DES or SLES: Which Employment Support Fits?

The difference in one paragraph

School Leaver Employment Supports, usually shortened to SLES, is funded by the NDIS and paid from your Capacity Building budget. It builds the skills that come before a job: turning up on time, catching the train, handling a workplace conversation, working out what sort of work suits you. Inclusive Employment Australia, the programme that replaced Disability Employment Services on 1 November 2025, is funded by the Australian Government outside the NDIS, and it does the job itself: finding vacancies, preparing applications, supporting you in the workplace once you start.

Put plainly, one gets you ready and one gets you hired. They are not competitors, and plenty of people use one after the other.

The name changed in November 2025, and older advice has not caught up

Disability Employment Services, the programme nearly everyone still calls DES, was replaced by Inclusive Employment Australia on 1 November 2025. The Department of Social Services runs it. The change was more than a new sign on the door: the time limits on how long you can stay with a provider have gone, and so have the old rules requiring you to be receiving a social security payment or to be able to work eight hours a week before you could get help.

You will still hear DES everywhere, from school transition staff to older web pages, and providers themselves often use both names for a while yet. If somebody tells you to ring DES, they mean Inclusive Employment Australia. Current provider lists are on the Department of Social Services site and through JobAccess, and it is worth working from those rather than from a list a relative saved two years ago.

When SLES is the right answer

SLES is designed for people in their last year of school or the first couple of years after finishing, and it is time-limited by design. It suits someone who wants to work but is not yet ready to hold down a job interview, a roster and a commute at the same time.

The support is practical and individual. It might be work experience two days a week, travel training on a real route, sessions on workplace communication, or trying three very different tasks to find out what the person can tolerate for a full day. Our piece on building real life skills covers the same ground from the day program side, and the two often run alongside each other.

When Inclusive Employment Australia is the right answer

Inclusive Employment Australia is for people who are ready to look for work now, or who are already working and need support to keep the job. A provider helps with the search, talks to employers, arranges workplace adjustments and stays involved after you start, which is the part that matters most. You can stay with a provider for as long as you need, which is one of the clearest changes from the old DES rules.

You do not need an NDIS plan to use it. Eligibility is assessed separately from the NDIS, and since the November 2025 change you no longer have to be on a social security payment or able to work a set number of hours to qualify. That separation still catches people out: an NDIS participant is not automatically enrolled, and someone without an NDIS plan is not automatically excluded.

How they sit together in one week

A common pattern looks like this. A school leaver spends a year or so with SLES building confidence and trying work experience. As they get closer to being job-ready, an employment provider comes into the picture and starts the search. For a while both are involved, which is fine and often sensible.

What SLES will not do is act as an indefinite alternative to employment services. It is capacity building, and the NDIA funds capacity building to build something. A file that shows steady progress towards work supports the case for continuing. A file that shows the same two days a week for three years does not.

What each one costs you

SLES draws on your Capacity Building budget, specifically the Finding and Keeping a Job category, and that money is generally not flexible into other categories. If SLES is the plan, the funding has to be in the right place, which is a planning meeting conversation rather than something a provider can fix later.

Inclusive Employment Australia costs the participant nothing directly. It is funded by government payments to the provider, so nothing comes out of your NDIS plan. This is the single most useful thing to know when a budget is tight: using it does not consume Capacity Building funding.

Supported employment is a third thing again

There is a third option that people often fold into this comparison by mistake. Supported employment, including Australian Disability Enterprises, is work in a setting built around higher support needs, and it is funded through the NDIS as a support in employment.

It is a different question from where you find a job. Someone may use employment services to find open-market work, or work in a supported setting, or move between the two over their working life. If a week needs building around meaningful activity rather than paid work right now, our guide to community access funding covers what else the plan can fund.

Three questions that settle it

Could this person hold a job interview and a shift next month, with the right support in place? If yes, Inclusive Employment Australia. If not yet, SLES.

Have they left school in the last two years? If not, SLES is generally not available, and the conversation is about Inclusive Employment Australia or capacity building support of another kind. And finally: is the Finding and Keeping a Job funding actually in the plan? If it is not, that is the first thing to raise, because funding decisions sit with the NDIA and are made at planning, not at enrolment.

Frequently asked questions

Can you use SLES and Inclusive Employment Australia at the same time?

Yes, and the overlap is often deliberate. SLES builds readiness while an employment provider begins the job search, and the two supports do different work. Tell each provider that the other is involved so the week is not double-booked and the goals line up. The NDIS funds one and the Australian Government funds the other, so there is no conflict in the funding itself.

Is SLES only for people who have just left school?

Broadly yes. It is designed for the transition out of school, typically the final year and the first couple of years afterwards. Someone further out from school who needs employment preparation would usually look at other Capacity Building supports or at Inclusive Employment Australia directly. Eligibility decisions sit with the NDIA and depend on your goals and circumstances.

Does using Inclusive Employment Australia affect my NDIS funding?

No. It is funded separately by the Australian Government and does not draw on your NDIS budgets. That is why it is worth checking eligibility even when a plan is tight, because it costs nothing from the plan. Support in employment through the NDIS is a different support again and is funded from the plan.

What if the person is not ready for any of this yet?

That is a common and reasonable place to be, and pushing an employment pathway too early tends to end badly. Community participation, skill building and day program supports build the same underlying capabilities without the pressure of a workplace. Work can come later, and often does once confidence and routine are steady.