School-leavers with SEND should be offered more dedicated internships in healthcare, hospitality and construction to help them into work and off benefits, college leaders have warned.
The Sixth Form Colleges Association and Association of Colleges leaders are urging ministers to boost the number of “supported internships” for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
But they warned that Prime Minister Andy Burnham must “incentivise” smaller employers to take on more young people with additional needs, with measures such as financial subsidies or new employment legislation.
How some prostate cancers ‘can be diagnosed without biopsy’
Researchers at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) have found MRI scans can be used to detect cancer in some men with a high degree of certainty.
What the research found
- Men may not need to have a biopsy to diagnose prostate cancer.
- Radiologists looked at scan results combined with the patient’s age and their prostate-specific antigen (PSA) score.
- Of the 69 patients deemed to be “99 per cent certain” they had a tumour via their MRI scan, all of them had cancer confirmed through biopsy.
- Researchers said this indicates certain men may not need to have invasive biopsies.
What does this mean?
UCLH consultant radiologist Alex Kirkham said the research indicates prostate cancer could join the list of cancers which can be diagnosed with a scan alone.
Consultant urologist and professor of interventional oncology Mark Emberton said it is particularly important as prostate cancer incidence is only set to rise.
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Th expert reaction
Avoiding unnecessary biopsies is an important goal in cancer care, because they can be painful, invasive and can cause infections… Using MRI alone to diagnose these cancers could make the process much safer and easier for men, and less costly for the NHS.
Dr Matthew Hobbs, director of research at Cancer UK
Why better sleep could keep people working for longer
Researchers in Finland examined data from people aged between 50 and 68 to look at the correlation between sleeping habits and the ability to continue working.
The story in numbers
13 years, five months
Regularly disturbed sleep was linked to leaving the workforce months early.
People who reported no disturbances had a working life expectancy of 13 years and five months.
Six years, five months
The shortest working life expectancy was found among men in routine jobs with low levels of education who slept for more than nine hours a night.
They had an average of six years and five months left in work after the age of 50.
What does this tell us?
Researchers said the findings, published in the journal , suggest healthy sleep (under seven hours but undisturbed) may help people keep working as they age.
“To promote older adults’ participation in working life, supporting sleep of recommended length and good quality may be required,” they added.
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How the UK’s child ADHD diagnosis rates compare to the rest of the world
The former president of the Royal College of General Practitioners has said she would “ban the label ADHD” and that it should be treated as a “social construct” instead of a neurodevelopmental condition.
What is the situation?
Speaking to ahead of the Channel 4 documentary The Great ADHD Myth?, Dr Iona Heath criticised overdiagnosis and argued there is no scientific evidence that those diagnosed have neurological differences.
Earlier this year, then-health secretary Wes Streeting said there was an “overdiagnosis” problem and launched a review.
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What does the UK data reveal?
- and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) put the UK rate of childhood ADHD at 5 per cent, and 3 to 4 per cent for adults.
- One study found ADHD diagnoses increased in the UK from 2000 to 2018.
- By 2018, the highest rates were in boys aged 10 to 16 – 3.5 per cent had been diagnosed. Back in 2000, this number was 1.4 per cent.
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How we compare with other countries
In the US, 11.4 per cent of children aged three to 17 years old were diagnosed with ADHD in 2024. In Europe, a 2023 French study indicated 3.68 per cent of children (800,000) have ADHD compared with 5.5 per cent of adults (1.4 million).
Meanwhile, in Spain, estimates of ADHD prevalence in children range from 5.5 per cent to 6.8 per cent.
A closer look at the review
The ongoing Government review is led by Professor Peter Fonagy, national clinical adviser on children’s mental health.
An interim report, published in March this year, identified rising diagnosis rates as an issue alongside people with ADHD and autism failing to get the support they need.
The final report is set to focus on how to make more support available that is “less dependent on diagnostic thresholds” and “more responsive to functional need”.
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Currently, there are around 4,500 opportunities a year, funded by the Department for Education (DfE), for people aged 16-24 with SEND to access work-based study programmes that bridge the gap between college and workplaces.
However, only those with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) – which is a council-funded document that describes a child’s needs and unlocks extra support – can access these placements.
Earlier this week, Alan Milburn – a former New Labour-era minister who has been tasked with tackling youth joblessness – said he wanted to “turbocharge” internships for young people with SEND to tackle the unemployment crisis.
Speaking to , he said: “Supported internships have got such an effective track record. With the best ones around 70 per cent of the people on them end up in paid employment.
“In my view we have to turbocharge support – and at the moment the system is not set up to do that.”
The DfE is already trialling expanding supported internships to young people with SEND who do not have an EHCP in 16 local authorities, with the results due next year.
If the pilot is a success and the scheme is rolled out nationally, young people with social, emotional and mental health issues could be offered greater support into the workplace – rather than just those with EHCPs.
These supported internships currently span across health and social care, hotels, restaurants and catering firms as well as major supermarkets and local councils. Young people are supported by a college tutor and an on-site job coach, with their role rotating across the business for a period of at least six months.
David Holloway, senior policy manager at the Association of Colleges, said expanding supported internships beyond those with an EHCP is a “brilliant idea”, adding: “There’s every reason to try to scale that up in terms of the types of young people the schemes serve, but also in terms of the types of employers involved.”
Opportunities already exist across the NHS and hospitality, with roles in internal post rooms and on reception desks, but Holloway said smaller businesses should commit to taking on “one or two” places each, meaning young people can find work close to home.
“It’s been easier for large employers to be involved thus far, and it would be good to find ways for SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] to be able to access schemes like this,” he said, suggesting there could be more opportunities in construction companies and independent hotels, bars or restaurants.
Bill Watkin, CEO of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, told The i Paper there is “every chance” Milburn will recommend that the Government expands internships for SEND pupils as they are an “effective” way to tackle youth unemployment.
He said ministers should look at loosening eligibility criteria for those who don’t have an EHCP, but warned this could leave “fewer opportunities for those in desperate need, those with the EHCPs”.
Watkin said large-scale employers like the NHS have a range of roles that could expand supported internships such as “carpenters, decorators, caterers and psychologists”.
But he added that businesses need incentives such as financial subsidies or strengthened employment legislation to ensure there are opportunities in every “local postcode”, from industrial heartlands to rural communities.
Burnham has already announced plans requiring public bodies to ensure there is “social value” in every procurement contract, including helping young people into work with placements, apprenticeships and training.
In his interim report, Milburn noted that young people with SEND are 80 per cent more likely to be classed as “not in employment, education or training” than average, citing Government statistics.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies found that children receiving support via EHCPs and child disability living allowance – a cash benefit for children with disabilities – are far more likely to rely on benefits when they are older.
The 2025 study found that of 15 year olds who received both forms of support in 2014, half were not in education, employment or training at age 22 and three-quarters were receiving adult disability benefits.