Primary schools in England should be required to identify children at risk of leaving education at 16 without finding a job, a government review is to recommend.<\/p>\n
Alan Milburn, who is leading a review into Britain\u2019s crisis in youth worklessness<\/a>, said he would call for sweeping changes in education policy alongside a shake-up of the benefits system to address the problem.<\/p>\n Speaking to the Guardian, he said ministers needed to \u201cmake somebody responsible\u201d for identifying and supporting the children who risked becoming Neet (not in employment, education or training) after their GCSE year up to the age of 24.<\/p>\n \u201cThe warning signs are there from a very early, early age. You know, frankly from preschool,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, definitely primary schools should be identifying children who are at risk of being Neet. And secondary schools and other services should be intercepting, intervening, supporting and helping those young people to get on a different path.\u201d<\/p>\n Alan Milburn bakes with local children at a regional youth resource centre in Dublin. Photograph: Patrick Bolger\/The Guardian<\/p>\n In an interview during a visit to Dublin this week, the former Labour health secretary said the recommendation would form part of his final report into Britain\u2019s youth worklessness crisis, which is expected this autumn.<\/p>\n Britain\u2019s young adults are bearing the brunt of a rise in unemployment, with the number of 16 to 24-year-olds who are Neet surpassing a million earlier this year<\/a> for the first time in more than a decade.<\/p>\n Representing as many as one in eight young people, the rate has swelled at a significantly faster rate than in other countries amid a sharp rise in mental ill-health and a tough jobs market.<\/p>\n Milburn\u2019s review comes as Andy Burnham puts tackling the crisis in youth employment at the top of his agenda for government, including changes in his first weeks as prime minister to retool technical education and apprenticeships<\/a>.<\/p>\n Labour is also gearing up for a fresh tilt at welfare reform amid concerns over a spiralling benefits bill and the hit to the economy and people\u2019s lives from a prolonged period out of work.<\/p>\n Milburn said welfare reform would form a critical plank of his final report, but cautioned that any steps to restrict benefit payments for young people would need to be accompanied by higher levels of education, health and job support.<\/p>\n He said that by the time a young person reached the benefit system it represented an \u201cupstream failure\u201d in education, skills and health policy because a functioning system could have helped them to find a job.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019ve got to turbocharge that education; that support. We\u2019ve got to turbocharge opportunities for young people; we\u2019ve got to make it easier for young people to get a job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd alongside opportunities, of course, there has got to be some obligations. Of course.\u201d<\/p>\n Burnham has said he is determined to reform the welfare system as part of his efforts to fix Britain\u2019s dismal track record on youth employment, but would also provide more support for young people.<\/p>\n Speaking on a fact-finding mission to the Republic of Ireland, which has recorded the fastest fall in Neet rates in the EU over the past decade, Milburn said that far too often youth disengagement began long before the age of 16.<\/p>\n