Liverpool City Region Supported Employment Forum

Aim – bring together all people in Liverpool City Region working in supported employment to learn about each other’s projects, where they overlap and how we can work together to increase the number of people with additional support needs being supported into paid work.

Frequency - the forum will meet monthly.

We are following guidance from the Department for Education – Preparing for Adulthood on setting up a Supported Internship Forum as detailed below.¹

The aim of a local supported internship forum is to bring together all the local partners who can develop and deliver supported internships in a local area, with the goal of creating routes that will support more young people with SEND into paid employment.

Key players should include some of the following:

1. Local authority representatives from the SEND department and adult social care department.
2. Employers who are prepared to offer employment.
3. All schools and colleges in the local area, including mainstream, special, private, post-16 education and training providers.
4. Parents and carers, for example through the local Parent Carer Forum.
5. Local voluntary and community sector organisations.
6. Supported employment providers.
7. Local entrepreneurs who are used to making change happen quickly, thinking out of the box and can have networks and connections to influential decision makers.
8. A recruitment company, as they will know what is going on with individual employers, and are constantly in contact with employers.
9. Local Job Centre contact, e.g. the Disability Employment Advisers.
10. Key person to facilitate the meetings: someone with passion, drive and ambition for the project.
11. Young people with SEND, for example through a children and young people’s forum.

Contact - for more information please contact us on interntowork@liverpool.gov.uk

Reference https://www.ndti.org.uk/search?tag=preparing-for-adulthood 

On January 28th 2020 we held our first event at Anfield stadium to inspire the next wave of supported internships in Liverpool City Region. We hosted over 350 attendees from employers, education providers, young people and families. We have followed up all of the contacts made to enable an increase in our provision.