Efforts being made to tackle NEET concerns in resort

Two in five of Blackpool’s most disadvantaged pupils are not in formal education or training at the start of Year 12, according to new research.

Worryingly, it shows that figures for the town are the highest rate in the North West,

The report — Class dismissed, commissioned by Teach First and conducted by the Education Policy Institute — reveals the outcome gap that persistently disadvantaged pupils, who are eligible for Free School Meals for at least 80% of their time in school -are facing across England.

The research follows the recent publication of the Government’s Young people and work: interim report conducted by Rt Hon Alan Milburn, which found that the UK faces one of the highest rates of NEET youth in Europe, in a ‘national crisis of opportunity’.

However, efforts are being made to tackle this and Blackpool South MP Chris Webb welcomed the news last week that the town has been included in a new government-backed AI Native Youth programme to help young people, using digital apprenticeships.

Additionally, other efforts are being made in Blackpool to tackle the issue, including work by report provider Teach First itself.

The scale of the challenge is shown in the new study.

What study shows

Teach First’s report finds that over two in five (41.7 percent) persistently disadvantaged students in Blackpool are not on the pathway to a substantial qualification or apprenticeship after Year 11.

It shows that no other authority in the North West has such a high rate. The number of Blackpool’s most disadvantaged students on this path is over twice that of their non-disadvantaged peers, which stands at 15 percent.

Across the North West, Cheshire East (30.3%), Cumbria – now Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness (29.8%), Lancashire (29.1%) record some of the highest rates of persistently disadvantaged students’ post-16 exits from education or training in the region. Bury sees the lowest at 14.7%.

In the North West more broadly, over a quarter (26.1%) of the region’s poorest pupils are not on formal qualification pathways at the start of Year 12. The regions that see the highest incidence of the same phenomenon are the South West (31.5%) and South East (29.7%). London records the lowest rate by a significant margin, at 15.4%.

While the North West sits in the middle of the pack among other English regions, the concentration of deprivation in areas like Blackpool means that for some communities in the region, outcomes are among the worst in the country.

The attainment picture

The post-16 crisis in the North West is founded on a school attainment gap established long before Year 12.

By the time persistently disadvantaged pupils in the region sit their GCSEs, they are already 24.3 months — more than two full years of learning — behind their more affluent counterparts.

In Blackpool, the gap between poorer students and their more affluent counterparts is even higher, stretching to 30.3 months, with persistently disadvantaged pupils averaging a grade of 2.7 in English and maths GCSE, among the lowest of any local authority in England.

Schools closing the gap

The research does offer cause for optimism, but also cause for concern about how unevenly it is distributed. Of 2,554 state-funded mainstream secondary schools analysed nationally, 88 saw their persistently disadvantaged pupils outperform their wealthier peers — demonstrating that for this group, poor outcomes are not inevitable. However, a regional chasm appears here too, with 56 of those 88 schools in London.

Unity Academy Blackpool, a Teach First partner school where more than two thirds of pupils are eligible for pupil premium, is working to turn around outcomes for its pupils in one of the most challenging contexts in the country.

What they say

John Connolly, Headteacher at Unity Academy in Blackpool, said: “Blackpool is a community that gets written off too often, but the community here is resilient and families want the best for their children.

“Nearly half of our town’s poorest pupils are not in education or training by 17, and that is not because they lack ambition.

“It is because the system has never given them the sustained support they need. What changes outcomes here is teachers who commit to these children, and support them through acutely difficult circumstances. We are proud to be building that at Unity.”

Chris Webb said last week: “Young People in Blackpool are the focus of a major new government-backed initiative aimed at preventing them from falling out of education, employment or training,

“Between 10 and 12 16 year olds from Blackpool will be among 60 selected to take part in the pilot for a new AI skills bootcamp providing young people with a pathway to work.

“It will provide them with workplace and entry-level AI training before guaranteeing those who complete the bootcamp a fully paid AI apprenticeship in the autumn. They will be taken on by local employers including BAE Systems and Blackpool Council.

“I’m so pleased that the government has chosen Blackpool for this pilot. It’s another nod of recognition from senior ministers that they understand – when Blackpool succeeds, Britain succeeds.”

As part of its campaign, Rewrite the Future, Teach First is committing to:

• Research what works for persistently disadvantaged pupils by establishing a headteacher working group comprising leaders from high performing schools and MATs to share insights on what works. Teach First will share findings with the sector.
• Launch targeted place-based placement strategies to increase teacher and leadership supply in priority places. The first pilots will run in Blackpool and Thanet, with progress measured by their impact on narrowing the persistent disadvantage gap.
• Mobilising its community of 20,000 ambassadors to get involved in the campaign, with initiatives to be announced later this year. Pledges will involve taking meaningful action, including volunteering in their communities or other Teach First activities.

James Toop, CEO of Teach First, said: “Our research makes clear that persistent disadvantage is more than a national crisis — it is also a local one, playing out differently in every region, every local authority, every school.

“A child growing up in poverty in Blackpool has a two in five chance of falling out of education or training entirely at 16. The system is not failing them equally; in fact, it is failing some of them far more.

“We cannot close a gap we don’t measure, which is why we’re calling on the Government to track this group in national data for the first time. Change is possible and many schools are already proving it, and we look forward to working with the Government to increase that number.”