New research into the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) has highlighted a stark divide in the opportunities available to young people across England.

Analysis by SchoolDash, funded by the Gatsby Foundation, found that pupils attending schools in “poor urban” communities were more than twice as likely to become NEET after Key Stage 4 as pupils attending schools in affluent suburban communities. The figures are striking: 8.7% compared with 3.9%. For those of us working with young people, however, perhaps the most important question is not simply what happens when a teenager becomes NEET. It is what happened in the years before.

Disengagement doesn’t happen overnight

The SchoolDash research looked beyond traditional measures of disadvantage, grouping schools according to characteristics including income, employment, health, crime and housing. What emerged was a much more complicated picture of inequality. Schools in poor urban communities had the lowest attainment and progress measures, alongside high levels of absence and exclusions. Their pupils were also less likely to access some academic pathways. Only 17.8% of pupils in poor urban schools entered triple science GCSE, compared with 31% in affluent suburban schools. At A level, 25% of pupils in poor urban schools entered maths, compared with 37.4% in affluent areas with high housing costs. The differences continue beyond the classroom.

At Key Stage 5, 14.7% of young people from the poor urban group were NEET. SchoolDash also found substantial differences between communities in the routes young people took into further education, higher education and employment. The research is a reminder that becoming NEET is rarely a single moment in a young person’s life. Long before somebody appears in a NEET statistic, there may have been falling attendance, difficulties with learning, exclusions, low confidence or a growing feeling that education simply isn’t for them. That is where early intervention matters.

The young person behind the statistic

At One Degree, we have been working with young people from less advantaged backgrounds in London since 2009. Our work focuses particularly on teenagers approaching their GCSEs, a point at which the decisions young people make and the qualifications they achieve can have a significant influence on what comes next. But mentoring isn’t only about improving a grade.

One Degree combines academic mentoring in English and maths with support designed to build self-belief and personal development. Our programmes have also included life skills, inspirational speakers and other activities, with volunteer mentors providing young people with encouragement and positive role models. That relationship matters.

A young person who has begun to believe that they cannot succeed at school does not necessarily need another person telling them to work harder. They may need someone who will listen to them, believe in their potential and help them see that progress is possible. One Degree’s experience has been that sustained support matters too. Over time, our programme has evolved towards longer engagement with students, giving mentors more opportunity to build relationships and support young people’s academic and personal development.

Poverty matters. But place matters too.

One of the most interesting findings from the SchoolDash research is that disadvantage alone does not explain everything. The researchers found considerable differences in education and employment destinations between different types of communities, even when deprivation was taken into account.

As Jenni French, Head of STEM in Schools at the Gatsby Foundation, told Schools Week, reducing NEET numbers cannot simply be about finding the most disadvantaged young people. We also need to understand the different barriers and opportunities that exist in different places. That distinction is important. A young person growing up in London can experience disadvantage differently from a young person in a coastal town or a northern city. The schools around them, employment opportunities, transport, local services and expectations about their future can all be different.

The SchoolDash findings themselves illustrate this. Urban London schools serve communities experiencing considerable income deprivation, yet their pupils recorded strong academic progress and the highest progression to higher education of any of the six groups studied. There is therefore no single profile of a young person who is at risk of becoming NEET. And there cannot be a single solution.

Mentoring should be part of prevention

Much of the national conversation about NEET understandably focuses on what happens after a young person has left education. We also need to pay attention to what happens before they get there. If a teenager’s attendance is falling, their confidence is disappearing or they have stopped believing that qualifications are achievable, waiting until they are 18 and out of education or employment means waiting until the problem has become much harder to solve. Mentoring can provide an earlier point of intervention. It can give a young person something simple but powerful: another adult who knows them, expects something from them and is willing to help them get there. That does not replace good teaching, careers advice, mental health provision, family support or employment opportunities. Nor can mentoring remove the structural inequalities highlighted by the SchoolDash research. But it can help a young person navigate them.

At One Degree, we believe that academic progress and self-belief belong together. When a young person starts to see improvement in their work, confidence can grow. When confidence grows, the choices ahead of them can begin to look different too.

One degree of change

An 8.7% NEET rate is a statistic. Behind it are thousands of individual young people, each with their own abilities, circumstances and ambitions. The SchoolDash research gives policymakers an important warning: where young people grow up continues to influence the opportunities available to them. Our response cannot begin only when they become NEET. It needs to begin in schools, while there is still time to rebuild confidence, strengthen attainment and help young people imagine a future in which they have choices. Sometimes changing a young person’s direction doesn’t require changing everything at once. It starts with one relationship, one opportunity and one degree of change.

Sources

SchoolDash (2026), Understanding school and community deprivation – Part 1: Secondary schools. Published 31 August 2026. SchoolDash analysis using data from the Department for Education, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Office for Students.

Schools Week (2026), Freddie Whittaker, Study reveals scale of Burnham’s NEET challenge. Published 31 August 2026.

One Degree, About Us: The Need and The Method.

One Degree, Our Results and Success: 2009 to Present Day.

One Degree, What is a One Degree Mentor?