The Government published a green paper in early 2002, announcing plans to phase out NRAs. (i.e. they'd continue for a further 2 years, so that young people who were already 'in the system' would receive them but there would be no 'new starters').
NRAs were (partially) replaced by 'Progress Files'. While the Government provided guidelines for the way that these might be structured, individual schools were given discretion as to exactly what form they might take. More importantly, unlike NRAs, schools were also given discretion to choose whether they would actually adopt any type of formal 'Progress File'. Many schools have opted to simply retain existing school reports and employer references.
Chris