Devon Partnership NHS Trust provides case studies to NHS: Leadership Report

THE PURPOSE HEALTH COALITION LAUNCHED

THE LEADERSHIP: TACKLING HEALTH INEQUALITIES REPORT IN JULY 2022 TO RECOGNISE THE SOCIAL IMPACT THAT NHS ORGANISATIONS ARE HAVING IN COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

As part of the report, Devon Partnership NHS Trust included the importance of supported internships.

Supported Internships have become a clear priority for the NHS in recent years. They are study programmes specifically aimed at young people aged 16 to 24, who have a statement of special educational needs, or an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), and who want to move into employment, but need extra support to do so.

The interns receive support from a job coach.

As the interns develop their confidence, skills and knowledge, the job coach steps back gradually, as and when is appropriate to each individual.

Devon Partnership NHS Trust has had a Supported Internship programme for three years. However, the impact of the pandemic prevented the Trust from placing interns, who were no longer actively engaged with their educational providers and weren’t able to come safely to sites easily.

By ‘thinking outside the box’ the Trust’s Corporate Affairs team developed a supported internship for an excellent candidate, enabling the placement to happen fully remotely. Working ‘online’ met the needs of both the intern who suffers from significant anxiety, particularly around travelling, and of the Trust who could not readily support an intern on a Trust clinical site. The success of the internship catalysed the Trust’s ambition to swiftly develop the Supported Intern to ‘Supported’ Apprenticeship pathway, as it was quickly recognised that internships do not have a seamless transition to further development and ultimately substantive employment. We felt uncomfortable to benefit from the skills and contributions of an intern, only to see their journey end after the unpaid placement. Although seemingly a simple and obvious transition, the barriers that have been encountered to make this pathway a reality have been numerous and challenging; both internally and externally to the Trust. This leads us to be significantly concerned about how widespread the disadvantage for young people with additional needs is, preventing them from accessing further education and employment in a fair, equitable and accessible way. Working through each barrier logically, making contact with countless education providers and unpicking a number of Trust procedures and practices, we are hopeful we are about to secure our very first supported intern, into a paid apprenticeship role with us. We want to celebrate the amazing asset she is to our Trust. We are extremely proud of our intern, the skills and capabilities she has demonstrated to us, the patience she has exhibited and most significantly, her courage.

But most of all we want to thank her for just how much she has taught all the members of her team – about care, compassion, inclusivity, tenacity and breaking down barriers. We owe so much to her for opening our eyes, individually and collectively, to a wider world of possibilities.

We are now ambassadors to deliver change and to see our workforce evolve in the coming years with confident, valued and developed staff working throughout our services that have come through a supported internship journey.