Baroness Sherlock (Lab)

I am very grateful—that is a really great question. One of the challenges across government is that if we carry on doing things in silos, we will engage only with those who are already engaged with us, and that does not solve the problem here. We are doing a couple of things. Earlier on I mentioned the work that is going on in the youth trailblazers, working with local mayoral authorities to find innovative ways of identifying such people locally. We are also trying to strengthen early identification through better data sharing and better monitoring of attendance at further education; and a range of new “risk of NEET” tools—a terrible technical term—have been developed to try to identify those who may be at risk of becoming NEET before they get to that point. So we are working with that, trying to spot disengagement earlier and target support before young people become long-term NEET. One of the other things we are doing, for example, is creating youth hubs—360 across the country—where we can work with partners in community spaces and bring together different kinds of support in a way that will not feel like it is simply engaging with the benefits system or a jobcentre. A jobcentre may be great for some but not for others, so by trying to find innovative ways of reaching people, identifying them before they become long-term NEET, and through good collaboration when people reach it, we hope that will make a difference.