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Future Minds responds to new education reforms

  • 2 minutes to read
  • Published on 3 August 2026

Anna Freud is the newest member of a campaign aiming to transform children and young people’s mental health.

A photograph of two young people talking animatedly while sat at a table with a laptop between them.

Last week (Tuesday 28 July), the UK’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced a series of education reforms focused on addressing rising numbers of young people not in education, employment, or training (NEET) and mark a shift away from New Labour’s ‘university-first’ model.

What the reforms mean for young people:

  • From September 2028, pupils will be able to combine core academic subjects like English and maths with technical education linked to jobs available in their area, starting from Year 10. This includes new subjects such as manufacturing and AI.

  • There will be prioritised funding for these technical and vocational qualifications, plus guidance to Ofsted to recognise the value of these as well as more traditional qualifications.

  • Bursaries of up to £4,500 will be available to help teenagers in universal credit households take up apprenticeships. Small and medium-sized businesses will also get up to £8,000 in financial support for hiring young apprentices.

Future Minds' response

Future Minds, a collaborative campaign aiming to transform children and young people’s mental health, issued the below response following these announcements. The group welcomes the ‘ambitious’ reforms but calls for a ‘wider package’ of changes to support more young people experiencing mental health issues back into training and work.

Anna Freud is proud to be the newest member of the Future Minds campaign, joining the Centre for Mental Health, the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, Centre for Young Lives and YoungMinds, with support from the Prudence Trust.

Leading youth mental health coalition, Future Minds, responds to the Prime Minister’s announcements on education:

"For the first time in over a decade, the number of young people not in education, employment or training reached over one million. The recent interim report from Alan Milburn laid bare not only the scale of the challenge facing this ‘lost generation’ of young people, but also diagnoses years of systemic failure that have led to far too many young people falling out of the system.

"Future Minds welcomes the announcement which, in the first two weeks in office, puts children and young people firmly at the forefront of this new Government's priorities. These measures also represent a genuine first step towards an education system that prepares young people for life after school.

"However, so far they only address one part of the wider system, and education reform alone cannot reverse the trend in youth inactivity and unemployment. Poor mental health is one of the key drivers of the recent rise in young NEETs, causing too many young people disengage from school early, and without the timely support they need, many fall out of the system entirely.

“The Prime Minister has today set out an ambitious vision for education to unlock opportunities for young people. Now we want to see the same ambition applied to youth mental health support. Future Minds is calling on Government to build on this announcement with a wider package of reforms to support more young people suffering with their mental health back into training and work - including addressing closing the treatment gap for CYPMHS.”

Find out more

Read our response to a roadmap Future Minds published earlier this year for transforming children and young people’s mental health by 2035.