New data released from the Department for Education today underscores the scale of the challenge facing the Government’s ambition to reduce the number of young people who are not in education, training or employment (NEET).
A total of 913,000 suspensions were recorded in the 2024/25 school year.
Research from the youth employment charity Impetus and the Education Policy Institute (EPI) showed that young people who are suspended at secondary school even once are twice as likely to be NEET by age 24 as those who have never been suspended. Analysis by Impetus finds that if this group had the same rate of being NEET as their non-suspended peers there would be as many as 55,000 more young people in work or training.
As well as being at greater risk of becoming NEET, young people who have been suspended from school experience a range of poorer outcomes in late adolescence and early adulthood. Compared with those who are not suspended, they are:
- Less likely to pass crucial GCSEs in English and Maths
- 2.5 times as likely to receive out-of-work benefits by age 24
- 2.7 times as likely to receive health-related benefits by age 24
Susannah Hardyman, CEO of Impetus, said:
“Suspended pupils aren’t just out of the classroom, they’re missing the lessons, relationships and routines that keep them connected to school. This lost learning can cast a long shadow over a young person’s life, impacting not just their academic attainment, but also their longer-term outcomes like health and employment prospects.
“Schools need to be able to keep young people safe, but a suspension must be taken as an opportunity to act, by identifying where needs are not being met, and putting the right support in place.
“We know that the children facing the greatest challenges both inside and outside of the school gates are the ones that are most at risk of losing learning through suspension - children living in poverty, in contact with children’s social care, with special educational needs and disabilities, or from some ethnic minority backgrounds.
“These outcomes are not inevitable. Government should require schools to track all forms of lost learning so they can identify patterns of disengagement, respond strategically and intervene at the earliest possible opportunity to those most at risk. Prevention stops small hurdles becoming barriers and gives all young people the best chance of success in life.”
Susannah Hardyman MBE, CEO, Impetus
Dr Chris Tomlinson, CEO of Co-op Academies Trust said:
"The DfE's latest figures show that reducing exclusions is one of the defining challenges facing education today, but our data at Co-op Academies Trust proves it is entirely achievable.
“By investing heavily in our In-School Alternative Provision (ISAP) blueprint, we have supported 484 of our highest-need students to date. The results speak for themselves: we have seen a 74% reduction in suspensions - saving 2191 days of lost learning - alongside a 4.3% boost in attendance.
“Crucially, these inclusion bases do not compromise on aspirations; our students achieved an average academic progress rate of +1.6 grades. With a 25% re-integration rate and 92% of our pupils securing positive post-16 destinations, our partnership with Impetus is proving that structured, well-funded early intervention keeps vulnerable young people safe, learning, and thriving in mainstream education."
Dr Chris Tomlinson, CEO, Co-op Academies Trust
For further information please contact: Nicola Robbins, Director of Communications, 07967644427 nicola.robbins@impetus.org.uk or, Emily Dalton, Communications and Media Officer, emily.dalton@impetus.org.uk
For further information about Co-op Academies, please contact: Danika O’Connor, Head of Marketing and PR, 07360 187841 danika.oconnor@coopacademies.co.uk
Notes to editors:
- The data is taken from the Department for Education’s suspensions and permanent exclusions statistics in England from 2024-2025.
- How we calculated the NEET figure: The methodology is based on findings from EPI (2024), which reported that students who have been suspended are about twice as likely to become NEET as those who have not been suspended, with a NEET rate of 34% for suspended students. From this, the NEET rate for non-suspended students is estimated at 17%. Applying these rates to the suspended group yields an estimate of NEET cases under suspension, while the 17% rate provides a counterfactual baseline. The difference between the two estimates represents the additional NEET cases associated with suspension. This is a correlational rather than causal relationship, so the results should be interpreted as indicative rather than precise.
- In 2024 we conducted two pieces of research with EPI on outcomes for suspended pupils:
N.B. Pupils’ attainment at GCSE plays a significant role in the relationship between suspension and outcomes. Factors contributing to suspensions, as well as suspensions themselves, may have influenced GCSE performance, which in turn is related to outcomes in adulthood.
