By Will Cole, Programme Director, One Southwark
The recent interim findings from Alan Milburn’s review into youth unemployment paint a stark national picture: more than a million 16- to 24-year-olds across the UK are now not in education, employment or training (NEET), the highest figure in over a decade. The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy described the findings as “alarming and accurate.” In Southwark, that reality is reflected in the lives of young people who are too often locked out of work, education and support.
Mental health has to be the starting point, not an afterthought. Government figures show roughly one in five NEET young people has a mental health condition, and the charities working closest to this group describe rising numbers who struggle even with the basics of daily life, let alone a job search. BACP is right to call for early intervention that starts at school age, properly resourced college and university counselling, and mental health teams that actually reach young people before things become a crisis. In our experience, confidence and wellbeing aren’t a nice-to-have alongside employment support. They are the part that has to come first.
The jobs market itself has also shifted under young people’s feet. Since late 2022, vacancies for graduate jobs, apprenticeships and other entry-level roles have fallen by roughly a third across the UK, a mix of cautious hiring, rising employment costs and businesses restructuring around new technology and AI. Graduate vacancies are at their lowest point since 2012, and employers now receive, on average, well over a hundred applications for every junior role posted. Hospitality and retail, traditionally a first foothold for many young people in Southwark, are also under pressure. Add to that the fact that 40% of young people in Southwark grow up in poverty, and it’s clear this isn’t a question of ambition. It’s a question of access.
This is precisely the gap One Southwark exists to close. We work intensively, for twelve months, with young people aged 16 to 25 living in Southwark who are motivated to change their circumstances but are being missed by services built only for the most acute or most visible cases. Each member gets a dedicated mentor for six months, monthly one-to-one coaching, group skills workshops on everything from networking to money management, and a £1,500 personal grant they help direct themselves, alongside a choice of a one-week local work placement or an accredited training course. That grant has funded an ADHD assessment one young person called “life-changing,” seeded a catering business, covered childcare so a parent could make it to an interview, and paid for the right clothes for someone’s first day of work experience.
This isn’t just theory of change on a slide deck or proposal. It’s an actual shift you can see in the lives of the young people who have already been through it. Forty young people have come through One Southwark since 2022, and our first cohort of twenty has now graduated. Several have moved into meaningful employment or started their own ventures; others have built the confidence and skills to take their next step on their own terms. Our independent learning partner, IVAR, described the model as built on “high support, high trust… intensely relational work, not transactional,” and that is exactly what young people tell us they were missing before they joined.
None of this scales on goodwill alone, and the need in Southwark is growing. So here is the ask: if you are 16 to 25, live in Southwark, and are ready to work on your next step, applications for our third cohort are open now and close on Friday 10 July at 5pm. Compete our application form, send us a short video or written statement covering your goals, what you’ve already tried, and how we could help; you do not need a perfect CV, just motivation.
And, if you lead a business, law firm, housing provider or foundation with a stake in this borough, we are actively recruiting Coalition partners to offer mentoring, work placements, funding or strategic support, alongside organisations Merchant Taylor’s Foundation , Peabody and Southwark Council who already do.
A million young people NEET is a national figure, but the response has to be local.
Southwark’s young people deserve a way back in, and we’d rather build it with you than without you. Apply for the next cohort by emailing Ebony at eonwubolu@ustsc.org.uk or join our Coalition of organisations by getting in touch with Will at wcole@ustsc.org.uk.
