£9m keeps complex-needs job finder scheme alive

An employment training scheme that helps students with additional needs find work has been handed £9 million to extend for another year.

The Department for Education this week confirmed the cash injection to fund the supported internships pilot during the 2026-27 financial year. The programme, run by local authorities, offers work placements to 16 to 24-year-olds with complex needs but who have no education, health and care plan.

The cash boost will help councils develop more pathways to reach disengaged young people and increase participant numbers.

Ministers hinted at an extension in their long-awaited reforms to the SEND system, published in February, after finding “positive outcomes” from the four-year £7.5 million project.

The pilot was one strand of the ‘internships work’ project, run by the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTI) and launched in 2022 to remove barriers to employment for young people with SEND.

Local authorities use the funding to link young people with job coaches, structured support and unpaid six to 12-month work placements to transition them into paid employment, or other positive outcomes such as volunteering or further education.

DfE will now take over administering grants to councils after NDTI’s contract ended on March 31.

Just under half (47 per cent) of the 240 participants found a paid job last year.

The programme is an offshoot from supported internships, which are exclusively for SEND learners with EHCPs.

The NDTI administered grants worth hundreds of thousands of pounds each to 12 councils that initially took part in the first two years of the pilot, extending to 16 this year.

One council placed young people without EHCPs onto existing supported internship programmes, while other local authorities set up gym-based and digital work placements for local learners.

Enrolments more than doubled this year to 573, according to the NDTI. It is not clear how many supported interns the scheme expects to recruit this year with the new £9 million pot.

Richard Kirkup, NDTI’s programme lead for children and young people, said: “It is great to see the government providing further investment to explore ways to expand and develop supported internships.

“This funding will help local authorities to develop new pathways and support many more young people to experience work and start a journey into sustained employment.”

Minister for school standards Georgia Gould told FE Week: “We’re widening access to supported internships for hundreds more students with SEND – providing the opportunity to learn on the job, build relationships and gain the real-world experience needed to get on in life.

“Whether it’s trying their hand in the hospitality or construction industry or working for the NHS, these placements play a key role in transforming the outcomes of kids across the country, boosting their confidence, offering a sense of community and giving them the skills they need for the world of work.”

Simon Ashworth, deputy chief executive and director of policy at Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), said the investment was “positive and timely”.

He added: “These programmes play a vital role in supporting young people into work and further training, and this funding has the potential to reach hundreds more who would otherwise miss out.”

David Holloway, senior policy manager at the Association of Colleges, said: “The proposed reforms to the SEND system mean that this is the right time to open the door to more young people who have SEND but don’t have EHCPs.

“There are too many young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) and we hope that a more flexible model of supported internships will be part of the solution.”