Britain’s Lost Generation: Alan Milburn Warns Government Has No Clear Plan to Tackle the NEET Crisis
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Successive governments have had decades to address the growing number of young people being left behind. Now Alan Milburn is warning of a lost generation. But where is the plan, who is taking responsibility, and how much longer must young people wait?
Britain is facing a growing crisis of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).
Former Labour minister Alan Milburn has warned that successive governments have failed to tackle the problem effectively, raising serious concerns about the absence of a clear, joined-up government plan.
He believes the country is at risk of creating a lost generation and has called for the crisis to become one of the Government’s highest priorities.
But for those of us who have experienced the consequences of exclusion, care, youth justice and missed opportunities, these warnings are nothing new.
We’ve been living with the consequences for more than 40 years.
At Genuine Futures CIC, based in Bolton, we believe this must become a turning point.
Not another review. Not another report. Not another decade of promises.
A turning point that delivers genuine change.
Watch: Alan Milburn’s Warning About Britain’s NEET Crisis
https://youtu.be/jxLSN7wZb0U?
In this video, Alan Milburn discusses the scale of Britain’s NEET crisis, the failures of successive governments and the urgent need to make young people’s futures a national priority.
His warning raises a fundamental question:
How can we tackle a national crisis without a clear, coordinated and accountable plan?
Forty Years of Failure: How Did We Get Here?
For decades, Britain has witnessed the consequences of industrial decline, economic inequality and the disappearance of traditional employment pathways.
Communities such as Bolton were once built around thriving manufacturing industries, apprenticeships, independent businesses and local employment.
As those industries declined, too many communities were left without sufficient replacement opportunities.
But the damage went far beyond lost jobs.
It affected families, aspirations, neighbourhoods and the opportunities available to future generations.
Today, young people face a complex combination of barriers, including:
- School exclusions and disrupted education.
- Growing pressures on children’s social care.
- Poor mental health and limited access to timely support.
- Poverty and family instability.
- Difficult transitions from care into adulthood.
- Involvement in the youth justice system.
- Limited access to employment, training and enterprise opportunities.
These challenges do not exist in isolation.
They are connected.
Yet too often, the systems responsible for supporting young people remain disconnected.
Sam Smith: I Was That Child
My name is Sam Smith, Founder and Co-Director of Genuine Futures CIC.
I was excluded from school at 13.
I entered the care system, spent time in secure units, young offender institutions and eventually adult prisons.
I know what it feels like to lose trust in the very systems that are supposed to protect and support you.
I know what happens when a young person is labelled by their behaviour rather than understood through their experiences.
And I know the consequences when early intervention comes too late.
More than 40 years later, I am seeing young people facing many of the same challenges.
Different generations. Similar barriers. Familiar outcomes.
I have lost people I grew up with. Some never had the opportunity to rebuild their lives.
That is why this issue is deeply personal.
I don’t want another generation of young people growing up believing that nobody cares, nobody is listening and nobody is coming.
We must stop waiting until young people reach crisis point before offering meaningful support.
The NEET Crisis Is Also a Failure of Prevention
When a child is repeatedly absent from school, who takes responsibility?
When a young person is excluded, what happens next?
When a child enters care, who ensures they have a stable pathway into education, employment and adulthood?
When a young person becomes involved in youth justice, where is the coordinated support to help them build a different future?
And when someone turns 18, why can access to vital support become so difficult?
These are not separate questions.
They expose the need for a connected approach to prevention.
We need services that communicate, share responsibility appropriately and remain involved throughout a young person’s journey.
A young person’s future should not depend on whether they happen to find the right service at the right time.
Bolton’s NEET Crisis: Why Local Action Matters
Bolton is a town with a proud industrial heritage, strong communities and enormous potential.
But it is also a town where too many young people face barriers to education, employment and opportunity.
We need to understand how school attendance, exclusions, children’s social care, youth justice, poverty and unemployment intersect locally.
We also need greater transparency about the outcomes young people experience.
How many young people are becoming disconnected from education?
How many care-experienced young people are receiving meaningful support into employment?
What happens after a school exclusion?
How many young people move successfully from youth justice into education, training or employment?
And how effectively are local organisations working together?
Without shared information, clear accountability and measurable outcomes, how do we know whether our systems are genuinely improving young people’s lives?
Introducing the Bolton NEET Taskforce
At Genuine Futures CIC, we believe that waiting for national solutions is not enough.
That is why we have launched the Bolton NEET Taskforce.
Our ambition is to bring together young people, schools, colleges, employers, local authorities, youth justice services, health organisations, charities and community partners.
We want to build a coordinated local response focused on prevention, opportunity and long-term outcomes.
The Taskforce will focus on five priorities:
1. Listening to young people
Putting lived experience and youth voice at the centre of decisions.
2. Earlier intervention
Identifying barriers before young people become disconnected from education, employment and their communities.
3. Stronger partnerships
Improving collaboration and pathways between education, social care, youth justice, employers and community organisations.
4. Real employment and enterprise opportunities
Creating practical routes into work, training, self-employment and meaningful community participation.
5. Accountability and measurable progress
Agreeing what success looks like and reviewing progress through clear 3, 6, 9 and 12-month milestones.
This is not about creating another talking shop.
It is about bringing people together to make things happen.
From Crisis to Opportunity: Our Genuine Futures Approach
Through our programmes, we are developing practical, relationship-led pathways for young people.
Finding My Future
A flexible starting point built around listening, trust, belonging and discovering individual strengths and interests.
Boss Your Future
Our employability and enterprise programme helps young people develop confidence, practical skills, connections and routes into education, employment and self-employment.
Youth-Led Social Enterprise
Through initiatives including We Shine Any Car and Clean Futures, young people can experience real work environments, customer engagement, teamwork, enterprise and community action.
These programmes demonstrate how social enterprise can connect social impact with economic opportunity.
We believe young people should be supported to discover what they can achieve, not defined by the barriers they have faced.
What Should the Government Do in the Next 12 Months?
Alan Milburn has called for this to become a defining moment.
But defining moments need delivery plans.
We are calling for urgent action across four stages.
Within 3 months: Establish clear national and local leadership, listen to young people and identify the most urgent gaps in provision.
Within 6 months: Agree coordinated prevention pathways, strengthen referrals and establish shared accountability across services.
Within 9 months: Expand practical opportunities through employers, training providers, social enterprises and community organisations.
Within 12 months: Publish measurable progress against agreed outcomes, including engagement, sustained education and employment, and improvements in young people’s experiences.
These are proposed priorities for action, not claims about existing government commitments.
Who Is Taking Responsibility?
We need an open and honest national conversation.
Why have successive governments struggled to prevent this crisis?
Where are the gaps between education, children’s services, health, youth justice and employment support?
What would a genuinely joined-up system look like?
How can businesses and community organisations become part of the solution?
What investment would make the biggest difference in prevention?
And most importantly:
What would young people themselves change if we genuinely gave them a seat at the table?
This Must Be More Than a Moment in Time
Alan Milburn is right to warn about the risk of a lost generation.
But warnings alone will not change young people’s futures.
We need leadership, investment, collaboration and accountability.
We need to stop measuring activity alone and start measuring meaningful, sustained outcomes.
We need to recognise that prevention is not simply a social responsibility. It is an investment in our communities, workforce and economy.
And we need to act now.
We haven’t got another 10 years to wait.
Join the Bolton NEET Taskforce
Are you a young person, parent, employer, school, college, community organisation or decision-maker?
We want to hear from you.
Join Genuine Futures CIC and help build a Bolton where every young person has a genuine opportunity to succeed.
It Starts With Listening. Prevention Before Crisis. Bridging the Gap to Opportunity.