Dr Marie Caslin, Liverpool Hope University and Ellie Curran, Liverpool Hope University – Written evidence (YDP0030)
House of Lords Public Services Committee Call for Evidence: Transition from education to employment for young disabled people
Introduction
Dr Marie Caslin:
I am a Senior Lecturer based within the School of Social Sciences at Liverpool Hope University and I specialise in research that focuses on the lives of young disabled people. I am particularly interested in working with young people to explore how they experience the world and sharing their stories. Over the last few years I have collaborated on a number of research projects working with young disabled people to capture their experiences of entering the world of work. This has given me a significant insight into the barriers that are experienced by young people and what needs to change to ensure we have a more inclusive society. All of the projects I have undertaken are co-produced with young people and I firmly believe that in order to address the barriers encountered we must be led by their voices.
The young disabled people who I have had the pleasure of working with all have a desire to work and the skills necessary to succeed in the workplace with appropriate support. Our work draws on the social model which seeks to move beyond the individual to highlight structural barriers that are experienced by young disabled people. Such barriers would include negative attitudes and perceptions of what it would be like to hire a disabled young person, lack of opportunities, inaccessible travel, lack of awareness of support, difficulties in accessing appropriate support and inadequate educational provision.
Our response will be split into three sections
● Outline of the accessible CV project which highlights some of the work that needs to be done to support both young people and employers
● Overview of a new research project which will explore career support for young disabled people attending mainstream secondary schools in the North West
● Ellie’s case study (Ellie is a final year undergraduate student at Liverpool Hope University)
Throughout 2021 and 2022 I worked on a co-produced research project alongside a young disabled person (Harry Georgiou), a careers lead and inclusion mentor based within a special school (Sarah Spoor), and a community operations and fundraising manager based within The Comedy Trust (Charlene Davies). We wanted to explore how we might address some of the barriers experienced by young people with a learning disability when entering the world of work. A group of 11 young people were invited to take part in a collaborative research project to capture their experiences of working with the Comedy Trust (CT). During the CT programme young people with a learning disability were given the opportunity to make their own video Curriculum Vitae (CV).
During our initial meetings we decided that we would like to focus on the recruitment process to highlight the need for more inclusive and accessible processes. Our first step was to try and gain an insight into employers current recruitment practices, their awareness of alternative recruitment processes and what they look for in potential candidates. A questionnaire was shared via social media platforms and we had 40 responses. The data gained was also useful in helping the young people to know what to include in their own video CV, for example how long the video should be with most respondents suggesting two-five minutes. From the responses we were also able to identify what should be included for example work experience. For us this is one of the key benefits of having a video CV as the young person is able to showcase their skills and personality. Some of the key data obtained from the questionnaire is provided below;
● 45% have heard of accessible CVs | Only 7.5% have ever received an accessible CV
● 82.5% have heard of supported internships | But only 35% currently offer supported internships. The main reason for not offering them was lack of resources
● 65% stated that they were not aware of any financial schemes which could help to address the concerns around lack of resources
● 92.5% would like to know more about support that is available
● 97.5% stated that they were willing to look at alternative formats of CVs
Although nearly half of the respondents had heard of accessible CV’s only a very small percentage (7.5%) has actually received one. However we feel the results from this questionnaire are very positive as it does indicate a willingness to look at alternative formats for applying for jobs. We are also encouraged by the high percentage of respondents who would like to know more about support that is available to their organisation to help them be more inclusive. In particular it would be great to see more opportunities for supported internships. Even though most of the respondents have heard of the supported internships only 35% currently offer them.
For the young people taking part in the programme offered them the opportunity to develop their confidence and recognise the many skills and abilities they already possess. The young people felt having a video which highlighted what they can do would help to challenge some of the negative perceptions held by employers. A vital aspect of this project was the young people having the opportunity to undertake a supported internship as they could be filmed in a working environment. We feel supported internships are a great way to ensure young people have access to the world of work but more work needs to be done to raise awareness of support that is available to both young people and employers.
When the programme had finished we hosted an event at Liverpool Hope to share the work. The event was attended by local SEND schools, charity organisations and staff from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The response to the video CVs was overwhelmingly positive however we would have liked to have seen more employers attend the event and we are really keen to explore ways we can share the work with employers. A key part of the event was to provide space for young people to not only discuss the barriers that are encountered but also what needs to change. From our experiences on the project we feel it is vital to engage employers so we can raise awareness of the barriers encountered and highlight support that is available to enable them to be more inclusive.
We feel this is a great example of how you can address some of the structural barriers, by adopting more inclusive recruitment practices and ensuring that young people have access to work experience opportunities such as supported internships. The young people who took part in the programme have been able to use their video CVs to successfully gain access to the workplace.
I was recently invited to undertake a research project exploring career support that is available to disabled young people who attend mainstream school. The project is funded by Liverpool City Region Career Hub and will take place over the course of the next academic year. It is anticipated that two pilot studies will be conducted to highlight best practice when working with disabled students. As part of the project we aim to produce a range of resources aimed at enabling mainstream schools to support disabled young people to access employment. We will offer a series of Continued Professional Development (CPD) workshops to support teachers training needs when working with young disabled students. We will also host sessions aimed at supporting employers to both raise awareness of support that is available to them to hire young disabled people and to showcase what young disabled people have to offer, we will focus on what can be gained from employing a disabled young person.
The project started in July 2023 and we have had the opportunity to gather some initial data from career leaders based in mainstream schools. The data indicates that staff are not aware of all the support that is available to disabled students and there is a need for more training on transition routes for students. As with the project above, engaging with employers will be a significant part of the research as there is a lack of opportunities for young disabled people and we need to ensure appropriate support is put in place to enable them to successfully transition into the workforce. We would be happy to share the key findings from the project on completion.
My name is Ellie Curran and I am a third year student at Liverpool Hope University, studying special educational needs and disability studies. I have been approached by Dr M Caslin to provide some insight into my experiences of transitioning from education to employment to support her report.
Just to give the reader a brief insight, I have a physical disability by the name of cerebral palsy, this means that I am a full time power wheelchair user and my speech is also impaired. The reason that I am explaining the nature of my disability aids the barriers in which I am going to explain further - as a young woman, I see myself as a disability activist, disabled by mainstream society and not by the nature of my impairment.
This is crucial in outlining the barriers I have faced through transitioning into employment and further education. Firstly, I am going to discuss my experiences of career guidance in my secondary school as I think this correlates with the subsequent barriers post education. My first involvement with careers education came when I was in year 7, back in 2014. I vividly remember how the lesson was shaped around completing an online quiz which matched me to a job role based on several questions. Being honest, at that age, I did not show much enthusiasm towards future career prospects given how new secondary school was. However, I remember having feelings of resentment towards the answers that displayed job occupations portrayed as manual, which lead to growing reluctance in participating in career related activities.
This progressed throughout my post 16 education as I thought the fixation on STEM role models partaking in physically demanding job roles (a strong focus within my all girls senior high school) amongst other ableist curriculum surrounding careers was unrelatable and disregarded disabled people. Given that I maintained strong academic performance throughout school, my reluctance about exploring my future career goals was not acknowledged. It was always a question from me of what I could do physically within a job occupation; for example, even an administrative role would leave me with questions such as “how would I file any paperwork… I am unable to answer phone calls due to my speech… would I be able to keep up with the workload”.
These feelings would arise and be exacerbated by career fairs held by my school. I absolutely dreaded them. I felt as though I was immediately stereotyped by prospective employers and constantly had the need to prove myself, which just made exchanges between myself and the employers much more difficult and in turn, patronising. For example, these situations hindered my confidence which has an effect on how I speak, encouraging patronising behaviours such as the employers not allowing me to finish what I was saying and proceeding to hand me a pen with their company logo on.
Next came Year 10 work experience, which made me even less confident about entering the job market after leaving school. My placement was in a disabled people's organisation which made me feel a number of ways. On the one hand, I felt more at ease with completing my work experience as reasonable adjustments did not seem to be an issue however, I also questioned whether the place of work experience that was chosen for me was taken solely for accessibility requirements and not my career aspirations. During the placement itself, I was given quite mundane and administrative tasks to complete. Given that I was 15 years old at the time, I accepted that these kinds of tasks were the only thing I could really partake in due to lack of experience and the fact that I was only attending for a short period of time. Although this was the case for the majority of my year group, I still had a feeling that my capabilities were disregarded and found this rather degrading. For instance, the administration tasks that I had to complete were already written down word for word for me to then type this up as either an email or letter. Essentially, the task was already completed for me and I was just note taking the text electronically, something that they themselves could have done in the first place. I returned from work experience not really sure what I learned or what career related skills I gained, further elucidating my thoughts that careers education does not consider and prepare disabled young people for the barriers into employment that they face. Just to clarify on what I mean by "prepare", myself and other disabled young people should not have to endure the plethora of barriers that astoundingly still persist in the labour market today but be given adequate preparation of the services available to support us. Information on schemes such as Access to Work and Disability Employment Advisors and much more tailored careers education is something that should already be in practice at the very least.
Fast forward to Sixth Form, where the pressure of my post education prospects really began to creep up on me. This is also when I had a one to one meeting with the school's career advisor. This meeting reaffirmed and exacerbated my stress of potentially leaving school with no career path. Conversations around my barren CV were unwieldy with the fact that I had zero job experience, unlike my peers who worked in retail or hospitality at the time. This was questioned initially in the meeting with myself giving quite frankly a sarcastic response exclaiming that I could not work in these kinds of environments due to my physical impairment and I had to focus on my A levels as completing work took me several times longer than my peers. However, the careers advisor understood that I did not wish to continue into further education and reassured me that we would find some sort of employment opportunity together.
I attend annual disability exhibitions to look at the latest equipment and technology that is on the market for disabled people, wheelchairs, adapted computer accessories and other products to help us navigate a world that does not accommodate our needs. When I attended Year 12, I came across a stall that had information about the Access to Work Scheme and another that was a charity that supported disabled people into university, from supporting people with applying for DSA to exploring care options. This was the very first time I heard about all this information, it was so nice to see what support was available yet disappointing that my school had yet to direct me to these kinds of schemes, especially when everyone else was finalising their university and apprenticeship applications.
With half of my Sixth Form experience being in lockdown, online learning consumed the majority of my time and careers education was put on hold. Upon returning to face to face learning, focus turned to the alternative exams in Year 13. Just like that, early 2021 approached with exam preparation in full swing and the rest of my year group receiving unconditional offers for university. I started to become increasingly alarmed by the lack of support into employment and panicked. I hesitantly applied for university to complete a degree which I chose over around a week or so. I did this to secure a short term plan for myself, not necessarily because I wanted to. My university application was the latest application in my year but I received substantial support in completing the application, with staff and myself relieved that I had a "plan".
This hasty decision became apparent in my first few weeks of university. I absolutely hated the degree I chose and had no clue how I was inclined to pursue it in the first place. Luckily, I changed my degree to Special Educational Needs and Disability Studies - which has been the best decision I have ever made. I have found a passion fo highlighting the inequalities that divide disabled people from the rest of society and have been given amazing opportunities to enhance my career prospects, including work experience that I could fully engage in, public speaking and research projects. Despite that, my progression to where I am now should not be commended by the inadequate careers education from my school but by myself and my tutors at Liverpool Hope University.
Many disabled people however are far more marginalised than me, leaving education unemployed and denied access to higher education due to insufficient, inadequate and ableist careers education received. This is a call for more to be done by the government to support disabled young people into employment, changing practices in education to subsequently reduce barriers upheld by employers.
Thank you for your time and to Dr Marie Caslin in allowing me to assist her with this paper.
We hope the evidence provided is helpful in considering some of the barriers experienced by young disabled people. Young disabled people have a desire to work and can achieve their goals if supported appropriately. We feel it is essential that the structural barriers are addressed and we listen to the voices of young disabled people to ensure we have a more inclusive society.
September 2023