No More NEET: Finings the factors that lead to the successful progression of 14 to 16 year old students in alternative provisions

While the majority of young people make a successful transition into adult life some young people fall into the 'Not in Education, Employment or Training' population as a result of displaying school refusing behaviour or not achieving in Alternative Provision.

Each year a large number of students attend an AP due to their mainstream setting feeling that they are unable to meet the student's behavioural needs.

Once in these settings the academic advancement of these children is markedly less than their mainstream peers. However, some young people who attend APs successfully progress into mainstream college.

The current thesis sought to identify the factors which lead to the successful progression of these learners into their mainstream college setting.

A systematic literature review investigated the evidence base for the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for the treatment of school refusal for young people between 12-18 years of age.

Findings from 11 studies indicated that CBT was highly effective for increasing the attendance of young people with school refusal. However, due to methodological issues the generalisability of the findings is questionable.

The empirical paper adopted a qualitative approach through using the Thematic Analysis (TA) of eight semi-structured interviews of young people between 16-18 years of age.

The young people had previously attended an AP and had successfully progressed onto Further Education.

In total 11 themes were identified and used to create a thematic map relating to three research questions.

An interesting finding of this study is the importance of the creation of a positive and holistic learning environment by staff who genuinely want, and also have the skills, to work with the FE AP population.

Finally, the dissemination and impact paper provides an overview of the study's policy, practice and research development implications in academic, professional and social terms.