Purpose of data The government publishes local authority (LA) participation data on GOV.UK so that members of the public can make informed decisions about the performance of their own LA. The government provides the framework and funding to increase participation and reduce the proportion of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), however, responsibility and accountability for delivery lies with local authorities (LAs). Under Section 68 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 (ESA 2008) LAs have a duty to encourage, enable or assist young people’s participation in education or training. Statutory guidance that underpins this duty directs LAs to collect information to identify young people who are not participating, or who are at risk of not doing so, and to target their resources on those who need them most. The information collected must be in the format specified in the CCIS Management Information Requirement (link at end of section). Historically, LA responsibilities for tracking extended from ages 15-19, and to 20-25 year olds with a statement of educational need and disability (SEND). However, from September 2016 DfE relaxed the requirement on authorities to track academic age 18-year-olds. LAs are now only required to track and submit information about young people up to the end of the academic year in which they have their 18th birthday i.e. academic age 16 and 17-year-olds. Young people with a current education, health and care (EHC) plan should still be tracked and reported on until their EHC plan ceases, which can occur at any point up to the end of the academic year in which they have their 25th birthday. Some caution should be taken if using these figures due to the estimates being based on management information and there are considerable variations at local authority level in how well 16/17 year olds are tracked and hence not known proportions can impact on the estimates of the proportion NEET. Source of data Information about a young person's activity is recorded on each LA’s client database, an extract from which is used to prepare these tables. LAs are required to provide: i)      basic information about young people in their area (such as name and address) ii)     their needs and characteristics (gender, ethnic group, disability, care leaver) iii)    their post-16 transition plans (intended destination, September Guarantee offers) iv)    their current activity and when this was last confirmed The age of the learner is measured at the beginning of the academic year, 31 August. The information provided must adhere to the definitions set out in the section below. There are also rules that govern the currency of the information held by LAs. Young people whose activity has not been confirmed within a set time period are recorded as 'activity not known'. Prior to April 2018, refugees, asylum seekers and young adult offenders were excluded from the denominator used to calculate the proportions of young people participating in education or training, meeting the duty to participate in education or training, whose activity is NEET or not known. Since April 2018, the NCCIS management information requirement stated that LAs should record the activity of refugee/asylum seekers in the same way as the rest of the cohort. Therefore from April 2018 only young adult offenders in custody are removed from the denominator. The number of 16 and 17-year-olds known to the LA are recorded on its database. This includes young people educated in other authority areas, students living away during term time and young people previously resident in the authority area who are currently in custody. Young people who were not educated in the maintained sector will only be included if they are known to the LA. Further information and detailed definitions about the data that LAs are required to collect can be found in the NCCIS Management Information Requirement here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nccis-management-information-requirement Contents Table 1 Partc by type: proportion of 16-17 year olds recorded in education and training (March 2019). Table 2 Partc by Duty: proportion of 16-17 year olds meeting the duty to participate in education and training (March 2019). Table 3 Partc by age and gender: proportion of 16-17 year olds recorded in education and training by age and gender (March 2019). Table 4 Partc by ethnic group: proportion of 16-17 year olds recorded in education and training by ethnic group (March 2019). Table 5 Partc by SEND: proportion of 16-17 year olds recorded in education and training with and without SEND (March 2019). Table 6 Partc time series: proportion of 16-17 year olds recorded in education and training in March 2017, March 2018 and March 2019. Table 7 NEET NK: NEET or not known (average Dec 18, Jan 19, Feb 19) Table 8 NEET by age gender: NEET by age and gender (average Dec 18, Jan 19, Feb 19) Table 9 NEET by ethnic group: NEET by ethnic group (average Dec 18, Jan 19, Feb 19) Table 10 NEET by SEND: NEET by with and without (SEND) (average Dec 18, Jan 19, Feb 19) Table 11 NEET time series: proportion of 16-17 year olds NEET for end 2016, 2017 and 2018 Note: The young person's known activity on the last working day of the month is reported. Timings and Collection DfE make publicly available on the GOV.UK website tables by LA showing participation at age 16 and 17. In previous years this information has been made available for December. March and June quarters but following an internal review this was revised and from 2018 became an annual release for March only. Local authorities are able to access monthly data from the NCCIS portal. Tables by LA showing the proportion NEET (which includes those young people whose activity is not known) are also included in this publication. In previous years this has been a separate publication on GOV.UK. For data published for the end of 2018, an average of December 2018, January 2019 and February 2019 data was used to give the most robust estimate of NEET at the end of the calendar year. Breakdowns are included in this publication by individual age, gender, ethnic group, special educational need or disability (SEND) and special educational need (SEN) support. Context with other data The Department for Education’s definitive measures for ENGLAND of participation and NEET for 16 to 18 year olds are published annually in the national statistics release 'Participation in Education, Training and Employment by 16-18 year olds in England'. Estimates from these national statistics are used to monitor progress against the Department’s objectives of raising participation and reducing the number of young people NEET (not in education, employment or training). The estimates relate to a snapshot of activities at the end of the calendar year, and are based on academic age, defined as ‘age at the start of the academic year’. Information is drawn together from various post-16 data sources to give a coherent and comprehensive picture of participation, including schools, further education, work-based learning and higher education. The key analyses are by age, gender, type of learning, institution type, labour market status and highest qualification being studied. These figures are not published at regional or LA level. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-neet CCIS is the primary source of data on participation and NEET at local authority (LA) level, and will help to assess RPA compliance more locally. It is used to produce LA level statistics. These are shared with LAs each month so that they can monitor their performance and benchmark against neighbours. Other published data includes: - offers made under the September Guarantee https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/september-guarantee-offers-of-education-or-training-for-16-to-17-year-olds - annual NEET Scorecards, which bring together previously published data to provide a holistic view of LA performance https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/young-people-neet-comparative-data-scorecard Definitions Unless otherwise stated overall education and training figures include young people in part time education, but not those in reengagement provision, gap years or those with an agreed education and training start date. Table 1: By type of activity - Full time education and training – proportion of full time education and training means undergoing more than 16 hours of guided learning per week. This may be undertaken in a school, sixth form or FE or HE institution, special post-16 institution or a custodial institution. - Apprenticeship – proportion of full time employees who are undertaking an apprenticeship that has been commissioned and delivered through the National Apprenticeship Service. - Work based learning – proportion of government funded work based learning for 16-17 year olds EFA/SFA funded work based learning, Traineeships and Supported Internships. - Part time education – proportion of courses of less than 540 hours per year as set out in individual learning agreements. This includes planned learning hours and non-qualification hours which are called planned employability, enrichment and pastoral hours (EEP hours). - Employment combined with study – proportion of full time employees in a job that provides training or is combined with part time education or training leading to a regulated qualification. The education or training must be the equivalent of at least 280 hours per year. This is the equivalent of around a day a week, but may be undertaken on a block release basis. Full time self-employment, holding a public office or voluntary work may be regarded in the same way as full time employment in these statistics. - Other training – proportion of full time training delivered by non-government funded organisations (for example, private colleges or training centres). - Total - total proportion of young people in education and training. - Change in year - The proportion of 16/17 year olds in education and training is generally at its highest in the autumn term, then declines throughout the academic year as young people complete courses or drop out of learning. For this reason, comparisons should always be made against the same quarter of the previous year. The arrows used in table 1 identify areas where the proportion in education or training has risen by 0.5 percentage points or more (▲), has risen or fallen by less than 0.5 percentage points or stayed the same (►), or fallen by more than 0.5 percentage points (▼) since the same quarter of the previous year. - Current activity not known to the LA - the proportion of young people whose current activity is not known in each authority area. Table 2: 16 and 17 year olds meeting the duty to participate Figures in this table show the proportion of young people that either meet or do not meet the duty to participate in education and training as defined in the Education and Skills Act 2008. The proportion of 16 and 17 year olds who are meeting the duty to participate through: - Full time education or training (includes school sixth-form, sixth-form college, further education, higher education, other full time education or training, independent specialist provider, custodial institution (juvenile offender), EFA/SFA funded work based learning, other training, traineeship, supported internship or gap years); (Wider definition than Full time education and training column in table 1) - Apprenticeship- see definition for Table 1 - Employment combined with study- see definition for Table 1 - Working towards participation - undertaking a re-engagement programme to prepare the young person to re-engage in education or training; or having an agreed start date for an activity that meets the duty to participate (as above). The government's guidance on how young people can meet the duty to participate can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/participation-of-young-people-education-employment-and-training - Of those not meeting the duty: The proportion of 16 and 17 year olds who are not meeting the duty to participate but who: - are in part time education that is not combined with full time employment; - are in employment with training that does not lead to a regulated qualification and which does not therefore meet the duty to participate; - require a temporary break from learning such as new mothers or the very ill. Table 3: 16 and 17 year olds by age and gender. - Totals for each gender. Overall total includes young people whose gender is not known to the LA, or who have refused to provide information on their gender. Table 4 : By ethnic group - LAs are required to report to DfE using the 2011 census level ethnic codes. - Totals include young people whose ethnic group is not known to the LA, or who have refused to provide this information. Table 5: By special educational needs and disabilities - LAs are required to identify young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). For the purposes of this data collection, a young person is deemed to have a SEND if he/she: - has an EHC plan or - had an EHC plan or statement of SEN at the time of completing compulsory education - To reflect SEND policy changes, from 2018-19 a new SEN support field has been added to identify those young people who LAs know are receiving SEN support at a lower level than would require or qualify them for an EHC plan. This information can be obtained from the young person’s provider, the Individualised Learner Record (ILR) extract from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) or directly from the young person. -SEN support figures are included in table 5, however some LAs have no young people recorded as having SEN support in 2018. Also if a young person is identified as having SEND and SEN support, they are recorded as SEND in these tables. Table 6: 6a Education and training over time - Proportion of 16-17 year olds recorded in education and training at the end of March 2017, March 2018 and March 2019. 6b : Current activity not known over time - Proportion of 16-17 year olds whose current activity was not known at the end of March 2017, March 2018 and March 2019 Table 7: NEET or not known (average Dec 18, Jan 19, Feb 19) Current activity as recorded on NCCIS is used to produce NEET and not known estimates, Where a young person's current activity is recorded as any of the following then their activity at the end of the month is categorised as NEET: - Working not for reward - Not yet ready for work or learning - Start date agreed (other) - Start date agreed (RPA compliant) - Seeking employment, education or training - Not available to labour market/learning - carer, teenage parent, illness, pregnancy, religious grounds, unlikely ever to be economically active, other reason Where a young person's current activity is recorded as any of the following then their activity at the end of the month is categorised as 'Not known' and they are included in the overall NEET/NK figures: - Current situation not known - Cannot be contacted - no current address - Refused to disclose activity The arrows used identify areas where the proportion in education or training has risen by 0.5 percentage points or more (▲), has risen/fallen by less than 0.5 percentage points or stayed the same (►), or fallen by 0.5 percentage points or more (▼) since the same quarter of the previous year. Table 8: NEET by age and gender (average Dec 18, Jan 19, Feb 19) -See Table 3 notes Table 9: NEET by ethnic group (average Dec 18, Jan 19, Feb 19) -See Table 4 notes Table 10: NEET by SEND (average Dec 18, Jan 19, Feb 19) -See Table 5 notes Table 11: NEET time series -Number and proportion of 16 and 17 year olds not in education, employment or training (NEET) or whose activity is not known in each local authority for end 2016, 2017 and 2018. -Data for end 2012 to end 2016 can be found in the following series: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neet-data-by-local-authority-2012-16-to-18-year-olds-not-in-education-employment-or-training Caution should be taken when comparing historic figures due to a change in the methodology from 2016 where NEET and not known were reported as the headline statistic whereas previously an adjustment was made to the NEET figure to try and estimate the proportion of not known activity that was likely to be a result of the young person being NEET (see notes that accompany each publication for further information on the methodological change). Also prior to 2016 local authorities were required to also track 18 year olds but this requirement was lifted and only aged 16/17 are included in the 2016 and 2017 figures. Limitations of data Only the young person's main activity is recorded. All cohort figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. LA totals may not therefore sum to regional and national totals. There is a proportion of young people in each area who are missing from LA databases or whose current activity is not known to their LA. It is possible that some of those recorded as not known will be participating in education and training. The extent to which this is true will affect the extent to which the figures for those recorded in education and training underestimate actual participation in that LA, therefore this data should not be compared to, or used as a proxy, for official DfE statistics which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-neet Missing and additional data N/A Use of symbols within this document Symbol - Description x - Suppressed for reasons of confidentiality. .. (double dots) - Not available e.g. where data was not returned for some reason. . (single dot) - Not applicable e.g. no young person of a particular type within an LA. - (dash) - Negligible count, cohort < 5. Avoids showing very small numbers as zero.