Written evidence from Sense (DEG0065)

 

Sense welcomes the opportunity to contribute to this inquiry. 

Key points:

 

To what extent is the current range of proposed measures likely to achieve the Government’s ambition of closing the disability employment gap?

  1.                Current measures are not effective for people who are deafblind and those with complex needs.  There is evidence which suggest that the reduction of the unemployment rate does not happen evenly across a range of different impairment groups.  The rise in the number of working disabled people is largely due to a greater number of people with relatively moderate needs getting a job[1].  The majority of the current programmes are also targeted at this group of disabled people.

 

  1.                There isn’t clear evidence on a number of people with complex needs or deafblind people in work; however the greater degree of impairments lead to greater difficulties in getting a job[2]. It is especially true for people whose impairments mean that they need to use alternative ways of communication. 

 

  1.           The barriers deafblind people face when looking for a job include:

 

  1.                To halve the disability employment gap the government should ensure that the measures it puts in place benefit all disabled people no matter how complex their needs are.  To promote greater equality of opportunity among disabled people the government should encourage the development of new support models targeted at disabled people who are not benefiting from existing support.  Innovation fund could be used to pilot some of those models.

 

  1.                We welcome the fact that the government is committed to monitoring its progress towards closing disability employment gap. However we recommend that in doing this it also monitors changes in the employment rate for disabled people with different health conditions, including people with complex needs. 

 

How effective is the Disability Confident campaign in reducing barriers to employment and educating employers?

  1.                Although we welcome the fact that the government is taking steps to address the barriers on the demand side and work with employers to help them become disability confident, through Disability Confident Campaign and previously through the double tick scheme, those campaigns are not effective in changing the attitudes and providing high quality individualised advice to employers.

 

  1.                Deafblind people told us negative attitudes of employers are one of the main barriers preventing them from getting a job.  For people who use alternative ways of communication this barrier is the most significant. A significant number of deafblind people experience discrimination or feel they were not offered or lost a job because of their disability.  Even people who did not have this negative experience themselves see employers’ attitudes as the biggest barrier. 

 

  1.                Lack of awareness among the employers means that they are often not able to accommodate the needs of deafblind people during the recruitment process and can misinterpret the way they communicate and make wrong judgements about their ability. Deafblind people told us about employers raising health and safety concerns, worrying about the potential cost of support and being unaware of the technology and the support that exists. 

 

  1.                Changing employers’ attitudes and helping them to see a potential in employing disabled people, including people who are deafblind and those with complex needs should be a top priority.  Disability Confident campaign and Positive about Disability scheme are not effective enough to address the problem.  They require minimum commitment from employers, the compliance is not monitored and there is not a clear framework that employers could use to improve their practices.  There is a need for a much more comprehensive and robust disability accreditation scheme, which should have different levels of achievement and include commitments and steps employers need to take to move up.  It should provide employers with good quality guidance so that they value it and see it not as a marketing tool, but as a genuine opportunity to improve practice.  On the other hand it should also have a monitoring system, which would give disabled people confidence that employers who take part are genuinely interested in becoming more disability friendly. The scheme should identify and promote good practice.  It also should take into account a diversity of disabled people and have specific commitments targeted at specific groups of disabled people who are at a greater disadvantage.  This for example could include people with more complex needs.

 

  1.           There is also a need to promote a message of ability and showcase what disabled people can do.  This should include people with complex needs and people who are deafblind.

 

 

What more could be done to support employers?

  1.           Deafblind people feel that employers’ awareness of Access to Work is very low. Access to work support is a life line for many deafblind people who need assistive technology to access information, interpreters to communicate or support with travel.  There should be a campaign to raise awareness about Access to Work among employers and disabled people.

 

  1.      There are other problems with Access to Work which could create difficulties for employers and disabled people and reinforce the notion that employing disabled people requires extra resources.  It can take a long time to agree Access to Work support package and get the support in place, which can delay the start date for some people or even put them at risk of losing their jobs.  Access to work process should be streamlined. Deafblind people who get Access to Work packages face increasing demands on evidence their support needs.  They often have to supply the same evidence every year and in spite of their conditions or jobs not changing, they are asked to prove the need for support again and again.  Many deafblind people have disputes about Access to Work packages which last for months, and some wait a long time for their packages to be renewed.  This means employers have to bare the risks and sometimes the costs of support.

 

  1.           Current advice provision for employers is fragmented.  Employers are often signposted to Jobcentre Plus; however deafblind people told us they experience very low expectations and poor advice from Jobcentre Plus.  Jobcentre Advisers are not always able to offer a good quality support in individual cases.  It is especially true in relation to people with rare conditions, such as deafblindness.  There needs to be easily accessible one stop shop advice provision, which would collect and develop resources on supporting people with different types of health conditions and disabilities, including people who are deafblind. It should be linked with a variety of specialists and disability organisations to signpost the employers to the most appropriate advice provision.

 

  1.           Access to Work could also play a more effective role in working with employers and helping them to understand how deafblind people could be supported and what employers could do. This could be done as part of Access to Work assessment process.  The assessment process at the moment does not give employers enough opportunity to raise their concerns and get help and advice with addressing them.  In order to offer good quality advice about meeting the needs of deafblind people Access to Work staff need to have good understanding of deafblindness.      

 

What should support for people with health conditions and disabilities in the proposed Work and Health programme look like?

  1.           In spite of the barriers they face the majority of deafblind people and those with complex needs do not get structural back to work support.  This is largely due to the strong link between back to work support and benefits, payment structures, ineffective referral processes and on some occasions wrong assumptions about people’s abilities and disabilities. 

 

  1.      The vast majority of deafblind people who claim unemployment benefits are placed in the support group of ESA.  Therefore they do not have to undertake work related activity.  Very few know that they can volunteer for back to work support.  And many are weary that this can have a negative impact on their benefits.

 

  1.           Those deafblind people who access back to work support find it unhelpful.  This is due to the lack of deafblind awareness among the professionals delivering this support.  Deafblind people’s support needs are not identified correctly and the interventions they get are often inappropriate.  Deafblind people, including people with very good qualifications and previous work experience are often faced with low expectations in terms of the kind of jobs they are advised to aim for. 

 

  1.           Deafblind people told us they need specialist support from someone who is able to assess their needs and identify the barriers they face. It should help to identify their strengths and the biggest enablers for each individual.  This requires good awareness of deafblindness and the impact it can have on person’s ability to communicate, access information or travel independently.  Some people, especially with acquired deafblindness need to be supported in developing new communication methods or learning how to use assistive technology or acquire mobility skills. 

 

  1.           Deafblind people are a diverse group, some can get a job on their own and progress well in their career, when others may benefit from more intensive and long term support, which could include vocational training, work trials, voluntary work or on work training.  Deafblind people often require assistive technology, support with communication or travel to take part in those programmes.  However this support is not available for people who arrange those programmes for themselves.  Those who take part in work trials and voluntary work as part of their back to work support programmes also struggle with getting the right levels of support.  The lack of funding for communication support is the biggest barrier preventing many deafblind people from accessing those opportunities or getting the most out of them.  The government therefore needs to consider committing extra resources to meet access related needs, such as  funding for communication support or help with travel for people who volunteer or attend educational courses to gain extra qualifications.

 

  1.           Lack of communication support and dual sensory loss can lead to a greater isolation and low levels of confidence.  Specialist support programmes should always include confidence building element, such as peer support, mentoring and general access to a wide range of opportunities to take part in community and increase social networks.  Low incidence of dual sensory loss also means that employers are unlikely to be deafblind aware, and therefore deafblind people need to be supported to confidently talk about their abilities and the support they need to do jobs well.

 

  1.           The New Work and Health programme should be voluntary, open to every disabled person who wants to get a job and give a greater choice and control to those people who take part.  In order to do this, the government should encourage a greater variety of support providers, including very specialist small schemes.  There also should be a greater transparency and clarity in terms of who the providers are and what support they can offer, so that disabled people could make informed choices.  All providers should be required to meet access needs of all the participants.

 

  1.           Although a job outcome should be the ultimate purpose and should attain the greatest award for providers, there should be a financial recognition for achieving interim outcomes for people who are far away from the labour market. 

 

  1.           In order to ensure that the specialist support programmes are only targeted at people who need it there has to be a robust referral process.  There also needs to be a better training and awareness among general Jobcentre Plus staff to ensure they have good understanding of deafblind people’s needs, abilities and barriers to offer the best quality of support and make appropriate referrals.  Improved disability awareness of Jobcentre advisers should also help to improve the quality of generalist support.   

 

  1.           Innovation fund should be used to pilot models of support for disabled people who face greater barriers to employment including people who are deafblind and those with complex needs.

 

What are the likely impacts on disability employment of the abolition of the Employment and Support Allowance Work Related Activity component?

 

  1.           Although the majority of deafblind people are in the support group of ESA and will not be directly affected, however the policy is likely to cause great anxiety and prevent many people from taking up jobs or participating in employment support programmes.  Deafblind people told us they often have to spend money when looking for work, this includes paying for transport and communication support to go to interviews, attend training courses or get work experience.  These costs cannot always be compensated by DLA/PIP alone.  Therefore as a result of the cut to ESA WRAG component, deafblind people who are placed in the Work Related Activity Group will not the extra money to spend on job searching. 

 

About Sense

 

 

Sense is a national charity that supports and campaigns for children and adults who are deafblind.  We provide tailored support, advice and information as well as specialist services to all deafblind people, their families, carers and the professionals who work with them. In addition, we support people who have a single sensory impairment with additional needs. For more information see: www.sense.org.uk

About deafblindness

Deafblindness is a combination of both sight and hearing difficulties. Most of what we learn about the world comes through our ears and eyes, so deafblind people can often face problems with communication, access to information and mobility. People can be born deafblind, or become deafblind through illness, accident or in older age. There are an estimated 356,000 deafblind people in the UK.

May 2016

 

 

 

 

[1] DWP, Fulfilling Potential Building a deeper understanding of disability in the UK today available at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/320509/building-understanding-main-report.pdf

[2] People who reported 5 or more impairments were at least 61% less likely to get a job compared to non-disabled people. (Berthoud R 2012 unpublished).