Inquiry launched as nearly one million young people out of work and education

The government is launching an independent review into the growing numbers of young people out of work and education across the UK.

Nearly one million people – one in eight– aged between 16 and 24 are currently not in work or education with the numbers set to increase in the coming weeks according to work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden.

The inquiry into the rising numbers will be led by former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn and will publish its findings in the summer of 2026.

“The rising number of young people who are not in education, employment or training is a crisis of opportunity that demands more action to give them the chance to learn or earn,” McFadden told The Times.

“We cannot afford to lose a generation of young people to a life on benefits, with no work prospects and not enough hope.”

The government reported 948,000 young people not in work, education or training, (labelled Neet) as of June 2025.

The figure is set to exceed one million over the next couple of months, McFadden said. It marks the highest numbers for the group in over a decade.

A quarter of young people out of work and education cite long-term sickness or disability as an obstacle. This compares drastically to the figure of 12 per cent in 2013/2014.

The Department of Work and Pensions reports that the number of young people claiming UC Health and Employment Support Allowance has jumped by more than 50 per cent in the past five years.

Around 80 per cent of young people claiming the UC Health element claim the benefit for mental health reasons or a neurodevelopmental condition.

McFadden avoided blaming over-diagnosis of mental health conditions affecting young people, saying he did not want to play “amateur doctor”.

“I want to approach this with sensitivity,” he said. “The question I’m asking is, given the higher reported number of these conditions among young people, what is the best policy response?

“I don’t believe there should be an automatic link between diagnosis and benefits. I think at that point we should ask a different question, which is, if you’ve had a diagnosis, what can we do to help you?”

He suggested that a change in approach could help young people in disenfranchised communities, impacted by inequalities where the numbers of Neet are significantly higher.

“There is a lot of anger and frustration out there right now and there are plenty of politicians who will go around and find something that makes people angry and pour petrol on it,” he said.

“Work is the best antidote to many of the conditions that we’re seeing.”

Silva and Robertson start in Man City vs Liverpool title contender clash

Manchester City host Liverpool in a blockbuster Premier League clash as the two sides meet at the Etihad Stadium for Sunday’s late kick off. Both sides are fighting to mark themselves out as the main title challengers to Arsenal, who sit top of the table with 26 points from 11 games.

City’s recent form is the most promising after just one loss from their last 10 matches leaves Pep Guardiola’s team in third place – seven points behind the Gunners – but with the possibility of closing that gap to four if they are triumphant this afternoon.

However, despite a run in which they lost four league matches on the bounce, Liverpool seem to have turned a corner with big wins over Aston Villa and Real Madrid in the past week. Arne Slot’s side are hoping to continue that momentum in Manchester and a victory against their recent rivals is sure to reignite their stuttering title defence.

Follow all the latest build-up, team news and updates from the Etihad below:

Brazil Grand Prix: Verstappen starts in pit lane with Norris on pole

Lando Norris completed a dream day in his pursuit of a maiden F1 world championship by securing pole position for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris extended his lead in the title race from one point to nine after he won the earlier sprint race and rival Oscar Piastri crashed out.

Piastri qualified only fourth for Sunday’s main event, and in another boost to Norris, Max Verstappen – 39 points behind the British driver – was knocked out in Q1 and will start the 71-lap contest in Interlagos way back in 16th.

Kimi Antonelli joins Norris on the front row with Charles Leclerc third for Ferrari. Leclerc’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished only 13th.

Follow live coverage of the Brazilian Grand Prix

BBC shuts down reports of plans to axe Strictly’s Sunday results show

The BBC has denied rumours that Strictly Come Dancing’s Sunday night results show could be axed after concerns about leaks.

The dance extravaganza is filmed live on Saturday nights during its autumn run, with the Sunday results show recorded straight afterwards and broadcast the next day.

The current set-up means that news of which celebrity couple has been eliminated are sometimes leaked online ahead of the Sunday evening programme airing.

A recent report from the Mail on Sunday claimed that some BBC executives believe that Strictly should revert to its original format, with a live results show airing later on Saturday night.

“It’s become a complete farce, everyone watching knows that it was filmed the night before – but more significant than that, the result is out on the internet almost immediately,” a source told the paper.

However, the BBC has now brushed off this speculation, confirming in a statement to Wales Online that “this story is nonsense”.

“Strictly’s results show is hugely popular and over seven million people came together to watch it live last Sunday night,” a spokesperson said.

The results show remains a ratings success for the broadcaster, with a source adding that “on overnight ratings alone, Sunday’s results show had 7.1 million viewers”.

“This will grow further when catch-up and BBC iPlayer viewing is factored in,” they said.

“This overnight figure was five million viewers more than the most watched programme on other channels, and the BBC’s highest overnight of Sunday.”

A Strictly insider also told Digital Spy that “there’s absolutely no truth to the suggestion that the Sunday night results show might be axed”.

The Sunday show typically features a group dance from the professionals, as well as a musical performance, before the two couples with the lowest number of votes from the public face the dreaded dance off.

The judging panel must then decide which pair they will send home.

Last month, the show’s longtime presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman broke the news that they would be leaving Strictly at the end of the year.

“We have loved working as a duo, and hosting Strictly has been an absolute dream,” they said. “We were always going to leave together, and now feels like the right time.”

Zohran Mamdani has paved the way for AOC to run for president

Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win in New York on Tuesday night goes back to something simple. Voters don’t want to be told change is happening – they want to feel it, fast. It’s why you can watch the same neighbourhood vote Republican one cycle and Democrat the next without breaking a sweat. They are not developing a crush on either party but auditioning table-flippers.

And that’s why, whether he knows it or not, Mamdani may have just laid the groundwork for the left’s poster candidate – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or AOC to her friends on the progressive side of US politics.

Rewind to summer 2024, and I’m in the watch room for Joe Biden’s first debate against Trump. My heart was bleeding as our campaign nosedived with every answer from our candidate drifting into waffle.

It was brutal to watch but impossible to ignore.

Biden did a heck of a lot in the White House – genuinely more than most presidents manage in two terms – and I remain incredibly proud to have stood by him and the party’s subsequent nominee, Kamala Harris, who would have made a fantastic president.

But the truth is that everything came too slowly and too invisibly for a public hammered by prices, failing healthcare, and creaking services. So people went shopping for the ‘other’ change – in the form of Donald Trump.

That doesn’t make them racist or sexist; it makes them so frustrated with life that they were willing to cover their eyes and ears over parts of his platform in the hope he might “flip the f***ing table”.

The country was not asking for calming words. It was asking to feel some seismic change.

On Kamala’s campaign, we learned the same lesson, the hard way. Voters do not buy vibes – we had plenty of those. They buy change, preferably instant change. If the offer cannot be touched within six months, it becomes theory, which loses to anyone promising something bolder and sooner.

Here is where AOC comes in. Mamdani didn’t just assemble a left coalition – he just laid the groundwork for her to scale up nationally.

Three takeaways for an AOC run. Boldness without delivery collapses. We had days where rhetoric outran rollout – the public can smell that. Have three day-one promises that pay off within six months – things people will feel immediately.

Message discipline beats message volume. On election day, Democrats were knocking on hundreds of doors per minute, but a single crisp line on how Biden-Harris capped the crippling cost of insulin from over $600 to $25 beat five workshopped lines on “opportunity for all.”

Pick a villain and move their money. Mamdani named landlords, price-gougers and wasteful contracts – receipts over rhetoric.

The switching between Republican and Democrat is not ideological whiplash – it is practical hunger. Parts of New York that began leaning towards Trump in 2024 swung back to Mamdani on Tuesday night.

Suburbs that once felt nailed down now move like swing doors because families are buying food, paying rent and queueing for appointments, not reading manifestos.

If Republicans look like the only ones moving the furniture, they get a chance. If Democrats show they will move it faster and in your direction, they will get a chance. Loyalty follows delivery, not the other way round.

So could AOC run for president on the same current Mamdani just rode? The current exists.

A renters-first, bilingual, small-donor campaign built around three quick proofs is not a fantasy – it is the only kind of campaign I have seen cut through in the last two years. The attacks will come. But “socialist” only stings if the bus still costs the same and your rent still rises. Make life cheaper and quicker, and the label loses heat.

That is the heart of it. Voters are not in love – they are impatient. If AOC can make change tangible on a six-month clock, the path is there. The table will be flipped by someone, and a young, articulate, working-class woman from the Bronx seems like a decent bet to me.

Pablo O’Hana is a senior political advisor and campaign strategist who worked on Kamala Harris’s bid for the White House

What is tacit knowledge – could your work skills spark a new career?

Whether it’s solving a logistical problem, navigating a tricky client meeting or being able to design, craft or build, we all have certain skills that feel straightforward to us yet can seem out of reach to others. A big part of this is tacit knowledge, the personal ‘know-how’ that individuals possess, built up over time. In a work context, this tacit knowledge can open interesting doors to potential new career paths, in which this real-world experience can be shared with the next generation of workers.

Understanding the concept of tacit knowledge is perhaps easiest when compared to its counterpart: explicit knowledge. “Explicit knowledge is something you can fully articulate linguistically and can be understood without context while tacit knowledge is something that can’t be described in the same way and needs its context to be appreciated,” Dr Neil Gascoigne, Reader in Philosophy at Royal Holloway University of London and co-author of Tacit Knowledge, explains.

Gascoigne gives the example of the famous physics equation of E=mc^2. This formula is considered a piece of explicit knowledge, as words can be used to explain the idea. However, the average person wouldn’t know how to use this formula. This is where tacit knowledge comes in. You would need to have studied physics, put your knowledge into practice and learned first-hand how to use formulas effectively in order to make the most of the explicit knowledge given.

In the workplace, a company handbook might explicitly set out the business’ practice for a certain task. However, you would need some tacit knowledge gained through work experience or time in the company to complete this task most successfully and efficiently.

As tacit knowledge is harder to explain with words, it often has a mysterious quality to it. However, as Gascoigne points out, this is only to the untrained eye. “Tacit knowledge often seems obscure to people unless they possess similar skills themselves. Without them, it doesn’t become apparent what expertise is exactly on display,” he elaborates.

“For instance, say I am watching a Grand Slam tennis match. I know there’s an astonishing kind of athleticism, but if I don’t play tennis or am not a committed tennis fan, I might not be able to tell the difference between a really great shot and a more average shot,” Gascoigne says.

This same idea applies in the workplace. Tacit knowledge is gained through experience and consequently, while we all have tacit knowledge, the areas we have it in differ. What’s more, it can even seem quite mysterious to ourselves. When we have worked in a certain industry for a period of time, we aren’t always aware of the tacit knowledge we have gained. While explicit knowledge relates to aspects of our job that we might have had to sit down and learn, our tacit knowledge is obtained in a practical way over time, by doing tasks again and again and subtly learning and improving as we go along.

After a while, we know exactly how to tackle projects or solve problems, almost without thinking. For instance, in the construction industry, this tacit knowledge would help you judge site safety or develop practical skills like site excavation, land levelling or brick laying. If you work in social care, it is only with time and experience that you can pick up on subtle emotional cues or manage crisis situations effectively. While in engineering, years spent tackling complex technical issues allow you to troubleshoot effectively, and draw on a myriad of possible solutions from projects past.

Whatever sector you work in, the knowledge needed to succeed is always a mixture of explicit and tacit, and the latter – this know-how built from personal experience, intuition, and practice – is incredibly valuable when it comes to judging real-world situations, solving complex problems and having an edge over competitors.

And while by definition, not explicit, that doesn’t mean that tacit knowledge can’t be shared. Indeed with time, attention and training, you can drill down on years-honed skills and information, and share it with others through teaching.

In fact, it is at the core of sharing your craft – and that’s far more than a simple list of instructions. “To learn how to do something, you really need to follow the example of somebody who already knows how to do it,” says Gascoigne. “These people have learnt the rules, internalised them and use tacit knowledge to know when they apply and when they don’t.”

Tacit knowledge is particularly valuable when it comes to Further Education teaching (defined as any education for people aged 16 and over who aren’t studying for a degree). This is because the focus is on preparing students for employment, and teachers need to draw on tacit knowledge to share how things really work in their industry. This ensures that students complete their qualifications not only with theoretical competence but also practical and employable skills.

This is why this type of practical learning that further education teachers specialise in can be so valuable. Workshop-style teaching and skills-led mentoring allows for those with experience to share the vital tacit knowledge they have built up over time in real-world scenarios. Meanwhile, those learning from them can see these nuggets of knowledge in action and have a chance to put them in practice as they learn.

If you’re passionate about your industry and interested in sharing your own tacit knowledge,  becoming a Further Education teacher can be a really rewarding and valuable career move. Further Education covers a huge range of industry sectors including construction, law, engineering, digital, hospitality, tourism, beauty and more. This includes BTECs (Business and Technology Education Council qualifications), T Levels, NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications) or City & Guilds Qualifications.

Teaching in a mixture of colleges (often General Further Education Colleges or Sixth Form Colleges) and Adult and Community Learning Centres as well as workplace and apprenticeship settings, Further Education teachers share their years of real world industry  skills with people of all ages and backgrounds from those straight out of school aged sixteen to those making career switches later in life.

You don’t always need an academic degree or prior teaching qualifications to start teaching in Further Education. You can undertake teacher training on the job, often funded by your employer, so you can start earning straight away. Furthermore, it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing option. Further Education offers flexible opportunities – so you could teach part time alongside your other commitments. This means you could have a best of both worlds set-up, where you are still working in your chosen industry and teaching alongside it at a time that suits your schedule.

Whether it’s shifting your career fully or adding teaching into the mix, becoming a Further Education teacher can be a life-changing decision. One that taps into your well of tacit knowledge and creates a sense of fulfillment from helping shape the next generation of workers in your field.

Why not consider sharing your tacit knowledge where it matters most – helping inspire the next generation of workers in the field you love? Visit Further Education to find out more

HMRC to review suspension of child benefit payments to 23,500 people

HMRC is reviewing decisions to strip child benefit payments from 23,500 people after using individuals’ travel data to conclude that they had emigrated from the UK.

The benefit is normally stopped if someone spends more than eight weeks living outside the UK, but many of the people affected complained the tax body stopped their payments after they went abroad for a holiday.

It comes after the government began a new crackdown on child benefit fraud as part of an attempt to save £350m over the next five years.

The system, which was being piloted, allows HMRC to use Home Office international travel data to assess whether people are still living in the UK.

But all the affected cases are now being reviewed after a growing number of complaints from people who briefly left the UK and returned to find their payments had been stopped.

The problem was first identified in Northern Ireland after some families had flown out of the UK from Belfast and then returned to Dublin, in the EU, before driving home over the border.

According to the Guardian, almost half of the families initially flagged as having emigrated were still living in the UK.

The newspaper reported that the scheme saved HMRC £17m but left 46 per cent of the families targeted incorrectly suspected of fraud.

In Northern Ireland, 78 per cent were incorrectly identified as not having returned from trips abroad. Some 129 families were flagged during the pilot as having left the country when only 28 had actually done so.

HMRC told The Guardian it will no longer use data on travel through Dublin airport to assess fraud because it is part of the common travel area, and will not stop benefits before cross-checking with the person concerned and looking at PAYE records.

The decision to review the system comes after MPs on the Treasury Select Committee demanded answers from the tax authority.

A spokesperson for HMRC said: “We’re very sorry to those whose payments have been suspended incorrectly. We have taken immediate action to update the process, giving customers one month to respond before payments are suspended.

“We remain committed to protecting taxpayers’ money and are confident that the majority of suspensions are accurate.”

UK military to help Belgium combat suspected Russian drones

The UK is sending military support, including RAF specialists, to Belgium after suspected Russian drone incursions on its airspace, the new chief of Britain’s armed forces has announced.

In a decision made alongside defence secretary John Healey, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the chief of defence staff, said the personnel and equipment are now on the way after his Belgian counterpart asked for help earlier this week.

Belgium’s main airport at Zaventem closed temporarily on Thursday night after drones were spotted nearby and also at military bases, with around 3,000 Brussels Airlines passengers affected as dozens of flights were cancelled or diverted.

Sir Richard said it was “plausible” that the incursions were by Russia, after both the Belgian security services and German defence minister Boris Pistorius said they suspected the same, although it remains unknown who ordered them.

Sir Richard told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I spoke to my Belgian opposite number in the week and he asked if we would be prepared to support them, and the defence secretary and I agreed at the end of last week that we would deploy our people, our equipment to Belgium to help them.

“It is important to be clear, though, that we don’t know – and the Belgians don’t yet know – the source of those drones, but we will help them by providing our kit and capability, which has already started to deploy to help Belgium.”

Other Nato allies are also supporting Belgium, with the German defence ministry announcing on Friday that it will provide anti-drone measures following the country’s request for help.

Put to him that the British military is now helping a European country defend itself from suspected Russian attacks, Sir Richard said: “We don’t know whether they’re Russian attacks, but they have had these drones which are providing disruption to their airfields and have been sighted over their military bases.

“And the UK, alongside our other 31 allies in Nato, will work to support each other, and that’s why the defence secretary and I are very happy to see UK military personnel deployed to support Belgium.”

However, the armed forces chief did go on to describe Russia as “the most pressing threat right now” to Europe, saying: “The illegal invasion of Ukraine has shown the barbaric nature of Russia’s war efforts.”

He warned that “we [the UK] need to strengthen ourselves” against so-called hybrid warfare amid sabotage and killings carried out by Moscow in Britain.

A number of drone sightings have caused major travel disruption across Europe in recent months, with some officials accusing Russia of “hybrid warfare”, but the Kremlin has denied any involvement. Suspicions have been driven by Moscow’s more serious airspace incursions in Eastern Europe, also over recent months.

Responding to incursions, the UK recently sent RAF Typhoon jets to take part in Nato’s air defence missions over Poland as part of efforts to bolster European security.