Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of young people out of work, education and training in (a) Gloucester and (b) Gloucestershire in the last five years.

The department publishes statistics on those not in education, employment or training (NEET) for England from the labour force survey for young people aged 16-24. This is available at the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief. The number of 16 to 24-year-olds estimated as NEET in England for the last five years can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d9b4d0bf-3a58-4907-5a37-08dd3479441b.

However, these estimates are only published at national level due to limitations with sample sizes for lower-level geographies. Therefore, NEET rates for young people aged 16-24 in Gloucester and Gloucestershire cannot be provided.

However, local authorities are required to encourage, enable or assist young people’s participation in education or training and return management information for young people aged 16 and 17. This data is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neet-and-participation-local-authority-figures. The data shows that of the young people aged 16 and 17-years-old who were known to Gloucestershire local authority in the link below for the last five years: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/fb35cd74-1667-4de1-ab38-08dd34489990.

These statistics are published as transparency data so some caution should be taken if using these figures.

In addition, 16-18 destination measures are published. These official statistics show the percentage of pupils not continuing to a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination in the year after completing 16-18 study, that is 6 months of continual activity. This can be used as a proxy for the number of young people out of work, education and training at age 18. The latest publication includes destinations in 2022/23 by Parliamentary constituency boundaries at that time. Data can be found here for Gloucester parliamentary constituency for the last five years here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/365fe966-b823-4406-ab39-08dd34489990.