Mencap impact assessment report final 17ht

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Mencap Impact Assessment A report by Wavehill for Mencap

January 2011

An evaluation of the MENCAP (Wales) Cer Amdani Project

Table of contents Executive Summary...................................................................................................................... 4 1.

Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 6

1.1. Policy Context in Wales .................................................................................................................................. 7 1.2. Supported Employment in South Wales ........................................................................................................ 9

2.

Evaluation Method ............................................................................................................. 11

3.

Impact Evaluation Calculation ............................................................................................. 13

3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8

How many people have a Learning Disability in Wales? .............................................................................. 13 What percentage of people with Learning Disabilities are employed? ....................................................... 14 What proportion of people with Learning Disabilities are volunteering? ................................................... 15 What proportion of people with Learning Disabilities are in training or further education? ...................... 16 What is Cer Amdani Delivering in terms of outputs? ................................................................................... 16 What is the Impact of the Cer Amdani project?........................................................................................... 15 What is the cost of the Cer Amdani Project? ............................................................................................... 16 Summary ...................................................................................................................................................... 18

4.

Cer Amdani reviewed using qualitative data........................................................................ 19

5.

Cer Amdani from the Participants’ View .............................................................................. 20

6.

Cer Amdani from a Wider Stakeholders and Employment and Careers Professionals View ... 24

7.

Cer Amdani from the Employers’ View ................................................................................ 26

7.1 Summary ...................................................................................................................................................... 32

8.

Cer Amdani from the Parents’ View .................................................................................... 33

8.1 Summary ...................................................................................................................................................... 36

9.

Conclusions and Recommendations .................................................................................... 37

10. References and Resources .................................................................................................. 38

Thank You Approximately 100 people contributed to this report and we would like to acknowledge and thank them. Valuable contributions and highly informed interviews were given by the Cer Amdani team and officers from MENCAP, the young people working to find jobs and volunteer places, the employers who create these valuable jobs and volunteering places, their work colleagues, the parents of the project participants and finally the professionals working with Learning Disabilities helping with employment and careers advice. Also information was provided by several academics and experts who study disability, social care and employment statistics.

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Executive Summary “Service models such as supported employment which obtain jobs for people and then train them on site have been shown to be more effective than more traditional employment training for people with more severe learning disabilities and for those with complex or challenging needs.

Supported employment has been shown to extend the range of adults who are able to gain and retain a job and it therefore has a considerable role to play in meeting the objective in the 1994 Revised Guidance of helping most adults to obtain a real job.

Supported employment requires well-trained job finders and job coaches, and extra training may be required to support individuals with complex and challenging needs more effectively.”

Source; Welsh Assembly Government - Learning Disability Implementation Advisory Group Statement on Policy & Practice for Adults with a Learning Disability (2007).

The key success factors of the Cer Amdani project are based around the quality of the relationships formed between both the employers and the learning disabled clients and the amount of time spent with the participants.

The evidence of the trust and appreciation of the work done by the Cer Amdani workers is evident within the qualitative interviews undertaken with employers, parents, the participants and informed professionals identified as stakeholders within this report.

Furthermore and importantly, the Cer Amdani model can be replicated into any region or even local government authority area that may be interested in funding a similar project. The process of establishing links with local businesses and voluntary employers, working with clients, intensely at first and then slowly reducing the assistance and support, and finally just reviewing both the client and the employer from time to time to ensure stability is one that clearly works.

The outputs of such a system are clear; the background employment rate of people with learning disabilities in England is estimated to be around 6.4%, whereas the employment rate within the Cer Amdani project is at the time of writing around 26% about 400% higher. The economic benefits of employment are hardly recognised by the young people who find employment; their confidence, social skills, communication and pride amongst their peers are noted as the real benefits.

The Cer Amdani project has, or in fact will, cost around £940,000 to run over a three year period, and for the young people, and their families who have benefitted from the project the benefits have been huge, and in some cases, life changing. In the context of social care and employment projects this is a relatively low cost and high impact intervention with clearly and measurable outcomes and impacts.

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An evaluation of the MENCAP (Wales) Cer Amdani Project

One area of criticism is noted by the evaluator, which is that the Cer Amdani project seems to be running out of funding, and will most likely close in June 2011. In Wales and especially in the convergence area in West Wales the European Commission has funded a number of projects that support people into employment, especially disadvantaged groups, young people and those with a disadvantage due to disability. Although the Cer Amdani project has not attracted further funding, MENCAP Wales (Cymru) will continue to receive funding from services it is delivering as a subcontractor within the large (ÂŁ~50 million) COASTAL project and Special Educational Needs support within the South Wales region. It is also the case that several of the Cer Amdani staff have moved to, or are shortly moving to the COASTAL project, so much of their Cer Amdani work and also contacts will continue.

The project may have benefitted from a recognisable steering group or project board with the remit to plan for its sustainability or provide it with strategic direction, rather than operational direction.

The operational direction and management of the project is good and detailed, however, the strategic direction is lacking and the question has to be asked about where strategic direction for Wales projects comes from within the MENCAP organisation. The MENCAP management notes that employment projects will now be coordinated centrally from London, and MENCAP Wales will continue to build regional partnerships and relationships, potentially in order to make joint funding applications.

In summary, the Cer Amdani project is a well managed project, staffed by enthusiastic and dedicated people who make a real impact on the lives of the young people they help to find employment for.

The project clearly works and delivers measurable benefits that are around 400% greater than if the project had not been funded and the project can be considered to be a great success.

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An evaluation of the MENCAP (Wales) Cer Amdani Project

1.

Introduction

This is the Final Report under the evaluation contract between Wavehill and MENCAP Cymru. The first evaluation report was published in July 2010 and covered the formation of the MENCAP Cymru Supported Employment Project to that date.

This second and final report will concentrate more on the impact of Cer Amdani project on the Young People that use the service, the Employers who employ them and on the wider social benefits.

Wavehill was commissioned by MENCAP Cymru to undertake an evaluation of the Cer Amdani Project in South East and South West Wales. The project is part funded by the BIG Lottery Stepping Stones Fund.

The Stepping Stones Fund is a Wales only programme that provides funding for people to develop the life skills that will help them to manage their lives and contribute to their communities or to reengage in learning, volunteering or employment. This closely describes the MENCAP cohort of young people with learning disabilities that are unemployed and not closely engaged in the mainstream activities of society, such as employment, formal and vocational learning and work experience through volunteering.

The key programme aims from Stepping Stones are described as: Box 1 - The key programme aims from Stepping Stones

• • • •

People with improved self-confidence and life skills; People taking up further learning or employment opportunities; People equipped to better manage life challenges and transitions; People volunteering and contributing to their communities.

The Cer Amdani Project meets these key outcomes by working with Young People (19-25) across Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouth and Newport to improve their communication skills, confidence, employment knowledge and skills, team working skills and to manage their own lives more independently.

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The five key project outcomes from the MENCAP Intervention are identified as; Box 2 - The five key project outcomes from the MENCAP Intervention

•

•

• • •

1.1.

Improved employability of 310 19-25 year old people with a learning disability in South West and South East Wales through the provision of work placements, social skills and practical skills training.

A 30% increase in the employment rates among said client group in Wales through provision of information on employment opportunities and through supporting them in pursuing jobs, if necessary with 1 to 1 support. To improve confidence and life skill levels among young adults with a learning disability in South East and South West Wales.

Increase confidence, independence and quality of life for 310 learning disabled people through training, work experience placements and team work.

To support employers in South East and South West Wales to be able to recruit and retain young adults with a learning disability in employment.

To facilitate the integration of people with a learning disability into society.

Policy Context in Wales

The policy context was given a more detailed review in the Interim Evaluation Report (Annex A) but the core elements are summarised below.

Recent research by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (2009) estimated that there are 60,000 people with a learning disability in Wales1. Assuming that the occurrence of individuals with a learning disability is constant across the population of the UK, the figure could be nearer 75,000 with an estimated figure of 6,150 for young people aged 19-25 (representing 8.2% of the total Welsh population).

The care and support of young people in Wales with a learning disability is a complex policy context.

In 2007 the Welsh Assembly Government issued a revised Statement on Policy and Practice for Adults with a Learning Disability which outlines how people with a learning disability should be treated, emphasising equality to services and rights.

1

Winckler (2009)

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All people with a learning disability are full citizens, equal in status and value to other citizens of the same age. They have the same rights to: Box 3 – People with learning disability have the same rights

• •

• •

live healthy, productive and independent lives with appropriate and responsive treatment and support to develop their maximum potential; be individuals and decide everyday issues and life-defining matters for themselves joining in all decision-making which affects their lives, with appropriate and responsive advice and support where necessary; live their lives within their community, maintaining the social and family ties and connections which are important to them; have the support of the communities of which they are a part and access to general and specialist services that are responsive to their individual needs, circumstances and preferences.

The Welsh Assembly Government is responsible for developing and delivering policies and strategies for lifelong learning, skills, health and social care and economic development matters. Responsibility for taxation, welfare and employment benefits remains the responsibility of the UK government through the Department for Work and Pensions. As a result, services for young disabled people which help them move from education into the labour market operate in a matrix of devolved and non-devolved bodies, national and local government, the public, third and private sectors. Moving from school, to then claim welfare and employment benefits, into supported employment, and then into independent employment passes responsibility from the local authority education system, to UK benefits systems, through national charitable organisations, through to local 3rd sector training providers, then back to UK benefits and taxation when finally employed. The matrix of support is complex enough for some national charities to employ full time benefits advisors and planners to negotiate the complexities of the system. Not very satisfactory for a cohort that has Learning Disabilities.

As a result the policy for moving young people with Learning Disabilities into work experience and supported employment schemes is rather complicated and not always aligned or joined up for those in the system.

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1.2.

Supported Employment in South Wales

Finding work is a difficult challenge for most people as they transition from learning into the labour market, and is even more so for people with Learning Disabilities. Research shows2 (Emerson, 2005) that 65% of adults with Learning Disabilities want to work and so high unemployment must exist due to lack of job opportunities rather than a lack of willing candidates. However, it is also recognised that people with Learning Disabilities need extra support and help to achieve employment.

An effective and proven way of assisting people with Learning Disabilities to find employment is to offer supported employment, where the individual is helped, mentored, encouraged, and nudged towards sustainable employment by a team of support workers. Job Coaches help identify job opportunities, support the employer in choosing to employ a person with Learning Disabilities, and then support the trainee as they transition into their job, often teaching it in small steps at a pace that suits the trainee. Supported employment is not unique to Cer Amdani.

The following are three examples of projects that also provide Supported Employment assistance in South Wales:

2

Adults with Learning Difficulties in England 2003/4, Eric Emerson (2005)

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An evaluation of the MENCAP (Wales) Cer Amdani Project

Box 4 - Three examples of projects that also provide Supported Employment assistance in South Wales:

Work Choice – large national programme Work Choice (DWP, 2010) is a voluntary employment programme which helps disabled people with more complex issues find and stay in employment. Work Choice is managed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and delivered across England, Scotland and Wales, by organisations from the public, private and third sectors and Remploy.

In Wales the delivery of Work Choice has been awarded to Working Links in North & Mid Wales and Shaw Trust in South East Wales and South West Wales, the area covered by Cer Amdani at the time of writing (Nov 2010) Work Choice in its start up phase with sub-contractors responsible for placing Work Choice candidates being recruited. The notable difference between Work Choice and Cer Amdani is that Cer Amdani allows self referral, whereas Work Choice can only accept referrals via the Disability Employment Advisor via Jobcentre Plus.

COASTAL – ESF funded regional programme COASTAL is a £52million ESF funded regional project covering the six Local Authority (LA) areas of South West Wales: Bridgend, Neath Port Talbot, Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion. The project aims to promote vocational guidance, employment, skills training and lifelong learning opportunities for individuals who are currently economically inactive as a result of illness, disability, (mental illness, learning disability, physical disability, sensory impairment) substance misuse problems and/or the serious social disadvantage associated with the transition from long-term care into adulthood.

Six Creating Opportunities And Skills Teams – COASTs! - one in each LA area, work in collaboration with a range service providers to achieve a strategic, consistent and equitable regional approach to the delivery of services to support individuals with serious and enduring illness and/or disability to gain their maximum potential in respect of skill acquisition, employability and economic activity.

The headline targets of the project are as follows: • • • •

9,020 economically inactive participants to be engaged; 2,870 participants to move into sustainable employment (32%); 5,412 participants gaining a qualification (60%); and 8,569 participants gaining other positive outcomes (95%).

Elite Supported Employment – local project covering Merthyr, Rhonda and the valleys Elite Supported Employment uses a four step model (1. Assessment Interview, 2. Action plan, 3 In work support, 4. Independent work) to assist young people with Learning Disabilities transition from education environments into work. Clients aged 19-25 enter Work Choice interventions through referrals via Shaw Trust and the Jobcentre Plus. Further preparatory work is also done with young people still in education aged 14-19, this is funded by BIG Lottery.

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2.

Evaluation Method

Originally the evaluation was planned in three phases, however it was decided that it would be useful to produce just two reports, the baseline study (July 2010) and a final report (January 2011).

An outline of the two reports is included below; Box 5 - Outline of two evaluation phases

Phase 1 - Baseline: • • • •

Contact Key Stakeholders and interview to determine their views on the key issues within the project Create a baseline of evaluation indicators Policy Review to place the project in the context of current policy regarding unemployment in disability groups and learning disability groups Baseline Report

Phase 2 - Final: • • • • • •

Key Indicators View from Employment Advisors Interview x 15 Participants Interview x 15 Businesses Case Studies Final Report

The method in the first report involved the process of the project, how the various project officers operated, how they communicated with project participants, their parents, employers and the formal and informal networks they created to support their roles, in short, the running of the programme.

This second report aims to measure the impact of the project, against the aims and objectives set at the beginning of the project when bidding for Stepping Stones funding from BIG, and against the general employment status of young people with Learning Disabilities within society today.

Planning for social intervention programmes is never an exact science, especially when writing funding bids that forecast what will happen in two years time. This project involves elements of economics, social care, politics, disability and employment law, family and community support networks, compassionate businesses with social responsibility and the psychology of individuals too.

It is of course impossible to be precise about the outcomes anticipated from such a wide spectrum of influences.

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An evaluation of the MENCAP (Wales) Cer Amdani Project

However, impact evaluation should recognise the various dynamics that effect projects. One example of this is the changes in the economy, and more specifically the impact the recession has had on demand in the labour market, the supply of labour, and how this may transfer to a lack of demand for supported employment places.

This evaluation method takes into account the unemployment rate for individuals with Learning Disabilities, by also considering unemployment rates and other social issues outside of the project, in order to show the net impact of Cer Amdani. This is also known as the counterfactual argument, or if you like, what would be the situation had the project not been in existence. We can estimate, using Learning Disabled unemployment rates, the ex-project unemployment rate, and then calculate this against that achieved by the project.

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3.

Impact Evaluation Calculation

Box 6 – Key findings

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Employment rate for people with Learning Disabilities is estimated to be 6.4% in Wales.

Volunteering rate for people with Learning Disabilities is estimated to be 6.0% in Wales.

Transitioning from the project into paid employment of any description is 26% of participants, with 17% maintaining employment for at least 3 months.

If employment, volunteering, training and education are considered as being economically active, then the Cer Amdani project has enabled 99.2% (62+109+68/243) of the project participants to become economically active Cer Amdani compares favourably in terms of its intervention rate (costs of project/employment outcomes) of £13,600 and offers good value for money compared with peer projects in Wales, Scotland and being unemployed.

In the section below the evaluation asks a set of questions to arrive at a net impact calculation for the Cer Amdani project. The net impact is used to determine the impact of the project, in this case by estimating the number of people with learning disabilities who work and volunteer, and comparing that to the number who have found employment and volunteering opportunities through Cer Amdani, the difference between the background or incidental employment and volunteering rate, and the rate in the Cer Amdani project is considered to demonstrate the effectiveness of the project.

The key questions are how many people with Learning Disabilities are ready for work in Wales, what percentage of them find employment, and then how much more effective is the Cer Amdani project than the other pathways into employment for the 19-25 year old Cer Amdani cohort.

The answers to these questions are given references, where available, and then transposed into the Impact Evaluation Model which is found in the section below.

3.1

How many people have a Learning Disability in Wales?

There is no central register of people with Learning Disabilities in Wales, however assuming the distribution of Learning Disabilities is even across the UK, we have used data from England to suggest the levels in Wales.

In England Social Care Indicators (NI145, 2009/10) records the number of working age Learning Disabled clients known to Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSRs) as 136,450 people. The population of England is (ONS, 2010) 51,809,000 people, so this is approximately 0.26% of the population, which in terms of Wales, which has a population estimated as 2,999,300 is equivalent to 7,798 people.

The percentage of Young People aged 19-25 years in Wales with a Learning Disability is calculated by taking the Welsh Assembly Government’s statistics for Wales (mid-year estimates 2009 series) of 1624 year olds (373,856) and extrapolating from that 290,777 young people. If 0.26% (0.26% * 290,777) of these are registered Learning Disabled but of working age then we can use the base (b1) of 756 young people in Wales.

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However, this seems low when compared to the number of Learning Disabled Young People that Cer Amdani is working with (304) referrals and (243) individuals receiving services, especially as Cer Amdani only works across the South Wales region.

A study in the USA3 (Margai 2003) found that Learning Disabled Children in USA public schools make up 6% of the school population.

One further source from the All Wales People First Partnership provides an estimate based on people on local authority registers with some data based on extrapolations from previous data. This estimates 10,450 adults (2005) making 0.4% of the adult population using 2009 census estimates.

However, as for the England method based on registered people this may be underestimating the true number somewhat.

MENCAP (20094) estimates that there are ‘1.5 million people in the UK have a learning disability around 3 in 100 people’. Using both the Margai estimate and the MENCAP estimate and rejecting the ONS estimate as too low due to the administrative necessity to be Local Authority registered, this report will use a midpoint estimate of 4.5%.It is also worth noting that USA studies of Learning Disabilities in public schools show identification bias towards BME groups and towards males, where poor behaviour may be identified, wrongly, as Learning Disabled. Using 4.5% as the denominator this report extrapolates (4.5% * 290,777) to give a base number in Wales of 13,085, within the age group 19-25.

The Scottish Government also publishes local authority estimates of people with Learning Disabilities. Across Scotland in 2007 the range was between 3.4% and 9.8% of all adults had a Learning Disability, with the mean or midpoint being 5.5%. This compares favourably with our model value of 4.5% above.

3.2

What percentage of people with Learning Disabilities are employed?

No single data source is available that measures unemployment rates within Learning Disabled groups in Wales, however, we will assume that the pattern of people with Learning Disabilities and unemployment within Wales is similar to that in England, and so for this evaluation we will use the baseline figure of 6.4% employment vs. 93.6% unemployment.

6.4 per cent of adults with learning disabilities aged 18-64 and known to Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSRs) were in paid employment at the time of their assessment or latest review compared to 6.8 per cent in 2008-09. Adults known to social services but not in receipt of services had a higher percentage in employment at 12.9 per cent, compared to 2.2 per cent for those in residential care (NI 146).

Source; Social Care and Mental Health indicators from the National Indicator Set - Provisional further analysis, England 2009-10 (NHS, 2010)

3

Margai, F. & Henry, N. (2003).A community-based assessment of learning disabilities using environmental and contextual risk factors.

Social Science & Medicine, 56(5), 13 4 MENCAP Factsheets 2009 – Learning Disability

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An evaluation of the MENCAP (Wales) Cer Amdani Project

There are other sources of data too (below) showing employment rates between 17% and 10%. It is also worth noting that unemployment in younger people is higher than for older people, although we do not know if this is also observed in young people with Learning Disabilities compared with older people with Learning Disabilities.

1.

2.

3.

Valuing People (2001), 10% employment rate (Department of Health (DoH) (2001) Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disabilities for the 21 Century, p.84,:DoH)2005 Valuing People Review (2005), 11% employment rate, (Greig, R. (2005) The Story So Far…,p 38. London: Valuing People Support Team) National Learning Disability Survey (2004), 17% employment rate, (Emerson, E., Malam, S., Davies I., Spencer, K. (2004) Adults with Learning Disabilities in England 2003/04)

What counts as employment?

Using PSA 16 as a definition of employment – anyone aged 18-64 who is assessed or reviewed in the year April 2009 to March 2010 and is working is counted as employed, see below for five classes or descriptions of employment.

Five classes of paid employment measured using the following categories: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Working as a paid employee or self-employed (30 or more hours per week) Working as a paid employee or self-employed (16 to less than 30 hours per week) Working as a paid employee or self-employed (more than 4 to less than 16 hours per week) Working as a paid employee or self employed (more than 0 to 4 hours per week) Working regularly as a paid employee or self-employed but less than weekly (e.g., fortnightly, monthly or on some other regular basis)

The Cer Amdani project uses the part time and full time classes of employment, which is up to 15 hours for part time working and sixteen hours for full time working. In Cer Amdani of those in paid employment 22.6% (14/62) are classified as full time working and 77.4% (48/62) as part time.

3.3

What proportion of people with Learning Disabilities are volunteering?

‘Only 6 per cent of people with a learning disability currently volunteer. This is mainly due to imposed barriers of access and lack of opportunities. For this marginalised group volunteering leads to friendships, skills, enjoyment and confidence. It enhances their communities and it challenges the views of disability of those around them’.5(Volunteering for Everyone) Volunteering England and MENCAP published this estimate in response to the low levels of volunteering opportunities for people with Learning Disabilities. The proportion of 6% is notably the same as the estimate for employment (6.4%) from the NI146 NHS data.

Bringing both estimates together gives a volunteering and employed estimate of approximately 12.8%, although the accuracy of the data probably justifies a range of 10-15% working or volunteering.

5

Volunteering England – Volunteering for Everyone (no date on document)

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3.4

What proportion of people with Learning Disabilities are in training or further education?

In Scotland ‘The Same as You?’ 2007 survey shows that 44% of all 16-20 year olds with Learning Disabilities are in some form of education and 15.2% of adults above age 21.

With regards to training the same survey reports that 7% of adults with Learning Disabilities received training other than or further to further education.

Together education and training engage approximately 22% of Learning Disabled adults in Scotland.

3.5

What is Cer Amdani Delivering in terms of outputs?

With reference to the outputs achieved by the Cer Amdani project in table 1 on the following page, the analysis of the data shows that; 1.

The Cer Amdani project should reach the overall BIG (Stepping Stones Fund) targets of 310 individuals engaged by the project and by engaging having their Employment Skills and chances increased. To date (Nov 2010) 80% (243) of referrals have been engaged, had a case file opened and received various pre employment services from the Cer Amdani team.

Furthermore 70% (171/243) have received a work placement.

2.

Transitioning from the project into paid employment of any description is achieved by 26% of participants, with 17% maintaining employment for at least 3 months.

3.

Most employment is on a part time basis, being less than 16 hours of employment per week.

Of the 62 participants employed, 77% (42/62) are part time and 23% (14/62) considered full time.

4.

Voluntary working is an important way to gain work experience, knowledge of working and the commitment it requires, and also building experiences to use in work placements or in actual employment situations and 28% (68/243) of participants are engaged in volunteering.

5.

Further education and training moves participants closer to the workplace, and Cer Amdani has assisted 33% (80/243) of participants into training and education.

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Table 1 - Outputs achieved by Cer Amdani (to date November 2010) South West

South East

Total SE and SW 310

Progress to Nov 2010

Overall Target

146 48.0% 119 49.0% 26 41.9% 27

158 52.0% 124 51.0% 36 58.1% 15

304

100.0%

98.1%

243

79.9%

78.4%

62

25.5%

20.0%

42

17.3%

13.5%

64.3% 7 50.0% 19

35.7% 7 50.0% 29

14

5.8%

4.5%

48

19.8%

15.5%

60.4% 56 82.4% 82

68

28.0%

21.9%

Total number of beneficiaries receiving work placement

39.6% 12 17.6% 89

171

70.4%

55.2%

Total number of beneficiaries into further training /education

52.0% 80

48.0% 29

109

44.9%

35.2%

100.0%

0.0%

Overall Target Total number referred Total number actively engaged Total number into paid employment Total number of months

beneficiaries into paid employment longer than 3

Total number of beneficiaries into full time employment 16hrs+ Total number of beneficiaries into part time employment less than and up to 15hrs Total number of beneficiaries into voluntary work

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3.6

What is the Impact of the Cer Amdani project?

Using the data sources (above) to estimate or model the number of young people 19-25 in employment, volunteering and training and comparing against the Cer Amdani participants, the following conclusions can be made regarding the impact of the Cer Amdani project.

1.

The headline outcome forecast for the Cer Amdani project at the start of the Lottery Funding was ‘a 30% increase in the employment rates in the Learning Disabled client group‘. Our model above gives the reported figure of 6.4% of people with Learning Disabilities are working, and the outputs table shows that within the Cer Amdani project 26% are working. This demonstrates that in terms of the employment rate the impact is 406% (6.4%/26%) more effective than the background employment rate.

2.

Considering the outcome from a second perspective, the Cer Amdani Project anticipates a 30% employment rate across the Cer Amdani cohort. Actively engaged in the project are 243 participants and so a 30% employment rate would require 73 participants employed. The project (to date December 2010) has found employment for 62 participants which is 15% (11/73) short of the target, however the project still has some 3 months to run.

Whichever way the calculation is made, the impact of the Cer Amdani project is making significant employment gains within the Cer Amdani cohort.

However it is also reasonable to make a second calculation which extends the activities of volunteering and education and training as contributing to an increase in the employment rate, as all activities are moving individuals closer to the employment market.

1.

The data sources have identified that in Scotland, adults with Learning Disabilities are 15% engaged in further education and 7% in training, making 22% across both categories.

2.

The Cer Amdani project again compares favourably, linking 45% into education and/or training, approximately 100% higher than in the Scottish survey.

Finally, if employment, volunteering, training and education are considered as being economically active, then the Cer Amdani project has enabled 99.2% (62+109+68/243) of the project participants to become increasingly economically active, which is a huge achievement in a cohort that outside of the project, using the counterfactual argument, achieves economic activity rates or around 28% (6.4%+7%+15%). Please note there may be some double counting in this figure, as participants may have undertaken training AND undertaken employment.

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3.7

What is the cost of the Cer Amdani Project?

The cost of the Cer Amdani project to the date of the second annual report is £297,042 for year 1 and £337,672 for year 2 with £307,378 anticipated for the final year 3, and so making £942,292 in total.

Approximately 76.3% is used to employ project staff, a further 10.8% used for travel and mobile communications, marketing (1.8%) and evaluation (1.9%) also consume a small proportion of the budget, with beneficiary expenses (7.1%) making up the largest proportion after staff costs.

The total expenditure across the project will be approximately £942,000 and at the time of writing (Jan 2011) there is still a quarter of a year with 99,000 budget allocation, so it is more accurate to calculate the intervention rate using £843,000 (£942,000 - £99,000).

To date 243 participants have been engaged buy Cer Amdani at a cost per referral of £2,773, and a cost per participant entering paid employment of £13,596. This is known as the intervention rate, or the cost required to ‘purchase’ a positive outcome from the intervention, or project.

Overall Target

Intervention Rate £843,000

Total number referred

£2,773

Total number actively engaged

£3,469

Total number into paid employment

£13,596

Total number of beneficiaries into paid employment longer than 3 months

£20,071

The important question is, does this intervention rate offer value for money to the funders? Strictly in terms of economic calculation, if the cost of getting 62 unemployed young people with Learning Disabilities into employment is lower than the benefits accrued then the cost to benefit ratio is a positive relationship and we can claim that the Cer Amdani has value.

Of course there are many ways or models to measure the effectiveness of social interventions, and so we have used three methods below to show value.

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Method 1 – Comparison to NEETs costs Young people not in education, employment or training have been given the acronym of NEET by careers professionals working with this group. A widely cited study by the University of Hull6 (2002) on the costs of not being in employment, education or training gives a model estimate an average per person (capita) total present value costs over a lifetime are £45,000 resource costs and £52,000 public finance costs. So approximately £100,000 of costs per individual were identified. As this was a few years ago and benefits and support costs have risen, the model is probably underestimating true costs.

Also, these are costs identified by the research team and did not include a disabled cohort, and so the model will most likely be different in places but it is a good benchmark to use as a comparator to the Cer Amdani intervention costs.

In absolute terms it is not accurate to compare the University of Hull cost model to the Cer Amdani project as they are not directly comparable, but in terms of scale, the Cer Amdani project offers a lower cost benefit than existing on social security benefits and not engaging with employment opportunities.

Method 2 – Comparison to COASTAL costs COASTAL is an employment project established in the South of Wales and designed to engage and work with a wide range of disabled clients, including the same Learning Disabled cohort that Cer Amdani works with.

COASTAL is a £52million ERDF/ESF funded project covering the six Local Authority (LA) areas of South West Wales: Bridgend, Neath Port Talbot, Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion.

The local authority areas included are within the convergence classified funding areas which includes 15 of the 22 local authority areas in Wales. The project aims to promote vocational guidance, employment, skills training and lifelong learning opportunities for individuals who are currently economically inactive as a result of illness, disability, (mental illness, learning disability, physical disability, sensory impairment) substance misuse problems and/or the serious social disadvantage associated with the transition from long-term care into adulthood.

The services provided by COASTAL are delivered across a wide range of participant groups all of whom are identified as experiencing serious and enduring illness, disability and/or social disadvantage. The skills and specialisms required for each group all have different requirements and require a collaborative multi-agency approach. COASTAL is a collaboration of 10 partner organisations, plus a number of smaller locally procured services.

Also, COASTAL services are delivered across the full working age range, i.e. 16 – 64, which includes many individuals who have experienced long term illness and/or disability and who are the furthest from the labour market. In comparison, Cer Amdani is serving a single disability group, with a limited age range of 19 – 25, a point at which young people with a learning disability are fresh from education and often more open to tackling new challenges in life.

6

Godfrey. C et al; Estimating the Cost of Being “Not in Education, Employment or Training” at Age 16-18 ; Social Policy Research Unit, University of York & University of Hull(2002)

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Again, COASTAL is different than Cer Amdani, but in many ways it is similar too. Both projects share similar geographies, client groups, potential employers and referral networks.

Method 3 – North Lanarkshire Supported Employment Scheme The evaluation of the North Lanarkshire Supported Employment project7 (Beyer 2008) studies the cost of maintaining a service of comparative size, for a comparative client group, mainly with Learning Disabilities.

The cost per job was £7,216 per person per annum based on an average of 122 people in work in 2007. The equivalent cost per person based on “actual capacity” for Locality Support Services was £14,998 pp pa which is highly comparable to the Cer Amdani project, probably not coincidentally as the costs and staff numbers are approximately the same.

3.8

Summary

Cer Amdani increases the employment, volunteering and training rates significantly above those without the benefit of the assistance from the project. Cer Amdani can demonstrate an employment rate approximately 400% greater than the 6.4% rate found in England using 2009 data.

The target set for Cer Amdani by its funders was a 30% employment rate, which should be achieved, or nearly achieved by the end of the project in June 2011. The target set did not include estimates for further learning or volunteering places, which increases outcomes by 22% and 35% respectively from December 2010.

The Cer Amdani project offers excellent value for money when compared to either maintaining a participant on social benefits, or when compared against peer projects that aim to find and support employment for the same or similar client types.

7

Beyer. S, An evaluation of the outcomes of supported employment in North Lanarkshire (2007) – Cardiff University

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4.

Cer Amdani reviewed using qualitative data

To balance the quantitative approach found in the sections above, the evaluation study also conducted face to face and telephone interviews with project participants, employers, parents of the participants and stakeholders and professionals close to the Cer Amdani project. A focus group to discuss participants views was also undertaken. In total 57 individuals views are represented in the sections below.

The qualitative research includes; • • • • •

11 interviews with participants using telephone or face to face method 5 interviews with participants in a focus group setting 10 interviews with stakeholders and employment professionals, using a telephone method 24 interviews with employers, using a telephone method 7 interviews with parents, using a telephone method

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5.

Cer Amdani from the Participants’ View

To give this evaluation report some context from the participants perspective, and to paint a more qualitative picture of the project to compliment the quantitative model and analysis, 11 interviews with Cer Amdani participants were undertaken during November 2010. These interviews were face to face, sometimes with the participant alone, or with their case worker present to lend some confidence to the individual.

Participants were asked what their best achievements were as a result of joining Cer Amdani, analysis of the data shows that the interviewees relate positive outcomes to, having a routine, making friends, having confidence, gaining independent living and feeling equal. The concept of having more confidence was the most common benefit noted and making new or more friends the second. It is worth noting that none of the interviewees mentioned the financial gain or benefits in working, the gains were seen as personal and social confidence.

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4.

5.

6.

7.

Before Mencap I was on the dole and struggling to get a job and I was bored but now I have a job it has changed my life a lot. I used to stay in bed all day but now it is really good because I have to get out of bed to go to work and I now know the meaning of work.

More confident, more cheeky – I am a bossy boots now, P3’s grandmother said that he will talk to anyone now whereas before he would not have had the confidence.

All the work experience that I have gained has given me a real confidence boost, I have learnt lots of new skills More confident, I am better at talking to people; my family are pleased with me. Employment Officer said that P5’s quality of work was always high and the staff at the centre were really helping to bring him out of himself.

Getting a job, moving out – getting a flat which I got on April 1st this year and it’s helped me cope as there are people to talk to.

Cleaning, I love it down there, I can cope now and I’ve made new friends.

Going on the work experience and finding the job. I feel more confident, have more friends, I go out every night, I feel valued the same as everyone else now.

Participants were asked to describe how working had made a difference to their day to day lives. The main difference seems to be in giving purpose and direction to the day and some pride in being a working person. As above, the issue of economic benefit was not a theme.

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I have grown up a lot, I am more mature and I see myself as more of an adult and I am more into life.

Employment Officer has seen an improvement in her confidence with her peers.

The biggest change was his confidence.

I used to just watch television all day or play on the computer but now I have to get up every day and do a job I love and I get paid for it!.

I was working on the farm anyway so was having to get up every day however it is better to meet more people in this job.

Where I live there’s nothing there, nowhere to go, so it gets me out.

It’s nice to know I’m going to work, it’s nice to tell people I’m going to work.

It’s made me get on with more stuff, I go every Wednesday to my placement, all day gardening in Llandeilo, it’s voluntary work and I enjoy doing it.

It gets me out of the house, I was getting bored before.

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The Supported Employment project provides assistance as and when needed to the participants. We asked each interviewee how much ‘support’ they require. Two of the interviewees were being fully supported but the remaining 9 interviewees all had various levels of independence from the Employment Officer. However reviewing the comments shows that the security of having the officer there in the background, is valuable.

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11.

I still get a bit of support, if I get over rushed in the kitchen when I am on my own then Ceri (Employment Support) can come in and help me and it is really important because it helps me out so I don’t mess the job up.

P2 is fully supported, her Employment Officer collects her from her home every Wednesday and takes her to her placement and then stays with her until the 2.25 hours has finished and then takes her home again.

P3 is fully supported by Cer Amdani. He works 3.5 hours per week and his Employment Officer stays with him the whole time, he would not be able to undertake the job without this support.

I don’t really have any help now but I see the employment officer at least once a week and we review of how things are.

Employment Officer explained that although she sees P5 on a regular basis during her visits to the centre he did not require any specific support any more. It’s very important that I still have contact with (Employment Officer) if I need to.

P6 explained that her employment Officer attended the interview with her and then also attended her first day of employment however other than telephone contact with Cer Amdani she has not required any further support.

I finished my 13 weeks; (Employment Officer) is still in contact with me seeing if I’m okay, I’m nearly ready to go it alone.

I don’t need as much help now, if I’m having trouble in work I know I can phone them, they support me if I need to talk.

I love to try it on my own without (Employment Officer) help.

If something goes wrong I’ve got (Employment Officer) to talk to so I still need her quite a lot.

P1 now has paid employment therefore his Employment Worker does not visit or contact him anymore however he does feel that he can still contact Cer Amdani if he needed to.

Participants were asked to expand on the social and personal benefits of taking part in Cer Amdani.

The interviewees show recognition of routine, having a reason to get up and get going, building self confidence and social confidence and feeling equal with others. These are highly positive outcomes for the Cer Amdani cohort and allow the participants to take much more responsibility for their lives, and build social capital which is essential for well being and happiness.

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I now have a routine and I feel part of a team and I feel valued and appreciated and I get good feedback from other staff that work here.

I am good with the kids and my mum says there is a big change in me, I now help to look after my cousin’s baby.

P3 was unable to answer this question. His grandmother said it has helped with his confidence and he gets very bored when he is not working.

I feel like part of the furniture here, the staff tell me I am good and that I am doing a good job and they always tell me it is nice to see a smiling face because I am always smiling.

I like my workmates and my family are pleased with me, my mum says I communicate better now.

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6.

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8.

9.

10.

11.

I’ve got more self confidence, self respect, I’m doing something different, it helps me to mix with other people working there and I have my own money.

It’s helped with my confidence, my self respect; I’ve met new people and made new friends.

I’m talking more, I’m more confident; my family have noticed the difference”. P3 also said that because she is more confident now she also attends college one day a week where she is learning maths.

It’s helped with my day, helped put it in the right order.

Getting to a good routine instead of having nothing to get up for, it’s made me feel an equal.

I’ve made friends and feel better now I’m working.

Although financial benefits were not considered to be very important by the interviewees, the subject of economic benefits of working was also raised with the interviewees, as many people would equate working (possibly wrongly in the case of the Cer Amdani group) as an exchange of labour for wages, rather than a platform for personal and social development.

The range of uses of the wages earned is probably the same as for any group of young people, wages are spent on clothes, the pub, going out with friends, cars and treating girlfriends.

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The money has helped me get a flat and I look at my bank account now and I think that is lovely, that is mine. I now save some money, I have £300 saved in my account whereas before I had an overdraft and I was in debt. I buy stuff for the flat and I pay the bills and buy food.

I like earning money. His grandmother said that P3 does not actually get any of the money that he earns because his mother keeps it. She also went on to say that P3 would like to work for more hours than he does but his mother will not allow it because it would affect his benefits.

I have full responsibility for my money and now I am earning I can spoil myself and I can buy clothes and I recently bought myself an i-pod touch, I actually have money in my account now.

It is nice to have money, I buy drink and I bought a guitar, it is my money and I like to treat my girlfriend.

I can buy what I want, I like to buy clothes.

I’m responsible for my own money. P1 explained that he uses his money on the upkeep of his car and also he likes go to the local pub every night.

I’m on benefits and I use the money I earn for petrol and food, the company can’t afford to give me more hours, I was doing 14.5 hours but it went down to 5 a couple of months ago.

I like earning money and I spend it by going out drinking with my mates and going to the fair.

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Group Session Further to the face-to-face interviews, a group session was held with 5 Cer Amdani participants. The key findings or themes are summarised below.

• •

•

• •

•

Most would like to do more activity days like the one they did at Llain Activity Centre All participants said that at some time or another they had received a bad experience at the job centre and felt that if Cer Amdani was more widely advertised then they could come straight to the project instead of having to go to the job centre and then being referred.

Participants had the idea to support new candidates to Cer Amdani and act as “buddies”.

Having gone through the process themselves they felt able to offer advice and support to others and also this would enhance their own experience also.

All participants agreed, whether they found the assessment process “very good” or “scary” that generally they prefer less paperwork to be involved.

Generally the group said that they did not like the term ‘disability’ and they enjoyed the Cer Amdani experience over other projects / organisations because they felt like they were spoken to like adults instead of children.

All agreed that Employment Law should change and you should not have to disclose the fact that you have a learning disability on application forms.

Summary Social and personal confidence are far more important to the participants than financial gains from employment. However 2 of the interviewees detailed how their employment helps them to live independently, have a social life as an equal with friends and peers. These young people would possibly not have such independence or freedom without the Cer Amdani project. Furthermore, feeling valued and being treated as an equal was noted by 4 interviewees where working gives a sense of equality rather than being treated as a person with special needs, or being different to others.

Finally, getting a routine and purpose to daily existence was also noted by 4 participants as a benefit of finding employment, probably experiences exactly the same as any other person who finds regular employment either for the first time or after a long period of unemployment.

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6.

Cer Amdani from a Wider Stakeholders and Employment and Careers Professionals View

The evaluation consultation also took into consideration the views of wider stakeholders working with people with Learning Disabilities, especially across the advice and guidance provision, often accesses via Job Centre Plus offices, special educational needs educationalists, volunteer placement networks and careers advisors.

Ten interviews were completed and the recurring theme was support, appreciation and satisfaction with the Cer Amdani project and its impact on the young people who participate in the project. In fact there was not one single negative comment across the interviews. The main issue is not the quality of the work that Cer Amdani does, but the stakeholders were worried about the gap in provision it will leave across South Wales.

From 15 interviews included below, and as noted above, they are highly supportive of both the concept and the actual delivery of Cer Amdani, in fact it may appear that only the most supportive comments have been selected for this report, but this is not the case, ALL of the stakeholders were highly supportive of the project and the team.

The key themes emerging of why the support is considered to be so good are the confidence built in the clients, the time the Cer Amdani team spends with the clients and perhaps most importantly, the positive charge or differences seen in the clients.

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Cer Amdani is excellent – we have just had a review meeting with a client, and Cer Amdani is excellent for confidence building, Cer Amdani is the only thing available that offers such support – I am really going to miss it.

The clients bloom in confidence once they learn they can do things. I have referred a few clients 15-20 to the Cer Amdani project and they have always come up trumps – they are realistic with the clients and have acted well with the referral.

Cer Amdani was unique, as they can work with students in full time college – COASTAL has a 16 hours education target – so it excludes students who are working at college half the time but want one or two half days of employment.

Cer Amdani are brilliant, they have the time and patience and expertise to work with these youngsters, help find voluntary placements to work placements – one employer gave a FT job as the young lady was so good at her job.

When young people work with Cer Amdani I see a clear change, they start to believe in themselves and their own ability, I see people who actually believe they can do things now, they ask questions about their job. Confidence, communication, cognitive behaviour, self belief, they ask questions about themselves.

If Cer Amdani was not in place we have nothing specific in place for this client group.

Our confidence is very high in MENCAP they were brilliant – great at gaining confidence, beyond the call with the families, no bad feelings from the employers.

The benefits to the individual – improved their confidence, we saw our ex-students working really well and very engaged – it is developmental – internal and external developmental – they were very proud of their achievements. This widens their horizons, if they can start to travel independently then they gain lots of freedom from this.

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9.

15.

Great working relationship with our local Cer Amdani worker. I can’t think of anything to improve on, we have a good working relationship.

If Cer Amdani was not there we would most probably not handle the same number of young people with Learning Disabilities. The only project we know of for young people in the area.

They deal with direct employment issues, but softer stuff, appropriate dress, punctuality and attendance. I think the project has been quite successful, it’s a good stepping stone to get people ready to work, and they are certainly closer to work and using the more mainstream provision, travel training is great too, adds a whole layer of independence.

We see the young people develop so they are more job ready more training ready, it moves them on to be able to go into job placements and often this leads into NVQ qualifications within the placement. I think all of the people I have worked with have either had a job or an NVQ qualification, all positive outcomes really. Without the Cer Amdani support they would not be starting or getting the experience to progress. Without Cer Amdani 100% of the young people we work with would not have progressed. Without MENCAP we would not have so many young people in employment, with qualifications or skills development. Our Cer Amdani contact gives me loads of feedback, and we do to them, we are always in contact with eachother. Good flow of information.

If Cer Amdani was not in place, no other options for our clients. There is work choice – but the clients are not ready to work at this level. So work choice is there but not really applicable to our clients.

We would not miss Cer Amdani in terms of numbers of clients, it’s the quality of service that Cer Amdani provides. It could be that the slightly higher Learning Disabled clients would not get volunteering places as the support has not been there.

I think Cer Amdani does an excellent job, and I would like to see the project continuing

6.1

Summary

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

The 15 interviewees were highly positive about Cer Amdani and the support it offers. Key benefits of the Cer Amdani approach are noted as the time spent with clients, the confidence built with the clients and the overall difference seen in the clients by the stakeholders. As the stakeholders are often working in the area of disability support they are well positioned to make such judgements and to place the development of the Cer Amdani participants within the contact of other support and day care options for people with learning disabilities, and other debilitating conditions.

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7.

Cer Amdani from the Employers’ View

The employers who participate in Cer Amdani are essential as they provide the paid and in some cases volunteer opportunities for the Cer Amdani participants.

We interviewed 24 employers from South East Wales (14) and South West Wales (10) Wales. The employers came from private business, 3rd sector organisations, charities and the public sector, the range of employers are listed below; A list of Employers’ business type or sector; • • • • • • • • • • • •

Retail x 6 Childcare x 3 Historic / Heritage Site x 3 Environmental Project x 2 Social Care x 2 Future Jobs Fund Charity Automotive Ceramics Manufacture Cleaning Education centre Housing association

Most employers (21/24) found out about Cer Amdani by being approached by one of the Cer Amdani Team, or through a networked contact, or in two cases by having had some experience or knowledge of MENCAP and its work. One employer found out about Cer Amdani by picking up a leaflet and then enquiring. Two thirds (8/24) of the businesses had not heard of MENCAP or Cer Amdani before offering supported employment places. The average size of each employer by staff, including part time and volunteers is 48 employees, which shows that small & medium Enterprises are a prime supplier of Cer Amdani jobs.

Two of the businesses had experience of people with Learning Disabilities and so were attracted to the project, however, the remainder felt they had been convinced by the project team to take part and they could see the advantages of employing a person with Learning Disabilities.

When the employers were asked why the helped Cer Amdani the answers included 5 references to equal opportunities, and 6 references to giving people with disabilities a chance. A selection of five responses include; •

•

To benefit the business, it puts us in the 'shop window', it falls in line with our ethical policy, we do a lot with school programmes and pupil's needing 1-1 giving them an insight into the work process. It's all about tackling challenges and giving people opportunities, we are about equal opportunities for all employees. Working together, a collective effort - team working.

To give him a chance basically, he was here already on a placement from college.

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• • •

Because we have an already established relationship, we had space on a Wednesday for them to join the group so we've had 3 young people from Cer Amdani in all each working 6-8 weeks.

I worked with people with learning disabilities for years and know how difficult it is to get work placements for them.

Because of our staff resources Cer Amdani are an additional resource which took the pressure off us and my line manager sign posted me to them.

The job descriptions, or range of duties are quite varied in complexity, from basic tasks such as sorting tins of food and collecting litter in public parks, to running a dairy department in a retail shop, organising children’s play sessions and making ceramic products. As an example of the complexity of duties the job description for the dairy manager is included verbatim below; •

The replenishing of shelves on the dairy department, learning about refrigeration, the cold chain, quality control, temperature control, cleanliness, damaged stock, customer service, dealing with complaints.

We estimate 42% (10/24) of the jobs created in this small survey were to fill a job vacancy, and the remainder were jobs, created to provide volunteer places or work experience, or in one case work with a therapeutic focus.

The employers were also asked whether they had any expectations (or concerns) prior to meeting and employing a person with Learning Disabilities and 5 employers said they had some concerns, whereas 19 said they had no concerns, often due to working with people with Learning Disabilities in the past.

• • • • •

Obviously I'm aware there may be some limited ability but I didn't have any concerns.

Obviously some concerns as to whether she could do the work and carry out instructions.

We spoke to his mentor and were obviously mindful of the health and safety issues of having him here.

I didn't have any concerns myself, I placed her with a team leader who had previously worked with people with learning disabilities and she used her experience.

No concerns really other than what his learning disabilities were and would he be able to cope with the job as he'd need numerical skills and need to be able to interact with customers and colleagues.

Analysis of the comments below relating to the work placements shows that the new employees are considered a success when the employee settles into the work place, understands his or her job requirements and builds social capital with their work colleagues. The survey also asked what the impression of the employee was after having had them in the workplace for some time. Ten comments were made in response to this question, we have selected 5 below.

•

•

He's self sufficient, he knows his job, we're always there for him if needed, he gets on with it, he's one of the team. He's exceeded our expectations, he was a recluse before he started and he has come out of his shell, come out of himself, he's more positive and confident and needs less support. I'd be more willing to take on more people now.

My impressions have changed dramatically regarding the stigma, the integration into the community has been outstanding, the community feedback we have had has been really fabulous and amazing.

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•

• •

We were given feedback about the young man and my expectations were that we would go forward with him. His interaction skills weren't too bad but his retention wasn't very good staying doing a job. At the beginning he was having 100% supervision with (Employment Advisor) but when she went for a couple of hours after a few weeks to see someone else he'd wander off down the street, he was brought back and we had a chat but it kept happening.

(Employment Advisor) had to buy him new clothes for work and we had problems with his personal hygiene too after 4-5 weeks as they hadn't been washed and he needed a good wash too.

Because she is so fastidious we notice when she's not been here.

It worked very well, we almost took him on this summer for a second year but the other applicants had more experience. He now has a permanent job within the council and I'd given him a reference for that.

The comments above show that the employees and volunteers need a fair amount of support in the workplace, but given time and attention can perform to the expectations of the employer. The role of the Cer Amdani Employment Advisors is clearly very important. The survey asked the employers to comment on the role that the Employment Advisors have. The importance of the support from the Cer Amdani team was noted by every employer, both in the private sector jobs and within volunteer places. The emphasis is so strong of the importance of the Cer Amdani support team and their role in transitioning the participants into work places that we have included ALL 24 comments below, rather than a selection, as above. The only comment that does not fully support their role is comment 13.

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Very important, they need the support and encouragement of a knowledgeable adult to fulfil their capabilities. (Employment Advisor) encourages and tries to put them on the right track but there is only so much she can do.

Without the support they would struggle getting an interview never mind a job, they support them in that transition.

Very important, they need to support them, (Employment Advisor) has been there from the start negotiating, following everything, and evaluating the work environment.

Very important, he has a support worker who pops in to see him and now instead of seeing him every week it's every 3 weeks. He can relate to people he knows and is very familiar with us now.

It's important in trying to get him into the system properly, they visit quite often and have helped with getting him to catch a bus - travel training.

Very important because it gives the young people the confidence and opportunity to go into these situations because they have someone they know with them, without the assistants they would find it more difficult.

Very important, from my experience alone if (Employment Advisor) hadn't have been here he wouldn't have been here for long at all as I haven't got the staff to supervise someone 24/7. I think if someone has that work ethic it's ok but it's down to the individual - everyone's different.

Very important because Cer Amdani can provide additional support if required, it gives another contact for the young person with learning disabilities so they are forming networks.

They have to be with them really especially at first so they get the support that they need. She is coming in on her own now as she is able to do that.

She was very good, came and explained everything so there was nothing that we weren't expecting. They are very important as they set out what we could expect from our volunteer and she could expect from us.

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11.

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24.

Very important and very good for him as she had the time to give him the assistance while he's here as we're busy we are not always able to do that and she was giving him a lift here.

I think they were of assistance outside of the workplace but he had a member of staff to mentor him here.

I would consider that my staff did far more work with the young people than Mencap, we asked for support a few times and didn't get it.

Very important as she gave him more confidence, he was quite nervous to start and she used to come and pick him up ask him how his day had gone and then go over anything with us if needed. He comes here on his own now.

Important, she came in with her and settled her in.

Very important, I think (Employment Advisor) is an extremely positive influence in their lives, he is a mentor, someone they trust and respect.

It's good for the young person to have some kind of liaison between us and the project if needed and she felt she couldn't come to us about something.

Vital really, initially she needed so much support through lack of confidence more than her lack of ability. Her assistant was with her throughout the induction and for the first few shifts and would have done more if needed. She was able to spend the 1-1 time with her and we would have been pushed to do that.

Pretty important but it varies depending on the needs and abilities of the young person concerned.

Important because if there were any problems she was on the end of the phone and she mentored the first lad for a couple of weeks as he was really shy, I don't think he'd have done it otherwise.

Very important, (Employment Advisor) was extremely patient with her, extremely good, I don't think she would have had the confidence to come by herself. She was with her for the first month 1-1 and I don't think we could have done it otherwise as we wouldn't have had the time to do it.

Really important and they are really good, in the first instance of introducing the young people to everyone and secondly in mentoring them and showing them what they have to do.

Very important, we wouldn't have known about her without them, they were able to give us knowledge of her and were able to reassure us if we had any problems.

Very important because they are there with them, help introduce them to everyone when they start and stay till the young person knows what they're doing and feels comfortable without them there.

The key theme taken from the comments made by the employers (above) is that the role of the Cer Amdani support worker is essential in building confidence and work skills with the participants.

The impact of employing people with Learning Disabilities on the workforce was also a possible barrier to the Cer Amdani project working, and so the survey asked employers about the support or dissention in the workforce. There were no negative comments received in the employers’ survey and no evidence that employing a person with Learning Disabilities had been disruptive or unproductive in any way.

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Some were apprehensive, worried that he wouldn't be up to the job but since he started they've never treated him differently and it's a two way thing, he is pro active not reactive.

Because we are such a small unit a good work ethic is more important, if someone is willing to have a go it's not a problem but probably could be if they didn't grasp it after a while. There's a very mixed bag of people who work here, all ages from all different walks of life.

It's enriched them, initially there were 1 or 2 who were a little bit negative saying that the young people were going to take up more time but they have since admitted they were wrong.

It has opened our eyes and we now have people with learning disabilities coming here from Coleg Gwent who are doing Lifeskills which we wouldn't have done before and young people with learning disabilities from the local school. We have taken on a young person with autism and another with learning disabilities. We now appreciate how much they have to offer.

We have a good team here and people understand the ethos behind what we are trying to do.

I matched the young people up to employees who are going to be more supportive making the most of their skills.

They were a bit concerned and for the first 2 weeks struggled with "what's my job?” It was additional work on the supervisor at first until she set her SMART targets and then that worked out fine.

The area of most concern for employees was their responsibility under potential Health & Safety risks, these issues were mentioned quite frequently within the survey with seven of the employers mentioning the issue.

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Health & Safety is obviously our responsibility and the training course, issues relating to problems we had we could have had more support than we did though this could have been due to teething problems as they were at the start of the project.

Health and Safety basically as he wanted to be using the cooker and we were steering him away and we are mindful of residents, making sure there is someone with him when he goes into the rooms with drinks, the residents have all been good with him.

We have been very fortunate with having Nigel, he has made it very clear that if there are any issues to contact him and he visits the young person every other week. He also keeps me up to speed with how she is getting on with her job searches. We ensure that they work in a clean, safe, happy environment.

It's my responsibility, I view them as employees so everything I'd do for any other employee like Health & Safety, making sure legislation was adhered to. Mencap provide more pastoral supervision and training.

My responsibility is obviously safety in the workplace apart from that there weren't any real issues and if there had of been if I couldn't sort it out I would have contacted their support worker.

In the beginning I was relying on (Support Worker) to be with her 1-1, but after a month she was getting dropped off by her mum and she is our responsibility while she's here.

We make sure that we fit into the health & safety aspects and provide the necessary tutors to help them. We rely on Mencap for the young people's personal needs and welfare.

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From the 24 employers we interviewed 65% of the jobs and volunteer places were regarded as permanent by the employers, with the remainder being time limited work experience places.

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No job is permanent, the lad who was doing the gardening is now doing a chainsaw course which will improve his CV, skills etc.

It's entirely down to him, he's one of us, if he wants to progress he can and we've now offered him 16 hours a week.

It was permanent over the summer and he has now got himself a permanent job within the council.

It's permanent and she will be offered more hours when I'm able to do that.

It could be permanent; the only problem we had was trying to get them to stick it out over the 10 weeks. They started off really keen and then it dwindled, I don't know if that's because it's quite a physical job. I spent a lot of time with them showing them what to do.

It's for as long as she wants it, but at the moment we're not able to give her more hours than she's doing.

I've spoken to the support worker and we are not able to offer the young person a job at the moment but she can come on a voluntary basis for as long as she wants.

The survey asked the employers to comment on the changes seen in the employees, often termed ‘distance travelled’ by employment support advisors. The most frequent change noticed across the survey (12/24) was personal confidence, or self confidence, which is not surprising as most employees in a new environment take some time to adjust.

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His confidence, self esteem, self respect and respect for others have all grown, he's an equal, no one discriminates and he mixes with everyone. As I said he was apprehensive at first but he'll now tackle anything. He's very committed, he cares, his level of attendance is outstanding - it takes him an hour to get to work and he's never late.

When he first started he'd work for a little bit and then go to the back and lie down across the chairs for a sleep. He's now very motivated and keen to get stuck in - last week he hoovered everywhere. He's now been with us for about 6 months doing 5 hours once a week.

Their personal confidence levels, they at first sat there waiting to be spoken to but even within a short time there was a real change in their confidence around people. They can now certainly go and do tasks that they wouldn't have before. They have travelled quite a decent journey.

Their self confidence, confidence in the way that they communicate to people and their self esteem is through the roof. They feel valued as part of the work force and part of the community and they are earning extra money which is theirs and they've earned it.

Initially when she started she wouldn't make eye contact and would only come in when I was working, she had to be coaxed to come on other days. There has been an absolutely huge change especially in the last 6 months she's more confident, more talkative, uses her own initiative and is even doing credit card transactions which she said she would never be able to do. Her willingness has developed hugely, it's almost as if she thrives on the approval we give her. She was quite childlike at first but (Employment Advisor) said to positively encourage her and give clear instruction and now there is no job I would not let her do, her confidence has come on in leaps and bounds.

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A commonly used measure of the success of a business or product in the commercial world, is if a person or business contact would recommend a product or service to ones colleagues or friends. The survey asked the employers if there are other employers who are thinking about helping Cer Amdani would they be prepared to help explain the project and all 24 agreed that they would assist if asked.

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Summary

The interviews with twenty four employers providing full time, part time and volunteering places demonstrates that the employees fit into the workplace well, and that no real pressures are seen within the workplace regarding fitting in or managing to undertake the work tasks. This is a key point because if the workplace was disrupted, productivity was reduced, or the general ‘personality’ of the business changed as a result of working with a Cer Amdani participant, then the employment opportunities would rapidly be withdrawn.

The support of the Cer Amdani employment team is essential to the success of the employment places and many would not be achieved without this support. The benefits seen include confidence, communication skills and making the workplace feel inclusive. This comment sums this up well, ‘Vital really, initially she needed so much support through lack of confidence more than her lack of ability. Her assistant was with her throughout the induction and for the first few shifts and would have done more if needed. She was able to spend the 1-1 time with her and we would have been pushed to do that.’ The employers are happy to employ a person with learning disabilities, if they do not have to undertake extra in job training and support, over and above that needed for the existing workforce.

The main concern, noted by 29% (7/24) of the employers was Health & Safety concerns where the liability of any incident lies with the employer. Finally, employers noted they would help to support recruiting any new employers into the project, which is a good indication of how they feel about the project and its qualities.

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8.

Cer Amdani from the Parents’ View

Seven parents gave their views on the Cer Amdani project and more specifically on the impact the employment and volunteering had on their children. Four parents were working with the South East Wales team and three with the South West team.

Three of the participants had come to the project through a historical contact with MENCAP and the remaining four via contact with the local college and the local Job Centre, more specially through the Disability Employment Advisor. Firstly the parents were asked about what differences they had noticed with their children as a result of attending work. Parents noted improvements in confidence, and self-confidence, independence had grown, with evidence of at least one participant deciding to live independently as a result of receiving a wage. The therapeutic benefits of working and volunteering are clear.

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The worker that works with my son is absolutely fabulous, nothing is too much trouble, she helps with college and his work placement with transport or any information that we might need as his needs are quite complex. It's made a big difference, he's more confident, his whole personality's changed she's brought him out of himself and he really looks forward to seeing her, it's made a tremendous difference, he listens to the Employment Officer and she takes time explaining things to him. She's tried all ways with him and really worked hard with him.

He has been able to continue in the workplace where he was previously doing his placements with college. He's more confident, he'll answer the phone, he's confident to speak to people, he retains a bit more information than he used to and he goes to work knowing that he's going to work.

It's given him that independence and self-respect, getting a wage at the end of the month and he seems happy enough.

It's given her lots of work experience and different experiences heightening her belief in herself that she can be employed and increasing her self-esteem. She is working in a playgroup voluntarily on a Wednesday.

He's more confident, more outgoing, he lives independently and has become more independent since being involved with the project.

He's got increased confidence, his mood had lightened and it's increased his social contact.

She's a lot happier and more confident in herself and in other situations and she's in a better routine than she was.

Taking the therapeutic benefits forward the parents were asked to identify individual behaviour changes that they had noticed within their children, changes to confidence, communication, selfrespect, social confidence are all identified as being noticeable behavioural changes.

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Confidence, communication, listening to the appropriate things - he won't sit on the stairs now listening to everything he realises that not everything includes him, he understands that now without taking it personally, taking real offence and having a tantrum if he's asked to leave the room while we're talking.

He's more confident, he's come out of himself more, he's happier in himself and communicating more. The project has finished now and our biggest problem is transport as we live in a rural location and the Cer Amdani lady came and picked him up so now he can't get there and he's going to be devastated as he loves it.

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He's gained more self-confidence and he's more willing to talk to people, gained self-respect and independence.

She now talks about getting a job and goes on line to see if there is anything. She feels more confident going to different places as long as someone is with her, her support workers have also tried to travel train her, although she's got the skills to do it she's not confident enough to get on a bus on her own.

He is a lot more confident and outgoing now and because Mencap offer support it is someone else for him to talk to if he didn't want to discuss something with us.

There haven't been any negatives, he's more positive about going out into different places, he's experienced work situations and it's given him more aspirations as he's achieved certificates and experience.

She's more chatty, more likely to answer the phone and take a message, she takes a little bit more responsibility than she did, joins in more and she's got more friends as before she only had one.

The Cer Amdani team also helps with benefits advice where needed and 3 of the parents had used this service and rated it ‘very good’. Interviews with Employment Advisors during stage 1 of the research found that some parents are worried about participating in employment, rather than volunteering outcomes, as this can affect the benefits received by the parents as a result of their children losing some or potentially all of their social benefits. The survey asked the parents a generic question about whether they felt the Cer Amdani project enhanced or hindered their children in their personal development and goal of achieving employment outcomes. Rating the service of the team as a whole, taking in all of their functions the survey scored 27/28 on a 1-4 satisfaction scale, the verbal comments that explain the parents scores are also included below.

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They are all absolutely wonderful, their care is fantastic, he's been away with them and they have given him so much confidence, they are a very caring team and know all their clients.

I thought she was efficient and very good with what she did with me and my son, she pushed him to do things.

There was an incident in the residential home where he is working and it was sorted out by his support worker.

We have absolute trust in them, she has been away with them.

Because if there is a problem they always come back to us, they always ask his permission before divulging any information and never discuss anything with us without getting his feedback first.

We trust them completely, they know what they're talking about, have experience and get back to you if they need to find something out - they are very available and are in Carmarthen whereas other help hasn't been so local.

The parents were then asked to describe the support they had noted given to their child by the Cer Amdani team. Again the parents are highly aware of the support and encouragement the Cer Amdani team have given their children and how this has moved them into a position of experiencing work, volunteering or finding a job.

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They have given tremendous support, he was going to one placement and it wasn't working out very well and (Employment Advisor) investigated and it was stopped and she found another, she's always there for him and us.

The biggest problem we have is transport for him to get to the placement, the project lady used to take him, she stayed in the work place with him guiding him through the day so he was doing a proper job of work.

They have been very informative, they found this job for him, they've been very hands on.

They have been excellent, our only criticism would be that she has had 3 different support officers since she started on the project which I know isn't their fault it's just unfortunate as she gets to know someone and starts to trust them then they finish and she has someone else.

They have given him job coaching there has always been a support worker there with him when he's gone for interviews or to start a placement to introduce him to everyone giving him more confidence. They have prepared him for interviews, gone with him, helped him fill out application forms and explained them as he doesn't read or write.

They did a comprehensive assessment at the start, he had a job coach with him when he started until they were no longer needed and they weren't at all complacent once he was placed somewhere the minute he had any doubt they were sorting things out, they were very active with him. It's just a terrible shame it's going to stop.

Very, very well, they've had a lot of contact with her, found her a small family set up to work in worked alongside her for as long as she needed it and recognised what her needs were and picked things up. It's the best scheme she has been involved in and has made such a difference to all of us.

The survey also asked about the support the parents had given to their children during the Cer Amdani project process. This was asked in response to some Employment Advisors noting in interviews that parents were often over protective of their children, not allowing them to reach their full potential. In some cases the parents will need to take over the role of the Cer Amdani team if they participants are to maintain their jobs. For instance where the participant and parents feel that transport to and from the work place is not possible, or too risky.

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We chat to him before he goes, we've gone to the college placement beforehand to chat to them and see what is going on so we are able to explain to him and we've gone to open days.

It was a continuation of what he was doing in college so he knew where he was going and the people there already and we are always supportive of him anyway.

It's been a joint thing, we've looked for work for him too and I've supported him going through all the procedures and forms when we went to the Job Centre, I've been with him from the word go.

Just by being here, I'm here when she goes out and here when she gets back.

We've taken him there on other occasions - found out from (Employment Advisor) where it was and I've caught buses with him and we help explain things.

I've been prepared to take him anywhere and encouraged him to be open to any experiences really.

We always give her a lift and pick her up and we encouraged her to go back into volunteering, we are always there for her and if there's something we need help with we phone Cer Amdani to get advice.

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Finally we asked the parents if they knew of any other similar support project that would help their children find volunteering work or paid employment. One parent was aware of the Job Start scheme managed by Shaw Trust in the South Wales area, although the level of mentoring and in job support is not as intensive within this project and so may not be as appropriate for participants with more severe Learning Disabilities, on the Learning Disabled continuum.

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None that we know of and I don't think that if there were they would be able to offer the level of support that Cer Amdani do. Everything that's been done has been very gratefully accepted and he wouldn't be where he is now if it wasn't for them. He's been involved with the project for just over 2 years and it's helped as he's had one continual worker - his confidence is good with someone he knows and trusts but it takes a while to build up. He is 21 years old and has Global Ataxia - general learning difficulties and the specialist told us when he was a baby that he'd never walk or talk - he's doing both.

We're not aware of anything, I feel as if we're on our own now and it'll be worse now if he can't continue as he's experienced it and it's made a difference, he loves it and if it stops he'll be devastated. It'll be worse than if he'd never done it in the first place.

I think so, we've got an appointment with the Job Centre next month, I think it's something called Sure Trust, I am aware of what's out there.

Not a lot, she has a social worker who has suggested a few things but there isn't any paid work we can find. She's in her second year at college doing Foundation Skills - writing CV's, independent living etc but when that finishes I don't know what's available.

At the Job Centre he has a disability careers advisor to make sure he is sent on things he is capable of, but apart from Mencap I don't know of any other support /help that's available.

We're hoping there is going to be some funding through grants to help him through Cer Amdani, but apart from them and Social Services I don't know of anyone else.

There is only Mencap really, there doesn't seem to be anything else that helps with employment and everything else. She was involved for a bit with the Prince's Trust but that just seemed to be helping with her confidence and the same with Surestart and none of these have been consistent like Cer Amdani has been. The lady in the Job Centre's good but that's just a pep talk every now and then.

Summary

The parents are highly supportive of the Cer Amdani project and appreciate and identify the level of work the Cer Amdani team does for their children. It is an intentional design of the project that the Cer Amdani workers gain the trust of the project participant but also their family members too. This trust can be seen throughout the comments made by parents above.

The effect is that the participants gain confidence in their job opportunity through being supported by their Cer Amdani worker.

The parents can clearly identify the therapeutic impact of the Cer Amdani project in its effect on the confidence and behaviour of their children, in the comments made above the building of confidence, recognition that positive changes and behaviours are evident and that communications skills and self confidence are frequently discussed. Finally it is clear that the knowledge of alternative employment and volunteering support projects is low, even though parents are aware that the Cer Amdani support is due to cease in June 2011.

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9.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The Cer Amdani project has achieved its targets agreed by the BIG Lottery’s Stepping Stones funding package. It has done this by achieving contact with young people with Learning Disabilities and Employers, and working with both to secure employment opportunities for the young people involved.

Using only metrics such as the number of young people given work opportunities, or the number volunteering demonstrates a satisfactory outcome. Speaking with the young people, the employers, the parents and the disability employment specialists, who are all also indirectly involved in the project, the quality, personalisation and can-do attitude across the whole team has produced the highest quality of outcomes.

The very fact that parents, who understandably protect their disabled sons and daughters as much as possible, trust the MENCAP team to develop their children’s self confidence, communication skills, and independence to a point where they can travel to work, hold down a job, and then travel home again unsupervised is proof enough.

The only valid recommendation to be made within this evaluation therefore is to recommend that the project continues to deliver such high quality and personalised work to young people with learning disabilities across south Wales. Unfortunately it appears that no further funding will be made available and the project will cease from March 2011.

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10.

References and Resources

1. BIG Lottery – Stepping Stones Grants Officer &Strategy Officer 2. Dr Stephen Beyer – Cardiff University The quality and costs of supported employment and the evaluation of day services - Dr Stephen Richard Beyer Evaluation of the net costs and social outcomes of government disability employment initiatives Dr Stephen Richard Beyer Effective processes for transition from school to adult life - Dr Stephen Richard Beyer 3. Valuing Employment Now http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/ DH_101401 4. Technology Conference in Wales – June 2011 – using technology for getting / maintaining employment for people with Disabilities - http://www.impact-in-europe.eu/ 5. http://www.learningdisabilitywales.org.uk/index.php Information Officer –Unemployment Statistics 6. Local Authority Registers of People with Disabilities at 31 March 2010 http://wales.gov.uk/docs/statistics/2010/101027sdr1752010en.pdf 7. Elite Supported Employment agency and chair of Wales Association of Supported Employment Agencies - www.elitesupportedemployment.co.uk 8. MENCAP –Cer Amdani team and officers Same as You? – survey Scottish Government 2007. On line published Annexes. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/03/20154612/2

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