SINGAPORE: Young people with ADHD and autism could be prescribed work coaches by their GPs to curb the rising numbers out of work and education.

Almost a million people aged 16 to 24 are classified as not in education, ­employment or training (Neet), with just under half signed off work due to long-term health problems.

Alan Milburn, the former Labour health secretary who is carrying out a review into Neets, has suggested that an “individual placement and support” (IPS) service for people with serious mental health problems could be ­expanded for “young people with ­common mental health problems, ­autism and ADHD”.

This would mean hundreds of thousands of young people being referred to employment support services that could last up to a year. Milburn will ­publish his recommendations at the same time as a report by Peter Fonagy, a clinical psychologist at University College London, who has said there are “institutional incentives” to seeking a mental health diagnosis.

Two thirds of Neets are “economically inactive”, meaning they are not looking for work. Since 2005 the proportion of Neets who are signed off work has more than doubled to 28 per cent. Two thirds of them cite mental health problems or autism for their inactivity — ­triple the proportion in 2011.

Milburn has co-authored an online article with Dr Rachel Perkins, a ­psychologist whose recommendations under the last Labour government led to the creation of the IPS.

“Rachel set up the first of this type of ‘individual placement and support’ service for people with serious mental health problems in the UK and has seen the huge difference it’s made to so many people,” Milburn wrote on Substack.

“But access to such evidence-based employment support is not usually available to young people with common mental health problems, autism and ADHD in the UK. Countries like Denmark and Netherlands, where this sort of individual placement and support is integrated with treatment and therapy for young people, have far lower Neet rates than the UK.”

Joe Shalam, the policy director at the Centre for Social Justice, said expanding the support would be “a great move”. But he added: “It is pushing against a tide of soaring mental health benefit payments, a collapsing youth jobs market and mass migration filling what once would have been entry-level roles for British youngsters. The government must continue to focus on tackling perverse incentives.”

Milburn’s review, expected early in the autumn, is likely to recommend a benefits system overhaul. A government spokesman said it looked forward to his recommendations.