Careers England – Written evidence (YDP0024)

House of Lords Public Services Committee Inquiry into the transition from education to employment for disabled young people.

Careers England is the sole trade association for organisations involved in the provision of Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) products and services in England for people of all ages. Our members include Companies and Charities that are: National Careers Service Prime Contractors; providers of professional careers adviser services and products to schools and colleges; commissioned providers of services to NEET and vulnerable young people on behalf of local authorities; local authority young people and adult learning teams; and philanthropic providers of careers guidance facilities for young people.

Our members are involved in the transition of young disabled people from education into work and are concerned that this process is flawed to the detriment of the young people themselves, in particular we would like to draw the Committee’s attention to the following areas:

• The fragmented approach to support for young disabled people which relies too heavily on individual goodwill and not enough on standardised and enforced processes
• The challenges faced in particular by young disabled people who do not have an EHCP as they fall outside the remit of prescribed support systems and processes that apply to the transition of their peers with an EHCP
• The lack of specialist knowledge and resources relating to the transition of young disabled people from education to employment
• Restricted opportunities for young disabled people in the workplace
• Poor incentives and support for employers willing to employ young disabled people

Careers England would welcome the opportunity to provide further oral evidence if appropriate.

Our response follows the questions within the call for written evidence

1.General

Young disabled people face significant barriers when leaving education and entering the job market and workplace.  These barriers include:

• Lack of opportunities, including access to Government Training Programmes such as Apprenticeships, Traineeships and Supported Internships and employment in general.  Young disabled people are often unable to take part in work experience programmes as appropriate staffing is not available to support them.  Their experiences of work tend to take place in groups eg visits to employers.
• Poor transition support which can restrict opportunities considered, result in a lack of communication about the support a young person needs or the required equipment not being available.
• Lack of awareness amongst employers of the implications of certain disabilities, the support available and the positive contribution that disabled people can make in the workplace.
• Young people without an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) are often particularly vulnerable, they often have multiple needs, are capable of getting a job but not capable of keeping it as they lack the support required to do so, these young people are frequently Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET). Many of these young people will have more than one neuro diverse condition eg ADHD, Dyslexia, ASD meaning that their needs can be perceived as low level but are complex, misunderstood and often unsupported.
• Lack of ambition for this group of young people, it is particularly hard for these young people to reach their full potential sometimes due to low expectations that society has for them.

2.  Scope of the Inquiry

We support the approach taken by the Committee of focusing on the experience of all young people not just those with an EHCP.  These groups experience both similar and different issues and therefore taking a holistic approach will ensure that the committee takes a broad view, it will be important for the Committee to ensure that it achieves balance in its evidence and further investigations

Young people’s experiences

3.Support for young disabled people

Effective careers advice and guidance

Young disabled people suffer from the inadequacies of the Careers Advice and Guidance System in England but these are magnified due to their specific needs.  In general there are concerns about the fragmentation of the careers system, lack of funding and resources (with funding for Careers guidance in schools being the responsibility of each institution) is already an issue and there is no ring fenced funding for the support of disabled young people. 

There are excellent examples of individual schools and colleges undertaking exemplary work to support disabled young people but these examples are the exception and rely heavily on goodwill and the priority placed on this support within each institution, rather than this being the norm for all disabled young people which should be the case.

In general there is a lack of knowledge about relevant career opportunities, both amongst young people and school staff.  For example in a mainstream setting the new provider access legislation requires schools to expose young people to a range of post 16 providers and opportunities but these are unlikely to be differentiated for young disabled people.  There are a wide range of resources focused on the local labour market and careers opportunities however there is already a general criticism about the lack of appropriate and targeted resources for young people.  This is magnified for young disabled people who do not have access to free, widely available and appropriate information about their local labour market and the career opportunities suitable for them.

The Gatsby Benchmarks (published by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation in 2013) provide a sound framework for the development of careers programmes.  Many schools are using these effectively and there has been a significant improvement in careers programmes in schools and colleges since their introduction.  The benchmarks have been adopted by the DfE and the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC).  The CEC have produced a version of the benchmarks that is appropriate to learners with special educational needs and a range of supporting materials.  In special schools it is possible to provide an effective specialised careers programme, this is more challenging in a mainstream setting.  Where systems work well the careers team should be engaging with the school Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator (SENCO) to ensure that the careers support provided is differentiated to meet individual needs.

a)Training and resources.  There are excellent examples of schools based staff and careers advisers who have exceptional expertise and commitment to the support of disabled young people. However nationally there is a shortage of appropriately qualified careers advisers and school staff.  Many schools rely on willing staff but they do not have the necessary careers guidance skills and qualifications.  There are limited opportunities for specialist training relating to working with disabled young people, in the main this training is provided by private providers at a cost that is not always accessible to all.  The CEC has run specialist training for careers leaders in schools and other school based staff which is welcome but need to be scaled up considerably.

We recommend that specialist training is incorporated into all training programmes across the careers sector, this would include the professional qualifications for careers advisers and careers leader training, without a consistent standard that is monitored and enforced young people will continue to receive fragmented services of variable quality that are entirely reliant on the priority and commitment of individual institutions and staff.  The legislation relating to careers guidance required schools to ensure that young people receive independent and impartial careers guidance from a suitably qualified (defined as level 6) careers adviser, in reality this is not monitored or enforced effectively even though it comes under the remit of an Ofsted Inspection.

b) engagement of staff in educational settings with employment support services and schemes.

This will vary by institution, in Special Schools there will be a high level of awareness of schemes such as Supported Internships (in fact many schools are actively involved in providing the programme) and employability support such as access to work or disability employment advisers. In mainstream settings this is likely to be very different, SENCOs will have some awareness of these programmes but they are not always involved in the careers advice and guidance of the young people in the school. Well trained Careers Advisers are likely to have some knowledge of these programmes. 

4.Do employment support mechanisms meet the needs of disabled young people entering the job market for the first time?

When employment support mechanisms work well they provide effective support to young people entering the employment market, however these support mechanisms are not widely known about and are often under resourced.  They are therefore under significant pressure with long waits for appointments or for equipment to be provided, this creates real problems for employers who need this support in order for their employee to engage fully in the workplace.  Many of these programmes work better for Adults than they do for young people, consideration needs to be given to making these service more young people friendly and ensuring that they are more widely known about so that all disabled young people are able to use them, especially those leaving a mainstream educational setting.

There are a number of employment support mechanisms specifically for young people:

• Supported Internships – this is an excellent programme to help young disabled people into work.  The DfE is committed to extending and developing the programme following its trial period, however it needs to be more widely known about, available to all disabled young people as an entitlement if they wish to take part in it and more widely publicised to employers as without their support it cannot function.  There is a need for more intermediate labour market options that allow young people to access work experience with some support. Many students leave college in their early to mid twenties with no work experience whatsoever.
• Traineeships – from August 2023 these are no longer available as stand alone programmes and are only available directly from Colleges and other Training Providers.  This means that there are even less opportunities for young disabled people as these are pre Apprenticeship programmes were designed to help those young people not quite ready to join an apprenticeship programme to reach the required standard, many of whom are likely to have disabilities.  The programme was flawed; unlike Apprenticeships they are unpaid and therefore for many young people unrealistic, they also involve a 70 hour work placement which is a big commitment to obtain from an employer; however they were another opportunity for young disabled people to gain work experience. 
• Young people without an EHCP often have complex and multiple needs which makes it difficult to place them with an employer. Schools look for alternatives such as working with the site maintenance team in school or working with local charities.  Current year 10’s were in years 6 or 7 when Covid started and have more significant needs than previous students as they have not had the opportunity to build the resilience required in a work placement.

Potential areas for improvement:

• Ensure that all disabled young people are fully informed about the employment support mechanisms that are available.
• Resource employment support for disabled young people adequately eg create Disability Employment Advisers for young disabled people to ensure resource and expertise is available to those seeking help, more appropriate programmes to provide experiences of work.
• Undertake a wide campaign with employers to publicise the benefits of taking on a disabled worker and the support available to employers to do so.

a) first point of engagement for a disabled young person.

If a young person is leaving a special school or has an EHCP it is likely that they would be informed about employment support available and introductions to local services would be made as part of the transition planning process.  Those young people who do not have an EHCP are less likely to be aware of the services and support available and more likely to be working with Advisers who themselves know less about specialist support available.

Young disabled people would be priority customers of the National Careers Service where additional support and advice can be obtained to enable them to access work.  The support provided is often of a very high standard, however the service is funded on a payment by results basis which restricts the amount of time that in practice can be devoted to any one customer.

5.Transition from education based to employment related support and barriers faced

Young disabled people with an EHCP go through a transition process as part of their plan, the effectiveness of this is variable dependent on the skills and expertise of the staff involved.  For example many Local Authorities (LA) have teams who are highly skilled at managing the EHCP process but lack specific skills or qualifications in the transition to adult support services and careers advice and guidance. It is those young disabled people without an EHCP who are most at risk, they often are completely unaware of the support that could be available to them and therefore make their own way often ending up in inappropriate work or without the support required meaning that their work placement fails and they become NEET.

Individual LA, school and DWP staff often have good personal networks locally which enables them to support young people better.  Many LAs co-ordinate groups to support disabled young people, in particular focussed on Supported Internships, consideration could be given to extending these to cover all employment support mechanisms.

6.Public Services as good employers

There are excellent examples of public services committed to employing disabled young people eg LAs, NHS, however this is not consistent.  There are also impressive examples in the private sector eg hospitality.  More could be done to use public sector procurement to encourage the supply chain to employ disabled young people.  This approach has been used effectively with Apprenticeships and has increased the number of employers offering apprenticeships.

Good practice relating to other groups disadvantaged in the workplace could be considered to see if similar schemes could be developed for disabled young people, for example the Care Leavers Covenant which covers both the public and private sector such as the Civil Service Care Leavers Internship scheme, NHS Internships and schemes designed for ex-offenders such as the prison leaver recruitment into the civil service.

7.Support for Employers

In general support for employers is related to specific programmes eg Supported Internships.  The support offered is often high quality and effective enabling the employer to fully engage in the programme and offer a work placement to a young disabled person.  There are many instances where an employer is willing but the support required through Access to Work is hard to obtain, bureaucratic or too slow, these issues inhibit the ability of employers to engage and are off putting. In the past there were very effective programmes that employers could access that provided funding to support workers unable to deliver 100% of the job, eg if they could deliver 80% of the job the employer paid for that 80% but the disabled person’s salary was topped up to 100% by the DWP, this meant that employers were not paying for work that an individual could not do and made the employment of disabled people more attractive.

a)improving awareness and uptake by employers of government support schemes

A general awareness raising campaign is required to engage employers in the employment of disabled young people, this should relate to the economic issues employers face; skills shortages, an ageing workforce and recruitment issues. Considering disabled employees may be a solution to many of these issues.  Campaigns should be driven through local employer networks such as Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses.  Greater consideration should be given to incentives for employers, these could either be ongoing or short term intensive incentives such as were used post pandemic  eg Kickstart or on the introduction of Apprenticeships.

b)actions taken by employers without government support

Employers will only take action without government support if there is a strong moral or economic imperative to do so and there is a senior leader or Director championing the cause, in most cases all of these apply.  Broader examples that could be considered in relation to young disabled workers include Timpsons where a strong moral imperative existed to support ex-offenders or care leavers that coincided with an economic imperative to recruit staff into their business.  Good practice could be considered relating to other disadvantaged groups in the workplace.  Employers that actively recruit ex-offenders include Sodexho, Tescos and Greggs, whilst many have developed schemes to support care leavers such as the John Lewis Care Leaver employment scheme, Amazon and Barclays.

8.Enforcement of the rights of disabled people in the workplace

The rights of disabled people in the workplace are not upheld and enforced and there are no longer criteria against which to take enforcement action except for high level discrimination legislation, eg in the past there was a deeply flawed quota scheme.  It is possible for people to claim discrimination under the Equality Act but for many people the effort, stress and personal distress caused by making such a  claim is likely to be a disincentive.  This is exacerbated for young disabled people who are unaware of organisations that could help them make such a claim and would find the process too daunting to either embark on or continue with it. 

a)legal framework

The current legal framework is in theory adequate however in practice very difficult to enact for those experiencing anything other than the highest levels of discrimination.  In reality most disabled young people experience multiple examples of low level discrimination which as individual acts are very hard for them to challenge.

September 2023