Lucy Powell pledges to remove college funding barriers for NEET young
Education Secretary Lucy Powell has pledged to remove the funding and teaching barriers that stop colleges enrolling teenagers who are not in education, employment or training, saying it is unforgivable that almost 150,000 16 to 18-year-olds are currently NEET.
Speaking at the Association of Colleges annual conference in Birmingham on 11 November, Powell promised to relax English and maths requirements for young people who are NEET and returning to college, and to give colleges more funding certainty when they enrol them. The Department for Education described the move as part of an urgent national drive to tackle the NEET crisis.
What changes for English and maths
Under current rules, 16 to 19-year-olds who have not achieved a grade 4 in GCSE English or maths are generally required to keep studying those subjects as a condition of funding. Colleges are required to offer resit students 100 hours each of English and maths teaching, to be delivered at any point in the academic year.
The Department for Education said the proposed change will significantly flex the number of hours of English and maths that re-engaged NEET young people would be expected to study in college. The remaining hours will be able to be delivered one-to-one or in small groups, making it easier for colleges to re-engage young people and rebuild their confidence.
Powell told college leaders that the current arrangements were keeping too many young people out of college. She said: "These kids aren't doing any English and maths at all if they're at home in their bedroom scrolling on their phones." She also said the barriers colleges face were keeping far too many young people on the scrap heap.
Funding certainty for colleges
Powell also named funding uncertainty as a barrier. Colleges have told her there is no guaranteed funding for students who enrol during the year, and that they learn their funding rate for the following year too late. The Department for Education is looking at providing funding certainty for enrolling young NEET students, so colleges are not disincentivised from giving them a second chance.
No specific measures or timetable for the changes were set out in the speech, and no timescale or funding details were given for the English and maths change. Powell instead asked college leaders to bring her ideas and proposals, while acknowledging that the government is operating in difficult financial times.
David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, welcomed Powell's recognition of the funding barriers. He said the guarantee of funding for in-year growth in young people, introduced before the start of this academic year, had helped colleges enrol thousands of extra students who would otherwise have become NEET, and that making that guarantee permanent would be a game-changer.
Milburn report due later this month
Powell was speaking ahead of Alan Milburn's final report on the NEET crisis, which is due later this month. Milburn's review is examining why nearly one million young people are NEET. The Education Secretary said the government would take immediate steps to remove the barriers preventing colleges from enrolling those at risk.
She also announced that the Department for Education has launched consultations on proposed content for four more V Levels, covering health, social care and science, for teaching from September 2028. The health and care consultation covers V Levels in health and social care, a Foundation Certificate in health and care services, and Occupational Certificates for adult care worker and healthcare support worker. The science consultation covers V Levels in science research and technology and healthcare science and technology, plus a Foundation Certificate in science. Both consultations close on 23 December, with final subject content due in February 2027. The first three V Levels, in education, finance and digital, will be available from September 2027.
