Primary schools to be told to identify children at risk of future unemployment

Alan Milburn said ministers needed to ‘make somebody responsible’ for identifying and supporting the children who risked becoming unemployed. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

Primary schools in England should be required to identify children at risk of leaving education at 16 without finding a job, a government review is to recommend.

Alan Milburn, who is leading a review into Britain’s crisis in youth worklessness, said he would call for sweeping changes in education policy alongside a shake-up of the benefits system to address the problem.