

What are the possible reasons for this decline? What steps did local authorities take and what’s left to be done to take these numbers even lower? How can we, as educators, ensure that it continues?

We would be very interested to get your views on this topic. Join us on Twitter @learningplusuk, on our Post-16 Learning Forum or LinkedIn group to let us know what you think!

 

  [1] DfE Young people NEET: comparative data scorecard.
Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/young-people-neet-comparative-data-scorecard 

  [2] These figures are averages of November, December and January NEET numbers for that particular year.