Academic year 2023/24

Participation in education, training and NEET age 16 to 17 by local authority

Data guidance

Published 30 January 2025

Description

This document describes the data included in the ‘Participation in education, training and NEET age 16 and 17 by local authority’ management information release’s underlying data. This data is released under the terms of the Open Government License and is intended to meet at least three stars for Open Data.

The underlying data files include national, regional and local authority participation and NEET estimates for 16-17 year olds in England and are broken down by (academic) age, gender, ethnic group and special educational needs and disability (SEND).

The methodology accompanying the release should be referenced alongside this data. It provides information on the data source, coverage and quality.

File formats and conventions

The files are in comma separated values format (.csv) with UTF-8 encoding.

Rounding and suppression has been applied as described in the confidentiality section of the accompanying methodology to avoid disclosure. 

Symbols used in the underlying data are as follows:

Symbol  |  Meaning
z       |  When an observation is not applicable 

c       |  When an observation has been suppressed to avoid disclosure.

Data files

All data files associated with this releases are listed below with guidance on their content. To download any of these files, please visit our data catalogue.

NEET by characteristics

• Filename: ud_neet_characteristics.csv
• Geographic levels: Local authority; National; Regional
• Time period: 2019 to 2024
• Content:
  National, regional and local authority NEET estimates by (academic) age, gender, ethnic group and special educational needs and disability (SEND).

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
Age	age - filter by age
annual_change_NEETNK	Annual change in NEET/not known rate (percentage point change)
avgcohort	Cohort number
avgNEET	Number NEET
avgNEETNK	Number NEET/activity not known
avgNK	Number activity not known
Characteristic	Characteristic - filter by characteristic
NEETNKprop	NEET/not known proportion
NEETprop	NEET proportion
Notknownprop	Activity not known proportion

Footnotes

1. Caution should be applied when using these figures due to the estimates being based on management information.  There is considerable variation in how well 16 and 17 year olds are tracked at local authority level .
2. Numeric data has been rounded to the nearest 10 for national and regional figures to avoid secondary disclosure. 
3. Indicators based on a cohort of 5 or less, have been suppressed and shown as 'c'. 
4. Not applicable ‘z’ has been given for indicators  when the cohort is zero or for annual change when one year is missing
5. Annual comparisons for 2024 are not available for Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness due to boundary changes.
6. All characteristics data for the Isles of Scilly and City of London have been suppressed with 'c' due to risk of disclosure because of small cohorts

Participation by characteristics

• Filename: ud_participation_characteristics.csv
• Geographic levels: Local authority; National; Regional
• Time period: 2019 to 2024
• Content:
  National, regional and local authority participation in education and training estimates by (academic) age, gender, ethnic group and special educational needs and disability (SEND).

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
Age	age - filter by age
annual_change	annual change in proportion in education and training (percentage point change)
Characteristic	Characteristic - filter by characteristic
cohort	Cohort number
Proportion_in_education_and_training	Proportion in education and training
Total_in_education_and_training	Number in education and training

Footnotes

1. Caution should be applied when using these figures due to the estimates being based on management information.  There is considerable variation in how well 16 and 17 year olds are tracked at local authority level .
2. Numeric data has been rounded to the nearest 10 for national and regional figures to avoid secondary disclosure. 
3. Indicators based on a cohort of 5 or less, have been suppressed and shown as 'c'. 
4. Not applicable ‘z’ has been given for indicators  when the cohort is zero or for annual change when one year is missing
5. Annual comparisons for 2024 are not available for Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness due to boundary changes.
6. All characteristics data for the Isles of Scilly and City of London have been suppressed with 'c' due to risk of disclosure because of small cohorts

Participation by type

• Filename: ud_participation_by_type.csv
• Geographic levels: Local authority; National; Regional
• Time period: 2019 to 2024
• Content:
  National, regional and local authority participation in education and training estimates by type of participation and duty to participate.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
annual_change	Annual change in percent participating (percentage point change)
number	Number
Participation_type	Participation type
percent	Percent

Footnotes

1. Caution should be applied when using these figures due to the estimates being based on management information.  There is considerable variation in how well 16 and 17 year olds are tracked at local authority level .
2. Numeric data has been rounded to the nearest 10 for national and regional figures to avoid secondary disclosure. 
3. Not applicable ‘z’ has been given for indicators  when the cohort is zero or for annual change when one year is missing
4. Annual comparisons for 2024 are not available for Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness due to boundary changes.
5. Employment combined with study includes: Full-time employment with study (regulated qualification), Self-employment with study (regulated qualification) and Work not for reward with study (regulated qualification)
6. Other participation type includes: Other training (for example, non-ESFA funded private training organisations) and  DWP training and support programme.
7. Work based learning includes: ESFA funded work-based learning and Supported internships. Traineeships were also previously included in this category but they ended on 1 August 2023. Traineeship style programmes are now recorded under ‘ESFA funded work-based learning’.  
8. Employment with non-regulated qualifications includes: Employment without training,  Employment with training (other), Temporary employment, Part-time employment and Self-employment
9. Temporary break from learning includes:  Not available to labour market/learning due to reasons of illness, pregnancy and teenage parents.
10. Working towards participation includes: Start date agreed (RPA compliant) and Re-engagement provision