SDN Mesma Group Partnership Manager, Jackie Bradnick, reflects on a Birmingham roundtable exploring early intervention, inclusive employer engagement and pathways for young people with SEND.
How can we better support young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) who are at risk of becoming, or are already, not in education, employment or training (NEET)? That was the focus of the “Beyond the Barriers: NEETs with SEND” roundtable I attended last week.
The event was hosted by Queen Alexandra Charity (QAC) in partnership with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), bringing together individuals and organisations to consider how support could connect young people with meaningful opportunities.
Recognising disengagement earlier
A central theme was that becoming NEET should not be viewed as a single event. The discussions highlighted how disconnection can build over time, with early indicators passing without appropriate intervention.
For me, this highlighted that important question about when support begins. Waiting until a young person has disengaged means missing opportunities to recognise difficulties earlier and put support in place while they are still connected to education or training.
Maintaining support through transitions
Transitions between school, college, training and employment were identified as significant potential “cliff edges”. The emphasis was on continuity: identifying young people at risk and ensuring support carries through into their next stage.
The discussion also reinforced the need to connect employer involvement, meaningful and sustained engagement, good transition arrangements and holistic support around the individual.
These elements need to work together, rather than sit within isolated initiatives.
Supporting employers to create accessible opportunities
Employer involvement is particularly relevant to my work. Preparing young people for employment is one part of the picture. Employers also need the confidence, understanding and support to create accessible opportunities and working environments in which young people with SEND can succeed.
I saw clear connections with our employer engagement work and the wider role of industry placements, workplace experiences and employer-led careers activity. An employer’s interest in inclusion provides a starting point; the next consideration is what support will help turn that interest into a tangible opportunity.
Connecting inclusion with regional skills priorities
The regional context presented at the event highlighted employment opportunities alongside skills challenges across the West Midlands. This reinforced the case for connecting SEND and NEET provision with the wider regional skills strategy.
Young people with SEND need to be visible within conversations about technical education, workforce needs and progression. For me, the practical question is how we connect those conversations to accessible routes into the sectors where opportunities exist.
Opportunities to take the discussion forward
Reflecting on our work supporting the T Level Ambassador Network and delivering T Level Support on behalf of the Department for Education, I see several opportunities I’d like to develop further:
- Continuing to mobilise employers and ambassadors to work together to improve understanding of inclusive employment and workplace opportunities.
- Ensuring young people with SEND are visible in technical education and progression discussions.
- Making more of the great examples we hear from employers and ambassadors to demonstrate accessible pathways into sectors with regional skills demand.
- Connecting this activity with the work taking place at Mayoral Strategic Authorities and Local Skills Improvement Plan priorities.
These activities align directly with the themes I heard throughout the day: earlier intervention, continuity of support and shared responsibility across organisations.
It was great to have the opportunity to learn from others who are also considering these challenges. My main reflection is that inclusion needs to be visible in the pathways available to young people, with education providers, employers and support organisations working together to make those pathways accessible.
Ofsted Insights: Inclusion – July 2026
For a further deep-dive into inclusion, catch up on this edition of our Ofsted Inspection Reports Insights, these reports help providers to make effective use of the findings in Ofsted reports in one simple-to-read document. This edition focuses on what inspectors are noticing, where providers are strongest, and where the same risks are appearing repeatedly across the sector. 238 reports were analysed across five provider types, spanning inspections primarily from late 2025 to mid 2026. Download the report to see the full analysis, headline findings and provider-level dataset.