The Department for Education commissioned Learning and Work Institute to undertake a review to collate and synthesise the range of evidence on challenging education, employment and training disengagement and inactivity amongst young people aged 15-24.

The Government has committed to providing effective early intervention for young people at-risk of inactivity and therefore not in education, employment or training (NEET). The development of approaches designed to prevent disengagement address a range of key challenges in the economy including:

• an entrenched productivity gap relative to other advanced economies;
• poor health and wellbeing outcomes;
• and low social mobility by international standards that does not show signs of improvement.

The evidence review sought to identify effective programmes that could attribute improvements in attainment and employment, progress and engagement. In line with current DfE priorities, the review is focused on those interventions which target young people at key transition points (such as Key Stage 4 and at-16) and where there are heightened risk factors associated with disengagement. This report presents the high-level findings of the evidence review and identifies a series of considerations for the DfE in relation to future NEET prevention policy.