Youth Employment Group – Written evidence (YDP0050)

Response from the Youth Employment Group to the Lord’s Public Services Committee’s inquiry into the transition from education to employment for disabled young people

1.             About the Youth Employment Group.

1.1.            The YEG Disability Sub-group exists to ensure disabled young people[1] fully benefit from government training and employment programmes, and secure jobs. Our members consist of charities, local authorities, employers and experts working across the youth employment sector, in partnership with the Westminster Foundation. We are part of the wider Youth Employment Group [2], which advocates for full and inclusive employment for young people. This document has been put together from within the subgroup and its messages do not necessarily reflect the views of the YEG secretariat or the wider YEG membership.
 

1.2.            If you would like to discuss this response in more detail with our organisations please get in touch with the group’s co-chair.
 

1.3.            This response is supported by the following organisations:

• British Association of Supported Employment
• Disability Rights UK
• Divine Days Community Interest Company – The Legacy Project Supported Internships
• Institute for Employment Studies
• National Deaf Children’s Society
• Shaw Trust
• The University of Huddersfield (School of Education and Professional Development) (MINE) ‘Mapping Interventions for young people at risk of becoming NEET in England’ project

2. The support available for young disabled people and how effectively education systems provide careers advice, guidance and support to meet the needs and career aspirations of young disabled people.

2.1.            There is a lack of tailored careers information in schools and colleges specific to disability[3]. This includes young people meeting or being provided case studies of disabled people in different careers, information about the Access to Work scheme and learning about examples of reasonable adjustments specific to their disability. Without tailored careers programmes disabled young people are making uninformed decisions about their futures and are poorly prepared for the transition to work. A lack of familiarity with terminology about disability related support and issues is a key part of the problem disabled young people and their parents have in accessing support and information. Additionally, we have observed a general shortage of ambition within the system. There should be a presumption of employment for all young people with SEND embedded into the education system.

2.2.            The Careers and Enterprise Company has a suite of SEND resources, provide some training to Careers Leaders and linked Enterprise Advisors with special schools. However, this is not proving sufficient to ensure that disabled young people in mainstream schools and colleges are receiving tailored support.

2.3.            There us a lack of accountability or data on tailored careers provision. The Department for Education sets out within its guidance for schools and colleges[4] what they expect to be in place for young people with SEND. However, there is no explicit legal duty to tailor careers programmes for disabled students. There is no data collected about how well mainstream schools and colleges are meeting the needs of disabled students.

2.4.            The transition from children to adults’ services can be a challenging time and young disabled people frequently face additional challenges including lack of physical access, lack of personal support and difficulties with transport. There is a legal duty for transition planning for young people with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) from Year 9 onwards. However, the majority of young people with SEND do not have an EHCP and may therefore miss out on any transition planning. Even for those with EHCPs, there is little accountability on the quality of transition planning that takes place, and this is reported to be variable[5].

2.5.            Young people and their families need to feel confident in giving employment a try and the welfare system makes this really challenging. This is because benefits are often connected to total family income. There used to be a 52- week linking rule that protected individuals and families entering the labour market. If an individual entered employment and for any reason were unable to continue during the first 52 weeks, they could go back onto benefits at the same rate they came off, with no additional reviews or paperwork. The removal of these linking rules, significantly impacts on the confidence of individuals and families to even consider employment.

2.6.            Work experience is important in making a successful transition to employment. However, disabled young people can face barriers in finding accessible placements. With the introduction of T-levels, there is greater demand on employers to provide work experience placements. The British Association of Supported Employment (BASE) is hearing from its members that it is becoming harder to find placements for disabled young people. Despite long-standing partnerships with employers some supported employment organisations are being told places must be reserved for T-level students.

2.7.            We believe there needs more join up between providers of employment support and education providers so that vulnerable young people don’t fall through the gap. Established relationships between employment support providers and FE colleges could help ensure young people are aware of support available in their area after finishing education. Resources and expertise could be shared across the divide so that young people experience a smoother transition.

2.8.            We welcome the DWP’s plans to introduce Access to Work passports for young people. However, these are templates that are heavily dependent on the disabled young people completing them being already well informed to be able to list the reasonable adjustments they need at work. Consideration needs to be given to which professionals young people could reach out to for support to complete their passports. There are also concerns regarding how easily the support packages disabled young people receive in education will transfer over into employment using a passport. For example, some disabled young people will use a certain type of screen reader software in education which may not be the best model to use in work. There is a need to ensure the market is sufficiently prepared to provide the support needed by young people. For example, we have received reports that it is not possible to access job coaches in every area. This means expectations set out in the passport around support needed may not be met.

3. The accessibility of careers in public services to young disabled people when they are first entering the job market: the Committee will ask for examples of good and poor practice in recruitment.

3.1.            The government, NHS and public services remain some of the largest employers in the UK, yet the British Association of Supported Employers has found that they have some of the least accessible recruitment processes, often excluding young disabled people from entering the labour market. This can be processes such as banding evaluation systems, which require essential criteria to achieve a salary on offer but excludes young people who lack experience. Employers can understand how to make reasonable adjustments post appointment but lack understanding that the recruitment process itself often produces the greatest barriers.

3.2.            Supported Internships have demonstrated that providing young disabled people a yearlong study programme to demonstrate their competencies, rather than articulate them through a traditional interview process leads to better employment outcomes. Yet not all disabled people are eligible or need a yearlong internship. Employers should be better educated to understand how employment law requires them to make adjustments to the process itself, such as working interviews, work trials, and this work should be led by public sector employers. Supported employment services up and down the country are working with employers to review the total lifecycle of employees and take a ‘removal of barriers approach’ but this remains a postcode lottery.

4. 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?

4.1.            There is some evidence to suggest that the Disability Confident scheme has improved attitudes towards employing disabled people for employers who sign up[6].  However, our organisations have heard from employers that it does not provided the accountability or practical support they need to embed inclusive practices. The Disability Employment Charter[7] makes recommendations for changes that we believe should be adopted. We have found through focus groups that young people lack awareness of scheme so would not know to look out for Disability Confident employers.

4.2.            Access to Work is extremely valued when it works well. However, the scheme is too slow and inflexible to put in place support from day 1 for someone starting a new job. Scope recently found that delays in having an assessment and/or receiving equipment was the most common experience amongst users of the Access to Work scheme (35%)[8]. The Minister for Disabled People recently revealed that, on the 5th September, 21,780 applications were still outstanding[9]. 

The cap in costs for adjustments as the second most common experience with the Access to Work scheme according to disabled people who have fallen out of work (25%)[10].

5. How effectively are the rights of disabled people upheld and enforced in the workplace? What barriers do young disabled people face in accessing the support (including legal support) that they need and are entitled to? How could enforcement mechanisms be improved?

5.1.            We believe it is too difficult for many disabled people to take legal action and for young people it may be even more daunting. Costly advice from a solicitor may need to be sought to secure confidence on whether an employer had breached the Equality Act 2010.

5.2.            There is a lack of informal mediation support to explore options before legal action needs to be considered. There are cases that could be resolved through support for both parties to understand reasonable adjustments that could be considered.

5.3.            Many disabled young people lack awareness of their rights[11]. Rights for disabled people under the Equality Act are generally not covered through school curricula. This means they can be reliant on having knowledgeable parents to advocate for them. The National Deaf Children’s Society has observed that most of their employment queries are raised by parents.

5.4.            The culture of workplaces are a factor in whether disabled young people are comfortable in raising issues with their employers. Employers can create an environment where employees feel safe to talk about their disabilities and request reasonable adjustments[12]. For example, by proactively giving information about the support available and what adjustments they can make.

September 2023