Education to work transition for young disabled people: Public Services Committee report

Approximate read time: 15 minutes

On 4 November 2025, the House of Lords is scheduled to debate the House of Lords Public Services Committee report ‘Think work first: The transition from education to work for young disabled people’ (HL Paper 12). The debate is being held in Grand Committee and will be introduced by the committee’s chair, Baroness Morris of Yardley (Labour).

1. Committee report on the transition from education to work for young disabled people

1.1 Overview of the committee’s inquiry

On 15 October 2024, the House of Lords Public Services Committee published its report on the transition from education to employment for young disabled people.^[1]

The committee set out to scrutinise how disabled young people transition into work from higher or further education and what challenges and barriers they face in doing so.^[2]

The committee’s inquiry focused specifically on the experiences of young disabled people as they moved from the education system into employment and concentrated on education and employment services.^[3] It did not examine the “wider public service environment” which includes transport services, health and social care, the wider education system and the welfare system.

The committee used the term ‘young disabled people’ in the report to refer to “all young people with disabilities, long-term health conditions and special educational needs”.^[4]

1.2 Committee’s main findings and conclusions

The committee found that disabled people continued to face challenges and barriers to securing long-term employment, despite “efforts of successive governments”.^[5] It pointed to statistics published by the Office for National Statistics which showed that the disability employment gap had remained around 30 per cent over the last decade.^[6] The disability employment gap is the difference between the proportion of working age non-disabled people and working age disabled people in employment.^[7]

The committee heard evidence that these barriers started as soon as an individual entered the education system: “in early years, primary and secondary school, and through to how they are prepared for work and supported during their transition from education to employment”.^[8] Although it identified some innovative and “exceptional services achieving outstanding results”, the committee also received evidence of under-resourced systems lacking “aspirations and expertise” alongside employers who were “frequently unwilling” or felt unable to employ disabled people. The committee argued that to change this situation, the government needed to focus on early support and intervention.

The committee concluded:

The presumption has to be, at every stage of a young disabled person’s development, that they are fully capable of thriving in work, as long as they have the appropriate support. Aspiration has to be at the heart of support for young disabled people. We need to think work first.^[9]

1.3 Committee’s key recommendations

Speaking on the report, the chair of the committee, Baroness Morris of Yardley (Labour), said the committee’s recommendations provided the government with a “blueprint” for getting more young disabled people into work.^[10] Baroness Morris said the report had identified ways to provide “appropriate support for young disabled people and employers so that the system is both cohesive and effective”.

The committee’s recommendations focused on early intervention, to ensure that young disabled people could access and remain in work, and on tools and support for employers to enable them to create an inclusive workspace and to uphold the rights of disabled people. ^[11]

Key recommendations from the report included:

• Co-production: The committee argued it was “vital” that young disabled people—both those still in education and those who had made the transition—were involved in the design and shaping of services set up to support them.^[12]
• Vocational profiling: The committee called for the government to make vocational profiling a standard part of careers education information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) for young disabled people.^[13] It said the government should produce a plan with an implementation timeline by September 2025. Vocational profiling involves a young person working with a specialist to identify their aspirations, skills and job preferences, alongside their learning needs.^[14] The process develops a profile which can be used for job-matching and inform the young person of their career choices.
• Joined up support between education and employment: The committee argued the government should work with local authorities (LA) to improve the availability of ‘ready to work’ programmes, such as ThinkForward, to support young people until they are settled into work after leaving the education system.^[15] The committee said an implementation plan for rolling out these programmes nationally should be developed once the plan for embedding vocational profiling had been completed. However, it argued the plan should be published no later than the end of the first quarter of 2026. ThinkForward is a charity that works with young people from the age of 16 until they are in secure paid employment or reach 25.^[16] It provides programmes targeted at young people who face additional barriers, such as children with special educational needs (SEN).
• Supported internships: The committee said the government should double the number of supported internships, as set out by the previous government.^[17] It recommended the government widen the eligibility for supported internships beyond those with education, health and care plans (EHCP). It further recommended the government take steps to increase the number of supported internships, particularly targeted work to increase public sector uptake. Supported internships are programmes in which a young disabled person with an EHCP can access a work-based study programme focused on a work placement.^[18]
• Education system: The committee said the government must urgently review and improve the support young people receive while in education. It called on the government to increase its support for LAs to deliver EHCPs both in terms of application timelines and the “robustness of their decision-making”.^[19] It called on the government to closely monitor the timeliness of EHCPs being produced and the proportion of decisions by LAs being overturned on appeal. The committee requested an update by June 2025.
• Careers advice: The committee called on the government to review training for careers advisors and leaders. It recommended that this review explore making in-depth training on SEN mandatory and consider the introduction of a national professional qualification (NPQ) in CEIAG that included required training on SEN and careers.^[20]
• Supported employment programmes: The committee argued the government should set out clear timelines and targets for improving the regional and national availability of these programmes. It also recommended the government take steps to link supported employment programmes to supported internships. Supported employment is a model used to match an individual’s aspirations and skills to a role, working with employers to create or amend roles to match the individual’s profile.^[21] The employers and the supported employment provider support the individual to learn their jobs while in work, and ensure appropriate adjustments are put in place.
• Reasonable adjustments: The committee argued there needed to be a clear timeframe for employers to respond to a request for a reasonable adjustment. It recommended the government introduce a four-week deadline within which employers must respond. The committee said the government should explore the way compliance with this obligation is monitored and enforced.^[22]
• Disability pay gap: The committee welcomed the government’s commitment to introduce disability pay gap reporting for large employers. This policy was set out in the Labour Party 2024 general election manifesto.^[23] The committee recommended the government introduce mandatory reporting for employers with more than 250 employees.^[24]

2. Government response to the report’s recommendations

2.1 Government response

The government’s response to the Public Services Committee report was published on 3 June 2025.^[25] The government accepted or partially accepted several of the committee’s recommendations, including in the following areas:

• Vocational profiling: the government agreed it should be a standard part of CEIAG.^[26] It said it would ensure vocational profiling for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) would be embedded into careers leader training and online training modules aimed at special educational needs coordinators and others working in careers education by September 2025.
• Supported internships: The government accepted the committee’s recommendations that it should increase the number of supported internships.^[27] The government said it was “on track” to achieve the target to double their number. It said that through its investment into the ‘internships work’ programme, it was on course to train 800 employer ambassadors who advocate supported internships within their organisations and external networks.^[28] The government said that of the approximately 700 already trained, around 30% worked in the public sector. The government also explained that it was piloting supported internships for people with learning difficulties but without EHCPs in 12 LAs. It said the funding was available until March 2025, and that it was expecting to reach around 250 young people.^[29]
• Support in education and EHCPs: The government partially agreed with the committee’s recommendations on the current processes around EHCPs. It said that the Department for Education continued to monitor and work with LAs that have “issues with EHCP timeliness”.^[30] It said it was working to identify what more it could do to support LAs, especially those with high appeal rates. However, the government argued the “full impact of ongoing support and future reforms” would not be realised by June 2025.
• Careers advice: The government partially accepted the committee’s recommendations in this area.^[31] It said it would continue to keep under review the training for careers advisors and leaders. The government said it was not responsible for setting careers adviser standards, instead it was the remit of learning providers and professional bodies.^[32] However, the government highlighted that the national training programme for all career leaders included modules tailored to support students with SEND. The government said it did not intend to introduce an NPQ on careers education “at present”.^[33] However, it said it would establish a process for reviewing the existing NPQ suite to “ensure the qualifications continue to be based on the latest evidence and best practice”.
• Supported employment programmes: The government said that funding for the new ‘connect to work’ supported employment programme would be available to all areas in England, with delivery “shaped around local services and priorities”.^[34] It said areas would be opening for referrals through the spring and summer of 2025. The government said it was working with the Welsh government to agree an approach in Wales. The response also stated that the DWP would conduct a national evaluation of the programme.
• Reasonable adjustments: The government noted the committee’s recommendations and explained it was undertaking research with the University of York to inform its next steps.^[35]
• Disability pay gap: The government accepted the committee’s recommendation.^[36] The government said it had launched a consultation on mandatory reporting, seeking views from disabled people, organisations, businesses and the wider public. The consultation closed in June 2025.

2.2 Government’s update on implementing the recommendations

On 21 August 2025, the chair of the Public Services Committee, Baroness Morris, wrote to the government asking for an update on its progress in various areas, including on vocational profiling, supported internships, the connect to work programme, mandatory reporting of disability employment and EHCPs.^[37]

Minister for School Standards Georgia Gould wrote back to the government on 25 September 2025. The minister stated the government was developing policy to “prevent young people with learning difficulties and disabilities from facing persistent barriers transitioning from education to employment”.^[38] The minister stated the issues raised in the report, including those raised about EHCPs, were in scope of the government’s “work to address challenges within the current SEND system”. She stated that more detail would be set out in a white paper set to be published in autumn 2025. The minister also explained that the government were currently considering the responses to the consultation on mandatory reporting of disability employment information. She stated the government would update Parliament in due course.

Giving an update on the connect to work programme, the minister said that as of the first week of September 2025, around a quarter of areas had opened their services for participants.^[39] She said the remaining areas were opening throughout the rest of 2025 and early 2026.

On the issue of supported internships, the minister said that the government did not have more recent figures than those given in its initial response, since most internships ran over an academic year.^[40] She said the next update was expected in early 2026. The minister also stated that the government’s evaluation of its pilot of supported internships for young disabled people without EHCPs would first report in summer 2026, with a further report in summer 2027. Georgia Gould said the reports would be used to inform government policy.

The minister also revealed that vocational profiling for young people with SEND had been embedded into careers leader and online training modules aimed at special educational needs coordinators and others working in careers education.^[41]

3. Read more

• House of Lords Library, ‘Challenges faced by people with disabilities’, 13 May 2024
• House of Commons Library, ‘Pay gaps in the workplace’ 2 January 2025
• House of Commons Library, ‘Supporting neurodivergent people into employment’, 5 September 2025

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