The Salvation Army -written evidence (YDP0031)

The Salvation Army’s response to House of Lords Public Services Committee’s Inquiry

The transition from education to employment for young disabled people

September 2023

Conclusion

Disabled young people are often marginalised by society and are not offered the employment opportunities they deserve. The employment gap needs to be reduced and organisations need to adopt a flexible, supportive, and inclusive approach to address this.

Recommendations

1)   Government must lead by example in taking a person-centred approach to Government led programmes or employer initiatives; seeing the person first and treating them as an individual rather than a label or condition:

a)    Government programmes, private and third sector support workers and others working with disabled young people, and employers seeking to hire disabled young people must spend the appropriate time and resource on understanding their needs and aspirations to ensure the right outcome for all.

2)   Government should lead by example in challenging for social justice and campaigning for the recruitment of more diverse workforces.

3)   Government must work with employers to ensure there is investment, and the appropriate support, to enable young disabled people to become job ready.

4)   This must be underpinned by joined up thinking and communication with all parties.

About The Salvation Army

We are grateful for the opportunity to respond to this inquiry. In our response The Salvation Army draws on the experience and expertise of our specialist Steps to Work Programme. We focus on the transition from education to employment and how our Steps to Work programme supports young adults 18 to 25 with learning disabilities, who are neurodiverse or have other barriers to employment, into paid and sustainable employment across the Liverpool City Region.

The Salvation Army is a worldwide Christian church and registered charity, which has tirelessly fought against social inequality to improve the lives of the most vulnerable and marginalised people in our society for over 150 years. The Salvation Army believes in putting faith into action and serving God by serving others; offering practical support to all who need, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.

Our presence in left behind communities has evolved to better support those we serve. Sadly, while for some living standards have improved, we continue to fight many of the same ills – homelessness, modern slavery, poverty, addiction, social exclusion and isolation, debt, unemployment, and the exploitation and abuse of vulnerable people.

About Strawberry Field

Strawberry Field has been in the care of The Salvation Army since the 1930s as a place that supports vulnerable young people and a site of spirituality and inspiration. This legacy continues with The Salvation Army’s redevelopment of Strawberry Field to give young people with learning disabilities in Liverpool the chance to succeed and honour the site that inspired John Lennon.

We have developed Strawberry Field into a centre where these young people can join our Steps to Work programme. The Steps to Work programme at Strawberry Field is a 12-to-18-month employability programme that offers young adults with learning disabilities, who are neurodiverse and have other barriers to employment the opportunity to gain skills and work experience to help them achieve their goals.

Our Response

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?

The support for transition from education to the workplace is pivotal for any young person and especially those who have a disability. Whilst a physical disability may be more apparent hidden disabilities such as autism and Global Development Delay often remain hidden or indeed masked. This can make it more difficult for young people to access services or to have their voice heard and give the best account of themselves when entering the world of work.

Some of the barriers to gaining paid employment are listed below from an individual, employer, and societal perspective:

Individual:

• Lower than average educational attainment,
• Poorer mental health,
• Condition is hidden or masked,
• Lack of parental support and encouragement,
• Lack of understanding around professional boundaries and expectations in the workplace,
• Lack of self-belief,
• Benefits seen as an income stream for families,
• Lack of transitional support and understanding.

Employer:

• Complex and unfit for purpose recruitment and selection processes,
• Lack of a “person first” approach,
• Stereotyping, labelling and assumptions,
• Lack of flexibility and willingness to job carve and make reasonable adjustments,
• Fear of getting it wrong,
• Lack of knowledge, skill, and resource to build a more neurodiverse workforce,
• Poor networking with other support agencies.

Societal:

• Being caught in the benefits cycle,
• Labelling the condition and hence the person,
• Focusing on what the person is unable to do rather than their “superpowers”,
• Lack of knowledge around neurodiversity,
• Lack of people and organisations championing social justice for people with disabilities.

1. a. How far do barriers to young disabled people accessing other public services, such as health and care services, present a barrier to young disabled people accessing the workplace?

Young people may not understand their condition and hence know what services are available to them – this unconscious incompetence can leave them floundering and hence not accessing services.

There can also be a stigma attached to referring to a support service and fear of the unknown. Many disabilities have associated anxiety, self-esteem, and confidence issues as a by-product, and this can make young people less likely to engage with health and care services and hence compound these emotions. Having a bad experiences during diagnosis or treatment may also impact on the young person’s desire to ask for help and support.

Services need to be promoted in a user-friendly way and that can be found in a one-stop, and the right support matched to the young person’s needs. An example of this is the Live Well directory for the Liverpool City Region.

We must consider the way young people communicate and use their preferred channels to get the message out there such as Instagram and TikTok. This will attract our target audience and encourage more uptake for services and hopefully enable them to feel less threatened and more empowered.

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?

Locally most support services that help young people into paid employment require sight of an EHCP. With our Steps to Work programme this is not the case. An EHCP gives some valuable insights into a person’s background, challenges and how best to support them but also needs to be viewed with some caution due to the following factors:

• An EHCP focuses on supporting a young person in their educational setting whereas we work with people in an employability environment so some of the content of the EHCP may not be relevant.
• The document tends to be long and unwieldy and sometimes it is difficult

“To see the wood from the trees”.

• EHCPs that we do see are often 5 years out of date – as the young person progresses into adulthood a lot can change and some of their initial barriers may not be relevant or minimised. An EHCP can also paint a picture of who the person was and not who they have now become.
• EHCPs tend to focus on what the person cannot do and major on support needs. Again, we focus on the qualities and skills that the person can bring or be developed in order for them to secure paid employment.
• At Steps to Work we pride ourselves on a “person-first” approach and see past the label and look at the person as any individual who will have skills and strengths but also areas where they will need support and development.
• Working with individuals throughout the length of our programme (between 15 and 18 months) we will match the individual to employers and encourage job carving, a neurodiverse recruitment process and in work support to ensure the best outcome for the both the young person and the employer.
• We are not medical practitioners but employability experts and will build a support network, ensure reasonable adjustments, and prepare the individual for the world of work regardless of an EHCP.

3. How effectively do education systems provide careers advice, guidance and support which meet the needs and career aspirations of young disabled people? How could this be improved, and what examples of good practice are there in the UK and abroad?

From our experience most education systems do their best they can with the resource they have but even though they support young people who are SEN tend to focus on the traditional mainstream employability systems and processes. Mainstream recruitment needs to be changed for SEN people as they are competing with everybody else and completing an application form and attending a competency-based interview would not allow the individual to shine.

We find that school and colleges look into the short term to secure the next option for the person as a result when they leave school there is sometimes a “cliff edge” feeling when the support they have had for years is taken away and both them and their families have to adjust to a new environment and sometimes fight for the right support. A longer-term action plan needs to be in place for the individual where they have a clear journey mapped out and which will result in a sustainable end goal.

Some of the people who join our Steps to Work programme are channelled to a specific sector in school such as childcare or working with animals. This may have been based on work experience they have completed with younger children in the school a while ago. Especially with autism this goal then becomes the reality for the young person and when we have got to know them, we quickly realise this I not where their skill set lies and they would not be able to gain the necessary qualifications to work in this sector.

Effective ways to ensure individuals are signposted to the right sector, expectations are managed, and we understand capability and motivation of individuals would ensure a more successful outcome. Also, more opportunities for work experience in a variety of sectors after some user-friendly vocational profiling and skills assessments have taken place would benefit the individual in setting and achieving their job goal.

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?

From our experience of referrals onto our programme from schools most have a framework for the next steps and have a dedicated post-16 careers lead which build the link between schools and external organisations. Of course, there is always the cry for more resource and expertise. From our perspective it is always about the “person first” approach and a long-term plan as opposed to second guessing the next steps or placing a person on the college carousel to complete lots of different programmes with no job or sustainable outcome.

Also, the time needs to be right for the person to move into employment as people mature at different rates and the support needs to be in place as well as the key skills and motivation of the young person to plan and secure paid sustainable employment.

3. 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?

There is a lot of resource in the Liverpool City Region to offer supported internships and many schools signpost pupils down this road. However, when we look at the long-term outcome of gaining paid employment this can vary. This could be due to lack of capability of the individual, being in a sector that is not suited to them or the internship being a full-time role which the individual is unable to sustain.

• Access to Work can be useful in supporting people with physical and visible difficulties but what about people who have sensory processing issues and need other types of support in entering and staying in the workplace.
• Disability Employment Advisors (DEAs) at Jobcentre Plus (JCP) are active in referring people to our programme but unsure as to what impact education settings have on creating this referral stream.

4. 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?

Our experience is with the DEAs – we have built a network across job centres in the region and ensure that DEAs know about our programme and why it is different. DEAs will contact us directly with a referral and perform a warm handover – we then support the young person to progress them into employment.

We also attend many JCP comms meetings to cascade this information down to staff on the front line. In general DEAs have a passion to help people who are more complex and signpost them to the right provider or support organisation. They can support work coaches in developing an action plan for the individual and hence access external support.

In terms of improvement – staff at JCPs have so much information and so many choices of programmes to refer people to much depends on the relationship with the DEA and provider to ensure the right person is on the right programme at the right time. The use of technology could assist in matching an individual to the best support programme available.

4. a. 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?

We attend school events such as “next steps” and “moving on” and promote our programme not only to those ready to leave school but those aged 16+ – this enables them and their parents to see what provision is out there, shortlist the ones that are most suitable and have a plan in place.

We also support some people who are referred to by word of mouth by past participants who have been on our programme.

JCPs are also active in promoting our programme to individuals and their parents/appointees.

Engagement could be improved by using more of the platforms that young people look to for information such as Instagram, TikTok and Threads.

Many young people can be socially isolated due to their condition which has been compounded by the pandemic so seeking out and accessing these individuals to offer support and a long-term solution is imperative but finding one is challenging.

5. What are young disabled people’s experiences of the transition from education-based support to employment-related support? Do young disabled people face barriers to accessing support during this transition? Could these services be better linked, and if so, how?

The experiences of young are very much mixed – some have a good experience as they are matched to the right programme, but we meet individuals who have been passed around on a number of programmes. Before we sign up a person to Steps to Work the individual has to go through a robust recruitment and onboarding process which ensures the programme, and the time is right for that person. It also ensures that they are committed to work with us for 18 months and both the individual and their parent are supportive of the end goal, which is to achieve paid, sustainable employment. This is not the case with some young people who are placed on a college merry go round.

Some of the government run programmes are target driven and can drive the wrong behaviours to achieve outcomes.

6. How accessible are careers in public services to young disabled people when they are first entering the job market? Are there public services which very effectively recruit disabled people, and services where significant improvement is needed?

Within the Liverpool City Region looking at Liverpool City Council and Wirral Borough Council there is a huge disparity in terms of employing people with additional needs. Liverpool has many supported internships and in contrast Wirral has some catching up to do in terms of support and inclusivity for people with additional needs.

We have heard that Blackpool Council embraces disabilities and inclusion and should be look to as role modelling good practice.

6. a. What could public services employers learn from best practice elsewhere, including overseas, about recruiting, and retaining young disabled people? What are the barriers to implementing such good practice?

We believe moving away from traditional recruitment processes of application forms and interviews is best practice; having a more inclusive process would ensure people with disabilities are allowed to shine and show off their best skills and talents in a recruitment setting. Ideas such as using a one-page profile or a video CV to be sent to the employer, better use of work trials to assess if the person is suited to or can be developed into the role.

Barriers to implementing such processes could be inertia to change, fear of trying new methods, resources to implement or lack of knowledge to what other processes and methods are available.

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?

At Steps to Work we are passionate about changing hearts and minds of employers to employ more young people with a disability. We challenge social justice and are fighting for Liverpool to be the first city of inclusion. We promote the unique skills and personalities of our participants and encourage employers to focus on what the young people can do as opposed to what they cannot or might not want to do. We also ask employers to job carve or make reasonable adjustments to give our young people the best possible chance of securing and sustaining employment.

7. a. What steps could be taken to improve awareness and uptake of relevant government support schemes?

There is a need for better training around which provisions are available to JCP staff and Careers Information, Advice, and Guidance (CIAG) leads in schools. We suggest a single portal that people can access which has an online assessment which then signposts them to the best offering to suit their needs. Promoting these offerings on the social channels that young people use such as Instagram and TikTok.

7. b. What actions could employers be taking without Government support? What barriers prevent them doing so?

There are several actions employers could take without the need for Government support:

• Seeing the benefits of accessing this largely untapped market and the desire to employ more people with a disability including those that are hidden.
• Revising and refining their recruitment and selection processes to make them more inclusive and to cater for disabled and neurodiverse people.
• Job carving and employing people who can do elements of a role as opposed to the full role.
• Implementing more flexible working and different types of contracts to make employment more accessible.
• Upskilling the workforce to change and embrace diversity and inclusion
• Changing the culture and language of the workplace.

20 September 2023