EMPLOYMENT SUPPORT FOR ADULTS
Dr Stephen Beyer Welsh Centre for Learning Disabilities School of Medicine Cardiff University
The UN Convention on Rights of Disabled People • Article 24 – Education, 5: States Parties shall ensure that persons with
disabilities are able to access …..vocational training…..without discrimination and on an equal basis with others. To this end, States Parties shall ensure that reasonable accommodation is provided…. • Article 27 - Work and employment, 1d: Enable persons with disabilities
to have effective access to general technical and vocational guidance programmes, placement services and vocational and continuing training • 1e: Promote employment opportunities..…as well as assistance in
finding, obtaining, maintaining and returning to employment; • Preamble j: Recognizing the need to promote and protect the human
rights of all persons with disabilities, including those who require more intensive support The UK signed the Convention on 30 March 2007 and ratified it on 8 June 2009
Aspirations for employment in Wales • Learning Disability Strategy • Prior to retirement age, people with a learning disability should have equal access to government or other training schemes and other educational or lifelong learning opportunities where such schemes could help their personal development or career prospects and, in particular, help them secure employment. • ASD Strategy • Given the range of difficulties and abilities across the Autistic Spectrum, there needs to be a range of opportunities to provide access to lifelong learning, vocational work and sheltered and supported employment.
Aspirations for employment in Wales • Skills Policy • We will seek to:…focus our interventions on a work first principle so that, where possible, individuals have access to work experience and job placement schemes, building on the success of Jobs Growth Wales, and ensuring such support does not overlap with those programmes offered by the UK Government. • ….ensure our Skills Gateway provides learning and skills information to all individuals via a single point of access, working with the voluntary sector and other specialist organisations to ensure that individuals with, for example, disabilities or special educational needs, are supported in accessing employment opportunities
Barriers faced by people with LD • Majority of people will have problems with: • speech and language • memory • cognitive processing • More people with severe intellectual disabilities
are are likely to experience additional: • sensory and physical impairments • poor vision • measurable hearing loss • epilepsy
Barriers faced by people with LD • Reduced ability to understand verbal instruction
and to provide information • Cue dependency creates difficulty transferring tasks learned here (training) to there (job) • A person may be unable to do a well known task in there are changes in: • • • • •
task sequence work machinery work materials a co-worker role workplace environment
• All this weakens the relevance of pre-training
What works for people with a intellectual disability learning jobs? Severe ID
Mild ID
Moderate ID
• Job coach task support on-site • Training on the job-
Systematic Instruction • Breaking tasks into steps • “Chaining” tasks together • Hierarchy of cues • Physical guidance • Gestures • Verbal prompts
• Job adaptation if needed • Managing praise and reinforcement
more closely • Specific social training strategies • Work-based accreditation of skills demonstrated is possible
• Pre-employment training is possible
using: • verbal instruction & demonstration • Simple language • Greater time to learn
• Use of naturally occurring praise and
re-inforcement through: • Supervisors, co-workers • Ordinary pay incentives
• May have to manage work pressure/
productivity demands • Shaping social contact through coworkers • Vocational qualifications for job and career development are possible
Supported Employment Place
Profiling Job finding Job Analysis Job Match Placement Plan Task Analysis Train Task Training Problem Solving Natural support Monitoring Maintain Accountability Career Development
Barriers faced by people with ASD • Difficulty searching for a job • Difficulty with recruitment processes • Social barriers • Cognitive barriers • Sensory barriers • Workplace stress and anxiety • Transport problems
What works with ASD? • Considering employment
• • •
•
options and how these can be supported by the curriculum from Year 9 onwards Ensure key skills are taught Provide access to supported work experience placements Raising awareness of the valuable skills and abilities that young people with ASD may bring to a workplace Finding the most suitable jobs for young people with ASDpeople may need a lot of help to do this
• Making reasonable adjustments • • • •
to the recruitment process Making reasonable adjustments in the workplace Disclosure of ASD to employers Travel training and support with travel Ensuring on-going and appropriate job coach employment support is available to those who want it
Poor employment outcomes for LD % People with Learning Disability in Employment“Known to” English local authorities 2013 35
30
25
20
15
10
7.1%
5
0
• Scotland Mean=12.0%; Wales=unknown • Only 1900 (2.7%) of people in Work-Based Learning in 2012/13 were “Disabled (affecting learning)”
Poor employment outcomes for people with ASD • Just 15% of adults with autism were in full time employment,
9% were in part time employment and 66% were not working at all (including voluntary work) • 26% of graduates with autism are unemployed and over 60% of all people with ASD are financially reliant on their families1 • 37% of adults with autism have never been in paid employment and 41% of people over the age of 55 had spent more than 10 years without work. 2 • More recent research3 suggests that: • Numbers of people with ASD from Wales in work are lower than 15% • Only half of Work Based Learning providers work with people with ASD
and mainstream and WBL providers were far from confident in provision • Just 30 young people with ASD completed a WBL programme in Wales for the year 2011/12 and numbers for 2012/13 were similar. 1: Rosenblatt, 2008 ; 2: Bancroft et al. 2012; 3 Townsley et al. 2014
Higher level of competition, especially for youth and low skilled people : Impact of economic recovery by characteristics of workers (OECD, 2012)
Welsh Assembly concerns • ELLS Committee Review of Additional learning Needs 2007 • Supported employment should be made available at school and college, and funding is needed to ensure services that are often core funded through local authorities to work with adults can work with young people (Rec 43). • This will entail provision of core costs where voluntary sector agencies are required to provide this service, often where none existed before. (Rec 44) • Training providers funded through WAG also need to raise their game in terms of providing appropriate support for young people with LDD requiring work-based training (Rec 31)
Welsh Assembly concerns • WAG should ensure: • That the new contract round for training providers highlights the need to serve young people with LDD not at college and to have support structures in place to train them effectively. • That an appropriate level of outcome related funding is in place for training providers to effectively support the relatively small number of young people with LDD to which this applies • That this additional support funding ensures a level playing field between college and training providers. (31). • Working with all relevant agencies, WAG should draw up an allWales Supported Employment Strategy with the aim of increasing the numbers of young people with disabilities and other additional needs in employment to the levels of best international practice (22). • Requires improving the joint working between central government programmes and local government employment efforts
Central government programmes • Work Choice programme • 8090 people with Mild to Severe Learning Disability started on programme
in 2012/13 in UK (16% all starts) • 29.8% obtained an job outcome • Total of 2220 referrals in 2012-13 in Wales (so possibly 355 starts; 103 outcomes) • ASD not distinguished “Adopting the ‘place then train’ approach of the supported employment model which includes work placements and work trials has operated successfully in some areas and was reported to be very beneficial.” 4
• WORK programme • 560 attachments in Wales who were disabled (physical/mental) in 2013/14 (42%) • 120 job outcomes achieved in Wales for people who were disabled in 2013/14 (17%)
• Access to Work • 1320 people with LD helped nationally 2012/13 (5.8% of cumulative helped) • ASD not distinguished
Conclusions • There remains a lack of individualised job coach support in Wales •
• •
•
from Welsh Government or Central government sources This continues to undermine efforts to meet UN Convention on Rights of Disabled People goals in employment and work-based training for people with learning disabilities and people with ASD in Wales Work-based training providers are looking to develop expertise and need input on ASD and individualised support A question remains on whether Additional Learning Support Allowances, and employment programme premiums are adequate to deliver the support needed by people with ASD & LD Calls for a Welsh national strategy to deliver individualised support to training organisations and adults needing employment support have not been responded to as yet
References • Bancroft, K., Batten, A., Lambert, S and Madders, T. (2012) The Way We Are: Autism in 2012.
London: National Autistic Society. http://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/50th-birthday/survey-report.aspx • DWP (2013) Access to Work: Official Statistics Oct 2013. London, Department of Work and Pensions (Disability Analysis Division). • DWP (2013) Work Choice: Official Statistics, May 2013. London, Department of Work and Pensions (Disability Analysis Division). • DWP (2014) Work Programme: Official Statistics Dec 2013. London, Department of Work and Pensions (Disability Analysis Division). • Rosenblatt, M. (2008) I Exist: The message from adults with autism in England. London: National Autistic Society. • Townsley R, Robinson C, Williams V, Beyer S and Christian-Jones, C. (2014) Research into Employment Outcomes for Young People with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. Cardiff Welsh Government. http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/20174/1/140602-research-employment-outcomes-young-people-autism-en.pdf