School-leavers with SEND should be offered more dedicated internships in healthcare, hospitality and construction to help them into work and off benefits, college leaders have warned.
The Sixth Form Colleges Association and Association of Colleges leaders are urging ministers to boost the number of “supported internships” for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
But they warned that Prime Minister Andy Burnham must “incentivise” smaller employers to take on more young people with additional needs, with measures such as financial subsidies or new employment legislation.
Currently, there are around 4,500 opportunities a year, funded by the Department for Education (DfE), for people aged 16-24 with SEND to access work-based study programmes that bridge the gap between college and workplaces.
However, only those with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) – which is a council-funded document that describes a child’s needs and unlocks extra support – can access these placements.
Earlier this week, Alan Milburn – a former New Labour-era minister who has been tasked with tackling youth joblessness – said he wanted to “turbocharge” internships for young people with SEND to tackle the unemployment crisis.
Speaking to The Guardian, he said: “Supported internships have got such an effective track record. With the best ones around 70 per cent of the people on them end up in paid employment.
“In my view we have to turbocharge support – and at the moment the system is not set up to do that.”
The DfE is already trialling expanding supported internships to young people with SEND who do not have an EHCP in 16 local authorities, with the results due next year.
If the pilot is a success and the scheme is rolled out nationally, young people with social, emotional and mental health issues could be offered greater support into the workplace – rather than just those with EHCPs.
These supported internships currently span across health and social care, hotels, restaurants and catering firms as well as major supermarkets and local councils. Young people are supported by a college tutor and an on-site job coach, with their role rotating across the business for a period of at least six months.
David Holloway, senior policy manager at the Association of Colleges, said expanding supported internships beyond those with an EHCP is a “brilliant idea”, adding: “There’s every reason to try to scale that up in terms of the types of young people the schemes serve, but also in terms of the types of employers involved.”
Opportunities already exist across the NHS and hospitality, with roles in internal post rooms and on reception desks, but Holloway said smaller businesses should commit to taking on “one or two” places each, meaning young people can find work close to home.
“It’s been easier for large employers to be involved thus far, and it would be good to find ways for SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] to be able to access schemes like this,” he said, suggesting there could be more opportunities in construction companies and independent hotels, bars or restaurants.
Bill Watkin, CEO of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, told The i Paper there is “every chance” Milburn will recommend that the Government expands internships for SEND pupils as they are an “effective” way to tackle youth unemployment.
He said ministers should look at loosening eligibility criteria for those who don’t have an EHCP, but warned this could leave “fewer opportunities for those in desperate need, those with the EHCPs”.
Watkin said large-scale employers like the NHS have a range of roles that could expand supported internships such as “carpenters, decorators, caterers and psychologists”.
But he added that businesses need incentives such as financial subsidies or strengthened employment legislation to ensure there are opportunities in every “local postcode”, from industrial heartlands to rural communities.
Burnham has already announced plans requiring public bodies to ensure there is “social value” in every procurement contract, including helping young people into work with placements, apprenticeships and training.
In his interim report, Milburn noted that young people with SEND are 80 per cent more likely to be classed as “not in employment, education or training” than average, citing Government statistics.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies found that children receiving support via EHCPs and child disability living allowance – a cash benefit for children with disabilities – are far more likely to rely on benefits when they are older.
The 2025 study found that of 15 year olds who received both forms of support in 2014, half were not in education, employment or training at age 22 and three-quarters were receiving adult disability benefits.
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