Among this cohort, roughly 43,000 young people were classified as “persistently NEET,” meaning they spent at least four of those years not in employment, education, or training. More than half of the persistently NEET group had also been eligible for free school meals, a marker of household benefit dependency, and fewer than a quarter had passed GCSEs in English and maths. The number of pupils identified with special educational needs has climbed sharply in recent years, now exceeding 1.8 million nationally. Separately, a report released this week by the Centre for Social Justice identified school absence as a critical driver of the pipeline from education into long-term unemployment. Former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn is currently heading a government-commissioned review examining how to bring nearly a million young NEET individuals back into employment.