Local, trusted and creative: How youth clubs are tackling the NEET crisis every day

Unless you’re a budding LeBron James, a basketball court might not seem the obvious first step into employment for a young person. But for the thousands who walk through the doors of a youth club, it can be exactly that. It’s not the court itself that makes the difference, it is the trained youth workers alongside young people who create the magic, encouraging them to shoot like Jordan, record music tracks, or cook a meal from scratch, while understanding a young person’s issues, helping them find their interests and encouraging their strengths.

Across the country youth workers gently and creatively build self-belief and a sense of hope in young people who, through no fault of their own, feel pre-destined to underachieve.

The youth unemployment crisis is described in the Milburn Review as a generational fault line that needs creative, local solutions. It requires systems to change at a national level, but it also requires a local workforce that can work alongside those young people that need the support of trusted adults over the long term, not after or at the point of crisis.

I have seen, across the 20 Youth Zones OnSide established in disadvantaged areas from Blackburn to Bristol, how youth workers are the workforce we need, the link between home, school and young people’s future lives. But it is a workforce we criminally under-recognise and under value.

Take, for example, Nelly. Her parents wanted her to succeed but with four children in their cramped flat, Nelly found herself doing GCSE revision on her phone on the stairs. When she opened up to youth worker, Ben, about her exam worries, he suggested Nelly bring her homework to a quiet space in her Youth Zone. Ben then used the climbing wall to test her on what she had learned. If she got an answer right, she could climb higher. She passed her GCSEs.

The Milburn Review diagnostic report revealed that 84% of young people who are NEET actively want a job or training. We just need to respond with the support and routes into employment, not blame them for being lazy or work shy. And yet we have instead removed much of the support we once had.

YMCA research shows that since 2010 more than 1,200 youth clubs have closed, and £1.3 billion has been lost in real term funding for youth provision. Since 2012 we have lost half of the youth workers employed by local authorities.

OnSide’s own Generation Isolation reports which have tracked young people’s social lives for five years show that only 12% of young people aged between 11 and 18 currently attend a youth club.

So, it’s not surprising that young people say what is missing in their lives is one adult who sticks with them and understands their whole story, and can bend the system around the young person, rather than bending the young person around the system. That person is a youth worker.

Chloe stopped going to school when she was 14. She was struggling with mental health, her self-esteem was on the floor, and she had suicidal thoughts. She missed her friends, so started turning up to the OnSide Youth Zone in Chorley, Lancashire. Youth workers recognised a lonely young person in pain. They helped her make friends and found an outlet for her energy and anger. In Chloe’s case, that was a drum kit in the music room. Learning how to play gave her focus, a sense of achievement, and a way to vent.

Her mental health improved, and she tutored herself through her GCSEs. Her confidence grew so much she persuaded her local college to take her on to study business, despite a school absentee record that technically should have prevented her enrolling. Now aged 19, Chloe is employed as a youth worker at OnSide’s Vault Youth Zone in Preston and is studying for her level 2 youth work qualification. This is what early intervention through a trusted adult centered on the whole needs of a young person looks like.

The Milburn Review recognised that careers guidance remains unequal. It said: “The young people who most need exposure to work are the least likely to receive it. They described feeling underprepared for their next steps and reported making decisions without a clear understanding of the options available.” This is where specialist, employability youth workers can step in. They have the time and the expertise to signpost careers and help with CVs and job applications. They can build and practice interview skills.

Youth worker Samina Talaty, based at Blackburn Youth Zone, uses the center’s sports hall for badminton sessions to encourage young people to build teamwork and communication skills. She uses the arts room for painting sessions where young people feel able to talk about their personal issues. This builds trust and helps Samina get to know young people who require extra support and understand the barriers holding them back.

For 18-year-old Jayden, college wasn’t the right fit, and after struggling to find an apprenticeship, he was referred to Samina. She got to know him, recognised his talent for design, and used the Youth Zone’s patron network to introduce him to a local business where he secured an apprenticeship as a design technician. Jayden is just one of the 273 NEET young people in Blackburn Youth Zone supported between February 2025 and February 2026, with over 60% moving into employment, education or training.

Behind each one of the young people classified as NEET is an individual person like Jayden with a unique story, who would benefit from a consistent, trusted adult willing to go to bat for them to help them navigate the complex system in which they find themselves.

This moment of generational crisis must be met with a creative, community response. Youth clubs and youth workers have the skills, the local contacts and the trust of young people to be at the heart of that.