Nearly 1 million 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK are currently outside education, employment or training and the number is currently projected to increase.

We can all see the huge waste of talent this represents for the young people concerned and society as a whole. In his interim report on young people and work, commissioned by the government, former MP Alan Milburn found that although most of the young people in this situation aspire to steady employment, education or training, pathways to achieve their aims are not clear. These issues reflect societal, moral and economic failure.

Milburn identifies multiple intersecting reasons for the current situation. He observes that health, education, social services and legal systems can compound existing disadvantage. Interactions with these systems are often impersonal and transactional, prioritising measurable outcomes over genuine concern for the individual.

Even the term Neet shows how young people are perceived as problems to be fixed, not individuals with dreams and talents. Defining them as “not in employment, not in education, not in training” implies there is something wrong with them. Do I define myself as “not an accountant”?

If using such loaded, discouraging terms limits how society thinks about young people and often how they think about themselves, research shows the........

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