Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics found that 1 in 7 16-24 year olds are classed as ‘NEET’ – Not in Education, Employment or training. Males are more likely to be ‘NEET’ than females, and the figure has risen over 100,000 in the last year (BB News, 2025). This, coupled with statistics that show a third of 16–24-year-olds experience depression and anxiety (ONS,2020) and research that indicates young people feel their mental health is impacted by education (Mind 2021, Accenture, 2021), sets the scene for a discussion about Individual Placement and Support for young people (IPS-Y).

IPS-Y is an amendment to the original Individual Placement and Support Model (Becker and Becker) that supports clients with severe and enduring Mental Illness (SMI) to find competitive, paid employment as part of their recovery. The Youth Model does still focus on employment, but it looks at education as a recovery outcome for a younger cohort (most cohorts between 16-25). With this comes some amendments to the fidelity scale, including increased contact with family members, use of social media for advertising the service, and the IPS Supervisor meeting 80% of the Employment Specialist’s Caseload.

So why did we start investing in Youth IPS?

Oxfordshire Early Intervention in Psychosis Service (EIS) was one of two teams where IPS was originally trialled in Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. In EIS, employment support is one of the NICE Guidelines of interventions alongside other interventions such as CBTp and Behavioural Family Therapy. EIS typically works with a younger cohort, as individuals on the caseload are those experiencing a first episode of psychosis, and this tends to manifest in late teens, early adulthood. Over the years of offering employment support in EIS, we received a steady trickle of referrals that were ‘hybrid’ – they were often clients who were looking for work in the short term and education in the long term. E.g. they were applying for a summer job whilst they waited to find out if they had been accepted onto their course. Some of them experienced barriers very similar to barriers faced if only job searching, and thus we decided that we should trial IPS-Y and see if a pilot was successful.
We welcomed referrals for: those in education who needed help keeping education, those in education who wanted to look at next steps, those not in education, employment or training who wanted to find one of those within the age range of 16-25. Below is part of a recovery story of one of the clients that took part in the pilot.

Joe first became unwell with a first episode of psychosis when studying for his GCSE’s, he came out with 3 BTECs but unfortunately failed English and Maths. Joe was under 18, so had to stay in some form of education but did not know what he wanted to do.

Joe began receiving IPS-Y Support in the summer of 2024. The goal was to find a suitable course for him for September 2024. Joe was interested in computers, and so we found some suitable courses at a local college and applied for these. When we were looking for courses, Joe shared that he would rather have a course that did not assess through examinations.

Joe attended an Options Meeting at the College, where they were able to advise which course would be best for him, and he began a Level 3 Course in Game Development in September 2024.

Joe had to use the train to travel to college and was feeling anxious and worried about this, as it was not something he had done before. We discussed trialling the route to increase his confidence, and slowly building up the days he would catch the train to college. Joe’s Mum was integral in Joe building his confidence using public transport by encouraging him and offering alternative routes to college whilst Joe was increasing his journeys on the train. Joe now gets the train to college regularly.
Joe and his parents felt it was important that Joe had support in place and reasonable adjustments to help him get the best out of his learning experience. Joe had struggled in school and had some local support, but this did not extend far enough. Joe’s course did not have exams as an assessment type, but Joe had to continue studying GCSE English and Maths to resit in 2025, meaning exams.

IPS-Y liaised with the college student welfare and student support team to put some support in place for Joe. These include: an exit card for class if things become overwhelming, extra time for assignments, extra explanation from the tutor, a computer in class to take notes, a quiet space available at the college, and being able to present presentations on a 1-1 basis instead of the whole class. Joe also had an exam arrangement referral made and will be assessed to see if he can access extra time, a laptop and a quiet room in his GCSE Maths and English Exams.

IPS-Y are still working on getting some further adjustments for Joe (mainly around the GCSE Maths and English), but Joe has been attending his course since September and reports he is enjoying it. Joe worked with IPS-Y to build his confidence in an assignment he had to present and received fantastic feedback about how well prepared he was. Joe has also received an award for his attendance in Maths (100%) as well as being motivated and focused.

Joe’s mum said the following about IPS-Y:

“Right from the beginning the support has been brilliant. Starting from the college application process to the placement to the Employment Specialist’s offer to do a walk through at college. Then once Joe had started college the support to help settle him in and making sure he was comfortable. Ensuring Joe had the help and support needed from his tutors, to now the fortnight meetings with the Employment Specialist going through projects and asking how to make things easier for him. Joe is slowly gaining his confidence back.”

Our pilot into IPS-Y was a success, and in November 2024 we hired a full-time worker to offer IPS-Y Support within EIS and allowed all our other ESs to have a small (up to 20%) caseload of IPS-Y clients. Joe’s story is just one of many success stories and we believe that investing in IPS-Y will help shape a better future for many of our clients.