|
Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 864: 12th September 2026. Are You On Top Of Your Attendance Data? Especially After The Children's Commissioner Uncovers 42,000 Hidden NEETs Severely Absent From College
This is the weekly e-newsletter and e-journal by FE News: ISSN 2732-4095. We know life is busy, so here's a snapshot of the latest announcements and epic thought leadership articles from sector influencers and thought leaders across FE and Skills this week on FE News.
Gavin’s Reflective Perspective
Could we have double the number of NEETs?
Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza’s has shared some real eye-opening new analysis... with an estimated 42,000 16 and 17-year-olds that are enrolled in colleges, but attend less than half the time, meaning they are effectively disengaged from education, but remain outside official NEET figures... When these young people are considered alongside the 46,520 16 and 17-year-olds already known to be NEET, the number of disengaged young people is almost twice as large as official figures indicate.
FE settings are not required to report attendance to the Department for Education like schools... yet!
FE settings are not required to report to the Department for Education on attendance like schools.. yet!.. after these findings... and the Milburn final report coming in Sept... I wonder if this will change!
So… we are at the start of a new academic year; how is your attendance data for students in FE Colleges and Sixth Forms… and for Apprentices during their off-the-job time? As there is a window to be on top and put this in place… or not, for another year?! I think this is massively important to look at, as, for me, it's only a matter of time before this becomes a requirement. After all, Skills England is being built to be very data-led, at the moment on Labour Market data, but they'll also need accurate data on students in the pipeline and potential future NEETs. For me, the writing is on the wall.
If student attendance gets tied to future funding, and in FE and skills it always eventually comes down to funding, this stops being optional overnight. Attendance should already be a given, not something we're scrambling to fix once it's mandated. Are you on top of this?
Especially when Dame Rachel de Souza found: More than half of college students were persistently absent, with 52.2 percent of 16- and 17-year-olds having an attendance below 90 percent – the measure of persistent absence used in schools.
Attendance in colleges was substantially lower than in schools, with the average reported attendance rate for 16-year-olds being 84.8 per cent and 83.4 per cent for 17-year-olds, compared to the 94.8 per cent attendance rate for pupils in primary school and 91.6 per cent attendance rate for pupils in secondary school in the same Spring term of 2026.
So... are you ahead on your attendance data... or not so much? Could be time to chat to the team, get the data lined up... as I would say this is looking very, very likely to be a requirement!
Standout thought leadership articles for me were from Palvinder Singh and Vanessa Aradia
I hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week.
Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles
Where Is the Love? A start-of-term challenge to Further Education By Palvinder Singh, Principal & Chief Executive, Kirklees College
University 365: Does the UK Need to Rethink the University Model? By Afzal Sayed Munna, Senior Lecturer and Accreditation Lead, University of Hull London
Understanding Local Employers to Address Local Skills Gaps By Adam Herbert, CEO and Co-Founder, Go Live Data
This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!
Stop Asking Young People to fit one Route, Start Designing Routes that fit more Young People By Claire Bennison, AAT Executive Director of Customer, Partnerships and Innovation
Can They Actually do the Job? Why Knowledge was Only Ever Part of the Story By Vanessa Aradia, Head of Learning and Development at the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers
What’s New in the World of FE?
Announcements
Local Mayors, Industry and Educators Come Together At No10 North Summit To Rewire Vocational Education By the Department for Education (DfE)
Children’s Commissioner Highlights 16-17 Attendance Blind Spot, As NEET Figures Could Be Nearly Double Once Severe Absence Is Counted By the Department for Education (DfE)
Retail sector pledges 100,000 youth jobs as DWP launches Opening Shift work experience programme By the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
New grants of up to £500,000 to build evidence on helping young people facing barriers to work By Nuffield Foundation
Voices
Smaller Systems Make Organisational Behaviour Impossible to Hide By Mitzi Danielson-Kaslik MICA CG, Risk, Governance & Compliance
What Does it Really Mean to be Work Ready? By Tracey Patmore, Head of Product at NOCN Group
By Danny O’Meara, Operations Manager, FE News and | 