Chloe Plummer – Written evidence (YDP0016)

Call for Evidence to The House of Lords Public Services Committee inquiry into the transition from education to employment for young disabled people

Submission from Chloe Plummer (September 2023) Disabled person with lived experience of transitioning from education to employment in recent years.

Please note I have chosen to answer the selected questions below based on my own experience and expertise given my career in the disability field that I am now pursuing. If you require any clarity on my responses please don’t hesitate to contact as I would be more than happy to discuss this further

1)  What barriers do young disabled people face when leaving education and entering the job market and workplace? Does this differ between different conditions or disabilities, and if so, how?

• Negative attitudes towards disability from employers including misconceptions about people’s abilities across all disability types
• Lack of public awareness around support available for disabled people to enter employment. For example in the past I have heard Access to Work Grants be referred to as one of “the government’s best kept secrets”. This shouldn’t be the case.
• Lack of resources and funding given to education providers to support young people with disabilities in preparing to enter the job market. From my experience which is only from a mainstream education perspective, careers advice was often very generic and not tailored towards individual needs. However, carers advice in SEN schools should also be given more focus, helping to raise expectations of young disabled people and all those around them.
• Inaccessible buildings including many local job agencies and centres- this reinforces the negative attitudes towards disability mentioned above  from the start of a young person’s journey to seeking employment.

2)  We have not focused this inquiry specifically on the experiences of young people with an Education, Health, and Care plan when they leave education and enter employment. What are your thoughts on this approach, and are there particular benefits or drawbacks to it? What other focused approaches could the inquiry take?

• Personally I think it is a positive that this inquiry doesn’t just focus on the experiences of young people with EHCP’s as there are many other young disabled people out there who are facing the same issues, made more complicated by the fact that they may not have an EHCP due to other cuts the government are making in this area. I think it is vital that this inquiry considers the experience of all disabled young people regardless of their disability and the level of support they may require as although this is a huge spectrum there will be similar themes throughout.
• However, that being said I think experiences of young people with EHCP’s should be considered in length. Through my work in my various professional roles I am all too aware of the ‘cliff edge’ that young people with EHCP’s often face and at worse  fall from when leaving education with restricted opportunities available to them compared to their non disabled peers. Therefore I think the lack of support in this area should be one of the inquiry’s greatest focuses.

3)  a) Do staff in schools and other education settings providing careers guidance and advice have the appropriate training and resources to support the needs and aspirations of young disabled people?

Personally from my own experience in recent years I feel the careers advice I was given was very generic and tailored towards all students, with or without a disability. Whilst this was useful in parts, had those providing me with this support had knowledge around things like Access to Work and Disability Confident that I went on to benefit from, this would have greatly benefitted me and the avenues I took to search for a job. Ironically I was not aware of this support until I had secured a job, when in reality this information would have been most useful to me when job hunting and going for interviews etc.

4)  b) How far do staff in education settings engage with employment support services and schemes such as Access to Work, supported internships, or disability employment advisors in order to support young disabled people?

Please see point above, however I am conscious that my experiences were approaching 7.5 years ago now so things may have progressed. If so fantastic but I feel more work needs to be done generally to raise awareness around things like Access to Work and Disability Confident.

5)  How far do employment support mechanisms such as Access to Work or Disability Employment Advisors meet the needs of young disabled people entering the job market for the first time? How could these services be improved?

From my own personal experience and that of working within organisations providing disability employment support, I feel mechanisms like Access to Work and supported employment schemes including advisors go some way to meeting the needs of young disabled people. However, knowledge of the support available  needs to be much more widespread and accessible to young people whilst still in education as this can be used within transition periods, which is an area that is lacking. Currently many disabled young people face a cliff edge as also explained in this response where they leave education and are expected to make the next step with little preparation or transition, resulting in many of the issues that has led to this inquiry. More thorough and supported transition periods as young disabled people may experience throughout education would be of huge benefit to many, particularly those with neurodiverse conditions.

In my view Disability Employment Advisors should have a presence in educational settings whilst there should also be a dedicated cohort of Advisors in post to specifically support young disabled people as it is likely some of their needs will differ to the rest of the population supported by these advisors.

6)  What is the first point that a young disabled person would engage with an employment support scheme, and how are such schemes communicated to young disabled people?

Personally I believe the communication around employment support schemes for disabled people is  poor. I have experience of benefitting from one of these schemes myself however I was again only introduced to this after I gained my initial employment offer. It would have been even more beneficial to me to have known about this while job searching. Additionally I feel many of these schemes rely on prior knowledge of the organisation that runs them when they should be actively promoted in education settings and involved in bridging the gaps in this transition through perhaps offering things like employment taster days like young people do when they transition from school to college for example. At this point you are often invited on a ‘taster day’ and I feel a similar process would work well here.

7)  How effective are government programmes which support or encourage employers to employ disabled people, particularly young disabled people? Does this differ by condition or disability? How could they be improved?

Due to my own involvement with multiple organisations who are Disability Confident accredited I think schemes like this are a great way to encourage employers to recruit disabled talent. However, this isn’t without its drawbacks. I feel more needs to be done to hold employers accountable when signing up to the scheme. Currently there is nothing employers have to do to report on what they are doing to recruit and retain disabled talent and therefore the scheme risks becoming a bit of a tick box exercise for some rather than having a real impact for disabled people and employers. If employers were more accountable in this way I think this would lead to greater and more meaningful outcomes for all.

Regardless of disability or condition I think there are still many misconceptions around employing disabled people. E.g  this will incur more cost, there will be more sick days or the employee won’t be able to deliver outcomes in the same way as their non disabled counterparts despite many statistics demonstrating the opposite! To increase young disabled people’s success when entering employment I strongly believe these misconceptions need to be tackled first and foremost as this is one of the greatest barriers faced- ableist attitudes. When combined with issues around age and other prejudices that equally exist here, this only intensifies the barriers faced.

8)  What steps could be taken to improve awareness and uptake of relevant government support schemes?

• More discussion of this in mainstream media including digital channels like social media
• Building increased trust within the disability community in government departments providing the schemes. For example, Access to Work is run by the DWP and there is unfortunately a lack of trust in the DWP among many disabled people as a result of negative experiences with other DWP initiatives like PiP assessments and work capability assessments etc.
• Increased networks of support for organisations and businesses using the various schemes.

9)  What actions could employers be taking without Government support? What barriers prevent them doing so?

• Actively recruiting young disabled people without incentives or encouragement to do so such as the Disability Confident Scheme- this only reinforces ableist attitudes when employers are almost incentivised to recruit a disabled person. Barriers stopping them doing this include misconceptions and negative attitudes. However, this doesn’t mean scrapping schemes like Disability Confident! This is a scheme I would love to see and truly believe has the potential to grow, but I feel employers shouldn’t be so reliant on such schemes and incentives.
• Increased engagement with young disabled people as they prepare to leave education. E.g careers fairs, open days and increased work experience opportunities- Barriers to this can include lack of knowledge on how to support and tailor these events to the needs of disabled people and having the connections to reach out to disabled young people in the first place.

10)                     How effectively are the rights of disabled people upheld and enforced in the workplace? What barriers do young disabled people face in accessing the support (including legal support) that they need and are entitled to? How could enforcement mechanisms be improved?

Legislation like the Equality Act is useful in enforcing the rights of disabled people in the workplace. However, discrimination unfortunately still happens and particularly indirect discrimination where this isn’t always immediately detectable. As a result young disabled people may experience in direct discrimination but may not be aware that this is the case, meaning they don’t take this further and go without access to the appropriate support.

Information on types of discrimination in the workplace should be communicated to young disabled people whilst still in education so that they are aware of the signs to look out for.

Additionally schemes like Disability Confident could be used as an enforcement mechanism and a way of ensuring the rights of disabled people are upheld. Employers could be required to provide information on the numbers of disabled people they are employing for example and then at set intervals be subject to assessments or quality assurance processes to ensure what employers are saying they are doing is actually happening, providing opportunities for any potential discrimination to be highlighted and appropriately dealt with.

September 2023