Written evidence from Pecan (DEG0112)
Pecan https://www.pecan.org.uk, based in Peckham for thirty years, is a charity dedicated to bringing hope to individuals and the wider community. PECAN aims to help people who face seemingly impossible barriers to find a way through, re-write their futures and flourish. With the right support people can unlock their true potential.
Pecan runs several projects including those with a focus on supporting people into work. These include:
Journey 2 Work – Programme information up to date and stated on Pecan’s website
The Journey 2 Work Programme is part-funded by the European Social Fund and DWP and provides wrap-around support for unemployed people over 40 in Lewisham, Lambeth and Southwark.
The goal of the programme is to help each participant increase their skills and find and keep work. Just as every person is unique, so will be their path to employment. Therefore, everyone we work with will meet with their caseworker on a one-to-one basis with the additional option to attend workshops. Together with a caseworker, a plan will be tailored to overcome obstacles to finding and sustaining long-term employment.
The length of support will vary according to the individual’s needs. A dedicated caseworker can help support with your job search including tackling barriers to employment, updating your CV and finding relevant training and the right job to suit your needs.
Pecan offers:
• Support so people can increase their skills and find and keep work;
• A case worker who will work with individuals one-to-one;
• Flexible length of support;
• Employability skills update;
• CV help;
• Partnership with other organisations;
• Help coping with benefit changes;
• Support around any other barriers including:
Caring responsibilities, physical or mental health difficulties, drug or alcohol dependency, domestic and violent abuse, ex-offenders, language barriers, homelessness, clients with no recourse to public funds, low or no qualifications, lack of access to modern technology (most things, including Universal credit and benefits, job applications are all online) creating a huge barrier in particular to older clients looking for work.
Family Works - Programme information up to date and stated on Pecan’s website
The Family Works Program is part-funded by the European Social Fund and provides wrap-around support for unemployed families in Lewisham, Lambeth and Southwark.
The goal of the programme is to help each participant increase their skills and find and keep work. Just as every family is unique, so will be their path to employment. Therefore, each family we work with is assigned a caseworker who will meet them on a one-to-one basis. Together, the family and caseworker will partner with local community organisations such as schools, social services and Job Centre Plus, to tailor a plan that helps them overcome their obstacles toward long-term employment.
The length of support will vary according to the individual’s needs addressing the barriers they and their families face in finding, securing and sustaining employment.
National Careers Service - Programme information up to date and stated on Pecans website
Pecan is a National Careers Service provider. The National Careers Services offers careers and skills advice to fit individual needs. The service is free to every adult in England and throughout the country and have helped millions of people improve their working lives.
Pecan’s trained careers advisers are professionally qualified to give one-to-one guidance on training opportunities, CV development and interview skills as well as provide insight on the local job market. They can also help open a Lifelong Learning Account, which can be used to update skills.
As well as offering personalised employment support, Pecan’s National Careers Service also gives unemployed individuals the opportunity to receive free accredited training in a variety of fields. These qualifications strengthen the appeal of a CV and are specifically required in certain working positions.
The service is available to everyone who is unemployed; so, whether you're looking for a job, wanting a change in career or interested in adding to your qualifications, we can help.
Barriers to Employment for those with Disability
Pecan accepts the definition of disability as defined in Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People (PMSU, 2005) as:
...disadvantage experienced by an individual resulting from
barriers to independent living, or educational, employment or
other opportunities that impact on people with impairments and/or
ill health.
(PMSU, 2005, p.8)
Jaime Amindji, Project Lead Family Works and Journey to Work and Theresa Tsui, Employment Support, Deputy Manager on behalf of PECAN have flagged some key issues that in their first hand experience create barriers to employment for those with disability.
They acknowledge that many disabled people that come to PECAN experience barriers in entering and sustaining employment and need more help to stay in work or find a job.
Both are happy to be called in person to give evidence to the Work & Pensions Select Committee. Chris Price, CEO, is also happy to give evidence.
All say that barriers are exacerbated by:
1. Lack of personalised support and consistency and distance from the allocated key role of the Job Centre Work Coaches provided for people with disability.
2. Lack of administrative support from Job Centre Work Coaches. There have been cases, in PECAN’s experience, where documents have gone astray and the wrong details of those searching for employment have been inputted.
3. Undue pressure on those seeking employment to produce excessive documentation to prove status: This is based on experience on Pecan’s ESF projects Family Works and Journey to Work – to be eligible for one of the programmes, clients must provide proof of ID, proof of address etc. on occasions clients have been rejected due to DWP holding different information on their system to that provided to the client.
Two examples below:
• The client brings in a benefit letter showing their National Insurance Number, DWP state that its incorrect and they have a different number on their system, resulting in a delayed process of the client getting support and sometimes not being able to be accepted on the programme. The clients becomes frustrated at calling DWP and explaining this when all they need and require is help and support to help them find work.
• Another example was a client who provided all his evidence to join the programme and DWP rejected this stating client was deceased – client was not deceased and made several attempts to get his details updated which again resulted in a very long delay in getting him on the programme to be able to start his journey back to employment. The process to get someone onto these programmes appears to be a barrier, even though it is directed at supporting clients with addressing their barriers.
3. Lack of understanding of working with IT and not having access to internet or smart phones, no email address and no understanding of how to use email, this is seen in particular our older clients who can often have physical disabilities and not as mobile, and rely on basic phone usage.
4. Assessment processes working better for those with obvious/physical impairments than those with mental health and unseen impairments.
5. People with learning disabilities not provided with support from allocated Job Centre Work Coaches provided.
6. Lack of confidence in those coming to PECAN for advice, support and return to work.
7. Long term unemployment/lack of understanding of the workplace ethics and communication skills – this can be due to mental health disability.
8. Lack of basic education.
9. Declaring health issues, criminal record and other barriers to employers/agencies – most clients don’t know how to do this, or fear doing this and being rejected.
Recommendations:
1. A more personalised and effective approach from a single designated contact in the Job Centre for each person applying.
2. Part time work and additional support for people with mental health conditions as part of the pathway back to work.
3. A simpler application process for clients to register and be accepted onto Family Works/Journey to Work programme as it becomes a barrier in itself.
4. More support to be on offer to support those with no or lack of IT skills as everything around benefits/universal credit and job searching/applications has all moved to being online.
5. A more positive approach from job centre coaches, supporting more with signposting services to help address barriers, we hear from clients who feel they lack support from their work coach at the job centre and do not feel like they receive help when looking or applying for work.
6. More job opportunities to be made available and for those employers to have training in disabilities confidence.
7. Resources to better local IT training facilities or in house IT equipment
8. A grant for employers to take on someone with a disability. This way they can get them in and bring them up to speed at limited cost to the employer, making the recruitment a more positive option.
December 2020