Supported Internships in Manchester

Manchester’s vision is for children and young people to be ‘happy, healthy, safe, and successful and for disabled children and young people to be independent and have choices.’ Manchester’s aim is to provide work for all disabled young people and young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN), and support them to enter paid employment where possible. To help achieve this, Manchester has a strong focus and long-term commitment to the Preparing for Adulthood pathways – supporting disabled children and young people and children and young people with SEN into independent adulthood. In 2022-23 Manchester’s largest supported internship provider enrolled 61 young people onto the Supported Internship programme and 56% of the young people gained paid employment, a further 39% went into other positive destinations – volunteering, supported employment, further education.

The SEND Effective Practice Evidence Framework considers that the “strength of evidence” of this case study is good – the work has been evaluated and shared internally, and has been sustained for more than 12 months. The “breadth of impact” of this case study is good – there is evidence of impact in three of the four broad areas of impact considered by the Framework.