This year’s Inclusion Summit took place at Barton Manor, Preston on Thursday 9th May 2024 and attracted over 130 participants from 90 different institutions and businesses including schools (SEND/AP/Mainstream), colleges, employers, training providers and business networks.
Following on from last year’s day of inspiration, we wanted to ensure we showcased the progress that has been made to support more young people with SEND; improve the quality of meaningful workplace encounters and continue to encourage employers to create a more inclusive and diverse workforce.
There are approximately 351,000 children aged 0-17 with a learning disability in the UK. Most children with special educational needs (SEN) attend mainstream schools, with less than 10% attending special schools in the UK (Mencap)
It was a priority that we started to increase our outreach and engage with SENCOs in mainstream settings. This year we had representation from 16 of our mainstream schools and 6 of our mainstream colleges. We want to increase engagement moving forwards into the next academic year by presenting at SENCO network meetings and inviting SENCOs to join Careers meetings with Enterprise Coordinators. If you’re a SENCO or Career Leader reading this article and we haven’t linked yet, please contact your Enterprise Coordinator.
The Empower-Thrive-Achieve events provide a chance for attendees to network and discuss how they can collaborate for workplace encounters and opportunities, with a focus on Gatsby Benchmark 5 Encounters with Employers and Gatsby Benchmark 6 Experiences of Workplaces. We’re hoping that by improving employer knowledge of neurodivergence and people with learning disabilities, we can collectively improve the workplace environment and recruitment process, making a positive shift towards a more inclusive and diverse workforce.
This year’s event focused on Supported Internships; specifically raising the awareness of and how we improve promotion with key stakeholders. The catalyst for the focus of this year’s event were the results of a survey released by Lancashire County Council in Summer 2023. The survey was open to all children, young people (CYP) and families living in Lancashire who may or may not have an identified special educational needs or support plan in place, and we had the opportunity to add questions linked to post-16 options for children in Yr9 or above.
Overall, between July and August, the survey received 163 responses from CYP and 678 from parent/carers (PCs).
This showed the following regarding knowledge of T Levels, Apprenticeships, A Levels, Supported Internships (Information from Sarah Hirst, LCC 16-19 Education and Skills Lead)
- 39% of parent and carers aren’t aware of any of the post 16 options.
- Fewer YP and PCs are aware of T Levels and Supported Internships
- As parent/carers have an understandably large impact on the choices YP make, it’s important that they understand what post-16 options are available to their child.
- The responses also show that more needs to be done to raise the awareness of T Levels and Supported Internships.
When asked about next steps after school/college, there were a few differences about destinations, but the clear issue remains, there is a severe lack of knowledge from both stakeholder groups around Supported Internships and Supported Employment opportunities.
To improve knowledge and opportunities for supported employment we chose to bring together the following presenters and activities to raise awareness:
- Interactive data gathering around Supported Internship awareness followed by a round table activity to discuss ideas on how to improve the profile with stakeholders (teachers, parents/carers, young people and employers)
- Employer Champion Training – led by Hannah Monaghan (LCC SEND Employment Officer) providing training for employers/employees around DFN Project Search.
- Community Skills Initiative (Jane Smith, Director at Impact Den Ltd) told us about the amazing collaboration between Kirkham Skills Construction Centre and Vinci Building, supporting young people at risk of becoming NEET.
- Skills Bootcamps working alongside Scale-Ability and C.O.D.E Lancashire to improve inclusive recruitment for neurodiverse people.
- Designing an inclusion masterclass for employers – what would this look like; what would they want to learn more about when it comes to recruiting people with SEND and supporting them in the workplace.
Inspired by last year’s event, our Cornerstone group set to task to increase support and engagement with the Inclusion Community of Practice to improve careers encounters and transition for SEND learners and those young people at risk of becoming NEET. Their mission is “To help all young people in Lancashire have the opportunities they need to be prepared and inspired for the world of work” and written into their key priorities for the 23-24 academic year was INCLUSION. This will remain within their strategy moving forwards and Cornerstone group meetings are now attended by a member of the Inclusion Community of Practice. An employer panel led by Ed Matthews-Gentle (Creative Lancashire) on the day of the Summit, highlighted the progress our Cornerstone employers have made since last year’s event.
In true EMPOWER-THRIVE-ACHIEVE style, we opened the event with a surprise audience participation number! This year we showcased Tramshed Theatre Company and their creative sign language performance; a great way of raising the profile of Deaf Awareness week 2024.
No Inclusion Summit is complete without our inspirational speakers, and this year Shaun Gash shared his journey of determination. Shaun held the crowd for 40mins with his uplifting journey climbing Helvellyn, Snowdonia, Mount Kilimanjaro, jumping 15,000 ft from an aeroplane, and travelling Lands End to John O’Groats all whilst in a wheelchair. He stunned the crowd into silence and showed us that if you have the right attitude, anything is possible!
The 2024 Inclusion Summit attracted overwhelmingly positive feedback and responses were accompanied by positive comments such as “First time attending but looking forward to next year”; “It was a fantastic event and the array of speakers was great, I came away with a sense of pride with the job that I do and why I do it.”
Heading into the 24-25 academic year, we will continue to join as a community of schools, employers and companies to improve transition outcomes for neurodiverse young people and those with special education needs and disabilities. We are heading in a positive direction, but there is still a long way to go to see an improvement in inclusive recruitment and increase the percentage of people with disabilities in work (currently at 4.8% – Mencap) Suggestions made by attendees will contribute to learning and improvement for the coming year, and are being raised with key stakeholders.
It’s been inspiring to hear the connections and progress that has been made since the 2023 event and we want to continue with these positive steps to support our amazing students across Wider Lancashire by coming together regularly as an Inclusion Community of Practice to provide knowledge and information for key stakeholders, which will hopefully in-turn lead to a more inclusive environment for young people to make their BEST NEXT STEP.