Leonard Cheshire – Written evidence (YDP0033)

The transition from education to employment for young disabled people: Leonard Cheshire response

Introduction

Leonard Cheshire is one of the UK’s leading charities supporting disabled people. Leonard Cheshire supports individuals to live and work as independently as they choose, whatever their ability. Led by people with experience of disability, we are at the heart of local life – opening up opportunities, choice and support in communities around the UK.

Leonard Cheshire provides skills training to disabled people through employment programmes which aim to address the challenges disabled people face in finding and sustaining employment.

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 last number of years have had a disproportionate impact on young disabled people who were in the early stages of their careers, many of whom were making that first step from education to employment. Previous research by Leonard Cheshire highlighted the disproportionate impact the pandemic was having on young disabled people’s employment. In Autumn 2021, 89% of disabled 18-24 year olds surveyed said their work had been impacted by the pandemic, with one in ten losing their job.[1] While a considerable attention has been given to the current high rates of economic inactivity, often with a focus on older adults, it is important to recognise that inactivity among 16-24 year olds has also now hit a five year high, and this group are at greater risk of experiencing a scarring effect of inactivity.[2]

Unfortunately, discrimination and negative attitudes towards disabled people persist among a significant minority of employers, with one in five (19%) state they would be less likely to hire a disabled person.[3] With reasons behind employers’ reluctance to hire disabled people including the practicalities of making workplace adjustments (67%), of ensuring that application processes are accessible (44%) and concerns that they would be able to do their job properly (29%). Many young disabled people have told us that the application processes they have to go through when applying for jobs are inaccessible, from forms that are difficult to complete, to interview processes that don’t allow them to perform to the best of their ability, which can make entering the workplace for the first time more challenging.  

“I would be a little concerned with their internal stamina to do the job. I would think twice before employing such a person.”

Information and communications employer (250+ staff), London

“I don’t feel safe disclosing my disabilities to my line manager. She has made discriminatory comments about mental health and neurodivergence in front of me. I’m not ‘out’ as disabled to my team but I did disclose my disabilities to occupational health. I don’t receive any support at work.”

‘Jude’ aged 24

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?

At Leonard Cheshire, we believe that social care is a powerful enabler, as with the right care and support disabled people are able to remain active an engaged in their communities, which includes going to work. There are currently over a quarter of a million working age disabled adults who draw on social care, a number of whom will include young disabled adults.[4] However, too often at present the care and support they receive is not tailored to their needs and aspirations which can include remaining and progressing in employment.

Too often disabled people have told us that they choice they are given on their care packages is very limited in terms of the support available to them, with discussions beginning from a negative position where disabled people feel they are faced with costs and seen as a burden rather than an equal partner in designing their social care and how it is delivered. As a result there is not the opportunity to have care and support that is personalised and works alongside their career aspirations to enable them to fully succeed in employment.

Differing approaches to eligibility criteria across local authorities also exists across the country as to whether a request for social care will result in any services being provided, and this can also create problems when moving home. Working-age disabled people (36%) are more likely to have their requests for social care result in no services being provided compared to older people (25%), a figure that has been slowly increasing year on year.[5] Disabled people have reported losing access to their social care package when they moved between local authority areas, which may be an issue for young disabled people who may be more to relocate to pursue education and employment opportunities.[6]

If disabled people were able to better access the right social care support, this could contribute to reducing unemployment (for those who want to work). Modelling carried out by Frontier Economics on our behalf found that eliminating the disability gap through well-funded social care, would generate an additional £6-£20 billion in annual income for the UK economy.[7] Economic arguments are not the sole reason to reform social care, but they should never act as a barrier to a well-funded social care system. Disabled people should be able to access good quality, consistent care that they have control and choice over, first and foremost as it is a fundamental right to do so.

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?

Young disabled people have told us that, unfortunately, too often careers guidance at school can feel unhelpful due to a sole focus on preparations for university rather than allowing them to explore and learn about other options once leaving school. One striking example of this was a young disabled person’s school’s ‘careers fair’ being comprised solely of universities, with no space for local employers or information on how to make the transition from education to employment.

Where one-on-one career guidance is available, young disabled people have told us this is similarly mixed. A significant issue is one of career advisors holding low expectations on the opportunities available to young disabled people because of their disability or not providing any information on what adjustments they might need in the workplace and what kind of support or opportunities are available. The young disabled people we have spoken to are not always familiar with Access to Work and when they are, this is most often due to research conducted themselves rather than being given this information through career guidance or advice.  

“They should be explaining about [Disabled Student Allowance] and Access to Work, they should be saying there are funds available about extra support and these schemes. Careers advisors need to know this.” 

Leonard Cheshire focus group participant

“I didn’t know about apprenticeships, types of courses, or internships, or any of the paths I could go down which weren’t university or work.”

Leonard Cheshire focus group participant

Young disabled people starting or in the early stages of their careers have told us they find it difficult to identify employers with inclusive and accessible employment practises, with low awareness of Disability Confident, despite over 20,000 companies now being accredited through the scheme. Though it is possible to search for jobs with Disability Confident employers on the gov.uk website, prospective candidates cannot filter the results by level, meaning this can often be a poor indication of employment practices for disabled people. What a job search looks like for disabled and non-disabled young people can be quite different such as considering ease of commuting via accessible travel and how effective employers are at removing barriers to employment for disabled people, and greater support should be given to help young disabled people to consider these aspects as part of the careers guidance they receive. 

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?

Based on the feedback we have received from young disabled people, careers guidance and advice too often ignore the needs and aspirations of disabled people, or at worst treats those aspirations as unattainable rather than imminently possible with the right support and necessary adjustments made.

We recommend the Government make it mandatory for schools and colleges to provide disabled young people with tailored careers guidance including the provision of information about Access to Work, Disability Confident and employment support schemes. Building on the ongoing trialling of Adjustment Passports in Universities and the Department for Education’s ‘SEND and alternative provision improvement plan’, more could be done to help improve disabled young people’s transitions from education to the workplace.

Adjustment Passports have the potential to be a really positive tool to support young disabled people in the transitions between education and employment, however we have concerns about their potential roll-out based on their current format when trialled across three universities. There are clear outstanding concerns with the passports and associated documents around information sharing, guidance on what will happen to information disclosed as well as general issues around language and expectations on adjustments. Leonard Cheshire’s own Purple Passports could offer a potential example of how these issues could be addressed. Once these issues were addressed, we would potentially recommend the passports to be included in future updated Codes of Practice for schools and colleges.

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?

Access to Work

Access to Work programme can be a lifeline for young disabled people. Being able to receive funding for support such as special equipment, adaptations, support worker services or transport to and from work can mean the difference between making the first step on a career journey, transitioning from school into unemployment, or falling out of work having secured a first employment opportunity for many young disabled people. Unfortunately, a lack of awareness of the programme and increasing delays in applications and payment processes are preventing its full benefit being realised for young disabled people. 

Just over one in five (23%) disabled adults in the UK say they have currently or previously received Access to Work support, while only just over a third (37%) of employers told us that Access to Work was among the schemes offered to employees to help manage their health at work.[8] This is despite the cost of making workplace adjustments being seen as the most common perceived barrier to hiring disabled people among the employers we surveyed. With the significant impact of inflation over the last 18 months on employers, which still stand at 6.8% it is imperative that concerns about workplace adjustments and their costs are not seen by employers as a reason to close off employment opportunities for disabled people.

While young disabled people can apply for support through Access to Work, irrespective of if it is proactively promoted by their employer, awareness of the scheme and its potential benefits are still far too low, particularly in the devolved nations. In Scotland and Wales, the number of disabled people who have benefitted from the scheme is as low as 14%, while in Northern Ireland it drops to as low as 10%.[9] A proactive marketing campaign needs to take place, to maximise awareness of support available among disabled people and employers. 

Improved awareness should also increase demand applications to Access to Work, which should come with increased year on year funding for the scheme. In recent years, there has not been a significant extension of support received through the scheme. 38,620 people received a payment from Access to Work in 2021/22, while in 2010/11 payments were made to 32,810 people.[10] This increase over a decade can be seen in government spending related to Access to Work (In 2020/21, £149.9 million was spent on the scheme compared to £131.9 million in 2010/11).[11]

Funding should also be targeted towards tackling the existing backlogs in the system which mean that having a provision approved, is no guarantee that necessary equipment and support will be in place from day one in a new job. 61% of disabled people have said that it took over three months for their application to be processed and for 1 in 5 (20%) it took over six months.[12] Reducing unnecessary bureaucracy of the scheme should also be pursued, for example by improving efficiency and personalisation of application processes, entitling disabled jobseekers to ‘in principle’ indicative awards.

“Access to Work [should be better] available, I waited nearly a year to talk to the person, I have NO confidence I'd get this service up and running [from day one in a new job]” 

Leonard Cheshire DWP Green Paper survey respondent 

Improvements to Access to Work should go further than just addressing long waiting times and low awareness and place a greater importance on being readily adaptable to the nature of support available to young disabled people at work. The feedback Leonard Cheshire has received from the disabled people we work with is that the advice they receive from Access to Work advisers is often out of date and does not always promote apps and easily accessible technology on mainstream devices. This can mean delays to accessing readily available support or that disabled people are advised to purchase Assistive Technology that is not compatible with their employer’s IT system. Advisers should be able to draw on up-to-date information on the growing importance of Assistive Technology in removing barriers to work and helping disabled people stay in work. 

Disability Employment Advisors

The substantial increase in the number of Disability Employment Advisers able to support disabled jobseekers in looking for work, with full-time equivalent numbers rising by two thirds over the last two years, has been a clear positive for young disabled people engaging with the DWP.[13] With sufficient training and resources, advisers are able to assist disabled people in finding and securing good-quality accessible employment with opportunities for training and upskilling alongside it. Advisers also play a vital role in supporting Work Coaches, who will not always have as strong awareness and training around disability.

This role will become all the more important due to the proposed changes in the DWP’s  ‘Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper’ and the ongoing consultation ‘Work Capability Assessment: activities and descriptors’ which will open thousands more disabled people to conditionality and the associated threat of sanctions, affording far greater discretion than currently to Work Coaches. This is deeply worrying given than the DWP’s own research has found that only one in five disabled people felt the activities in their claimant commitment took their circumstances into account, while one in 10 people with a long-term health condition reported that they did not remember agreeing a claimant commitment at all.[14]

“[As an example], if a business doesn’t care about its employees, I mean why would you even employ them, because they’re not going to do their job and they’re not going to be happy. If you ask someone with a brutal question, chances are that person’s not going to like you or do what you ask. If you’re kind and respectful people will like and appreciate that. But I do feel that the DWP are tough from a starting position. You need to change the whole ethics system around it, so they're treating people with genuine human kindness, basically investing in their future.”

Young disabled person who has claimed Universal Credit

While Leonard Cheshire recognises the long-standing issues with the Work Capability Assessment, we are deeply concerned that some of these proposed changes will prevent many disabled people from receiving the benefits they should be entitled to, risk deepening the distrust many feel towards the DWP and have the potential to cause serious harm if sanctions are inappropriately applied to young disabled people. The role of Disability Employment Advisers becomes all the more important in this context, particularly for young disabled people who may be disclosing a disability for the feel time and feel anxious and distressed about doing so.

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?

Young disabled people may seek out employment support schemes through a range of different channels, and as such it is important to ensure that all routes to support are open. Early on in their career many young disabled people may not know where to first turn to for advice, meaning that it is important for greater joint working between government departments at a strategic national level and for services to foster closer links and local levels.

First and foremost, joint working should occur between the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education to help young disabled people at the transition point between education and employment. We recommend the introduction of a ‘no wrong door’ approach, with collaboration from both departments to create a joined-up offer for young people. This could enable Work Coaches at JobCentre Plus to advise on skills programmes like Supported Internships and Apprenticeships, and colleges to promote employment programmes. A possible site to pilot such a joined up approach could be through the 110 Youth Hubs currently helping young jobseekers access local training and job opportunities, as well as a range of services to address wellbeing needs.[15]

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?

The Government’s flagship programme to encourage employers to employ disabled people, Disability Confident, is not making a meaningful contribution to improving recruitment and employment practices or supporting young disabled people to find and remain in work. Latest figures show that there are over 20,000 Disability Confident employers, but less than 1% are Disability Confident Leaders (level 3), a status which can be reached without an organisation having to employ a single disabled person.[16] This is particularly concerning given that Leonard Cheshire research carried out in 2021 found that only 21% of employers said their organisation has recruited a disabled person in their workforce in the past 18 months.[17]

This November marks the 7th anniversary of Disability Confident and bar announcements of the increasing number of employers signed up, there has not been any public reviews of the scheme. We believe that such a review needs to take place to ensure that the scheme is fit for purpose and achieving its stated aims. Ultimately this review should centre and be informed by the experiences of disabled people, but there are some clear necessary steps to be taken to improve the scheme:

-          A review of the criteria for the different levels and strengthening expectations on employers. 

-          New metrics based on the experiences of disabled employees.  

-          A new emphasis on progression through the programme.  Employers on Level One should have their accreditation removed if they have not moved to Levels Two or Three within three years.   

-          Setting requirements for employers on minimum thresholds for the proportion of workforce that is disabled

-          Creating more detailed advice for employers on topics such as tackling negative attitudes at work, supporting line managers to have effective conversations with disabled staff and making it comfortable for disabled people to be open about their disability at work

Disability Confident alone will not tackle the persistent disability employment gap, which is largest for young disabled people. Leonard Cheshire has consistently recommended that the Government develop a tailored employment support scheme aimed at young disabled people. There is significant evidence that personalised, specialist employment support for disabled people is more effective at moving disabled people into work than mainstream programmes. Though the Kickstart scheme which ran from September 2020 to March 2022 was available to disabled people, it had no scope for tailored disability focused support nor any mechanism to monitor whether disabled people participated.[18] In total 305,000 job placements were approved, but as the scheme drew to a close only 162,000 young people had started a Kickstart job, leading to a significant underspend.[19]

Learning from what worked well during the Kickstart scheme, we believe that a successor should be developed that delivers personalised support to young disabled people. Such a scheme should be specifically tailored to all disabled young people out of work, not just on Universal Credit and operate as an entirely voluntary offer. This scheme should include mechanisms to allow for real time monitoring of uptake by disabled young people and evaluation to ensure meaningful skills, training and job outcomes for disabled young people are being delivered.

Training opportunities should be developed to include digital skills as well as wrap-around support, such as health and wellbeing support. We estimate that there are as many as 70,000 young disabled people who could be eligible to take up this employment support offer whose salaries in any job created through the scheme should be paid by a Government grant.[20] Based on a six months subsidy covering 36 hours per week at the Living Wage, such a targeted scheme would therefore cost a maximum of £650 million.  

An example of positive tailored support that addresses barriers like inaccessible graduate recruitment processes, employer assumptions and a lack of understanding and aims to change the employment landscape for young disabled people is the Change 100 programme run by Leonard Cheshire. Change 100 has run since 2013 as a professional development programme connecting hundreds disabled students and graduates with some of the UK’s best-known employers, through paid summer internships. Support is provided from beginning to end for both the disabled person and the employer from running an inclusive application process, working to identify adjustments candidates may need when in the workplace and delivering disability equality training to all employer partners.