Scope – Written evidence (YDP0061)

Inquiry into the transition from education and employment for young disabled people

About Scope

We’re Scope, the disability equality charity. We won’t stop until we achieve a society where all disabled people enjoy equality and fairness. At home. At school. At work. In our communities.

We’re a strong community of disabled and non-disabled people. We provide practical and emotional information and support when it’s needed most. We use our collective power to change attitudes and end injustice. 

We campaign relentlessly to create a fairer society. And we won’t stop until we achieve a society where all disabled people enjoy equality and fairness.

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?

Young disabled people face several barriers when entering the job market. The first is negative attitudes towards disabled people. Scope has found that 34% of working aged disabled people (of all ages) had experienced discrimination from either their line manager or a colleague at work[1]. As a result, 90% of those who experienced discrimination said it contributed to their decision to leave work[2].

Unsurprisingly, discrimination had a hugely negative impact on disabled workers. Nine out of ten disabled people who experienced negative attitudes and behaviours told us that these attitudes had a personal impact on their confidence and feelings of self-worth (attitudes research)[3].

Indeed, this is likely to have a particularly significant impact on young disabled people’s confidence in finding and staying in work. Academic studies have found that discrimination in the workplace towards disabled young people can have a significant impact on their experience in work, including pay discrimination, a lack of support at work and making them more likely to fall out of work[4].

If we are to make it easier for young disabled people to find, stay and progress in work, changing the attitudes and levels of understanding amongst employers is critical. And there is a long way to go - 54% of employers in our survey said that concerns over a disabled employee’s ability to do a job as well as non-disabled employee would potentially stop them employing someone with a disability[5].

One way of overcoming negative attitudes at work is through running an awareness campaign aimed at educating employers about how to be more inclusive towards their disabled staff. In particular, the campaign should be focused on teaching employers about situations where they may inadvertently discriminate against disabled people, and how they can avoid doing so in the future. 53% of employers told us that they were worried their line managers would not be able to understand the challenges faced by disabled people, and 45% were worried about an increased fear of litigation if they hired a disabled person[6]. This demonstrates how important it is that employers are better equipped to tackle discrimination in the workplace.  This campaign should be separate to the #askdon’tassume campaign that was recently launched by the government, and should be co-produced with disabled people.

Employers also acknowledge that greater awareness of, and information about, disability would help them. 53% told us that they worried that line managers in their organisation would not understand the challenges faced by disabled staff[7].

Recommendation: The government should create an awareness campaign aimed at employers on how they can improve attitudes towards disabled people in their workplaces

Alongside this, the government also needs to create more detailed advice for employers on how they can become more inclusive places to work for disabled people.

The Support with Employee Health and Disability Service, which aims to provide employers with advice on how to support disabled employees, contains some useful content but there are gaps in support, particularly on areas such as:

• Tackling negative attitudes within workplaces
• Supporting line managers to have effective conversations with their disabled reports
• Making it comfortable for disabled people to be open about their disability at work

As mentioned above, employers are aware that managers need help in supporting their disabled reports. Providing more detailed advice on the above topics will help employers be more confident in doing so.   

Recommendation: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) should create 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.

Young disabled people in work also struggle to access reasonable adjustments. Half of disabled people who have fallen out of work (of all ages) told us that they did not have all of the reasonable adjustments that they needed to do their job[8].

Some of the issues faced by disabled people when trying to secure an adjustment include:

• Delays: Disabled people often have to wait up to 4 months before an adjustment is implemented. This “made the first few months a struggle and contributed to a sense of inequality”[9].
• Ignorance of the importance of adjustments: 65% of employers agreed that the costs of having to pay for an adjustment was a potential barrier to employing a disabled person[10].
• Employers rejecting an adjustment request: A fifth of disabled people told us that they did not request an adjustment because they were worried it would be turned down[11].

To give young disabled people more confidence that an employer would give them the adjustments they would like, we think that the Government should increase its funding for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

The EHRC, as the body responsible for “enforcing equality legislation” and “eliminating disability discrimination” are best placed to provide more information, guidance and support to employers regarding their duty to provide reasonable adjustments to disabled staff[12]. 49% of employers told us that useful guidance from an external organisation would help them provide better reasonable adjustments to disabled staff[13].

28% of young people do not know their rights at works[14]. But just 5% of disabled people have told us that they spoke to an independent expert about the discrimination they faced at work[15]. 62% of disabled people said they would have liked to have spoken to an independent expert for advice on their discrimination claim before they left their job[16]. So we also call for the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) to receive more funding to help provide this advice for disabled people facing a discrimination claim. 

Recommendations:

• The Government should increase funding given to the Equality and Human Rights Commission to assist them in enforcing and protecting disabled workers rights.
• The Government should increase funding for the Equality, Advisory and Support Service (EASS) to help them achieve their aim of providing advice for disabled people with discrimination cases.

Another barrier faced by young people is a lack of tailored careers advice or work experience. For example, 43% of young people with an autism diagnosis said that the careers advisor who supported them did not understand them or their needs[17]. Others felt their advisors were not ambitious enough about what they could achieve, instead encouraging them to apply for low-skill or poorly paid roles[18].

Scope’s Careers Pathways service – which provides independent careers advice for disabled people aged between 16 and 25 – also regularly hears from disabled young people and their families about the lack of specialist careers guidance available to disabled students. One parent told Scope that there is “definitely a disparity (in careers guidance) depending on the local offer and how comprehensive or otherwise it is”[19]. SEND students are often “pointed towards lower paid jobs with less ambition” and given little help with deciding what to do once they leave school[20]. Another parent told Scope that “disabled students are not getting advice on suitable options that are available to them due to staff not being trained up in these areas”[21]. 

Similarly, a survey of deaf young people found that only 50% have had any work experience[22].

Quality careers advice and work experience are vital to help young disabled people take the first steps on the road to a successful career[23].  So it is important that the government looks at how to increase young disabled people’s access to both.

Recommendations:

• The Government should create a specialist division within the National Careers Service to enable disabled young people to receive tailored online advice and information.
• Young people with SEND should be prioritised for work experience placements. The national standards should place clear responsibilities on schools and colleges to secure accessible placements.

Supported internships can be a successful route to building up the skills of participants and getting young disabled people into employment[24].  The Department for Education has committed to ensuring 4,500 young disabled people are taking part in a supported internship programme by 2025[25]. It has also invested £3 million to pilot an expansion of supported internships to young disabled people who do not have an education, health and care plan[26]. This is laudable. But research suggests that not all young disabled people are benefitting from them. Just a quarter of students who take part in a supported internship found employment in the year following completion[27].

In the SEND improvement plan, the government announced that it will fund local authorities to access a supported employment forum and “strengthen the quality of their supported internship offers to improve the transition into sustained, paid employment”[28]. This is welcome, but it is not obvious if this fund can be used to support disabled young people if their supported internship does not lead to employment.

The government should confirm whether the grant funding can be used by local authorities to support young disabled people to progress from a supported internship into permanent employment.

Recommendation: Government to confirm if the £10.8 million grant funding announced in the SEND improvement plan will be used to support disabled young people to find work if their supported internship programme has not led to pad employment 

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?

In our retention report, we identified a number of issues with the Access to Work scheme that prevent it from meeting the needs of disabled young people:

• Low awareness of the scheme: 40% of disabled people had never heard of Access to Work[29].
• Delays in being assessed and/or receiving equipment: 35% of disabled people had experienced a long wait for an assessment[30].
• Cap in the costs for adjustments: Just over a quarter of disabled people reported that their support needs would cost more than the current cap on support[31].
• The employer not agreeing with a recommendation made by an Access to Work assessor: 25% of disabled people said that their employer had not implemented the recommended support made by an Access to Work assessor[32].

To improve the scheme and ensure it better works for young disabled people, we think that the DWP should prioritise the following reforms to the Access to Work scheme:

Firstly, allocate funding to promote the scheme based on the avenues identified in a recent review of an Access to Work awareness campaign.

Second, set clear and achievable standards of service for Access to Work by creating a set of minimum criteria that customers would expect to receive from DWP and employers throughout their Access to Work journey.  This would help manage delays to the scheme and issues with the assessment process.

Third, the DWP should publish the number of advisers it employs to process and support Access to Work applications. In 2014, the DWP announced it employs 128 advisers[33]. Yet since then Access to Work numbers have increased by 13,430[34]. The DWP should reassure disabled people that there are enough advisers to support and process applications.

Fourth, review the training given to Access to Work assessors and advisers. Participants in Scope’s Our Lives Our Journey study reported mixed experiences of being supported by Access to Work staff[35]. Some participants were critical of how they were simply recommended “one size fits all” solutions. While others had a very positive experience, for example one advisor proactively researched different quotes for equipment, rather than making the disabled worker do it all. This approach often “led to a successful start in a new job”[36]. It is important that all disabled customers have the same, high-quality level of support from advisers and assessors. The DWP should review the training given to assessors and advisers so this is achieved.

Fifth, ensure that every user of the Access to Work scheme is made aware of the new health adjustments passport. We welcomed the roll out of the passport – disabled people have told us of the challenges in transferring their Access to Work award into a new job. But we would like to see the passport better promoted. For example, it is not mentioned on any of the main Access to Work information pages on gov.uk[37].

We also have some concerns over how well the support given to a disabled young person in education can be transferred over into employment using the passport. So we would like to see the trial of the passport in universities published and learnings shared with employers and education settings so the transition can be as seamless as possible.

As part of the trial of the new Access to Work enhanced package, the DWP should include users of the scheme whose support costs exceed the current cap on grants.  There are a number of Access to Work users who do not think the scheme adequately covers all of their support needs. Our survey found that the second biggest issue disabled people faced with Access to Work was the cap on the amount an individual can claim through the scheme[38]. The recently announced package can help plug that gap in support.

Recommendation:

The DWP should reform the Access to Work scheme by:

• Allocating funding to promote the scheme, based on the avenues identified in its recent review.
• Setting clear and achievable standards of service for Access to Work
• Publishing the number of advisers they employ to process and support Access to Work applications
• Reviewing the training provided to Access to Work assessors and advisers 
• Ensure that every user of the Access to Work scheme is made aware of the new Health Adjustments Passport
• Publish the review into the trial of the health adjustments passport that took place in universities.
• As part of the trial of the new Access to Work enhanced package, the DWP should include users of the scheme whose support costs exceed the current cap on grants

September 2023