Northumbria Healthcare NHS trust has made a commitment to prioritise tackling the NEET crisis gripping the North East. Recent reports have found that the region has the highest rate of young people who are Not in Education, Employment or Training in the country.
Milburn report warns of 'lost generation'
A landmark review by former health secretary Alan Milburn - who lives in Northumberland - warned of a potential "lost generation" amid a sharp decline in entry level jobs and apprenticeships. Research teams visited the North East as one of four areas of study when compiling the report, and heard from youngsters frustrated by a lack of opportunities.
At Thursday's meeting of Northumberland's Health and Wellbeing Board, NHS officials delivered their annual "community promise" which included an acknowledgement of the NEET crisis.
Community promise acknowledges wider health factors
The community promise acknowledges that while healthcare is the central pillar of the NHS, other factors including education, the economy and employment as well as inequalities and the environment all shape people's health before they reach a hospital.
Speaking at the meeting, director of communications Ross Wiggum said: "This story starts in the dark days of Covid. We started to think about how we can influence the lives of people of Northumberland in a positive way."
"There are lots of economic and social challenges in this part of the world. Economic inactivity and NEETs is very controversial and newsworthy at the moment."
"The Milburn Report about younger people and employment is really the direction we were going in. We were pleased to see a lot of that."
"We want to think about how we can do a lot more to support disadvantaged young people."
Trust's work with schools and employability
As part of this, Northumbria Healthcare has 10,000 students engaged in schools and colleges. Furthermore, 150 unemployed people have been supported with employability advice in the last year and 163 work experience placements have been completed.
The trust has also committed to building strong relationships with schools and colleges to "raise aspirations and promote awareness of the varied roles in health and social care".
Northumberland County Council's deputy director of public health, Jim Brown, said: "I want to pay tribute to the work you're doing. It's not every foundation trust that does the scale of work."
"For example, the work experience. A lot of trusts have stopped doing work experience and this links to the NEET agenda too. This fits in with Northumberland County Council's corporate priorities around tackling inequalities."
Mr Wiggum replied: "When we're working together, we have much more of an impact. We want to try and turbocharge this if we can."
"When you meet some of the younger people who have been able to secure employment in some of our more rural areas, it does make a difference."
"Seeing them rise through the ranks and take on big, important jobs - it's really fantastic to see. I think it's those communities that can really benefit."
