02/06/2026
We’ve known for a while that schools are struggling to support all young people, so we shouldn’t keep blaming them! Instead we need systemic change that moves education forward in a way that allows us to support all young people effectively, and prepare them for their future, without causing excess stress.
‘It would be easier to blame one thing: covid, smartphones, benefits, schools, employers, parents or young people themselves.
The evidence does not support a single explanation. It supports something harder to accept: that the institutions we built to support young people into adulthood are no longer fit for that purpose, and that the country has known this for some time.’
Alan Milburn, Young People and Work: Interim Report (2026), commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions.
This quote comes from Alan Milburn’s Young People and Work: Interim Report, commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions, and I think it is one of the most important acknowledgements we have heard from government in a long time.
For years, much of the public conversation around young people has focused on blame.
We have blamed smartphones.
We have blamed social media.
We have blamed parents.
We have blamed schools.
We have blamed benefits.
We have blamed motivation.
And sometimes we have blamed young people themselves.
What is significant about this report is that it moves away from that narrative.
Instead, it recognises that many of the difficulties young people face as they move from education into adulthood are rooted in wider systemic and structural problems.
As someone who works with children and young people every day, it is encouraging to see a government-commissioned report acknowledge what many professionals, families and young people have been saying for years.
The warning signs are often visible long before a young person leaves school:
unmet SEND need,
poor mental health,
anxiety,
attendance difficulties,
disengagement,
limited access to support,
and systems that do not always join up when they are needed most.
This is not about lowering expectations of young people.
It is about recognising that if we want young people to thrive, the systems around them need to be fit for purpose too.
The report repeatedly makes the point that this is not a failure of young people. It is a failure to create the conditions, opportunities and support structures that allow all young people to participate meaningfully in education, employment and society.
Most importantly, it is good to hear a government department openly recognise the challenges many young people face as they leave school and enter adulthood.
Because young people are not the problem to be solved.
They are the generation we should be investing in, listening to and supporting.
Emma
The Autistic SENCo
♾️
