COMPLETED FUNDED PROGRAMME | NHS KENT & MEDWAY
Supporting care-experienced young people to build confidence, employability skills and clearer pathways towards work and further learning.
Elevate: NHS Careers Programme for Care-Experienced Young People
This funded programme has now ended. The information on this page is retained to provide an overview of the programme and training delivered. Courses and funded places previously offered through this programme are no longer available.
Overview
Social Enterprise Kent was commissioned by NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board to adapt and deliver the Elevate programme for care-experienced young people across Kent and Medway, supporting the NHS commitment to the Care Leaver Covenant and Care Leaver Friendly Employer Charter.
Originally developed by SEK in 2022 and co-designed with young people, Elevate combines employability skills, personal development and practical support to help care-experienced young people build confidence and prepare for their next steps. For this programme, the established Elevate model was adapted to introduce NHS careers, recruitment pathways and application support.
Delivery took place across Canterbury, Medway and Ashford, combining structured group learning with individual coaching and ongoing support. The programme remained flexible throughout, responding to what was learned from participants and professionals supporting care-experienced young people.
Status: This funded programme has now been completed.
About the Programme
The NHS Elevate programme was designed to help care-experienced young people develop the skills, confidence and practical knowledge needed to explore employment opportunities and make informed decisions about their future.
Before formal delivery began, SEK held engagement sessions with young people to better understand their experiences, aspirations and the barriers they encountered when considering employment. These insights were used to shape delivery, with increased emphasis on confidence building, CV development, interview preparation and practical application support.
SEK also worked closely with NHS partners and local authority Care Leaver Teams to connect the employability programme with NHS career opportunities and provide participants with more relevant, practical insight into the recruitment journey.
Programme delivery included
- Three local delivery cohorts across Canterbury, Medway and Ashford
- Six face-to-face training days and three online sessions
- CV development and job-search skills
- Communication and personal development
- Interview preparation and practice
- Budgeting and practical life skills
- Introduction to NHS roles and career pathways
- Support navigating NHS recruitment and applications
- Individual one-to-one coaching
- Continued support around applications, interviews and next steps
Building Confidence and Future Readiness
The Elevate programme focused on helping young people recognise their strengths, develop practical employability skills and feel more confident about their future. Participant measures taken before and after the programme demonstrated substantial improvements across the areas at the heart of Elevate.
By the end of the programme:
85% rated their confidence in securing a job highly compared with 25% at the start
85% rated their professional self-esteem highly compared with 33% at the start
90% rated their interview confidence highly compared with 17% at the start
75% rated their CV readiness highly compared with 8% at the start
75% reported strong career clarity compared with 42% at the start
Progress Beyond the Programme
The impact of Elevate was not limited to a single employment destination. For some young people, the programme helped identify a different next step that was right for them.
Participants reported improvements in communication, time management and leadership, alongside greater confidence in preparing for employment. Individual progression included a young person moving into volunteering and another returning to college to study Health and Social Care and strengthen their qualifications.
These outcomes reflected a core principle of Elevate: helping young people build the confidence, skills and direction to make positive, sustainable decisions about their future.
Responsive Programme Delivery
Supporting care-experienced young people requires flexibility, trust and a willingness to adapt. Throughout the programme, SEK used learning from each stage of delivery to refine its approach, strengthen communication with referral partners and provide increasingly personalised support.
An additional cohort was introduced in Ashford, while participants were supported through direct contact, flexible delivery and individual coaching alongside the structured programme. Support also continued beyond formal sessions where young people were progressing applications or exploring opportunities.
This responsive approach enabled the programme to remain focused on individual progression rather than applying a one-size-fits-all model.
Learning Beyond Delivery
Alongside direct work with young people, SEK continued to gather insight from professionals working with care leavers through the Care Leavers Progression Partnership.
This additional engagement explored what helps care-experienced young people engage with and remain involved in employability programmes, including the importance of trusted relationships, accessible communication, clear opportunities and personalised support.
The learning provided further insight to inform the continued development of the Elevate model and future programmes supporting care-experienced young people into education, training and employment.
Developing Programmes Around People
The NHS Elevate programme demonstrates SEK’s approach to developing funded training and employability programmes around the needs of both commissioners and the people they are designed to support.
By combining research, co-design, structured learning, individual support, partnership working and impact measurement, we can adapt established programmes or develop new approaches around specific communities, locations and outcomes.
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Programme Completed
The NHS Elevate Funded Programme 2024–25 has now been completed and these funded training sessions are no longer available.
This page remains available as a record of SEK’s contribution to the programme and the positive outcomes created through collaborative working with NHS Kent and Medway.