October 29, 2024. Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes, News, Oxfordshire

Mentoring from NEET to EET: New report shares findings from review of evidence

The Thames Valley Violence Prevention Partnership has published (November 2024) key findings following a review to understand what approaches work well – and what may not be effective – when delivering mentoring to young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) to support them reengage with those activities.

The NEET to EET Mentoring evidence review has been published as part of the Violence Prevention Partnership’s ongoing “What Works” series of publications and webinars, to share learning with local and national partners and helping to inform decision making, service design and commissioning.

It was undertaken by the VPP’s in-house research team, who undertook a review of existing academic literature and evidence to develop a summary of themes and findings as to what is effective and what is not when mentoring young people to help them engage with employment, education and training.

Being NEET is associated with a broad range of poor outcomes from poor health, poor attainment and low income. Furthermore, not only are their individual outcomes worse, the evidence suggested that being for each young person who is NEET, the additional lifetime cost burden on society is £56,000*.

Mentoring approaches are widely used across public services and within the voluntary and community sectors. Mentoring has been shown to be effective at supporting vulnerable young people to change harmful behaviours and provides protection. For example, the VPP funds a School Navigator mentoring programme in Milton Keynes to support those at risk of exclusion to stay engaged.

The evidence review identified a set of themes associated with practice that could be most effective together with those approaches that may be less:

Positive approachesApproaches that may be less effective
Long-term intervention engagementLight touch, short interventions
Multi-component mentoringShort duration meetings
Practical and active support – i.e. CV writing, interview preparation, career adviceExpectation on young people to undertake initial activity independently
Problem solving to tackle the barriers to engagementActivities directed only by the young person’s current skill level
Goal setting – developed by the young personActivities directed only by the immediately available opportunities
Referrals to mental health and other services 
Exposure to experiences 
High quality training for the mentors 

Drawing conclusions from the themes identified, the review stresses:

Person-centred problem solving and goal setting, the provision of practical ‘EET’ focused support, long term and in-depth delivery, and activity directed by a young person’s individual wants, needs and interests, appear to be a collection of themes that are present in promising implementations of mentoring programmes that seek to support NEET young people with their (re)engagement in education, employment and training.

Importantly, where mentoring interventions are not directed by a young person’s individual wants, interests and needs, and are rather focused on encouraging young people to engage quickly in ‘the most available’ and ‘current skill level’ opportunities, evidence exists to suggest that this can have negative impacts on, and consequences for, young people.

Jules Bottazzi, Director of Strategy & Performance and Head of the Violence Prevention Partnership, Thames Valley Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner, said:

“For all young people – but particularly those who have wider vulnerabilities – staying engaged in education, accessing training and then going into stable employment is vital for their personal outcomes and to help them stay safe.

“We wanted to ensure that as we design a new VPP-funded mentoring programme to be delivered in the coming months, we were doing this from a position of the best evidence on what works. The review has highlighted some important themes that we will reflect in our scheme – but also we share them more widely for all our partner’s benefit, because mentoring can be incredibly powerful when done well.

“Once again, the findings show that we need approaches that are not short, that are person-centred and reflect the complex individual needs of the young people we support and take a problem-solving approach to overcome the many challenges they face in their lives that influence the way they behave. This is a theme that we have seen across other areas of our “What Works” series of research”.

 The full NEET to EET Mentoring report is available to download:

What Works NEET to EET Mentoring reportDownload

Notes to Editors