Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the Health Studies User Conference, hosted by the UK Data Service. Diving into the current landscape of UK health data, the conference explored the future of health surveys, and what longitudinal studies can reveal about our population.

A particular session that caught my eye was a panel titled ‘Adolescent mental health and young adulthood NEET status in the UK’, presented by Katie Sarah Taylor, a Research Fellow at University College London.

In her session, Taylor explored how youth mental health trends intersect with data on young people who are Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET). Her longitudinal approach went a step further by introducing other contextual indicators, including the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), age, and physical health.

Seeing how the issue of NEET could be viewed through the lens of deprivation got me thinking about how it varies at a granular level, and how bringing together data across health, employment, deprivation, and education could create powerful, localised insights.

While Taylor’s study relied on the Understanding Society UK Household Longitudinal Study, I wanted to see how we might explore these intersecting regional stories using readily available public data, and how we can take the analysis to a localised level.

Analysing NEET at the local level

A recent government report showed that there are nearly 1 million 16 to 24 year olds in the United Kingdom classified as NEET, representing one in eight young people.

Additionally, data from the Department for Education and the Department for Work and Pensions shows that the North East has the highest NEET rate in England (21%), whilst the South West has the lowest (9.9%). In Wales, the North Wales area has the highest rate at 15.1%.

Although data for the other nations do not provide a geographical breakdown, in Scotland 35.8% of its 16-24 year old population is economically inactive, whilst in Northern Ireland 11.6% of young people are NEET.

A dataset from the Department for Education, visualised by Polimaper, offers more localised insights. For instance, Blackpool and Derby stand out as the local authorities in England with the highest rates of 16-to-17-year-olds classified as NEET (7.6%). In stark contrast, the London Borough of Barnet and Rutland both see rates below 1%.

Expanding data sources

Using local authority NEET data as a baseline, I wanted to layer in other public datasets to identify local trends.

Mental Health and Deprivation

Starting with youth mental health, NHS England data reveals that the highest rate of 16-year-olds supported by NHS-funded mental health services (with at least one contact in the last 12 months) is found within the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (ICB), at 13,000 per 100,000. For 17-year-olds, the rate peaks in the Somerset ICB at 9,000 per 100,000. 

Notably, the Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB, which encompasses Blackpool, also ranks among the ten highest-prevalence care boards across both age brackets.

When we turn to the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government shows a familiar pattern. Blackpool ranks as the most deprived local authority in England, closely followed by Manchester, Sandwell, and Leicester. On the other end, the least deprived areas include Wokingham, Windsor and Maidenhead, and Rutland.

Because the IMD is built across seven distinct domains, breaking a few of them down reveals further details:

• Education and skills: Sandwell experiences the highest level of deprivation, while Richmond upon Thames experiences the least.
• Crime: The highest deprivation scores are concentrated in Manchester and Blackpool.
• Health: Blackpool sees the highest health deprivation in England, followed by Liverpool.
• Income: London boroughs top the rankings in income deprivation.

Education, benefits and health profiles

To provide additional context beyond IMD and mental health, I selected several public datasets that capture the distinct characteristics of local demographics and young people across different regions. These sources show similar trends in the data:

• Free School Meals (FSM): The latest eligibility tables show Manchester leading with the highest rate of eligible pupils (49%), followed closely by Islington and Hackney (47.6%).
• Benefits and income: Birmingham records the highest percentage of people claiming Universal Credit (10.1%), while East Lindsey, in Lincolnshire, sees the lowest mean income in England.
• Health profiles: Local health profiles show St. Helens and Brighton and Hove recorded the highest rates of alcohol-related hospital episodes for underaged people, whereas Darlington sees the highest rate of suicide among children and young people (10-24 years old)

Connecting the local profiles

By gathering these separate public datasets, we can build multi-dimensional area profiles. While these data points cannot display causality, looking at them collectively helps us spot where different social challenges intersect in certain areas.

Blackpool frequently tops the lists across the different indicators. It holds the highest NEET rate for 16-to-17-year-olds, ranks as the most deprived local authority overall, sits fourth in education deprivation and first in health, and sees alcohol-related hospital admissions for underaged people well above national averages.