Authored by Julie Leonard, Chief Impact Officer at Shaw Trust. Julie has extensive experience working with local and central government to design and deliver programmes that drive social-economic impact. She leads on impact reporting and strategy at Shaw Trust, and oversees the Shaw Trust Foundation. This piece was originally published in The MJ.
The current picture
The weekly headlines on the rising NEET numbers show the need for bolder solutions. We talk of a million young people “falling through the cracks”. Within that group is a rising subset that current policy considerations and investment are unlikely to reach. Yes, removing the minimum wage rises will help those actively seeking work. And, closer working between schools, local authorities and other parts of the system will prevent more from becoming NEET. But, what of those who are already disengaged and overlooked? Especially 18–24–year–olds reporting more ill health, including anxiety and depression?
The proportion of NEETs sidelined by ill health has nearly doubled since 2005. Around 200,000 are now economically inactive for health-related reasons. Not mandated to look for jobs, they often don’t receive work-related support and are not eligible for the Job Guarantee. They’ve become “hard to find and engage” or “too hard to reach”. Yet, leaving this cohort behind is not only a social failure – it’s a long-term fiscal risk. Local Authorities are already feeling the pressure. We cannot afford to ignore this structural shift, nor the mounting taxpayer burden and future generational impact.
As the Chief Impact Officer of a large charity helping over 270,000 people each year to find and stay in good work, I’ve spent the past six months listening to young people, frontline teams, and local partners to understand what we need to do differently. We’re playing our part by investing £2m in an innovation trial to see how we can identify, engage and get this group of young people work ready. We’ll evidence what works, how to replicate it and what it costs to deliver at scale.
An innovation trial to inform future policy
Funded by our charity and running over 18-months, the trial launches this May in West London, in partnership with the West London Alliance. It targets 18-24s whose health challenges have kept them from seeking work. The trial will later expand to a rural setting, testing what works across very different communities.
We are focusing on five key problems:
- Identify and engage: Finding and building trust with those not required to search for work.
- Mental health and resilience: Improving the emotional readiness for work
- Becoming work–ready: Building a realistic understanding of what a job entails and the skills required.
- Motivation: Preparing young people to compete for work in today’s market.
- Committing and sustaining employment: Ensuring they stay in work once they have started.
The programme is accessible by design and connects directly with existing local employment services, particularly Connect to Work. Our goal is to understand how we can help this group move from inactivity to sustainable employment, and to share what we learn.
Testing and learning to build an evidence base
Supporting young people with health-related inactivity is not an easy problem to solve. Many have never worked before, may be receiving higher levels of benefits and feel that their health makes employment out of reach. However, our research shows that resilience and cognitive behavioural mentoring, combined with job coaching and soft skills training, can help some build the appetite for work. We don’t yet have all the answers, but through our test and learn approach we’ll build evidence.
As both the funder and the provider of this trial, we can operate with agility. Keeping the priorities of policymakers in mind throughout, our findings can inform strategy at both local and national levels. We’re taking an outcomes-based lens: what will it take (and cost) to move this group from disengagement to wanting to work?
By staying focused on that outcome, and adapting how we get there, we can build evidence quickly. We expect some things to fail, some to show promise, and some to succeed. We’ll drop what doesn’t work and scale what does, until we find a solution that can be replicated.
Our evaluation partner, Learning and Work Institute, is central to this process. They are not simply marking our homework at the end – they are embedded into the test-and-learn loop.
Ultimately, we want to show local and national government what works, and what doesn’t when supporting young people with health-related inactivity. By building an evidence-based blueprint for future policy, we can begin to close the gaps in a system that has struggled to keep pace with the changing reality of youth inactivity.
