Unlocking the potential of young people furthest from the labour market
Joseph Rowntree Foundation · 2025
About this report
This report examines the situation of young people aged 16–24 who are furthest from the labour market, focusing on the approximately 600,000 who have been out of work or learning for more than 12 months. It finds that mental ill health — often intertwined with poverty, housing insecurity, and low educational attainment — is an increasingly common barrier, and that existing 'work-first' employment programmes have largely failed this group. The report sets out four key policy principles — a blended approach, highly targeted support, high unit cost with contained total cost, and flexible success measures — and assesses the Government's Get Britain Working white paper and Pathways to Work green paper against these principles.
Research details
- Methodology
- Focus groupSecondary analysisMixed methods
- Sample size
- 30
- Sample
- Young people aged 16–24 not in employment, education or training, recruited to reflect diversity including range of employment experience, educational attainment, mental ill health/neurodiversity/disability, benefit receipt, and housing tenure; also local partners and practitioners from regional/local government, health, education, public services and the voluntary sector.
- Who it's about
- NEET (not in education, employment or training)
- Locality
- Bradford, Hull and Slough
- Place
- England
- Youth involvement
- No youth involvement