Somewhere around Year 12, the annual review changes shape. The conversation stops being about lessons and starts being about “destinations”. Every option on the table seems to assume your young person will either leap straight into an apprenticeship or sit in a classroom for two more years.
If what they actually want is a job, with support that doesn’t vanish on day one, there’s a route built for that. It’s called a supported internship, and outside special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) circles almost nobody mentions it to parents and carers.
This guide covers England. It explains what a supported internship is, who can do one, and what the year looks like from the inside. It also covers what happens to your young person’s Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) along the way.
Key facts
- A supported internship is a study programme, not a job: interns stay enrolled in full-time education while learning a real role at a real employer.
- It’s for young people aged 16 to 24 who have an EHCP.
- It lasts at least 6 months and up to a year, with around 70% of the time spent in the workplace.
- The placement is unpaid, but Access to Work can fund a job coach, travel and equipment while it runs.
- The EHCP stays in place throughout, and the plan’s usual legal protections carry on.
- The whole programme points at one outcome: a paid job at the end.
What is a supported internship?
A supported internship is a structured study programme for young people with SEND, based mostly at an employer rather than in a classroom. The Department for Education (DfE) guidance describes a work-based programme for 16 to 24 year olds with an EHCP, lasting a minimum of 6 months and up to a year.
Think of it as a college course where the classroom is mostly a staff room. Interns typically spend around 70% of their time in the workplace and 30% with their school or college. They stay enrolled in full-time education, and the placement counts as part of the course.
The college side isn’t an afterthought. Interns follow a personalised study programme alongside the placement, including relevant English and maths, so the qualification side keeps moving too.
What makes the model different from work experience is the support wrapped around it. There’s a trained job coach at the employer’s site, and the whole programme is built around one explicit goal: moving into paid work.
Who can do a supported internship?
The eligibility rule is short. To do a supported internship, a young person must be aged between 16 and 24 and have an EHCP. There’s no interview panel deciding whether they’re “work ready” enough to deserve a place; the programme exists precisely for young people who need extra support to get there.
One thing worth naming at this stage. Once your young person passes compulsory school age, the legal right to make education decisions sits with them, not you. In practice most families work through it together, and our guide to keeping an EHCP into college and beyond explains how that handover works.
The DfE has also been piloting supported internships for young people without an EHCP in some areas. It’s a pilot, not the main route, so if your young person has no plan, ask your local college what exists locally before ruling anything out.
What does the year actually look like?
The shape varies by provider, but the rhythm is consistent: a short settling-in period, then long stretches at the employer with college woven around the edges. Some providers build the year around one employer; others rotate interns through more than one role.
- Apply through school or collegeProviders recruit in the year before, interview applicants and match them to employers
- Induction and profilingThe provider works out strengths, adjustments and the kind of role that fits
- The placementMost of the week is spent at the employer, learning a real job with the coach alongside
- College daysEnglish, maths and employability learning carry on around the placement
- The move to paid workApplications, interviews and negotiation with the host employer, with the coach helping
It’s a real workplace, not a simulation. Interns clock in, wear the uniform, and are expected to do the job, which is exactly why the model works. The safety net is that nobody is dropped into it alone.
What does the job coach actually do?
The job coach is the person who makes the “supported” part real. Their core role is to support both the intern and the employer, so the young person can move on into paid employment rather than just complete a placement.
Coaches on these programmes should be trained in supported employment and systematic instruction. The DfE guidance describes systematic instruction as “a structured approach to teaching decision-making and new skills to people with intellectual disabilities”. In plain terms, the coach breaks a job down into small steps, teaches each step until it’s solid, and builds up to the whole task.
The support is meant to fade on purpose. The guidance is explicit that in-work support must taper off as the intern becomes familiar with the role. That can feel alarming when you first hear it, but it’s the point. By the end, your young person can do the job without someone at their elbow. That independence is what makes an employer confident enough to offer a contract.
Do supported interns get paid?
The honest answer stings a little: no. Because supported interns are in full-time education and learning the skills for work, there’s no legal requirement or expectation that they’re paid. Minimum wage law doesn’t apply either. Students on a placement under a year that’s a required part of a further education course aren’t entitled to the National Minimum Wage.
It’s okay to feel conflicted about that. A year of unpaid work is a big ask, and the trade is only worth it because of the support, the study programme and the job at the end.
Money help does exist while the year runs:
- Access to Work can cover travel and in-work support (the next section covers it properly).
- The 16 to 19 Bursary Fund helps with course costs like transport, lunch and equipment. Students aged 19 or over can qualify if they’re continuing a course or have an EHCP.
- Some councils run post-16 travel schemes. Their Local Offer page is where those are listed.
How does Access to Work fund the internship?
Access to Work is a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) grant scheme that pays for practical support at work. Normally it’s for paid jobs, and no other type of unpaid internship qualifies. Supported internships are the exception: young people on the DfE programme can apply for Access to Work for the time of their work placement.
The factsheet says the scheme “will fund additional travel, job coach and other support, including costs of equipment if appropriate”. In practice that’s the job coach’s time at the employer, help getting to the placement if public transport isn’t workable, and kit like assistive software.
Since September 2025, the DWP only accepts Access to Work support plans for supported interns where job coaching is for 26 weeks or less and tapers off. Interns on the non-EHCP pilot can’t claim Access to Work at all.
You won’t usually be filling the forms in alone. The college or provider runs these applications every year, so ask them early who applies, when, and what evidence they need from you.
What happens to the EHCP during the internship?
Nothing is paused and nothing is lost. A supported intern is still in full-time education, so the plan stays in force. The council’s legal duty under section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to secure the special educational provision in it carries on.
The internship becomes the placement the plan points at. It’s agreed through the normal EHCP machinery: raised and recorded at the annual review, with the college or provider delivering it named in the plan like any other post-16 placement. If your young person is moving from school, the same phase-transfer deadlines apply as for any college move, and our post-16 EHCP guide walks through those.
Annual reviews continue during the internship year too. That review is your lever if the placement isn’t working, the coaching hours are slipping, or the provision in Section F isn’t being delivered.
How do you find and apply for one?
Start earlier than feels natural, because most programmes recruit a full year ahead for a September start. From Year 9 onwards, annual reviews should already be planning for adulthood, and employment is one of the four outcomes the SEND Code of Practice expects those reviews to cover. Name a supported internship there and it goes on the record.
The practical routes:
- Ask school or college. Applications go through your young person’s school or college, and nearby further education colleges will know what they run.
- Check the council’s Local Offer. DfE guidance says councils should clearly describe supported internships as an option in their Local Offer. Our guide to the SEND Local Offer shows how to find and read yours.
- Look at the big providers. DFN Project SEARCH and similar programmes run internships inside hospitals, councils and large employers, usually with a local college as the education partner.
Providers are expected to measure how many interns get jobs, at the end of the programme and again 6 and 12 months later. Ask any provider for those numbers before you commit. A good one will be proud to share them.
Do supported internships actually lead to jobs?
More often than almost anything else the system offers this group, yes, though not for everyone. The DfE published an evaluation of the programme in 2026, and it’s honest reading: survey-based figures from providers and councils rather than a full national census.
Council survey data in the same evaluation showed the rate rising from 32% of interns in 2022-23 to 43% in 2023-24. The evaluation offers a sobering comparison. Only 1.6% of the 2019-20 cohort of students with an EHCP or a special educational needs statement sustained six months of employment in their first year after key stage 4.
Families and professionals told the evaluators the other gains mattered as much as the job. Confidence, independent living skills, and a young person with somewhere to be that isn’t the sofa.
What happens when the internship ends?
Three doors, roughly. The guidance expects interns who are ready for paid work to be moved into a paid role at the earliest point, often with the host employer. Others take what they’ve learned into a job elsewhere, and some carry on into an apprenticeship or further study.
What happens to the EHCP depends on the door. If your young person moves into more education or training, the plan can continue, and our post-16 guide covers when a council can and can’t end it. If they move into a paid job, they’ve left education. The council may then decide the plan is no longer necessary under section 45 of the Children and Families Act 2014.
Even then, the council has to follow the process. For a young person over 18 who’s stopped attending, there’s a further brake. Regulation 30 of the SEND Regulations 2014 says the council can’t cease the plan until it has reviewed it and checked they don’t want to return to education or training. Government guidance also tells councils they must not cease a plan simply because someone is 19 or over. The same guidance says the final review should agree the support they’ll need after leaving education.
A cease decision can be appealed, and under section 45(4) the council can’t actually end the plan until the appeal window has passed, or the appeal is decided. The support keeps running in the meantime.
If your young person is heading towards 18 during all this, adult social care is a separate legal world with its own assessments. Our guide to turning 18 with SEND covers that handover.
Getting help
BASE (the British Association for Supported Employment) is the membership body for supported employment providers and a good way to understand what quality job coaching should look like.
DFN Project SEARCH runs supported internship programmes with NHS trusts, councils and large employers across England, and its site lists locations.
Mencap offers employment advice and programmes for people with a learning disability, including help for families weighing up options.
Your local SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service) gives free, impartial advice on post-16 options and EHCP rights. Our SENDIASS explainer shows how to find yours.
National Careers Service offers free careers advice for young people, including where supported routes fit alongside apprenticeships and college.