The Employment is Everyone's Business project was funded by the Department for Education until 31 March 2016 and was jointly delivered by BASE and NDTi. The project’s overall aim was to improve employment outcomes for young people with special educational needs and disabilities who are in receipt of Education Health and Care (EHC) plans.

The project objectives were to demonstrate how:

• vocational profiling can be embedded in the curriculum, education, health and care plans and reviews as well as careers advice

• post 16 providers can develop effective employer engagement strategies and study programmes that facilitate young people moving into employment

• local authorities can ensure that the needs of young people with special educational needs and disabilities and those who are NEET are at the heart of their employment, economic, housing, personal budget and commissioning strategies.

We supported with four sites across England that are already doing work on improving pathways to employment for this group of young people. The four project sites were Kirklees, Wolverhampton, Bath & North East Somerset and Berkshire. BASE supported the 6 local authorities across Berkshire - West Berkshire, Reading, Wokingham, Bracknell Forest, Slough and the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead - and this was led by Nerise Oldfield-Thompson on behalf of BASE.

Work in each site was locally driven and delivered in partnership with education providers, local authorities and employment agencies. We also had involvement forming people, their families and employers. There have been two national shared learning events focusing on engaging with employers and developing individual employment plans.

We are sharing our work and outcomes through a series of brief ‘how to’ guides. These are available to download below.

The project sits alongside the DfE's focus on young people with additional needs, the NDTi's Preparing for Adulthood and employment strands and BASE's championing of best practice in employment support.