Disability Positive – Written evidence (YDP0022)

Transition from Education to Employment

Call for Evidence response by Disability Positive

About us

We are Disability Positive.

We are a charity based in Cheshire and work mostly in the North West.  We provide services, opportunities and a voice to people living with disability or long-term health conditions and their families.

We have services to help people with everyday life, being part of their local community and looking after their own wellbeing.  We can offer advice, help with practical tasks and advocate for people in lots of different situations.  We listen and share people’s experiences to influence positive change in government policy. 

We know it matters, because we live with disability and long-term health conditions too.

Definitions

In line with the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People (CRPD) definition, Disability Positive is a representative organisation of disabled people: 100% of our members are disabled people and we are majority led, directed, governed and staffed by disabled people [1]

Within this response we use the words ‘disabled people’, ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ to mean disabled people facing disabling societal barriers due to their impairments or conditions and this includes physical impairments, mental ill health, hearing impairments (including D/deaf people with BSL as first language), visual impairments, learning disability/difficulty, neurodiverse people, and those with chronic illness or fatigue.

Response

1. In this response, rather than reply to each question, we will set out what we believe are the barriers to getting young people in to work, and the potential solutions.  The recommendations are based on our work and knowledge as a Disabled Peoples Organisation (DPO).  The solutions will cover a range of the questions in the call for evidence.

Barriers

2. Disabled People face significant barriers in both obtaining employment and keeping themselves in employment.  As the official statistics in ‘Employment of Disabled People 2022’ [2] show, in September 2022 there were significant differences between the experience of disabled people and non-disabled people:

The unemployment rate for disabled people was 7.2% whilst for non-disabled people it was 3.2%

The employment rate for disabled people was 52.6% whilst for non-disabled people it was 82.5%.

3. This disparity is not a natural thing, it is the result of the barriers that are present within society that prevent disabled people participating on an equal basis with non-disabled people.  These barriers can be physical (such as lack of access to buildings), attitudinal (such as the assumption that disabled workers will be off sick more frequently), or institutional (the lack of flexibility over working times for people with fluctuating conditions).

4. Too often, when younger disabled people are entering the workplace, there is more emphasis on what a person can’t do than what they can do.  This inability to see the added value of an inclusive workforce is something that needs to change.

5. Working practices can also play a part in creating barriers for the employment of young disabled people.  There are a number of schemes that employers can access that would help them to become more inclusive (see ‘Solutions’ below).  Access to Work (AtW)[3] is also another scheme that many Employers aren’t even aware of.  When we talk to Employers, the knowledge of AtW is very patchy and variable.

6. Finally, younger disabled people often struggle to find a voice to talk about what they want to do and support them in making decisions.  The provision of Advocacy services, particularly for younger people is very variable.

Solutions

7. In order to overcome the barrier of the perception of disabled people as being limited in the workplace, employers need to think more flexibly when it comes to job descriptions and concentrate more on tailoring job roles to what a disabled person is able to do (sharing out tasks within teams for example rather than rigidly sticking to a job description and not employing someone on the basis that they think they aren’t able to do a particular task).  As a DPO, we have a large number of disabled staff and we have adopted a flexible working approach (e.g ability to work remotely, varied start/finish times, sharing out of tasks within teams so that if a disabled person is unable to do a task due to their impairment, such as answering the phone, their job role can be flexible enough to adapt to this).  We are also able to show how common myths such as disabled staff will always be taking time off is simply just not true, our own experience of staff absence/sickness disproves this.

8. Additionally, if employers were forward thinking and worked with local DPOs to train staff in areas such as Disability Equality Training they would be able to use this knowledge to be more creative and more equal both in the recruitment process and in the employment of disabled people.  Staff would be more understanding of differences between people and realise that having an impairment does not mean that a person is unable to be a productive part of the workforce.  Employers can also work with DPOs to provide Experience Audits.  This would give them the opportunity to get an independent assessment of their services for and treatment of disabled people, both from the customers and staff point of view.  Disability Positive has worked with a number of organisations to provide both Disability Equality Training and Experience Audits.  Crucially, we use disabled people and people with lived experience of disability to train staff and undertake audits, showing how important it is to have real experience of the barriers disabled people face.  Feedback on our training from those who undertake it consistently shows that people feel they have a better understanding after the training of what disability is and the barriers disabled people face.  When we work with organisations, we also encourage staff to think about what actions they will do individually to apply the knowledge and understanding they have gained in training to their job roles.

9. The Government should be looking at working with Local Authorities and schools to look at introducing Disability Equality Training for both pupils and staff.  Educating young people on the barriers disabled people face and coming up with creative solutions to these will mean in the long-term people become much more aware of how they can be important and productive members of society.

10. Employers should look at becoming Disability Confident Leaders [4] and make sure that the philosophy underpinning this scheme are embedded in all of their work practises, making the workplace more inclusive.  This will in turn mean that younger disabled people moving from education to work will be encouraged to know that they are going to be working for an employer that has been externally verified as having clear understanding and acceptance of work practices designed to help disabled people into employment.  The Government should also look at making the Disability Confident scheme more of a meaningful ongoing process rather than just an accreditation, and ensure organisations who have achieved Committed, or Employer status are assessed on a regular basis to see how they have maintained the work they did to obtain accreditation.  As a Disability Confident Leader we have reported on disability and mental health wellbeing, this reporting and a commitment to improve accessibility and implement changes should be extended to the other levels of the Disability Confident scheme (Committed and Employer).  In addition to this, disabled people we support have stated that they do not have confidence in Disability Confident employers (unless Leaders), and they feel that the scheme at Committed and Employer status is a tick box exercise and not a meaningful route to improved employment opportunities.  This needs to become much more meaningful as a part of encouraging the increase in the number of disabled employees within organisations.

11. The Government should be doing much more to promote and highlight the positive role that disabled people can bring to a diverse workforce.  Schools should also talk to disabled pupils about this when looking at careers advice.  This will show pupils that may need support in the workplace that this doesn’t have to be a barrier to being employed.

12. The Government should also be promoting the AtW scheme much more.  In addition, they should roll out the ‘Access to Work Plus’ (AtW+)[5] pilot scheme.  This will make Employers understand that they may receive support in order to employ those disabled people who might have higher support needs in the work place.  AtW+ is already showing that it can assist people in moving into the workforce and maintaining a position in it.  Higher support needs shouldn’t be a barrier to employment if the support someone needs is in place.

13. It is important that disabled young people receive support and advice from organisations such as DPOs, whose staff can share their live experience and knowledge as disabled people with their younger peers.  This can be done by providing Employment support services within DPOs rather than through places like Job Centre Plus.  Employment support would be best placed within local DPO’s whose workforce are people with lived experience of the process and are a trusted source of information, advice, and support.  These DPOs can then work with careers advice staff at schools to offer support to younger disabled people before they leave school.  Funding DPO’s to deliver employment support to disabled people would support thousands of us per year, improve outcomes and increase employment opportunities for disabled people.  The DWP’s approach to its employment programmes is centralised, “one-size fits all” and not effective. Instead, increased funding should be given to local DPO’s to provide personalised support, improve outcomes and increase employment opportunities for disabled people. Currently the commissioning system excludes place-based support from local DPO’s

14. The process of moving from education to work should also be much more joined up.  A young persons Education Health & Care Plan should be portable and be able to be adapted for the workplace, as the support needs a person may have will often be the same whether they are at school, at work, or participating in every-day life.

15. Access to independent advocacy for younger people is also important.  This sort of service would be best placed within local DPO’s whose practices are centred on using the social model of disability and are centred on lived experience. DPO’s workforce are people with lived experience and are a trusted source of information, advice, and support; helping people to say what matters to us. Funding DPO’s to deliver advocacy to support younger disabled people to navigate a way in to the workforce would support a significant number of people and improve outcomes and increase employment opportunities for younger disabled people.

Recommendations

16. We propose that Employers should work with their local DPOs to do the following:

1. Provide Disability Equality Training to all staff.  This will promote a better understanding of disability and the barriers disabled people face.
2. Produce Experience Audits that show how the reality of disabled peoples experiences with the employer impact on the service they receive.  This will give Employers real evidence of what the reality is of where they are in regards to equality for disabled people both as customers and as employees.
3. Work on an ongoing basis to provide information and advice on issues that are important to disabled people.  This will keep the knowledge base for employers up to date.

17. We also propose that the Government should:

1. Encourage all employers to undertake some form of Disability Equality Training for staff, in order to promote a better understanding of disability and the barriers disabled people face.
2. Raise the awareness of schemes like Access to Work and Access to Work Plus.  This is a vital part of increasing the employment prospects for younger disabled people.
3. Work with employers to increase the uptake of the Disability Confident scheme (achieving Leader status within a fixed timescale).  This will make the scheme much more widely known and give it greater value.
4. Require all organisations who sign up to the Disability Confident scheme to report regularly on their progress.  This will make the scheme much more of an ongoing one, rather than a tick box exercise.  This would also hopefully make employers more confident to have a diverse workforce.
5. Look at placing Employment Support (ongoing advice, work coaches etc) for disabled people with local DPOs
6. Ensure that careers advice and employment advice are linked so that young disabled people can talk to staff at their local DPO as early as possible to look at what support they can access and what sorts of opportunities there are locally.
7. Encourage employers to think more about internships and training schemes for young disabled people moving into the workplace.  This should increase the job opportunities for younger disabled people.
8. Make it mandatory for employers to report on the number of disabled people they employ.  This will give a very accurate figure of the disabled workforce and its composition (number of full/part time workers, flexible working hours etc)
9. Make Education Health & Care Plans become a starting point of devising a work plan for younger disabled people, making the plan much more portable and able to be adjusted as the young person’s life changes and they move in to the world of work.
10. Look at working with local DPOs to set up advocacy support services for younger disabled people.  This ensures that a younger disabled persons voice is heard when they are looking at making decisions about their future.

15 September 2023