The NEET Crisis.
“Getting to grip with the issues, the difficulties and the lost opportunities that surround those young people in Surrey who – by 16 or 17 – have effectively fallen out of one or a number of systems is truly challenging. During my year as High Sheriff, I will be particularly focusing on highlighting this issue and working to find a solution and in order to get the ball rolling I have commissioned an initial report with the help of a wonderful team at The University of Surrey entitled ‘Unseen Surrey – An Exploratory Overview of the NEET Crisis’ which can be downloaded HERE.” – Peter Cluff, March 2025.
‘Next Steps for NEET’s’ Conference 2025
20 May 2025
Following the publication of a report I commissioned at the beginning of my term as High Sheriff in March – ‘Unseen Surrey – An Exploratory Overview of the NEET Crisis’; a conference to discuss it’s findings and next steps took place yesterday at The University of Surrey.
‘Next Steps for NEET’s’ – focussed on bringing together the various groups working to reduce the number of young people Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETs), including representatives from local government, politicians, education and healthcare providers, police, charity and voluntary organisations and some past High Sheriffs, with a view to encouraging collaboration and the sharing of knowledge, data, experiences and ideas to hopefully provide a joined-up strategy to tackle the NEET issue going forward.
Keynote speeches were delivered by myself as High Sheriff, and Tim Oliver, Leader of Surrey County Council, and the conference was expertly curated by the team at CBE Research (The Centre for Britain and Europe at the University of Surrey) who produced the report, led by Professor Amelia Hadfield.
After an initial review of the findings, the conference split into three breakout groups, guided by presenters, facilitators and rapporteurs to have a collective deep dive into specific topics, sharing current practices and frustrations and developing ideas for pilot studies and co-ordinated action going forward. I was greatly encouraged by the enthusiasm and engagement in the rooms, and the desire to create a community of practice going forward to build on these discussions and encourage further collaboration.
A huge thank you to The University of Surrey for hosting the event and to everyone involved for their contributions.
CLICK HERE to Download a copy of ‘UNSEEN SURREY – An Explanatory Overview of the NEET Crisis’
A Powerful Demonstration of a Local Community Coming Together to Help its Own Young People.
10 June 2025
An important part of being High Sheriff is to shine a light on an issue of importance in the County and I have been drawing attention to the number of young people in Surrey ‘Not in Education, Employment or Training’ (NEET). I commissioned research from the Centre of Britain and Europe at the University of Surrey to produce and analyse data on the various cohorts that make up the NEET population and the factors which lead them to this position; and then held a conference at the University inviting key stakeholders who are aware of the issue and are trying to tackle it.
The outcome of the conference was to establish a Community of Practice or Steering Committee to encourage co-operation and collaboration between various entities, statutory and non-statutory to share knowledge, data, experiences and ideas to enable joined-up decision-making; and working parties to focus on data sharing, single-front door mentoring guidance and the creation of local community collaboration hubs.
On June 10th at KBR’s wonderful office campus in Leatherhead, such a local community came together in a very powerful show of local unity. Bill Donnelly and Eddie McArdie co-founders of The Link Centre assembled representatives from all parts of the local community including the local authority, education providers (from primary schools through to further education colleges), employers (including KBR, The Wates Group, Kier Property Group), the Police and local charities and voluntary service providers. The Chair (Tim Hall) and Vice Chair (Bernie Muir) of Surrey County Council and the CEO of the Surrey Camber of Commerce (Louise Punter) were also in attendance.
The evening was chaired by Shevaun Haviland, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, who encouraged a vigorous debate after I had addressed the meeting on the NEET issue across the County and the findings of both the research and the conference at the University of Surrey. We heard storied of lived experience, challenges but also positive messages encouraging change. An initiative to teach horticulture skills and another to provide construction skills training to young people at risk of becoming NEET, whilst still at school, with the intention of guaranteeing them a job on completion was put forward by The Link Centre and offers of support were received from those in room. It was cooperation and collaboration personified and an example of what perhaps can be achieved for other local communities when they come together. I look forward to working with them to help reduce the number of NEETs and those at risk of being NEET in North Leatherhead.
CLICK HERE to Download a copy of ‘NEXT STEPS FOR NEETS – From Insight to Action’
AUGUST 2025 NEET UPDATE.
As I have previously related, a High Sheriff in their Shreval year can help shine a light on a particular issue and for me it is to highlight the number of young people who reach the age of 16-18 and are not in education, employment or training (NEET). On average in Surrey over recent years some 8.4% of young people in that age group each year are NEET or their status is unknown. Whilst not as high as some other parts of the UK, it still amounts to over 1,400 young people a year. I started my year by commissioning a research report by the Centre For Britain and Europe at the University of Surrey as part of a discovery process to ascertain the different cohorts that make up this NEET population and the interwoven factors that are at play. We have since then held three conferences inviting all stakeholders in the space to share their knowledge, data, experience and ideas with a view to finding collaborative solutions through earlier or alternative intervention. Prevention is better than cure both socially and economically. See the link above to the latest output, again produced by the Centre for Britain and Europe (CBE), which summarises our discovery progress to data, details the discussions and outcomes from the latest conference and outlines next steps. I am extremely grateful to Professor Amelia Hadfield and her team at CBE for their continued support and diligence, and also to everyone else who has contributed to the initiative so far.
VIDEO SUMMARIES FROM THE PRESENTERS OF THE FIRST NEETS CONFERENCE;
NEET Conference 2025 – The High Sheriff talks about the Conference at the end of the day.
NEET Conference 2025 – Molly Ellis – Project Accountability CIC
NEET Conference – University of Surrey – Project Coordinator / Philippe Lefevre
NEET Conference – University of Surrey – Professor Amelia Hadfield
The Third NEET Conference – NEXT STEPS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
On Tuesday 10th March we held our latest conference on how to make lasting changes to avoid young people becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training), hosted by the ‘Centre for Britain and Europe’ at the Arthur C. Clarke Building – University of Surrey.
It was a great opportunity to review the progress that has been achieved since our first conference just under a year ago, after the research I commissioned on the NEET situation in Surrey had been published. I am pleased to say that in the past few month some significant advances have been made. I had the honour of supplying the opening remarks and handing over to Professor Amelia Hadfield, Maya Chew and Meg Ward from CBE, who then gave us a summary of the progress made. This was followed by a panel discussion outlining how a NEET Community of Practice would be created and sustained with Professor Hadfield, Dee Torvill, Catherine Powell, Leah Boxell and myself.
Leah Boxell’s presentation which followed, was a powerful and inspiring offering which included some of her own experiences as a young NEET person, and she went on to explain how she intends to put it to good use to help others, initially in a pilot project in North Leatherhead. Her experience and the confidence in her delivery earned her a well deserved round of applause from the audience.
I then introduced an initiative that I recently launched with HHJ Patricia Lees and The Clink charity; renovating the kitchen in the Crown Court to become a training centre for 40 young people aged 16-18 each year with the cohort coming from care leavers, NEETs or those on the edge of the criminal justice system. Jonny Whitfield from The Clink explained how they will run a 12 week programme teaching skills and studying for up to 5 City & Guild Courses, whilst the young people are being mentored and helped with any behind the scenes issues. The Clink run a similar cafe in Herne Hill, and to date every young person who has completed the course has entered full time employment.
We then had an emotional presentation ‘Youth Voice’ which featured two young students currently at Brooklands Technical College but both had previously spent time being NEET. They bravely related their stories to Emma Toby, which brought home to the audience the realities of being NEET and the challenges they faced. Another powerful offering which reminded us why we are trying so hard to change the way things are done and address the issue with such determination.
The penultimate section was another success story where we were joined by Neelam Devesher MBE DL to introduce Sarah Davies – Surrey County Council‘s new NEET Partnership Coordinator, who will act as an interface between all Council departments which work with young people, liaise with the third sector, procure services from third parties and be a core part of the NEET Community of Practice. This was a role I had been very keen to see created, to put young people at the heart of everything and help prevent them from becoming NEET.
Finally the event wrapped up with a lively Q&A with members of the audience sharing their experiences and offering ideas. It was a constructive, interactive session, which showed the power of collaboration in coming together to solve problems.
As High Sheriff I am immensely grateful to the team at The Centre for Britain and Europe who have coordinated much of the work with a great level of professionalism and to the many people who have supported this initiative. One of the roles of High Sheriff is to convene and connect and it is a very rewarding experience when that process works as well as it has done so far.
Here is the the presentation from the event (Kindly supplied by the Centre for Britain & Europe: