Careers guidance should be at the centre of Alan Milburn’s final Neet report

‘Early, sustained careers intervention – not just at the point of crisis – is where systemic change must begin.’ Photograph: Alamy

Alan Milburn’s interim review into young people not in education, employment or training lays bare what those of us working in careers support services have long observed: this is a system failure, not a failure of young people (‘A record of failure’: what’s in the first part of Alan Milburn’s Neet report?, 28 May).

Milburn rightly identifies the deep structural dysfunction that has left more than 1 million young people locked out of work and learning – and the stark imbalance between the £25 spent on benefits for every £1 directed at employment support. But the review’s framing of this primarily as a welfare and employment problem risks missing a deeper structural deficit: the chronic underinvestment in high-quality, impartial careers guidance across schools, colleges and communities.