Department for Education

Academic year 2025/26

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

LA management information on participation and not in education or training (NEET) age 16 to 17. Includes ethnicity, SEND figures and comparative NEET scorecard

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Published: 2 July 2026

Headline facts and figures

Participation in education and training, ages 16 and 17 by local authority

Participation rates in March 2026 ranged from 58.9% in North Lincolnshire to 100% in City of London.

In the latest year,

63 local authorities had relatively stable participation in education and training rates when compared to the same period of the previous year (within 0.5 percentage points)
56 improved (increased by at least 0.5 percentage points)
33 had lower proportions participating than in the previous year (decreased by at least 0.5 percentage points)

Not in education, employment or training (NEET) or activity not known, ages 16 and 17 by local authority

NEET/not known rates at the end of 2025/start of 2026 ranged from 0.0% in City of London to 49.3% in North Lincolnshire. North Lincolnshire’s figures — including 1.1% NEET and 48.3% activity not known — should be treated with caution due to technical and processing issues in the latest reporting period.

In the latest year,

83 local authorities had relatively stable NEET/not known rates when compared to the same period of the previous year (within 0.5 percentage points)
33 improved (decreased by at least 0.5 percentage points)
36 had higher proportions NEET/not known than the previous year (increased by at least 0.5 percentage points).

Note: Participation estimates are based on data collected in March each year. NEET and not known rates are based on an average of December/January/February data to ensure as robust an estimate around the end of the calendar year.

Background information

This release presents data for England showing the proportion of 16 and 17 year-olds participating in education and training and an estimate of those Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) by local authority (LA).

Data is collected using the National Client Caseload Information System (NCCIS), which draws together local databases used to support young people to engage in education and training and plan services that meet young people’s needs. The information that must be reported to the Department for Education (DfE) can be found in the Management Information Requirement (opens in new tab).

Caution should be taken when using these figures due to the estimates being based on management information data. There is considerable variation at local authority level in how well 16 and 17 year olds are tracked, and hence ‘activity not known’ proportions can impact on the estimates of the proportion NEET.

Tables

The tables below have been created to allow quick access to key information:

You can explore the data further and build your own tables with our online table tool builder from the “Create your own tables” section above.

Maps

Data source

Local authorities in England must report information to the Department for Education through the National Client Caseload Information System (NCCIS). The number of 16 and 17-year-olds known to the local authority and information about the young person's activity are recorded on the local authority client databases, extracts from which are used for this underlying data.

Local authorities are required to provide:

basic information about young people in their area (such as name and address)
their needs and characteristics (gender, ethnic group, disability, care leaver)
their post-16 transition plans (intended destination, September Guarantee offers)
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.

Further information can be found in the accompanying methodology.

Legislation

Legislation was introduced in 2013/14 increasing the age to which all young people in England are required to remain in education or training.

Introduced in two stages, it applied to:

Young people who left year 11 in summer 2013, who were required to stay in some form of education or training for at least a further year until 27th June 2014.
Young people who started in year 11 (or years below) in September 2013, who were required to continue until at least their 18th birthday.

The first cohort impacted by stage 1 of the Raising the participation age (RPA) legislation were academic age 16 (usually year 12) in 2013/14 and academic age 17 in 2014/15. Those young people impacted by stage 2 of RPA were academic age 16 in 2014/15 and age 17 in 2015/16.

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. Under Section 68 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 (ESA 2008) local authorities have a duty to encourage, enable or assist young people’s participation in education or training.

The government publishes local authority participation data so that members of the public can make informed decisions about the performance of their own local authority.

Statutory guidance for local authorities on how young people can meet the duty to participate can be found in Participation of young people in education, employment or training (opens in new tab) .

Other data sources and publications

Participation and NEET figures are also published in other statistics releases. The table below provides a summary of the four related releases.

Title	Participation in education, training and employment age 16 to 21	NEET aged 16 to 24	Young people NEET	Local authority NEET and participation
Producer	Department for Education	Department for Education	Office for National Statistics	Department for Education
Status	Accredited Official Statistics	Official Statistics in Development	Official Statistics in Development	Transparency data
Age range	16 to 21	16 to 24	16 to 24	16 to 17
Age type	Academic age[1]	Academic age[1]	Actual age	Academic age[1]
Country	England	England	UK	England
Regional breakdowns	Yes (education and apprenticeships)	Yes	No	Yes
LA breakdown	Yes (education and apprenticeships)	No	No	Yes
Data type	Mostly administrative	Survey	Survey	Management information from NCCIS
Frequency of publication	Annually	Annually	Quarterly	Annually
Seasonally adjusted	No	No	Yes	No
When to use?[2]	England NEET (and participation) figures, age 16 to 21	England/regional NEET figures, age 16 to 24 (includes reasons NEET)	UK NEET figures, age 16 to 24 (published quarterly so often most timely)	LA/regional NEET (and participation) figures, age 16 to 17 (includes pupil characteristics)

[1] Academic age is defined as ‘age at the start of the academic year’ i.e. age as at 31 August. Actual age is defined as ‘respondents age at the time surveyed’.

[2] Left to right indicates recommended order of preference in which the statistics should be used based on most users’ needs and robustness of the data.

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Participation in education, training and NEET age 16 to 17 by local authority statistics and data:

Post 16 Participation, NEET and Attainment Statistics

Email: post16.statistics@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Post 16 statistics team

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