FEATURE
Career development practitioners can really support NEET prevention by incorporating an increased focus on young people in years 7-11 with poor school attendance.
NEET PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE A
WENDY PHILLIPS REFLECTS ON HER TEAM’S THREEYEAR JOURNEY TO PREVENT YOUNG PEOPLE WITH ESBA FROM BECOMING NEET POST-16
s I write this article in February 2026, according to the latest data (July-September 2025), we have around 946,000 young people in the UK aged 1624 who are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET). By the time you read this article, we may well have over a million young people in the UK aged 16-24 who are NEET.
There are currently over 20 Risk of NEET indicators; however, this article will only focus on one critical indicator – poor attendance at school due to Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA). Career development practitioners can really support NEET prevention by incorporating an increased focus on young people in Years 7-11 with poor school attendance. It is, therefore, important for careers leads to apply a data-informed approach when developing their careers guidance programmes. With early intervention and intensive career guidance, young people with EBSA can be enabled to thrive in education, employment and training post-16.
to build positive relationships, experiences and connections. On reflection, we (subconsciously at the time) adopted the PACE Model created by Dr Dan Hughes to embed playfulness, acceptance, curiosity and empathy into our career guidance practice. This approach quickly gained trust from each of our beneficiaries whilst building self-efficacy. As funding for NEET prevention programmes in our area reduced, our mission was to ensure that students with EBSA in schools were not left behind. To ensure that all young people had the opportunity to reach their full potential, we realised that we needed to embed NEET prevention into our school career guidance programmes from Year 7 onwards. This included supporting young people who show signs of struggling in the school environment, and working collaboratively as education professionals to identify and respond to each child’s needs before issues escalated. Helpful practitioner approaches with ESBA We proactively encourage regular career guidance meetings for students from Year 7 onwards with persistent absenteeism (i.e. 10% or more of their possible school sessions in an academic year) and have started to recognise:
Since 2022, Education Development Trust (edt) has delivered 3 intensive NEET prevention programmes to support students from Year 10/11 onwards who were at greatest risk of becoming NEET post-16. Whilst our • For some students, an absence of positive relationships initial programme in 2022 was aimed at supporting in school. young people eligible for free school meals, it quickly became clear that young people with EBSA come from • Students not coping with academic pressure. any socio-economic background. As such, young people with low, or no attendance became a priority criterion for • Potential special educational needs (SEN) that have not future programmes aimed at identifying young people at yet been diagnosed, which could make a typical school greatest risk of becoming NEET post-16. environment overwhelming.
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ESBA is non-attendance due to emotional, mental health, or well-being issues. When we delivered our first programme, low attendance was still viewed by many mainstream education professionals as ‘truancy’ and young people with no, or low, attendance in some mainstream schools were termed as ‘school refusers’, with parents being faced with fines as opposed to being supported. As career guidance practitioners delivering our programme impartially, we re-engaged positively with parents to appreciate their child’s situation. Together, we supported each child every step of the way to discover a career pathway that could allow them to thrive in their post-16 destination. After 9-12 months’ support, on average, 86% of all young people on our programmes from 2022 onwards sustained and secured their post-16 destination for over six months. ‘We struggle to articulate to this day exactly what we did; we were just doing what we do instinctively as careers advisers.’ (edt careers adviser)
We started to embrace a trauma-informed approach with all young people and their families on the programme
• Earlier support for parents and their child can provide more time – for example, to apply for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) – so that an appropriate setting or the right adjustments can be secured.
If a student is absent for more than a couple of weeks, we continue to provide ongoing support and guidance for the child and their family outside of school. For example: • Setting up a WhatsApp group between parents, careers adviser and child to keep open lines of informal communication.
• If a face-to-face meeting would be beneficial, then consider a less formal setting, for example, a local coffee shop (a hot chocolate can really make a difference!). Or alternatively, a meeting engaging in something the young person is interested in. • Building support networks for parents and other professionals within their local community.
Create an inclusive work-related learning programme:
• On our programmes, only a minority of young people
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There’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach, and for some young people their journey will take longer than a few weeks or months.
with EBSA could participate in traditional work experience placements/encounters. Instead, we trialled an alternative approach working closely with local employers and training providers to provide taster sessions. For example, a wonderful hair and beauty academy owner who would offer her time to support a small group of budding nail technicians to practice manicures and nail art.
Create an inclusive opportunity for young people with EBSA to appreciate a full range of learning opportunities that are available to them: • Individual, small group visits to a wide range of further education settings to find the right post-16 environment for each child, and/or visits to higher education settings to help them experience potential future learning environments.
• Consider all post-16 opportunities, including 20 hours per week employment with training (240 guided learning hours per year) and apprenticeships.
• For young people with severe EBSA who find it difficult to leave the house, it can be beneficial for careers advisers to form links with organisations such as Education Otherwise and home education advisory Services to enable parents to access their support. Elective home education support groups can support parents with home schooling and/or identify the right distance learning opportunity for their child, to help
them identify online provision at the appropriate academic level.
• Take a solution-focused approach to remove financial barriers, ensuring that we consider these sooner than later (e.g., travel to college).
There’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach, and for some young people their journey will take longer than a few weeks or months. Most parents will naturally develop self-efficacy and continue to support their child’s career journey. The most rewarding element of our work is when a young adult, who a few years, ago couldn’t leave the house, contacts you to say, ‘I’ve just started university!’
Wendy Phillips is Operations Manager at Education Development Trust
References Department for Education (2025) Identify and support young people at risk of being NEET. assets.publishing. service.gov.uk/media/6797ac51cbd1e3a508a22ccc/ Identify_and_support_young_people_at_risk_of_being_ NEET_Jan-2025.pdf (accessed 26 February 2026)
Hughes, D. (n.d.). Creating PACE for the special children in our lives. danielhughes.org/p.a.c.e..html (accessed 26 February 2026)
Office for National Statistics (2025). Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), UK: November 2025. ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/ peoplenotinwork/unemployment/bulletins/ youngpeoplenotineducationemploymentortrainingneet/ november2025 (accessed 26 February 2026)
25 Career Matters April 2026 / Issue 14.2