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About

Silver Lining Internships

.... was established by Evelyn Ashford, who is also the founder of ‘Educational Equality’. (click the link)  educationalequality.co.uk. SEND (Special Educational Needs & Disabilities) Tribunal Appeal representatives. Educational Equality has supported thousands of SEN cases with over a 95% success rate. We recently made caselaw to support the continuation of EHCP's up to the day before the 26th birthday of young adults with SEN.  

Silver Lining Internships was established to try to fill the obvious gap in provision for young adults. Our team are well experienced and ambitious in their vision to optimise the benefits of the programme to support more young people to achieve their goal of independence.


At ‘Silver Lining’ we offer person-centered and supported;-

  • WORK EXPERIENCE
  • SUPPORTED EMPLOYMENT - Interns
  • EMPLOYMENT SUPPORT
These packages can be planned and carried out with the help of our specialists; -
  • Job-coaching
  • Life-skills support
  • Social activities
  • Clinical Psychologist
  • Speech and Language Therapy
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Support with academic and vocational studies
  • Support with health provision
  • Support with housing

SILVER LINING:- STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Silver Lining: aims to provide person-centered, realistic & appropriately supported opportunities for young people with SEN to meet their potential and to achieve independence where possible. Providing pathways which follow the ambitions, talents and interests of young people to improve their confidence, social interaction and ability to contribute to their local community and society in general.

Silver Lining follows all current legislation and guidance for young adults with special educational needs wherever this is relevant.

Inclusive Practice We pride ourselves on being inclusive. We celebrate diversity and difference and acknowledge the richness that this brings to our local community.


We follow best practice Policies and Guidance such as; -

Somerset Transforming Care Partnership
  • Somerset’s ambitions for people with learning disabilities includes a set of clear principles for how services will be improved and personalised for the people of Somerset and their carers. In particular services will promote:
  • Choice and control – adapting what we do to suit people, by working with people and their families as partners;
  • Living in the community as a full citizen – with local support, leading to a meaningful and safe life;
  • Better health – supporting people to be healthy as possible;
  • A capable workforce – working in partnership with providers to employ and develop the right people in their workforce.

Somerset Autism Strategy, 2015-2018
“A significant proportion of adults with autism across the whole autistic spectrum experience social and economic exclusion. Autism has life-time consequences, with a range of impacts on the health, economic well-being, social integration and quality of life of individuals with the condition and also their parents, families and the wider community”.


Silver Lining is ambitions about supporting the Autism strategy as follows;-
  • Increase awareness and understanding of autism including training and services to support people with autism and their families and carers including work placements and educational settings within the local community.
  • Promote a ‘person centred’ approach to ensure that people with autism and their carers can take as much control as possible of their lives and the support they receive. This includes the use of personal budgets for those that are eligible for ongoing social care funded support and for those children and young people with an Education Health Care Plan.
  • Improve access to services to facilitate independent living to enable more choice and control over where people with autism live and with whom.
  • Develop seamless and effective transitions throughout the child’s life and into adulthood depending on individual need.
  • Improve access and support for children, young people and adults with autism to access appropriate education, work and training.
Successful internships depend on team working.

This will include:
  • A consistent person-centered focus from all team members.
  • Regular scheduling of team meetings which include all members working with a student – co planning to utilise all professional observations and recommendations for optimal progress.
  • Whole team objectives/targets and identified steps towards achieving goals for each student working with the learner, job coach and employer to identify specific learning methods, strategies and how best to support needs.
  • On-line calendars for each student to allow all team members to track movements, plans and changes simultaneously. These are visual/colour coded and enable the student to monitor schedules for themselves.
  • Flexibility to respond to varying need for support via, therapy, job coaching, life- skills or other emotional support or medical input if required.
  • Tutorial sessions in which learners can reflect on progress in the workplace and help identify learning needs.
  • Workshops based on issues and challenges that have arisen at work.
  • Regular training to all team members including employers staff via our professional therapist.
  • Our Team and Safeguarding
  • All members of our management, job-coaching, jobaides, therapy, tutoring and support team are registered with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), with Enhanced Certificates for our Job-coaches.
  • Our professional team make a range of risk assessments at the job matching stage, in order to prevent interns being placed in unsuitable environments.
  • Any measures required for reasonable adjustments will be included in their reports, added to the proposed EHCP if applicable and included in the package of support for each young person on an individual basis.
  • If there are particular issues these will be discussed openly with the employer and strategies agreed between learning provider, employer and intern with support provided to implement any additional measures.
  • We work with the young person, their families and professionals to prepare Gradual Transition plans where this is required to allow for challenges and adjustments – these plans may also be part of the EHCP.
  • EHCP – professional assessments provide the recommendations for specific support for each young person. The details of this must be qualified and quantified in the EHCP and are carefully followed by our team to ensure that the special educational, social care and health needs of the young person are monitored and supported appropriately.

Successful internships depend on successful partnership working.

The Core Team will typically include:
  • Management and Team coordinator for each student
  • Teaching and / or Support staff from the current or previous placement
  • The interns and their families
  • A Psychological and aspiration profiling to support young people to identify their skills, interests and choices – and to match with suitable areas of employment. we can also work with current placement staff to identify pathways
  • Specialist Speech and Language Therapist to support social interaction, community involvement and working relationships
  • Specialist Occupational Therapist to advise on support and environmental adjustments, practical life-skills, as well as emotional and sensory regulation
  • Experienced job coaches who will work as vocational tutors at the place of employment for interns or work experience students
  • Learning support staff, and specific individual specialist tutors depending on the plan of study. We have a specialist I.T. instructor, a specialist Art and Design tutor; and can provide other tutors as required
  • Employers and their staff, some of whom may act as ‘work buddies’
  • Specialist support workers experience and trained in working with young people with SEN – particularly Autism; to provide holistic teaching of life-skills and non-workplace activities, travel training, social support including ‘buddy support’ for weekends and holiday periods, and pastoral care.

External support may also come from:

  • The current or previous educational placement.
  • Medical practitioners and clinicians, dentist Social workers Local authorities.
  • Housing support agencies / Housing Benefits.
  • Local community leaders, groups and services.
  • Citizens advice, advocates and legal advisors.
  • Job centers, employment agencies, Access to Work; progression partners such as the Disability Employment Advisor at Job-centre Plus.
  • Local supported employment agencies, adult services.
  • National and Local Charities such as Mencap, Scope, National Autistic Society The Council for Disabled Children etc.
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