Career Development Institute – Written evidence (YDP0021)

The Career Development Institute’s response to the House of Lords Public Services Committee inquiry into the transition from education to employment for young disabled people.

Introduction

Career guidance helps individuals to define their career goals, identify pathways to gain the necessary skills and gain and retain meaningful employment.  Career development professionals act as a valuable interface between education and employment, bridging the gap between learning and work.  As the UK’s professional body for all aspects of career development, the Career Development Institute (CDI) welcomes the opportunity to submit evidence to this inquiry.

Response

1) The barriers young people with disabilities face when leaving education and entering the world of work include:

A lack of preparation and planning.  These young people are often not adequately prepared for entering employment.  Many schools/colleges lack the resources to provide tailored careers provision or guarantee a career guidance interview with an appropriately trained careers adviser.

A lack of aspiration.  Schools/colleges, parents/carers, and the young people themselves can lack a belief in their potential to succeed in the workplace.

Poor communication, coordination and collaboration between stakeholders.  There is a need for one body (e.g. the local authority) to have overall responsibility and be the central point of contact.

Transference of responsibility within the local authority.  At 18, responsibility for the young person transfers from Young People’s Services to Adult Services and the support team changes.  Consequently, relationships between the young person and professionals – developed over time and built on trust – disappear.

Changes to financial support.  Disability Living Allowance stops at 16 and the young person must apply for Personal Independence Payment.  There is no automatic transfer or entitlement.  Students progressing to higher education may also qualify for a Disability Student Allowance (DSA).  Each funding source has a separate application process.  Complexity, uncertainty and delays in securing financial support can hamper progression.

EHC plans that have not been updated and so present an inaccurate picture of the young person’s behaviours and level of need.  Consequently post-16 education providers and employers may reject his/her application

Discontinuity of support. It can take time for a disabled young person to build trust with a careers adviser, yet the person providing that support will change with each educational and work establishment. EHC plans don’t include career guidance notes so each time the young person transfers to a new service, they have to start again.

Job search and recruitment processes.  These are often complex and inflexible, e.g. assessment tests that prohibit progression beyond the first stage of a recruitment process or refusing to provide the interview questions prior to the interview.

Employer engagement.  Poor understanding among employers and concern at being perceived as discriminating or of ‘getting it wrong’.

The impact of these barriers differs depending on the young person’s disability.  For example a ‘reasonable adjustment’ for a visually impaired young person will differ from that needed by a wheelchair user.  Equally, young disabled people have many strengths.  While like characteristics can be observed across the spectrum, every young person will have a different profile.

1a) The National Careers Service (NCS) is a public service that supports the education to employment transitions of people with special needs and/or disabilities but has limited visibility. Those aged 19 or older (or 18 and have been referred by JCP) are eligible for face-to-face advice.  For young people aged between 13 and 18 access is via its website, webchat and telephone service.  However, service contracts do not accommodate more flexible provision and the service is designed to enable self-serve as much as possible.  These constraints present a barrier to young disabled people in need of transitional support.

Scope of the inquiry

2) The CDI welcomes the decision not to focus specifically on the experiences of young people with an EHC plan because the special educational needs and disabilities of many young people are not sufficiently complex to qualify for a plan and the support it provides, and so their needs are often less well met.  Although resources are limited, it is good practice to explore what more can be done to support all young people.

Support for young disabled people

3) The effectiveness of careers education in schools/colleges has improved following the DfE statutory guidelines in 2015, the strengthening of the Ofsted inspection framework, the introduction of the Gatsby benchmarks, the work of the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) and the training of Careers Leaders.  Yet, the quality of provision varies depending on whether the school/college recognises the value of careers guidance and invests in the services of a qualified careers adviser.

Many schools ‘buy-in’ careers support and need to provide these careers advisers with relevant notes on disabled young people so they can prepare appropriately – we hear of advisers only finding out that young people have a disability during the careers interview or from the school afterwards.  Schools should also seek to engage careers professionals who have experience working with disabled young people and/or ensure they enable careers advisers to undertake professional development to be able to fully support disabled young people.

There are recruitment and retention issues in the career development workforce making it more difficult to gain support from qualified professionals, exacerbated by the low pay levels (estimated £26k-£28k per annum average in schools), potentially leading to recruitment of under-qualified staff and higher staff turnover.

Career guidance support is provided by each institution with no formal handover of notes between them.  Disabled young people may need more time to build trust with a careers adviser and this silo provision means that has to be rebuilt each time they transition.  The career guidance record doesn’t pass on to future careers providers as part of the EHC so the young person has to repeat discussions and risk leaving gaps in progress.

Having a careers coach who works with the young person through their education and into work would ensure greater consistency.  Adding career guidance notes to the EHC would ensure some continuity of discussion and actions between careers advisers.

A wider concern is the lack of career guidance for young people with a disability not registered with a school (e.g. home schooled).  These young people are likely to have more limited access to careers support.

There are examples of good practice in both mainstream and SEND schools, as well as organisations such as Talentino and SAMEE Charity who provide careers support services for disabled young people.  However, there is still wide variability in the level of service provided by schools and colleges.

The all-age careers services of Wales (https://careerswales.gov.wales), Scotland (https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/) and Northern Ireland (https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/campaigns/careers) are worth exploring with their integrated careers services.

3a) The level of careers support in England is variable as it is down to the funds and priority given to such work by each school or college.  The statutory guidelines emphasise staff in educational settings should only conduct career guidance interviews if they are qualified to at least level 6 in a career development subject (DfE, 2023, p.39) though the CDI hears of some schools not adhering to this.  The qualification is vital as it provides a well-grounded toolkit based on theory and practice.

Some staff make excellent use of the many career development resources available (e.g. Unifrog, Skillbuilder), including those provided by the CEC (e.g. ‘Transition programmes for young adults with SEND. What works?’[i]) and the CDI (www.thecdi.net/New-Career-Development-Framework).

Many schools have a trained Careers Leader who is valuable in setting careers strategy and implementing careers education programmes.  These wider careers education programmes can add significant value to young people with disabilities, including giving access to experiences of work.  However, the Careers Leader training doesn’t qualify staff to deliver careers information, advice and guidance.  Data collected by the CEC against Gatsby benchmark 8, does not specify who provides personal guidance.

3b) It is difficult to quantify how far staff in education settings engage with employment support services and schemes such as ‘Access to Work etc.as there is no formal collecting of data.  However, substantial anecdotal evidence indicates there is little engagement in educational settings, although levels of engagement in FE colleges and universities are thought to be higher than in schools or 6th form colleges.  Few schools/colleges are known to engage with Job Centre Plus (JCP), DWP Work Coaches or Disability Advisers.

University support services working with disabled students do come into contact with DWP support services, and have been involved in the DWP ‘adjustment passport’[ii] pilot scheme which includes information on ‘Access to Work’.  Most young people encounter JCP – if at all – after exiting education, for example, on becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training) and followed up by the local authority, or if claiming universal credit and referred to a DWP Youth Hub[iii].

The JCP Support for Schools programme has offered pupils advice on the labour market and helped leaders offer work experience.  The advisers were largely positive about their involvement in this programme, but felt they could work more effectively if provided with greater resources or training opportunities[iv].

Recent developments in supported internships for young people with an EHC plan[v] may increase levels of engagement, but more likely this will be with organisations that support young people to prepare for entering the work environment (e.g. Scope, British Association for Supported Employment) than with DWP services.

4) The CDI found those who know of and have engaged with Access to Work speak well of it.  A strength is that it aims to correlate levels of support to levels of need and is not means-tested.  Disabled students undertaking a supported internship can also apply to the scheme.  A possible weakness is that the employer has to pay up-front for any items or support identified during the assessment process and apply to be reimbursed.  Other limitations are that it does not provide support prior to securing employment and too few people know about it.

Similarly the CDI found that those who had engaged with DWP Disability Advisers spoke well of the understanding they had and the support they provided.  However, reference was also made to Disability Advisers being over-stretched, and that more were needed.

4a) Often young people first engage with an employment support scheme in the later stages of their education.  Those in education may be introduced to the scheme through their school/college – this is more likely where the young person has an EHC plan – or if they are NEET, through the local authority.  Information about such schemes may be available on the local authorities’ ‘Local Offer’[vi].  There is however no consistent means of communication – much depends on there being good levels of awareness of local/national employment support schemes among the young person’s support network, including parents/carers.

Young people who progress to university, may find their engagement with employment support schemes deferred until they near graduation.  HE student support services are the main communicators of such schemes, although young people may also conduct their own research or contact JCP direct.

5) Many young people experience periods of heightened anxiety and find transitions stressful, especially post-18.  Several factors contribute to this:

Adapting to different provisions – Special educational support under the SEND Code Of Practice[vii] differs from the protection young people in the workplace have under the Equality Act 2010.

Discontinuity of funding – At 16 years of age the Disability Living Allowance ceases and the young person must apply for a Personal Independent Payment.  There is no automatic transfer or entitlement.  This can compound concerns about the availability and cost of transport.

Uncertain futures – For the majority, post-16 transitions are within education, albeit perhaps with a change of setting.  Many cannot remain in education beyond the age of 19, so there is a much higher level of uncertainty at post-18 transitions.

Dismantled networks – When a young person reaches 18 responsibility for them transfers to Adult Services and the support of professionals with whom they have built relationships ceases.

Information overload – Even with the introduction of the ‘Local Offer’ many struggle to locate and interpret relevant information as this requires good digital literacy and discernment skills.

Lack of advice and guidance – Although the SEND Code stipulates that transitional support should include information about local employers and further training (para.8.75), there is no entitlement to a guidance interview with a qualified careers adviser and few know about the NCS.

Where to go? There is no central body or single point of contact where the young person can go for further advice or support.  Responsibility for career guidance transferred to individual schools in 2011 (Education Act 2011) and subsequently, employment support services have become increasingly fragmented with organisations acting in silos, and JCP being the only ‘walk-in’ support service consistent across the nation.

Recruitment hurdles – The inflexibility of many recruitment processes inhibits progress.

Uninformed employers – Too few employers have an understanding of the young person’s disability, know what ‘reasonable adjustments’ would be needed and have heard of ‘Access to Work’.

Services need to be better linked with one organisation having overall responsibility for the transition process.  This would provide young people, parents/carers and other stakeholders with a single point of contact and so improve communications, collaboration and efficiency.  The bridge between education and work could be strengthened, and the dissemination of information improved, if young people had an entitlement to careers guidance from a qualified careers adviser, and if NCS contracts were revised to permit the building of relationships with schools/colleges and the promotion of its services.  Being career-informed predicts academic achievement, higher self-esteem, and higher occupational aspirations[viii].

Where young people have an EHC, this could be used to capture previous career guidance notes, enabling an easier transfer of key information as the young person transitions between support, rather than having to repeat conversations.

Public services as good employers

6) Accessibility to careers in public services to young disabled people varies.  Much depends on the employer’s awareness and understanding, and their being able to adopt a flexible approach to recruitment processes, e.g. offering a period of extended work experience to assess any reasonable adjustments and the young person’s suitability for the job role.  The ‘confident employer’[ix] initiative offers a way forward and is deserving of being better promoted.

6a) A review of UK and Ireland studies[x] to improve employability found successful projects provided vocational and life skills training, adopted a holistic approach, and collaborated with local and multi-agency services.  A barrier is the ‘short termism’ of government initiatives and the lack of career guidance within such initiatives.  Career guidance can help the young person identify their career goals, the pathways to gain the necessary skills and the career management skills to overcome barriers they will face throughout their career – these are even more important for disabled young people who are likely to face more barriers than their peers.

Support for employers

7) There are a number of government programmes which support or encourage employers to employ young disabled people and each has its strengths and limitations.  Some are tailored to a particular or condition.  However, key issues are not the programme themselves but the lack of support for the young person to enable them to identify an appropriate scheme and make an application.  Access to a qualified careers guidance professional ensure young people explore and choose the right options for them.

7a) Steps that could be taken to improve awareness and uptake of relevant government support schemes include:

Invest in careers guidance, delivered by qualified careers professionals for all students with a disability, ideally with the same contact throughout the young person’s transitions though education and into work so they build trust and understanding.

Provide an entitlement to career guidance for all young people with a disability.

Invest in local authorities and the NCS to support the transitions of young people with a disability and other young people who are outside of the formal education system.

Review NCS contracts so prime contractors can provide a ‘bridging service’ between young people with disabilities and employers at the point of transition from education to employment.

Develop resources so the NCS can be more proactive in engaging with employers schools/colleges and stakeholders.

Integrate professional career guidance into all government-funded employment support programmes so young people receive appropriate work opportunities or training and can successfully transition into sustainable work.

Improve the quality of tracking of young people with a disability outside of learning and work.

7b) There is a range of actions employers could be taking without Government support:

NCS prime contractors must submit two, high-quality case studies each month.  This could include case studies of young people with a disability.

Employers could review their recruitment processes to ensure they are not excluding young people with disabilities.  To offset adaptation costs, employers could offer a supported period of work experience prior to making an offer of employment.

Employment bodies such as Chambers of Commerce could disseminate case-studies of employed young people with a disability and the positive impact of the ‘Access to Work’ scheme and the ‘Adjustment Passport’.  More emphasis should be placed on challenging the structures of work and less on fixing the individual.

Enforcement of the rights of disabled people in the workplace

8) CDI members actively promote equality and diversity and uphold the rights of disabled people in the workplace[xi], yet England’s career guidance system is fragmented and poorly funded.  Hence, too many people struggle to access the career guidance they need or support from a qualified careers professional[xii].

September 2023