Dr Stella Chatzitheochari, Reader in Sociology, and Dr Angharad Butler-Rees, University of Warwick (YDP0045)

1 Background

1.1 Dr Stella Chatzitheochari and Dr Angharad Butler-Rees are university researchers who have carried out extensive research on educational and occupational inequalities experienced by disabled young people in England.

1.2 The evidence submitted on this note is based on:

1) Secondary analysis of Next Steps, a cohort study following the lives of around 16,000 people born in 1989-1990 who were in Year 9 in 2004 at state or independent secondary schools in England.

2) A qualitative longitudinal study of 35 autistic, dyslexic, and physically disabled young people who were in Year 11 in mainstream settings in spring 2021. The study has thus far completed 2 waves of data collection with disabled young people, the first one prior to GCSE examinations (2021) and the second a year later (2022). The study has also included interviews with parents/guardian of disabled young people (2021). We note that this report includes some evidence from this study that have yet to be published.

3) Other published research in the field of disability.

2 Scope of the Inquiry

2.1 Certain groups of disabled young people are less likely to receive an EHC plan, e.g., those with later onset of disabling conditions/impairments where the process of seeking an EHC plan can take longer[1], and those with socioemotional and mental health difficulties[2]. We also know that gaining an EHC plan can be a postcode lottery with local authorities in more affluent regions being more forthcoming in issuing EHC plans than others[3]. Such inequalities will likely increase with the Government’s proposed reduction to new EHC plans by 20%[4], with disabled young people in local authorities with financial difficulties more likely to be affected. Young people from low-income backgrounds are also less likely to be successful in contesting local authority refusals[5]. Evidence from Next Steps suggests that those without SEN statements face challenges and lag behind non-disabled peers in occupational attainment[6]. It is therefore essential to capture the experiences of these groups, and better understand the barriers they face in their school-to-work transitions. 

2.2 Broadening the scope of inquiry to include those without EHC plans means that you will be dealing with a very heterogeneous group of disabled young people. However, we would argue that this inquiry offers an unprecedented opportunity to collect, scrutinise, and synthesize evidence surrounding different conditions and impairments, some of which have been neglected in the past. This is a particularly important task for policy purposes, considering that there may be different causal pathways through which different conditions and impairments are linked to social disadvantage in early adulthood.

3 Class and Disability Status

3.1 The intersection of disability status with other ascriptive characteristics is crucial for understanding the reproduction of disability inequalities. Our view is that the intersection of disability status with social class merits more attention in this inquiry. Our research shows that disabled young people from working class/low-income backgrounds are more likely to experience structural discrimination and stigmatisation in educational settings[7]. This is likely to have long-term effects, compromising educational attainment and contributing to the formation of internal barriers (e.g., compromising self-efficacy and educational/occupational expectations), which may in turn affect school-to-work transitions. We have also shown that disabled young people from working class backgrounds are more likely to be out of employment at age 25 and less likely to experience upward mobility[8]. It is important to better understand how socioeconomic disadvantage interacts with disability status to reproduce occupational disadvantage in adulthood. This is essential for formulating policies to support this particularly vulnerable group.

4 Workplace Barriers

4.1 Disabled young people face various barriers when leaving education and entering the job market. A large proportion is more likely to leave education with poor educational attainment[9]. and less likely to have work and volunteer experience[10]. Negative school experiences, including school bullying and discrimination that are common among this population[11], may also compromise self-efficacy and educational/occupational expectations. Several disabled young people are likely to experience mental health problems because of structural and attitudinal barriers, which may consequently affect capacity to work. They may also face other issues such as bias in hiring, lack of reasonable adjustments, inflexibility of work conditions (e.g., telework and work hours/schedules), and lessened opportunities for career progression.

4.2 In our qualitative longitudinal study, physically disabled young people faced substantially more barriers to employment post-16 due to lack of accessible entry level jobs. Autistic young people were more likely to report lack of career guidance[12] during their transitions.

4.3 Several disabled young people recounted instances of discrimination when applying for jobs, linked to disclosing their conditions/impairments. Autistic young people spoke of how they had been more successful in seeking work when they had not disclosed a disability, but as a result later encountered barriers and lack of accommodations upon starting the job.[13]

5 Barriers Accessing Public Services and their Effects on the Domain of Employment

5.1 A key barrier for the employment of physically disabled young people is transport. Inaccessible/insufficient public transport infrastructure meant that young people in our study were reliant on costly taxis that sometimes refused to take them on the basis of their mobility aids. Without access to financial resources e.g., disability benefits and grants like Access to Work, several young people are unable to access employment.

5.2 Receiving a medical diagnosis and having access to health care thereafter is also deemed as key, with young people without diagnoses being less likely to have EHC plans and to be successful when seeking appropriate workplace accommodations, including adjustments to job interviews.

6 Career Guidance in Educational Settings

6.1 There are several accounts of young people being provided with inappropriate career guidance in school settings[14], being told for example, that they would not be able to follow certain career paths due to their disability, leading to lowered self confidence and self-esteem. This relates to lack of appropriate training as well as ableism that remains pervasive in British society. There is a need for more specialist career guidance with young people being advised on the various ways in which career pathways could be more accessible to them.

6.2 Young people in our study frequently noted the lack of disabled role models. Greater awareness could be given to the different career trajectories disabled people enter/follow and how they have sought appropriate accommodations. In a similar vein, young people noted the value of having disabled teachers who were able to draw upon their direct experiences of encountering barriers and seeking workplace accommodations. These teachers were able to provide the young people with more tailored guidance drawing upon direct experience.

6.4 There was a general lack of awareness and guidance around supported apprenticeships among participants in our study – this avenue is particularly appealing to autistic young people.

7 Awareness of Different Schemes, Rights, and Opportunities

7.1 There was little awareness amongst 14–18-year-olds of the Access to Work scheme. Several young people only become aware of the schemes after entering full time employment.

7.2 Disability employment grants and support schemes were often sought out by parents. Without school and/or parental support, young people would likely not be aware of such schemes. It is important to note that this can further enhance inequalities between disabled young people from different socio-economic backgrounds, with some schools being more resourced in SEN support, providing young people with more specialist employment and transitions advice, while others are left without. Similarly, some parents will have greater knowledge, networks and/or cultural capital to draw upon in navigating employment grants and systems.

7.3 There appears to be a lack of clarity around who and at what stage, should advise young people and their parents around the employment support schemes available to them. Parents/guardians often note how it would be helpful to have a person/place to which young people and their families could turn to for support and guidance.

7.4 Supported apprenticeships were seen to be very much valued by young people. However, such schemes should be made more publicly available as opposed to simply being offered to young people attending specialist SEN settings at age 16-18. Young people who do not/are unable to access a specialist setting may be put at a disadvantage as a result. There also appears to be variation in the availability of supported apprenticeships/internships between local authorities, putting some young people at a disadvantage. Further, supported apprenticeships and internships are only open to young people aged 16-24 years old with an EHC (or former SEN statement)[15]. It is likely that such opportunities would also be greatly valued by young people with SEN but who do not have an EHC including e.g., those with socioemotional and mental health difficulties.

7.5 Young people in our study appeared to be very much aware of and frequently referred to organisations which had guaranteed interview schemes. This initiative appeared to provide young people with hope/reassurance that they would be treated fairly upon leaving school and seeking employment. However, it is unclear as to whether this leads to marked change in practice, or whether this simply leads to an increase in shortlisting of disabled candidates with little change in number of appointments[16]. Some young people felt that disclosing their disability had indeed made them more vulnerable to discrimination, with employers seeking other ways around which to not employ them. This was particularly seen to be the case amongst disabled young people with hidden disabilities e.g., autism and learning disabilities, who often spoke of being belittled and/or treated differently upon disclosing their disability.

26th September 2023