Engagement in Individual Placement and Support Services: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of NEET Young People’s and Practitioners' Perspectives

Dandy, Neesha (2026) Engagement in Individual Placement and Support Services: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of NEET Young People’s and Practitioners' Perspectives. Doctoral thesis, Birmingham City University.

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Abstract

This thesis explores how young people who are not in education, employment, or training and practitioners make sense of engagement in Individual Placement and Support services, while reflecting on young people’s lived experiences of support. It further considers whether this form of support recognises and meets the needs of NEET young people.

Insights provided by six young people and six practitioners were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. For young people, engagement was associated with empathetic communication, previous challenges in employment and/or education, and ambivalence towards medicalised approaches towards their distress. Their views overlapped with practitioners’ reflections on empathy, medicalisation, and the recognition of young people’s broader needs.

Comparisons between the insights of both groups illuminated a richer conceptualisation of engagement that reflects the meaning-making of biopsychosocial experiences. Though the comparison is not straightforward. Young people reflected on how diagnosis influenced their sense of self and how the side effects of medication impacted their circumstances. Practitioners' understandings were limited to reflection on entry points to care and the common side effects of medication.

While young people valued support that was caring and considerate of their needs, practitioners' empathetic orientation was often negotiated within institutional pressures. Both groups also recognised the importance of foregrounding young people’s previous challenges in employment and/or education when providing support.

This thesis makes a distinct contribution to knowledge by demonstrating that engagement cannot be reduced to attendance rates and outcomes alone. Instead, it is conceptualised as a complex interplay of young people's sense-making of biomedical, psychological and sociological experiences, which practitioners recognise and respond to within institutional demands.

The findings offer important implications for mental health policy and practice, highlighting the need for inclusive frameworks that recognise and support NEET young people.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Dates:	Date Event 22 June 2026 Accepted
Uncontrolled Keywords:	NEET, Young People, Engagement, Individual Placement and Support, Critical Realism, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Foucauldian Discourse Analysis, Mental Health, Medicalisation, Biopsychosocial, Political Economy
Subjects:	CAH02 - subjects allied to medicine > CAH02-04 - nursing and midwifery > CAH02-04-01 - nursing (non-specific) CAH02 - subjects allied to medicine > CAH02-04 - nursing and midwifery > CAH02-04-07 - mental health nursing CAH02 - subjects allied to medicine > CAH02-04 - nursing and midwifery > CAH02-04-09 - others in nursing
Divisions:	Doctoral Research College > Doctoral Theses Collection Nursing and Midwifery
Depositing User:	Louise Muldowney
Date Deposited:	03 Aug 2026 09:34
Last Modified:	03 Aug 2026 09:34
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/17139

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