Everything you wanted to know about SEND, inclusion and careers (but were afraid to ask)

Whenever special needs or inclusion is mentioned, it can trigger a little ripple of anxiety in many people. This doesn’t come from a bad place; it comes from questions like: do I know about this? Can I provide appropriate support? Or, even before that, will I offend? What do I say?

With over 14 years’ experience of special needs, special schools and uneasy stakeholders           (many of whom should know better – policy makers in particular), I wanted to write a book that immediately makes any and every protagonist relax, become more knowledgeable, and that galvanises them into assessing what they can do to improve young people’s lives.

Currently, there are over 1.5 million young people identified as having special needs, with millions more who are vulnerable and/or disadvantaged. Needs are very diverse, often exacerbated by childhood poverty, systems that don’t work properly, or lack of funding, but SO much more could be achieved during education which should be the springboard into better educational, training, employment and economic outcomes. 

So, I wrote The Big Inclusive SEND Careers Handbook to follow on from the Little SEND Careers Handbook two years earlier! Faced with a huge increase in the number of young people with additional needs or ‘Learners with differing needs’ in every educational setting, many more careers practitioners need to know how to facilitate career progression for a wider number and variety of young people whose career destinations and pathways are significant but not necessarily so well known.

As Founder of an independent specialist early career development company, Talentino, I have experienced hundreds of special schools, and we have trained thousands of staff in all types of schools to run our programmes. This has given me a clear view of what careers leaders, careers advisors, SLTs, employers, parents and families need to know more about.

And most of all, it has given me privileged insight into what can get in the way of better outcomes being achieved and what barriers need to be mitigated.

Conscious I wanted this book to be a textbook that could improve practice AND get practitioners excited about improving outcomes, I wanted the reader to feel as I did: that these young people deserve our respect and understanding and commitment to improving their lives.

I speak to the reader as if we are having a coffee together. They start their journey wherever they are; I take a gentle, logical and pragmatic approach, assuming that the reader wants to learn more and develop an inclusive careers offer. Although you can start anywhere in the book, it is better to start at the beginning. Every chapter ends with a top tips action list – My Little Checklist – that guides the reader to question the inclusivity of their work and how they can develop it.

Readers can find models like #sameandifferent which help to deepen their understanding of the ways in which career development can be adapted to suit different learners. They will find broader subjects tackled like the disability confident initiative, the macro context of careers like the Gatsby Benchmarks and the Careers and Enterprise Company, and why employers could do so much more.

But most of all, it is a practical guide to help the careers practitioner develop an inclusive careers programme in their own educational setting across the whole length of the career development process, including:

• Identifying young people with additional/special needs and determining what optimal career outcomes look like
• The importance of starting early in Primary
• Raising aspirations of the young person and those around them
• Understanding more about a young person’s career orientation and how careers align with this
• Identifying the potential career destinations and pathways that can lead there
• Transition and why it is important to handle it properly
• Increasing employer engagement
• The value of enterprise
• Developing employability skills
• Career planning and decision making
• Evaluating and measuring the impact of your careers programmes

There have been some lovely book reviews with comments like:

‘I wanted to express my gratitude for such an amazing book. I am nearing the end of my MA in Careers Guidance and Development, having worked as a Careers Professional for 20 years, with most of my experience in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. Your book is the most valuable resource. I think I may have quoted you in every assignment! I hope you don't mind the fan mail, but having quoted you again, I felt compelled to express my thanks for sharing your wisdom.’

 
‘Thank you. Our Vice Principal carries it round with him all the time!’ FE College.

So, whether you are about to start your inclusion journey in a mainstream school, have years of experience but want to freshen up your offer, or want to deepen your offer and focus more on certain elements of a programme that already works well, this book has something for you. Every chapter has a special guest contributor, so even if my persistence wears you down (!), you can change it up by reading a wide range of views on inclusive career development from some of the most important people in the UK today.

Let us know what you think, the progress you are making, and of course, most of all, the triumphs of your young people. 

Jenny Connick FRSA Author April 2025