Alan Milburn

People are worried about the next generation of young people.

I think maybe for the first time, maybe in 100 years, I don't know.

People are feeling, parents and grandparents, that their kids might be worse off than they are, or the opportunities that they had are not going to be available.

And people want to do something about it.

And that's the reason that I'm optimistic about it.

Not just government.

Government's got an important role to play.

But employers, charities, local authorities, communities want to do something about this.

And boy, oh boy, does something need to be done.

So it's 16 to 24 year olds.

Things are changing a bit.

There are some constants and some things that are changing.

So the constants are, look, it's grounded in economic and social inequality.

You're a third more likely to be NEET as a young person if you're growing up in Middlesbrough, for example, which you're very familiar with, or Hartlepool, or Molesley in the northwest near Liverpool or Nottingham or parts of Islington.

And so where there is social disadvantage, there are higher levels of NEET for young people.

So that's pretty obvious.

So NEET doesn't begin at the age of 16.

Unfortunately, it begins much earlier.

In fact, when I was in Bradford, they've got a brilliant longitudinal study of 20,000 young people called Born in Bradford, which they set up 20, 25 years ago.

I was actually involved with it when I was the health secretary.