Bolton NEET Taskforce launches to make sure no young person falls through the cracks

A local response shaped by young people

On 8 October 2026, Genuine Futures CIC launched the Bolton NEET Taskforce: a new call for young people, community organisations, education providers, employers and support services to work together.

The purpose is straightforward: listen to young people, connect the support already available and help create real routes into education, training, employment, enterprise and community life.

Too many young people experience exclusion, lose confidence in education or struggle to find a pathway that fits their strengths. When support is disconnected, it can be difficult for young people and families to know where to turn. The taskforce aims to bring people together around practical action and earlier support.

“I was written off at 13”

For Genuine Futures Founder and Co-Director Sam Smith, the issue is personal. Sam grew up in Bolton and experienced school exclusion as a young person.

“I grew up in Bolton, and I was written off at 13. I know what it feels like when people see a label instead of potential. Bolton’s young people deserve to be heard and supported into real opportunities. The taskforce is about bringing partners together with young people to turn concern into practical action.”

Sam’s experience informs Genuine Futures’ focus on prevention, trusted relationships and opportunity. The taskforce is intended to help make sure young people are heard before difficulties become harder to overcome.

Potential should come before labels

Genuine Futures Co-Director Mike Alleyne said:

“We know what it feels like to be written off. That’s why we do things differently here. We don’t see problems—we see potential.”

That belief is central to the taskforce. Young people are not problems to be managed. They bring strengths, interests and ambitions that should help shape the support and opportunities available to them.

The taskforce will work to build stronger connections between local organisations, so that support is easier to understand and young people can be connected to opportunities that suit them.

Listening to what young people say

Youth voice is not an add-on to the taskforce. It must help shape its priorities and actions.

Young people, including Cameron Hughes and Luis Green, are helping bring lived experience into the conversation. Their contribution can help partners understand what support feels like from a young person’s perspective: what makes it welcoming, what gets in the way and what could make the next step possible.

This means creating meaningful ways for young people to influence decisions, then showing how their input has led to action.

Bolton Lads and Girls Club joins as first member

Bolton Lads and Girls Club is the first organisation to join the taskforce. Genuine Futures would like to thank Emma Hutchinson and the team for welcoming the group, sharing their ideas and helping open up conversations with young people.

Emma highlighted how a single approach to learning will not work for everyone:

“There are so many young people in Bolton who are NEET because the academic curriculum delivered in schools just doesn’t suit. It doesn’t play to their strengths.”

Her point reinforces why the taskforce must recognise different strengths and routes to progress. For some young people, a practical, creative or enterprise-based opportunity may help them reconnect with learning and build confidence.

Turning a launch into action

The launch is a starting point. The taskforce will bring partners together to:

• make space for young people to shape local priorities;
• help organisations understand one another’s support and referral routes;
• identify where young people may be losing connection with education, training or work;
• strengthen links to opportunities that reflect young people’s interests and strengths; and
• learn from young people about what is working and what needs to change.

Genuine Futures also brings practical pathways into the conversation, including Boss Your Future, its 12-week programme for young people aged 15–24 who are NEET. The taskforce can help partners make connections to existing provision and explore where new opportunities are needed.

Join the Bolton NEET Taskforce

We’re inviting organisations across Bolton to get involved. Whether you work in education, youth support, health, employment, business, housing or the community, your experience could help strengthen the local response.

To register your organisation’s interest, email hello@genuinefutures.co.uk with:

• your organisation’s name and main contact;
• the young people you support;
• what your organisation could contribute; and
• how young people can access your offer.

Young people who want to share their views or get involved are encouraged to make contact too.

Together, we can listen, connect and create more opportunities—so fewer young people in Bolton are left to find their own way through the gaps.

Bolton NEET Taskforce
Listen. Connect. Create opportunity.
Genuine Futures CIC — Bridging the gap to opportunity.