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Enrolled but not there: the 42,000 teenagers nobody is counting

Qurexa Editorial Team12 September 20267 min read 0 0
Enrolled but not there: the 42,000 teenagers nobody is counting

What happened

The Children's Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, has published findings on a group of teenagers who do not appear in the official figures at all. The report, covered on 10 September 2026, estimates that around 42,000 sixteen and seventeen-year-olds in England are enrolled at college but severely absent from it. Her office calls them "hidden NEETs". NEET is a term used in education and employment statistics. It stands for not in education, employment or training. The point of the phrase "hidden NEET" is that these young people are counted as being in education, because their name is on a college roll, while in practice they are attending less than half the time. The numbers come from data collected in spring 2026. Across the college groups that provided figures, 28,528 sixteen and seventeen-year-olds were severely absent, meaning they missed at least half the sessions they were expected to attend. Extrapolated across all college groups in England, that gives an estimated 41,995 students. The report also compares attendance across education stages, and the gap is stark. Average attendance was 84.8% for sixteen-year-olds and 83.4% for seventeen-year-olds in colleges. In the same spring term, primary school attendance averaged 94.8% and secondary school attendance 91.6%. Absence was not spread evenly. Students receiving free school meals, students with an Education, Health and Care Plan, and children in care all had higher absence rates than their peers. The report highlights a gap in the system itself: unlike schools, further education and sixth form colleges in England are not required to collect or report attendance data.

Why this matters

The last point is the one that does the most work. If nobody has to count something, nobody notices when it goes wrong. Schools in England record attendance daily and report it, which means patterns get spotted and there are systems to respond. Colleges have no equivalent duty. So a sixteen-year-old can drift away over a term without triggering anything, and still be recorded nationally as being in education. That matters because the years between sixteen and eighteen are when a lot of futures are quietly decided. Someone who disengages at this point can lose qualifications, confidence and the routine of turning up, and reconnecting later is harder than staying connected now. It also means national policy is being made on figures that understate the problem. If close to 42,000 young people are counted as being in education while barely attending, then every statement about NEET numbers is built on a shaky foundation. Policies are designed and money is allocated against those figures. The pattern in who is affected should not be brushed past either. Young people on free school meals, young people with special educational needs, and children in care are already the groups most likely to face difficulty. This is not a random 42,000. It falls hardest on the young people with the least to fall back on. And there is a compulsory-participation point that surprises many parents. In England, young people must stay in some form of education or training until eighteen. Being enrolled and not attending is not the same as meeting that expectation.

What the evidence actually says

The central number is an estimate, and the report is open about that. The directly measured figure is 28,528 severely absent sixteen and seventeen-year-olds in the college groups that supplied data for spring 2026. The 42,000 figure comes from scaling that up to cover all college groups in England. That is a standard approach, and it is reasonable, but it assumes the colleges that supplied data are broadly representative of those that did not. They may not be. The absence of a national data requirement cuts both ways here. It is the report's central criticism, and it is also the reason the report cannot simply state a precise figure. You cannot measure well what nobody is obliged to record. "Severely absent" also needs defining, and here it means missing at least half of expected sessions. That is a high threshold. It is deliberately so, because it describes young people who are essentially not participating rather than those who miss the odd day. One comparison deserves a small caveat. College attendance and school attendance are not measured identically. College timetables are more varied, with fewer contact hours, and the way sessions are counted differs. The gap between 84% and 92% is large enough to be meaningful, but it is not a like-for-like figure. The Children's Commissioner is an independent statutory office whose job is to promote children's interests, and it has legal powers to require information from public bodies. Its reports are advocacy in the sense that they argue for change, but they are built on data gathered under those powers rather than on opinion.

Practical advice

If you are a parent or carer of a young person at college, there are some useful things to know. Do not assume no news means everything is fine. Colleges are not required to report attendance the way schools are, and many will not contact you unprompted, particularly once a student turns eighteen. Asking directly is reasonable. Ask the college who your young person's tutor or pastoral contact is, and ask how you would find out if attendance dropped. Every college has someone in this role even without a national reporting duty. If attendance is slipping, try to find out what is behind it before treating it as a discipline issue. Common causes include anxiety, money and transport problems, caring responsibilities at home, the wrong course, and struggling with the step up from school. Each of these has a different answer. Transport in particular catches people out. Post-sixteen travel is not automatically free, arrangements vary by local authority, and colleges often have bursaries that go unclaimed. It is always worth asking. If a young person has an Education, Health and Care Plan, the local authority has continuing duties beyond school age, up to twenty-five where the plan remains in place. Those duties do not stop at sixteen. And if a course is clearly wrong, changing it is usually better than drifting away from education altogether. Colleges are generally used to this and can advise on options, including apprenticeships and other routes.

What to know

The Children's Commissioner for England estimates that around 42,000 sixteen and seventeen-year-olds are enrolled at college but severely absent, meaning they attend less than half their expected sessions. They appear in national statistics as being in education. The figure is extrapolated from 28,528 severely absent students directly recorded across college groups in spring 2026. College attendance averaged around 84% for this age group, against 91.6% in secondary schools. Absence is concentrated among students on free school meals, those with an Education, Health and Care Plan, and children in care. The underlying problem is structural: colleges in England are not required to collect or report attendance data, so the young people disappearing from education are not being counted, and national NEET figures understate the picture. For families, the practical step is not to assume silence means attendance, and to ask the college directly who to speak to if it slips. Sources: Children's Commissioner for England, 'Thousands of teenagers slipping through the cracks, as 42,000 hidden NEETs remain enrolled in colleges but severely absent from learning', September 2026, https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/news-and-blogs/press-notice-thousands-of-teenagers-slipping-through-the-cracks-as-42000-hidden-neets-remain-enrolled-in-colleges-but-severely-absent-from-learning/; FE Week, '42,000 college students are hidden NEETs, children's commissioner finds', 10 September 2026, https://feweek.co.uk/42000-college-students-are-hidden-neets-childrens-commissioner-finds/; Department for Education, pupil attendance statistics for England, https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/ This article is for general information and does not replace advice from your college, local authority, or a qualified professional.

#NEET#further education#college attendance#Children's Commissioner#SEND#free school meals

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