Some 12 miles north-west of Number 10 in The North, in a Bolton scrapyard, 21-year-old Luis Green has got some advice for the new Prime Minister about how to solve the problem of ‘Neets’.
“It’s all about finding purpose,” Luis says, showing us around the scrapyard and car-washing business he credits with saving his life. “I’m a new person,” he says. “Now I’ve got a job I feel like I’m part of society again.”
Andy Burnham has insisted this week he is on a “mission” to halt the rise of young people not in employment, education or training (Neets). Luis knows what it means to be a member of the so-called ‘lost generation’, in a corner of Lancashire where the number of Neets are higher than the national average.
Before he came to work at the Genuine Futures CIC project, Luis’ self-esteem was so low felt he was heading to the scrapheap. Now he’s striding between giant racks of cars at the scrapyard, full of confidence. “I felt worthless and isolated before,” he says. “I’d get on the bus and see other people coming back from working a shift and think, ‘I’m a leech, a failure’. I wasn’t living. I was getting depressed. I could have fallen into crime. But I came here. Here, I feel like I fit in. I’ve got prospects now.”
Luis, who has what he describes as Asperger’s, spent two years getting more and more down about not being able to find a job, before he came to work at Genuine Futures, a volunteer-led enterprise that helps young people find work and purpose. Founded by co-director Sam Smith in 2023, it has already supported almost 100 young people like Luis into work and training. Attendees are expected to get stuck in – knocking on doors to find new clients, tackling hardcore cleaning jobs and getting on as part of a team. In return, they learn real skills and how to run a business, gain confidence, and go home with money in their pocket.
“The number of Neets is going up every year so we need to act now,” Sam, 54, who drew on his own experiences of being in care and in prison to set up Genuine Futures CIC, says. “The future of our country depends on the opportunities we create for the next generation.”
After a shock report from Labour’s Alan Milburn warned in May there are now over one million ‘Neets’ in Britain, this week Mr Burnham said he wants to bring “hope” to young people – and build a “country that values“ the hard hat every bit as much as the graduation cap”.
The PM said that young people now have “a Prime Minister who’s saying ‘I am for you, and I will build an education system that works for you, that treats all students coming through school as equals’. He added: “It would be easy to push the blame on them. Why don’t they work a bit harder? Why don’t they want it a bit more? But the truth is: they are and they do. What’s holding them back isn’t ambition, but the skills and experience to make the most of it.”
The Prime Minister is starting with education reform, bringing parity of esteem to technical and academic education, but Sam says that’s just the start – and he’d like to welcome Andy Burnham and his No 10 North team to visit any time soon to talk about the rest. “For 27 years I’ve worked alongside young people who have been excluded, become disengaged or simply lost confidence in the system,” Sam says.
He adds: “One thing has always been clear to me: qualifications matter, but they are only part of the answer. Education reform is an important step. But if we are serious about reducing the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training, we also need to invest in prevention, trusted adults, community grassroots organisations and pathways that continue long after the school day ends.
“The school to prison pipeline is real – young people are being passed from one organisation to another, PRUs, care, prison, then it’s hard to break out. We can help with that. We know how to build a business and we know how to engage with young people who have had a poor start in life. We know everything is possible and that’s what we’re showing people here – that there’s hope.
“At Genuine Futures, we’ve seen time and again that young people don’t lack ambition—they lack opportunities, trusted relationships and joined-up support. That’s why we believe grassroots organisations like ours should have a seat at the table when national policy is being shaped.”
Around 1,700 young people in Bolton are classed as Neets. Many of the young people Genuine Futures have supported have had a difficult start in life – struggling with additional needs, life in the care system and/or poverty, or exploited by county lines gangs. But Sam and fellow co-director Mike Alleyne, 57, say many are now thriving.
One young woman they talk about is back in education, training to be a lawyer, another is hoping to join the police, others like Luis and his colleague Cameron Hughes-Richard, relish coming to work at the scrapyard everyday. Alongside washing cars they’re developing new business strategies – compiling data sets so they can look at areas to target and organising large-scale promotional events, things they would have found impossible a year ago.
As the Prime Minister said this week: “above all, it’s about changing the message we send to our kids. Because there isn’t just one future worth preparing them for — there are many. And it’s about time we treated every single one with the same respect.”
At the scrapyard, 20-year-old Cameron puts it another way. “It didn’t feel like there was anything for me,” he says, “I went to college but the tutors didn’t have faith in me so I stopped going. I didn’t feel like I had a future. I was trying to get jobs but getting nowhere. Here I feel like I’m actually learning, I’m getting somewhere and I enjoy it. I’ve got a life now basically – I’m moving forward.”
He smiles. “I had two weeks off recently and honestly, I couldn’t wait to get back to work.”