Cash to help students with additional needs find work could be handed to councils again after ministers suggested extending an employment training pilot programme for another year.
Long-awaited reforms to the SEND system this week revealed the government “intends” to continue the local authority pilot dedicated to helping 16 to 24-year-olds with complex needs but no EHCP into work.
The pilot is a strand of the Department for Education’s ‘Internships Work’ project, which launched in 2022 to improve access to employment for young people with SEND.
The contract to run the project, worth £7.5 million in total, expires in March. But the SEND reform consultation hailed its “positive outcomes” and spoke of a 12-month extension.
Multiple local authorities had called for the scheme to be embedded into SEND education after exceeding their recruitment targets of young people at risk of becoming NEET.
The programme links young people with high needs with job coaches, structured support and unpaid work placements to transition them into paid employment, or other positive outcomes such as volunteering or further education.
Just under half (47 per cent) of the 240 participating young people found a paid job after completing the programme last year.
Enrolments more than doubled this year to 573, according to delivery organisation the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTI).
Supported internships for SEND learners aged 16 to 24 with EHCPs had previously prompted concerns after FE Week revealed just one in four participants remained in employment one year after their placement.
NDTI handed out DfE-funded grants worth hundreds of thousands of pounds each to 12 local authorities during the first two years of the pilot, expanding to 16 this year.
The money pays for job coaches, learning support assistants and related provider costs. Several councils added literacy, numeracy and social skills support classes after finding most recruits were NEET before starting the programme.
Jasmine West, post-16 education and skills lead at Barnet Council, said: “These learners can be employable, but a lot have social, emotional, health problems and a lot of anxiety. Many haven’t left their bedrooms for months, even years.”
She added that the pilot filled a gap for young people who did not have a formal disability diagnosis but required help with employability, social and mental health skills.
Barnet Council only got involved in October and has funding until July to recruit 25 people, but West said demand was “already there” to exceed the target.
Chester West and Chester Council has had 87 starts on programme since October, surpassing its 60-person target. Four in 10 have been placed into paid work, while a fifth have re-engaged with education.
The council launched a gym-based pilot, where qualified personal trainers mentored the interns and delivered employability skills in a gym setting to target disengaged young people.
“We’ve proven we can get those hard-to-reach people engaging,” said Jennifer Matthews, non-EHCP pilot lead at the council.
“I know we could support 200-plus with an extension. There needs to be something concrete because temporary funding allows for you to plan for that period of time and then all of a sudden you’ve got people left unsupported.”
Somerset Council used its £603,000 grant funding for the past three years to get young people onto existing supported internship programmes.
“There is huge demand for NEET re-engagement work for SEND young people without an EHCP,” a council spokesperson said.
Somerset Council admitted it had low numbers initially – four in year one – until it switched up its marketing tactics and rolled out digital supported internships, which attracted neurodiverse students. It recruited 12 people the following year and 29 this year.
The DfE was contacted for comment.
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