The UK Government’s recent Young People and Work: Interim Report, published by the Department for Work and Pensions, offers a clear diagnosis of a problem that has been building for years: a growing number of young people are becoming disconnected from education, employment and training, often through transitions that are poorly supported or poorly aligned.

The independent review, led by Alan Milburn, focuses on young people who are disabled or living with health conditions, and forms the discovery phase of a wider piece of work that will move into solutions later this year. While the report does not set out detailed policy recommendations, its findings point to a system struggling to respond to rising complexity at precisely the moments when support matters most.

For organisations working on the frontline of employability, the conclusions feel familiar. “The issue is rarely a lack of potential,” says Thomas Harley, Chief Executive of Get Set UK and Senior Director for Palladium. “It is usually a lack of joined up pathways, meaningful exposure to work and consistent support through key transition points.”

Fragmented Journeys, Predictable Outcomes

The interim report documents a steady rise in the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), alongside growing economic inactivity among under 25s. It highlights how health conditions, SEND (Securing employment for young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), and anxiety increasingly intersect with labour market disengagement, particularly where transitions from school to further education, or from education into work, are poorly coordinated.

Harley describes this not as a single point of failure, but as a gradual process of disengagement. “By the time somebody formally becomes NEET, disconnection has already been building for a long time,” he says. “Confidence drops. Engagement drops. Routine drops. Belief in future opportunities drops.”

The report reinforces that view, noting that young people rarely fall out of the system overnight. Instead, fragmented careers education, limited employer exposure and inconsistent follow on support compound over time, making re engagement later more difficult and more resource intensive.

Why Exposure to Work Matters

“Young people are frequently expected to make major life decisions without ever really experiencing the world of work in a meaningful way,” says Harley who highlights the importance of meaningful workplace experience, particularly for young people who face additional barriers.

Through Get Set UK’s programmes, including Talentino! and Ductu, the organisation supported more than 4,000 SEND workplace experiences last year, working with over 100 national employers. The lesson, Harley argues, is that experience alone is not enough.

“Workplace experience cannot be treated as a standalone event. It needs to sit within a much wider journey around aspiration, confidence, preparation and reflection,” he says.

This mirrors what Palladium sees across its employability and community services work in the UK. Programmes such as Restart and Connect to Work consistently show that early engagement, personalised planning and sustained in work support are far more effective than short term or isolated interventions.

“Much of our work is about engaging with local community organisations, local employment partnerships, local councils, and looking at how to better engage with employers to support managing their vacancies,” explains Palladium’s Operations Director, Becky Brocklehurst. “Part of it is acting as a central pin for all of those organisations, and for the people we are here to support to ensure we can provide the best possible support to our customers.”

Joined up Systems in Practice

Earlier this month, Get Set UK joined Palladium’s Employment and Community Services team, bringing together two organisations with complementary strengths in frontline delivery and large scale programme design. This brings together the combined capabilities needed to deliver genuinely multi-sectoral solutions, recognising that the challenges facing young people are interconnected, and building on Palladium’s strong experience delivering large, multi-component programmes.

“Employers often want to support young people but lack confidence, structure or accessible routes to engage,” Harley says. Bridging that gap requires intermediaries who understand local labour markets as well as the lived experience of young people navigating transition.

Harley also points to the growing role of blended models that combine physical workplace exposure with digital tools to support exploration and reflection. “Scalable, flexible and inclusive workplace engagement is becoming increasingly important if we genuinely want to widen participation,” he says.

From Diagnosis to Action

Milburn’s interim report makes clear that this phase of the review is about understanding the problem, not solving it. A second phase will explore potential reforms to better support young people into sustained work and reduce long term disengagement.

For Harley, the direction of travel matters as much as the detail. “The problems highlighted in the review are structural, but many of the practical solutions already exist,” he says. “The focus now needs to be on scaling what works and designing systems that are genuinely built around how young people experience transition in the modern world.”

The message from both the report and those delivering support on the ground is consistent: addressing youth economic inactivity is not about a single intervention, but about building pathways that feel coherent, supportive and real.

“The UK has no shortage of talented young people,” Harley adds. “The bigger challenge is whether we are building systems that genuinely help them move into adulthood with confidence, structure and opportunity.”