More than two dozen councils have been ordered to improve how they track teenagers after new data found the education, employment or training status of 32,100 16 and 17-year-olds was unknown. The Department for Education said 32,100 so-called “phantom NEETs” were recorded by councils on the basis that their activity could not be confirmed. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has told 26 councils facing the “greatest challenges” they will be required to agree improvement plans over the next six months. Every other council will receive a letter setting out expectations for improving how young people at risk of becoming NEET are tracked and supported. It follows an FE Week investigation in March which found councils held no record of whether 44,000 school leavers had received an appropriate post-16 offer through the ‘September guarantee’ policy. Councils blamed poor data sharing, staff pressures and delays receiving information from schools and colleges for the poor quality of information they hold on young people. Phillipson has said today accurate and timely tracking was “not a box-ticking exercise” but “the difference …