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February 2013

Proposals for a newDisability Employment Strategy Page 3

Heroes andVillains

Lost inTranslation

My Skills,My StrengthsMy Right to Work

February 2013 2

Tel: 01204 880733Email: admin@base-uk.orgWeb: www.base-uk.org

Registered office:Unit 4, 200 Bury Road, Tottington, Lancashire. BL8 3DX Any opinions and views contained in this newsletter are personal and do notnecessarily reflect the views of BASE.

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WelcomeContents

Contacts

Inside this issue…

Discussion Paper:Proposals for a new Disability Employment Strategy

SEQOL Conference 11 June 2013

Lost in Translation - Paul Wilson

Frankly Recruitment - Ann King

Benefits in disability - Amanda Frank

A date for your diary

Project SEARCH

11th EUSE Conference

Wiltshire Police Awards

My Skills, My Strengths,My Right to Work

Social Enterprise Awards - Jayne Mills

WEST secures apprenticeship withWarwickshire Commun ity Recycling

SEQOL puts ValuingPeople Now into practice

Hackney young peoplecelebrated at V&A event

Heroes and Villains

BASE statement on Panorama:The Great Disability Scam?

Gloucester City Homes buildsinnovation into recruitmentBASE member meetings

This spring sees the development of the latest disability employment strategy. You’ll be forgiven for thinking that we’ve been here before! I can’t remember how many task groups I’ve been involved in over the years but the thing that I’m constantly reminded of is colleague saying, “We know what works – supported employment. Why won’t anyone fund it?”We don’t yet know what will follow when the existing Work Choice contracts end in 2015. Some think it will be tweaked and re-tendered; others that it will be amalgamated into the Work Programme. Meanwhile, the Sayce Report recommended a system of personal budgets under the Access to Work banner. Suffice to say that each of these options isn’t very attractive for their own reasons. Whilst Work Choice hasn’t been a runaway success, its outcomes are improving and are substantially better than the Work Programme where startlingly few people across all the ESA payment bands secured a job outcome.The key issue for Work Choice has been how it has failed job seekers with learning disabilities and long term mental health needs. These groups were the focus of PSA16 and yet the judgement from Disability Employment Advisors is that the Work Choice programme is failing them. Almost 70% of Work Choice starters in the last two quarters have been for Jobseekers Allowance claimants and less than 17% were ESA claimants. Around 37% of referrals were for people in receipt of DLA.We’ve seen little enthusiasm for personal budgets; the funding just isn’t there in a viable and sustainable way. We know that intensive, personalised support requires low caseloads and previous work by the Department of Health suggests an average cost of £7,000 - £10,000 per customer. The only way to achieve anywhere near this is to include DWP funding. While there’s been promising feedback from the Stockport Right to Control project, we’ve yet to find a system for pooling funding that isn’t bureaucratic and cumbersome.Do customers really want to choose provider or employ their own support? Or is personal budgets just an easy way to ration entitlement to support? I suspect that what people want is a job and good quality support. As the new employment strategy develops we have to be proactive in suggesting a way forward. The DWP commissioning strategy has failed disabled people and it’s time to work out how we can do things differently. BASE is consulting with stakeholders and we’d value your opinion on how personalised support can be commissioned in the future. The discussion paper in this newsletter is the first step on that road – please let us know what you think of its proposals and any alternative ideas you may have. Best wishes, Huw

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February 2013 3

Discussion Paper:

Employment support is currently available to people with disabilities through the mainstream Work Programme, the specialist Work Choice programme and through specialist provision commissioned locally.

It is clear that the Work Programme has not been effective in securing work for disabled jobseekers. Recent data from the Work Programme indicates that only 1130 out of 68,000 people across all the Employment & Support Allowance (ESA) payment bands secured three months work through the programme between June 2011 and July 2012.

The recent evaluation² of the early stages of the Work Programme suggests:

• limited use of specialist provision to address individual barriers to work, and that the personalisation of support is often more procedural than substantive in nature;

• deficiencies in communication and information flow (in both directions) between Jobcentre Plus and Work Programme providers; and

• that many providers are prioritising more ‘job-ready’ participants for support, ahead of those who are assessed as having more complex/substantial barriers to employment.

Work Choice was introduced in October 2010 as a national specialist disability employment programme. Published data , interim evaluation and anecdotal evidence all indicate that the programme is not being accessed by significant numbers of people with substantial disabilities such as moderate/severe learning disabilities, autism or severe mental health needs. Disability Employment Advisors are saying that the programme is simply not meeting the needs of these customer groups.

Proposals for a newDisability Employment Strategy

1 Work Programme Statistical Release (DWP, November 2012)2 Work Programme evaluation: Findings from the first phase of qualitative research on programme delivery (DWP Research Report 821, 2012)3 Work Choice: official statistics (DWP, November 2012)

Work Choice was specifically designed to meet the needs of all disabled people. Data about the programme is difficult to analyse because of the transition of 14,000 customers from the previous Workstep programme.

• Over the last 6 months for which we have data, 70% of referrals are for JSA claimants.

• Jobseekers with a visual impairment, moderate/ severe learning disability and severe mental health needs together make up just 13.9% of programme starts.

• Only 38% of referrals were for people in receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA). The average job outcome rate for JSA/IB/SDA/ESA claimants in receipt of DLA is 17.7%, significantly below the programme’s overall average of 24.7%.

Excluding those whose primary disability is unknown, it is clear that the majority of programme starts are for people with long-term medical conditions (10.9%), “multiple conditions”, (13.4%) and mild disabilities (36.4%).

DWP funded employment programmes have simply not been able to respond to the employment aspirations of people with significant disabilities. Locally commissioned support is being scaled back in many areas with reports of 40% of local authorities in England disinvesting in specialist support.

February 2013 4

Discussion Paper: Proposals for a new

Work Choice has been procured until October 2015 using a supply-chain contracting model in line with the DWP Commissioning Strategy. Provision may be extended for a further two years.

Future provision is likely to be designed in line with the recommendations contained in the developing Disability Employment Strategy, which is being led by the Office for Disability Issues (ODI).

We need to ensure that DWP has assurance about how national funds might be used on a local basis. This will require clearer evidence on cost/benefit analysis and an identification of key drivers such as education reforms, further integration of health and social care, and the impact of Universal Credit.

Disability Employment Strategy: continued

4 Supported Employment and Job Coaching: best practice guidelines (HM Government, March 2011)5 Realising Ambitions: Better employment support for people with a mental health condition (DWP, December 2009)

Key Questions for Future Provision

Supported Employment, or its variants such as Individual Placement & Support (IPS), is widely regarded as the most effective means of supporting disabled individuals into employment. Supported Employment and Job Coaching: best practice guidelines4 describes an agreed cross-Government definition of what supported employment should look like. Realising Ambitions describes a similar approach to individualised support for people with a mental health condition.DWP has never funded supported employment provision despite a consensus on its efficacy. The developing ODI Disability Employment Strategy is an opportunity to seek mainstream funding for a model that we know works well if carried out with fidelity to best practice.

The key questions for future provision are:

1. Exactly who is the customer group for this new provision and can they be easily identified by referral agencies? 2. What should the provision look like to customers? 3. What role is there for customer choice? 4. How should it be commissioned and by whom? 5. What is the process for funding provision?

1. The customer group

BASE proposes that new specialist provision be aimed at those with the most significant disabilities. This would include those people with learning disabilities or a long-term mental health condition as identified by the PSA16 cohorts. In addition, adults with an autistic spectrum condition, those who are profoundly deaf and people with a severe visualimpairment may be easily identified and benefit from such individualised support.

One of the criticisms of current provision is that it is very unclear about which programme people are signposted to and there has been a consequential blurring of customer groups across the Work Programme and Work Choice. It is likely that DWP will require an easily identifiable customer cohort for any new programme.

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February 2013 5

Discussion Paper: Proposals for a new

We are proposing that any new provision focus on individuals who are assessed as being in the ESA Support Group. This could be extended to include disabled people in specific circumstances including:

• Being known to local authority social care because of the nature of their disability

• Having a sensory impairment or autistic spectrum condition

• Being in receipt of a certain level of DLA/PIP

It is not proposed that everyone in the ESA (WRAG) group be included in the customer group. This would broaden it to far. However, if we can get the funding model right then, in theory, there should be no reason why Work Programme providers couldn’t buy into this support.

There is an argument to suggest that people recovering from substance misuse and young care leavers may also benefit from such individualised support.

Q. Is this the right customer group? Q. Should provision be extended, from the start or later, to NEETS, ex-offenders, care-leavers and people recovering from substance misuse

2. The delivery model

The models of supported employment / IPS6 are already widely described and internationally agreed. It is proposed that any funded provision should be fully compliant with the definitions already in place.

It is suggested that issues related to supported business and social enterprise be dealt with separately.

One of the key issues will be the variable quality of supported employment provision across the country. There is no system of inspection or quality assurance currently in place. The Ofsted inspection of previous Workstep provision showed that a framework of external appraisal and self-assessment greatly increased the general quality of provision.

Disability Employment Strategy: continued

6 See http://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/employment/ips.aspx and http://www.euse.org/process7 See http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/node/241308 Jobs First Evaluation: Interim Report (Kings College London, April 2011)

There is evidence that fidelity to the model of supported employment is a key indicator of successful provision. We now have national occupational standards and work is underway to develop a qualification framework for the sector. BASE feels that this should be complimented by a set of service standards so that agencies can be benchmarked. This would offer assurance to commissioners, employers and customers.

Peer review has been used in some areas but it is unlikely that this can be sustainable as a model. Other options may include the involvement of Ofsted, and the equivalent bodies in Wales and Scotland, or the funding of a specialist inspection programme. This could potentially be funded through the top-slicing of national funds.

Q. Should job retention and career development be built into the model, for example, through the use of Access to Work funding?Q. Do we need a system of independent appraisal of service provision and how might this operate?

February 2013 6

Discussion Paper: Proposals for a new

3. Customer choice

Evaluation of the Jobs First pilot projects and feedback from Right to Control areas has indicated a relatively low desire for personal budgets which require customers to choose a particular provider or employ their own personal employment supports. Where personal budgets have been used, there is scepticism about whether indicative budgets are adequate to fund the full cost of supported employment.

Supported employment is a niche activity and it is unlikely that most localities will have a wide range of such specialist providers. The Right to Control initiative has sought to braid budgets but feedback has suggestedthat this is likely to be a highly bureaucratic process.

Disability Employment Strategy: continued

9 Getting A Life: Professional views of its effectiveness and employment outcomes (Welsh Centre for Learning Disabilities, July 2011)10 The DWP Work Programme - the Impact of the DWP Procurement Model on Personal Service Innovation (Manchester Business School, August 2012)

We would suggest that customers are less interested in having a choice of provider than in getting high quality, locally-based support to access employment. The Getting a Life evaluation found that employment rates increased threefold where a coordinated approach was taken to achieving employment outcomes through a personalised planning process.

It is proposed that local commissioners use a framework of approved providers. Providers would need to demonstrate their ability to achieve and maintain a high quality service that focuses on achieving job outcomes. The use of local approved provider frameworks would allow the entry of new providers and enable the participation of local, regional and national providers. However, a multiplicity of provision needs to be seen in the context of employer needs. Employers, a key customer of supported employment services, will not want to see what they might regard as an overly fragmented local offer.

Q. How important is customer choice within specialist local services? Q. How do national providers fit into local commissioning frameworks?Q. How do we balance a range of local provision with the needs of employers for a coordinated approach?

4. Commissioning

We believe that the DWP Commissioning Strategy is not appropriate for commissioning local individualised support. We know that the employment aspirations of disabled people need to be encouraged through local engagement from the age of 14 years. People with significant disabilities don’t tend to use Jobcentres or have had poor experiences of doing so. It is essential that any new provision actively engages with potential jobseekers at a local level.

A recent report recommended that “a better strategic alignment between government’s welfare reform strategy and locality commissioning could stimulate innovative services for all claimants in spite of austerity".

It is proposed that any new provision be governed by a commissioning framework but commissioned locally by a partnership that brings together health, social care, employment and education agencies. This will enable the

February 2013 7

Discussion Paper: Proposals for a new

pooling of funding streams and coordination of strategic policy intent. Such commissioning could be undertaken by subgroups of Local Enterprise Partnerships or of the Health and Wellbeing Boards. Further work is needed to identify the best vehicle for commissioning specialist support and this may vary according to the structures in place across England, Scotland and Wales.

Customers under the age of 25 may have better access to education funding. One of the key issues will be how this can be harnessed to improve employment outcomes for those making the transition from education and for those who decide that further education is not their best route into work. It may be possible to “bolt-on” additional resources such as education funding for particular groups such as under 24 year olds. Some individuals may prefer to enter employment at 17 years rather than attend further education.

It is clear that local commissioners have varying levels of knowledge and experience around commissioning of specialist employment support. Most do not appear to know what it should cost, what it should look like or what the process involves. A Commissioning Framework is likely to be essential in achieving some consistency of approach across the country.

Q. What is the best vehicle for joint commissioning across England, Scotland and Wales?Q. How can we make best use of education resources within the context of the English SEN reforms?Q. How do we account for varying levels of local authority investment in provision?

5. Funding

The indications are that employment costs between £8k and £11k per person depending on the nature of support required. We believe that there is sufficient funding within the system to fund at this level.

Commissioners will need some assurance that any investment will lead to job outcomes and so it is suggested that the payment process includes a sustained outcome payment as well as service or attachment fees. Initial feedback suggests a 50%/50% split and that outcome payments are staged.

Disability Employment Strategy: continued

11 Jobs First Evaluation: Interim Report (Kings College London, April 2011)12 Getting in, staying in and getting on (DWP, June 2011)

The Sayce Review recommended that Work Choice funding be combined with Access to Work to form individual budgets but we have yet to see a mechanism that will make this work in practice. It is proposed that this funding be made available to localities where it can be combined with social care / health personal budgets and education funding.

Work is needed to gain consensus on how this funding can pay for local individual support. A Right to Control innovation programme in Stockport has focussed on the block funding of support combined with individual outcome payments. It may be that DWP funds could be used to reward outcomes achieved using local funding.

We recognise that not all localities will invest equally in specialist provision. Those localities that invest more will expect better outcomes and should receive greater rewards. Effectively, DWP funds could be claimed by local commissioners for job starts and the achievement of sustained employment.

Further work will be needed to identify payment trigger points, particularly with the future introduction of Universal Credit.

In theory, there is no reason why people could not request direct payments under the new system.

Q. Does “Payment by Results” work?Q. What should be the balance between attachment/service/fees and outcome payments?Q. Should a new programme be uncapped? If so, who should pay the service fee?

BASE is launching a consultation with members andstakeholders before submitting proposals to the disability employment strategy. We have already held two stakeholder meetings with individuals and representatives from partner organisations. Please send us your views to admin@base-uk.org or complete our online survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/disability-strategy

January 2013 8

Discussion Paper: Proposals for a newDisability Employment Strategy: continued

Supported employment

Contract priming to fund engagement and vocational profiling

Service/attachment fees

50% of funding

Outcome payments for job starts and sustained employment

50% of funding (?)

Support for retention and career development (Access to Work funds?)

Work Choice and Access to Work

and education funding

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Please let us have your thoughts, comments and suggestions. You can email them to us atadmin@base-uk.org

Fig 1 Outline of proposed new provision

What’s your view?

DWP funding fromWork Choice andAccess to Work

Health, social careand educationfunding

Local joint commissioning

http://base-uk.org/disability-strategy

February 2013 9

Conferences

SEQOL are proud to offer you a unique one-day conference offering a chance to network and learn with professionals and those involved with people with Autism Spectrum Conditions.

Who should attend?Anyone wanting to develop their skills supporting adults or young people with an Autism Spectrum Condition.

What the conference offers?With a focus on evidence-based practice and real-life approaches, the conference will improve understanding through an insight into the evidence base alongside practical ideas around support. This conference will not assume pre-existing knowledge of ASC but will focus on including the most-up-to date research and practice in all areas it explores, presented by experienced practitioners or people with ASC themselves.

Speakers: Richard Mills: Research Director for National Autistic Society and Research Autism

Sue Smith: Professional Lead for Autism/Researcher

Oriana Morrison-Clarke: Specialist Speech and Language Therapist (Autism Spectrum Conditions)

Kim Jenkins: Specialist Adult Social Worker in Autism Spectrum Conditions

Anne King: Supported Employment Manager

Julie Dalton: Specialist Occupational Therapist

Martina Montague: Specialist Hearing Therapist

Jo Shackell: Specialist Community Nurse for Autism Spectrum Conditions

Jackie Lund: Community Matron

Paul Grubb: Presenter with ASC

Chloe Grubb: Presenter with ASC

Effective Support for people with Autism Spectrum Conditions

- Tuesday 11 June, 2013 -9:30am -4:30pm at South Marston Mercure Hotel, Swindon, SN3 4SH

Conference generously supported by

Topics• Supporting people with autism spectrum conditions and offending behaviour

• Making employment work for people with Aspergers and for employers

• Approaches to understanding and supporting communication for people with Asperger’s

• The role of the Specialist Social Worker with people with Autism Spectrum Conditions

• Quality of Life for People with borderline learning disability and Autism Spectrum Conditions

• Current thinking and best practice for women with Autism Spectrum Conditions

• Sensory Integration approaches for people with Autism Spectrum Conditions

• Advocacy and Autism Spectrum Conditions

• Stress in ASC- What’s the big deal?

What’s includedAs well as networking opportunities and access to a number of informative stands during the event, the conference price includes • Refreshments • Buffet Lunch

• Conference pack • Hard copies of all workshops

Please note that some afternoon workshops will have limited places and will be bookable on the day on a first-come first-served basis. If there is a particular workshop that you wish to attend, please let the conference organisers know in advance and we will try to facilitate this.

Standard delegate rateBooking received after March 31st 2013. £179 Inc VAT

ASC rateSpecial discount for people with ASC and their families. £89 Inc VAT

Early bird delegate rateBooking received prior to March 31st, 2013 £149 Inc VAT

Please make cheques payable to SEQOL

Priority Booking FormName of delegate: .....................................................................................................

o Parent o Person with ASC o Other (please tick þ where appropriate)

Address: .................................................................................................................

Email: ......................................................... Phone number: .......................................

Special dietary requirements: .......................................................................................

o Early Bird o Standard Rate o ASC Rate (please tick þ where appropriate)

Autism 2013, SEQOL HQ, North Swindon District Centre, Thamesdown Drive, Swindon SN25 4AN

For further information please contact Sue Smith 01793 466712

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February 2013 11

Lost inTranslationPaul Wilson

It struck me about half way through my recent week-long working visit to Germany that independent travel through a country whose language is not your own offers a useful metaphor for disability.

As I moved around Germany, people were helpful everywhere. Virtually every customer-facing employee – behind desks, in uniforms – spoke enough English to give help to this non-German speaking Englishman, including the waiter with a learning disability who served me breakfast in Hamburg. And each of the people I had travelled to Germany to meet went way beyond what straightforward kindness to a foreign colleague might have required.

But there are limits to the help that even good-hearted citizens can give. There are small transactions that you yourself must undertake if you travel around a foreign country by yourself. There are ticket machines to navigate. There are trams and trains to catch. There are meals to negotiate, and bus timetables to understand, and directions to ask, and taxis to book, and plans to be changed at the last minute. In my case there were also schools and offices to find in unfamiliar suburbs well away from tourist hotspots as I moved around from Frankfurt to Heidelberg and Schwetzingen and then north through the Rhine country and Cologne and on to Hamburg.

All of these in themselves are small challenges. Most of them are temporary nuisances that can be readily overcome in a cosmopolitan, post-industrial, multi-lingual country like Germany.

But it began to dawn on me after a few days that, in a very small way, my experience had some parallels with the everyday challenges faced by people with a range of disabilities.

In my own environment, on my own terms, I knew I could be independent. I was `able` to do everything I needed to without needing very much obvious help.

Here, though, in another country, through no fault of my own, I wasn’t able to do a number of things I might otherwise have taken for granted. Some of the things I could do tooklonger, or I didn’t do very well (see: Wilson v. S-Bahn ticket machine at Hamburg Holstenstrasse railway station), or I needed to do them several times before the task was completed.

What occurred to me was that German society was predominantly organised for people who spoke German. It didn’t need to disadvantage me but it did because virtually everyone else was fine with the way the country organised virtually all its oral and written communications in its native language. The German approach made some concessions to English speakers, but I was (quite understandably) not always catered for, for example when a platform alteration was announced and I didn`t realise because the announcement was only made in German. A society that assumes everyone can do a specific thing (for example speak German, or walk up a flight of stairs, or hear speech) and organises itself in a way that is built on this assumption, will put at a disadvantage those people who can’t do that thing. It will prevent them contributing their best. It will make them feel less valued and more like outsiders.

A week moving around in Germany took considerably more planning, more effort and more energy than a week at home doing similar things would take. I had to work harder to achieve the same results. My anxiety levels were (occasionally) higher. I wasn’t as independent a citizen as I had previously been in England. I felt, once or twice, a bit of a nuisance.My ability wasn’t any less, but the way that the world around me was organised was having a dis-abling effect on my interactions with the world, with my ability to explain myself, with my capacity to live an ordinary life.

For me, that dis-abling effect was both slight and temporary. Given that I was in Germany it was also entirely understandable.

February 2013 12

Lost in Translation: continuedPaul WilsonBut the experience, nevertheless, was a powerful one. And I got to thinking on the flight back home that maybe it should be compulsory for every figure of authority to travel like this just a little bit. Maybe everyone exercising power over other people’s lives would benefit from the perspective of feeling just a little bit `dis-abled` for a short period of time, so that n the future everyone would strive to ensure that nothing would get lost in translation.

As a PS, I want to give a quick plug to the Stadthaushotel in Hamburg (www.stadthaushotel.com). If anyone is planning a visit to Hamburg or its surrounds in the future, bear it in mind. It’s a small stylish, spotless, modern (boutique?) hotel with a bistro (Café Max B) attached to it that does a range of excellent meals and snacks. It’s a

gentle 10 minute stroll away from one of the mainline stations in Hamburg – Altenna, with terrific public transport links into the city centre.

The hotel’s one other virtue is that 9 of its 11 permanent staff have a disability, six of them a learning disability. It was founded 20 years ago by a group of parents of young adult children who had learning disabilities and, 20 years on, several of them still work there in what remains a successful hotel which is now part of the Embrace Hotel group (www.embrace-hotels.de) which runs hotels with social enterprise/ social firm principles across Germany and now Italy.

Take a look.

Frankly RecruitmentAnn King (SEQOL)

Not all recruitment agencies are the same. In fact, some are Frankly different as I've found out with Frankly Recruitment. I was intrigued by Amanda Frank, Director of Frankly Recruitment after reading her profile on Linked In and wanted to meet her. It read that her team work differently from other agencies, matching customers to their clients’ job roles, rather making square pegs fit into round holes. Isn't that what we do in supported employment? Amanda agreed to meet me.

I'm always proud to welcome visitors to SEQOL HQ now that we employ people with learning disabilities in Meet & Greet roles on reception. On the day Amanda came to meet me, she had a professional welcome from Maria who conducted Amanda to a room for our meeting and made her a good cup of tea.

Our discussion was around the barriers to employment for disabled people like Maria, which we both recognised. I told Amanda about the significant successes energy2work has had introducing local businesses to people with Aspergers Syndrome. Putting them in the right role and playing to their key strengths, some people have been able to create their own roles by increasing business and revenue; a win-win situation for employer and employee. Amanda hadn't considered disability in this way before.

Keen to support energy2work, Amanda wrote a blog about our meeting. She offered to tell businesses on her database about this great opportunity for employers. In January this will begin with a pilot mail drop to 50 employers, sending an energy2work leaflet, business card and a 'call for action' especially written by Amanda, giving endorsement to the business case for supported employment.

There is nothing stronger than business endorsement in supported employment. Energy2work is fortunate to have Frankly Recruitment's endorsement to help it fulfil its challenging targets..

February 2013 13

Did you know there are to having disability in the work place?Amanda Frank

I had an enlightening meeting with Ann King the Supported Employment Project Manager for SEQOL. The aim of SEQOL energy2work is to give disabled people the skills and chance to get into work.

Finding employment without work experience is very difficult for anyone and to be brutally honest I met with Ann out of courtesy and interest; I didn’t expect for her to change my outlook on disabled workers.

On arrival at SEQOL I was met at reception by a sparky, professional lady who dealt with me with ease and enthusiasm. Ann explained to me that this lady is one of their success stories. Maria is a lady who spent 18 years of her life going to day centres. She had no ambition of work or employment; it simply wasn’t on her radar. Since being with SEQOL energy2work she has attended various courses and gained the work experience to make a positive contribution to her employer. Maria didn’t hesitate in making me a fantastic cup of tea and her presence clearly added diversity to the work place in a unique, sunny way.

Don’t get me wrong. My commercial awareness and experience of my clients still had me thinking that this is all good and well in this particular organisation but where would Maria or others with disability fit in the “real world” for want of a better phrase. And then Ann explained.

Asperger Syndrome is a common disability that SEQOL work with and support. Asperger Syndrome is on the autistic spectrum but it doesn’t have a huge impact on linguistic or cognitive development. It effects social skills and often means that the person can be obsessive withroutines and intense preoccupation with a narrow subject.

Ann turned this Syndrome on its head and explained to me how the symptoms can actually be a benefit to an employer.

We often have assignments in where the role is repetitive and retaining temporary staff is a challenge. They don’t turn up, they lose interest or they simply don’t care about the task. So what if somebody with Asperger Syndrome did data entry? You could channel that obsessive, routine loving character into a top quality member of staff churning out high quality data processing day after day. Yes they may be quiet or introverted, they may say the wrong thing occasionally but doesn’t everyone at some time and isn’t that diversity? Having a team member who has an extreme attention to detail, thrives on repetition and has no interest in office politics can only be a good thing!

I wonder if like me, you can now think of where having someone with Asperger Syndrome in the work place could be a real benefit. Most employers have a diversity and equal opportunities policies in place. It makes me as a business owner think about whether I truly live diversity and equal opportunities or simply give it lip service.

Frankly Recruitment is committed to working with SEQOL in communicating the benefits of considering disabled candidates within your teams. Of course it’s not always possible but wewould like to talk to you and ask that you give the idea some consideration. Let us not forget we have a corporate responsibility and a disability discrimination act to ensure that we don’t write off these people.

If you think that you may have an opportunity for someone with disabilities within your workforce, give me a call and we can talk it over. If you decide to go ahead you won’t be doing it alone. You can start with work experience, working interviews and there will always be someone from SEQOL with you to support you in integrating your new employee so you can sit back and reap the rewards. This may be a controversial thing to say but the business person in me can also see this is a low cost solution to staffing your tasks whilst giving a chance to a deserving cause.

BENEFITS

To learn more, call Amanda on 01793 514441 or email on Amanda@franklyrecruitment.co.uk

February 2013 14

Pluss ‘Highly Commended’in Social Enterprise ofYear AwardsJayne Mills (Pluss) This year’s Social Enterprise UK Awards saw entries from over 300 organisations that have a social or environmental mission. Pluss was shortlisted for the ‘Social Enterprise of the Year’ Award and Jayne travelled to London for the big event.

“I arrived in London on a miserable, wet day. In the afternoon I went to Price Waterhouse Cooper’s headquarters by the river for the reception and recognition of the England social enterprises that were short-listed for UK awards.

There were two short-listed organisations for our award that were highly commended and we were delighted tobe one of them! We were presented certificates alongside the England winner with handshakes and congratulations from Claire Dove MBE, Social Enterprise UK’s Chair.

We then travelled to the main evening event held at Lord’s Cricket Ground. The room overlooked the practise ground that several of us (myself included) had presumed was the main pitch that happened to

be looking a bit under the weather!

The dinner and awards ceremony was absolutely lovely and we were all in good cheer to congratulate the East Belfast Mission as the overall award winner for our category: UK Social Enterprise 2012.East Belfast Mission is one of the longest established and largest community enterprises in Belfast. Based in an area where there is high social and economic deprivation they provide a future to all those in need, regardless of background or belief. Last year’s results include the provision of 24,500 meals to older people and the homeless, accommodation for 57 homeless individuals, the support of over 100 people back into work. A worthy winner indeed. www.ebm.org.uk

The evening continued late into the night with mingling, celebrating and dancing in central London. It was great to meet Claire Dove MBE and Peter Holbrook, Social Enterprise UK CEO – both very inspiring people.All in all, two fabulous events and I was very glad of the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people involved in so many great social enterprises.”

A date for your diaryBASE annual conference11-12 September 2013Marriott Royal Hotel, Bristol

We’ll be issuing further information about the conference and our annual practitioner awards shortly.

Sponsorship packages are availablecontact us for details.

February 2013 15

The national average for people with learning disabilities in paid employment is around 7%, yet Project SEARCH has helped 87.5% of the people it supported gain paid work in its first year of operation, making it the leading site in England.

The Plymouth scheme has inspired and supported many other sites throughout the UK to start their own projects enabling even more young people to move from dependency on benefits to becoming mainstream employees.

Thomas Waring, a first year intern graduate commented, “My time on the Project Search initiative was very enjoyable and hugely beneficial to me because during my time in the hospital I made huge leaps and bounds with my confidence”.

Thomas gained paid employment following his time on Project SEARCH adding, “Because I am now working full time and getting paid for it, I feel a great sense of commitment to the organisation I’m working for.”

Father of a graduate intern, Adrian Lowther, was delighted with the progress that his son has made both in his work and social skills saying, “Without the support of Project SEARCH we would be lost, it is so difficult for our sons and daughters to get a start in life. Without your support he would not have a paid job that he really enjoys. It has changed his life.”

www.pluss.org.uk/project-search

Plymouth’s Project SEARCH team receiving their award.(Left to right) Jayne Middleman, Derriford Hospital; David Hansford, City College Plymouth; Erin Riehle, USA Project SEARCH founder; Pip Critten, Pluss; Zenta Zubka-Hill, City College Plymouth

Project SEARCH presented withAward from American FounderErin Riehle, the American founder of Project SEARCH visited the Pluss Project SEARCH site in Plymouth recently to present them with an award to recognise their outstanding achievements.

Erin Riehle remarked, “It’s great to return to Plymouth Project SEARCH to meet the inspiring team and make this award for their outstanding outcomes.”

The project is a partnership between Derriford Hospital, Pluss, City College Plymouth and Serco, and offers an internship scheme that gives young adults with learning disabilities the opportunity to prove their skills, dedication and determination to gain paid employment.

Interns work in a variety of roles within Derriford Hospital, including portering, catering, cleaning, maintaining medical equipment and administration.

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February 2013 17

WiltshirePoliceAwards

One of Pluss’ customers was rewarded for his hard work at an awards ceremony organised recently by Wiltshire Police in Devizes to recognise and reward a number of contact management staff.

Over 50 people from the emergency contact centre, Force contact centre and front counter services were presented with certificates and awards. The awards were presented by Superintendent Nick Ashley and included Departmental Commendations, Certificates of Merit, Customer Excellence and NVQ awards.

Two of the awards presented were in relation to an innovative partnership with local social enterprise Pluss, an organisation that helps people with disabilities into work. Wiltshire Police has been working with Pluss since 2010 and has developed a programme with the call handling centre to train disabled people looking for work.

Central Call Handling Supervisor, Sinead Griffey, was awarded a Certificated Merit for the support she was able to offer her team member, Samantha Milnes, in order to mentor a Pluss customer, Robert Stevens.Samantha, who was awarded a Departmental Commendation, spent a number of weeks providing one to one training to Robert to prepare him for the recruitment process and has continued to act as a mentor to him and other Pluss customers.

Robert had previously been in work but found it hard to sustain employment. He started as a volunteer in the call centre a couple of years ago and Pluss helped him to negotiate the progression of this voluntary role into paid employment. Robert has a visual impairment and epilepsy which were accommodated for with reasonable adjustments including special software via Access to Work. After an assessment it was felt that Robert would be better suited in an area of work not dealing directly with calls but in administration and postal distribution, and a role was found especially for him. Robert’s job has made a huge difference to his life, he loves and is proud of his job and has become far more confident.

Samantha said: “It’s been a really positive experience, Pluss has been fantastic. I’ve really appreciated the support of managers within contact centre, specifically Superintendent Charlie Armstrong and John Flynn, their help and advice and time and investment in Robert is excellent.

“Robert and I have both learned a lot from each other and had some great times. Robert brings as much to the organisation as anyone else, if not more. Pluss find the right people, give advice about equipment and support throughout and I’d definitely recommend them to other organisations looking to employ a diverse workforce.”

Robert said “I was born totally blind and had 12 operations as a baby to try and save my sight as I have bilateral cataracts. I now have one weak eye with 30% vision and one stronger eye with about 60% vision. I was out of work for about three and a half years, there’s still a fair bit of stigma around employing visually impaired applicants. Being in work has definitely made a difference to my life, I now have the freedom to go out when I choose and be able to pay for transport.

“I get on very well here, I enjoy the interaction with my colleagues and have made a lot of friends, it’s a very friendly crowd. If I meet someone else with a disability who’d seen a vacancy that they were interested in I’d encourage them to go for it and definitely recommend the support of Pluss.”

Robert Stevens with his mentor, Samantha

“I was born totally blind and had 12 operations as a baby”

February 2013 18

My Skills,My Strengths,My Right to Work The Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (The ALLIANCE) has been awarded funding from the Scottish Government Equality Fund to improve access to the labour market for people with long term conditions, including the promotion of self management approaches. The ALLIANCE has more than 260 members, of which more than three quarters are Third Sector groups that directly support or represent people living with long term conditions and their unpaid carers.

The ALLIANCE commissioned Work4ME , a social enterprise co-operative, to carry out initial research to explore common threads of experience in regard to employability and to identify key themes and issues which the ALLIANCE can refer to when taking this agenda forward.

The ALLIANCE members stated that the most important issue to be addressed by the ’My Skills My Strengths My Right to Work’ project was changing and challenging the individual and employer perceptions of people living with long term conditions. In addition, members were keen that the ALLIANCE built upon their role as a campaigner at government level and an educator at the individual level in terms of self management.

Members firmly identified the key leverage in improving employability for people living with long term conditions to be reforming the benefits system, allowing individuals to work flexibly – perhaps a small number of hours or complete a trial period before benefits being immediately affected. When asked to pinpoint policies and practices which would also be effective two thirds of the responses highlighted: supporting flexible working hours, listening to the person living with long term conditions and allowing home working where possible.

Members continue to value the importance of our campaign ‘My Condition, My Terms, My Life’ which was launched in 2010 to share the message that living with long term conditions does not stop you being in charge of your own life. Members selected the most important aspects of self management in improving employability to be: having the confidence to talk to an employer about conditions and how they can manage them, taking responsibility for self-improvement, taking responsibility for one’s health in addition to learning about one’s employment rights under law.

The ALLIANCE has now recruited an Employability Development Officer to progress the project, striving to;

• improve the access to the labour market for people living with long term conditions

• reduce discrimination and negative attitudes by spreading good practice

• increase the capacity for people living with long term conditions to access, and maintain jobs, using self management.

‘My Strengths, My Skills, My Right to Work’ will continue to be shaped, advised and driven by the experience and collective voice of The ALLIANCE members and will seek to redress the inequalities experienced by those living with long term conditions when accessing the labour market.

13 www.alliance-scotland.org.uk14 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Equality/Funding15 http://www.sksscotland.co.uk/work4me-3/16 www.myconditionmylife.org

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February 2013 19

WEST secures apprenticeship withWarwickshire Community Recycling

The new Government Apprenticeship scheme has offered an exciting opportunity to one of Warwickshire Employment Support Team’s (WEST) customers, Barry Thorniley from Stratford. Barry has worked consistently on a voluntary basis since leaving school. He has proved himself to be a capable worker, doing light manual work in a range of workplaces, always with positive feedback but never with pay until WEST secured a part time paid position for the 24 year old as a park attendant last summer.

Despite having a strong work ethic and being prepared to do any type of job within his capability, the goal of full time paid work has up to now eluded Barry. Over the past 18 months WEST have supported Barry through over 30 job applications, and also with work trials and interview practice.

However, Barry’s fortunes have just taken a turn for the better with Warwickshire Community Recycling offering him a 12 months Apprenticeship. Barry will be working towards an Apprenticeship in Waste Management whilst at the same time working a 37 hour week at Wellesbourne Recycling Centre and occasionally at other recycling centres across the south of Warwickshire.

Helen Wilkinson from WEST who supported Barry through the application and interview process said, “Lots of things just came together at the same time for Barry. We ran an employer conference through BASE with E4E funding which helped to get the message out there amongst employers that learning disabled adults can be valuable members of the work force. Through follow up work with delegates we found a fantastically supportive employer who focussed on Barry’s abilities rather than his disabilities. The Apprenticeship vacancy was available, Barry fitted the bill and, following an interview, was offered the position.”

Barry has now been working in this post for a month and told Helen, “I like having a proper job. The guys I work with have shown me what to do and they even sorted me out a bike to get to work on when it isn’t raining. People bring their waste to the site and I help them to put it in the right skips. I’ve had my first pay check this week too which was a good feeling.”

Wayne Gibbons, from Warwickshire Community Recycling said, “Barry is a valued member of our team and we will be doing our best to support him, and our other apprentices, in gaining an NVQ2 in Waste Management. A key part of our goal as a charity is to show the community that there is a great deal of value in waste and we know that Barry, and his colleagues, will help us to achieve this.”

“I like having a proper job.

The guys I work with have shown me what to do and they even sorted me out a bike to get to work on when it isn’t raining.

People bring their waste to the site and I help them to put it in the right skips.

I’ve had my first pay check this week too which was a good feeling.”

February 2013 20

SEQOL puts ValuingPeople Now into practiceNot unlike many areas across the country, Swindon had outdated, inward looking day services. The change in management from local authority to social enterprise when SEQOL was set up in October 2011 allowed a radical modernisation of its day centres for people with learning disabilities. This involved amalgamating two centres to deliver a more cohesive service and redesigning the activities and provision to include employment services provided by SEQOL energy2work.

Backed by a grant from Job Centre Plus, energy2work delivered workshops within the day centre to start talking to individuals about work. These were creatively designed and included taking people out on site visits to employers, giving individuals the chance to explore and find out more about different work sectors. Hotels like the Swindon Marriott and the Holiday Inn Express were keen to support these visits, giving access to all areas of their business, followed by making time over a coffee to have a question and answer session. Other businesses offering this included Accord and FMW Recycling. These visits stimulated people in the workshops to start considering work as an alternative to a using a day centre.

From these initial sessions, three people with a collective experience of more than seventy years in days services said they'd like to find out more about work and joined the energy2work course.

Through the first part of the course it was clear that the learners had outgoing personalities and enjoyed interaction with people and being helpful. They showed a willingness to learn new skills and displayed a 'have a go' attitude. Through the course they learnt about work ethics, team working, communication, health and safety, interview skills and how to job search. Their profiling showed that they might work well in a front of house post.

At this time, SEQOL was emerging as a social enterprise and setting up headquarters in a new building. Energy2work saw an opportunity to jcarve a role in the SEQOL receptionthat needed cover over 48 hours eachweek. A work experience placement was arranged in the role on a rota basis for the three people who each had their own dedicated job coach.

Maria Bradford and tina Doyle working at SEQOL

They showed a willingness to learnnew skills and displayed a 'have a go' attitude.

• Letting visitors and colleagues in and out of a secure building• Handling incoming and outgoing post• Franking post• Distributing post• General admin duties• Showing visitors to meeting rooms• Making refreshments for visitors• Health and safety• Keeping reception clear and tidy

Progress was slow initially, but it was positive. Gradually SEQOL colleagues using the building became used to the Meet and Greeters and learnt to speak and work with them directly rather than through their job coach. They took responsibility for key tasks that ensure the safe and smooth running of the building such as:

In essence, their responsibility is to give every person, visitor or colleague, coming in to the building a first class customer service experience; a wow factor every time.

Two of them were able to undertake a mainstream customer service course at Swindon College. This was a course to underpin the key skills needed to be successful

February 2013 21

SEQOL puts Valuing People Now into practicein the role and included being a mystery shopper in a retail park. They were commended for their full participation and constructive feedback on their shopping experiences. Tutor feedback was that he had learnt as much from having them on the course as they had learnt from him. The learners and energy2work were very proud when they achieved the qualification.

for bingo and organised a colleague evening out at Gala. On this occasion, the tables were turned and colleagues became the learners as the person was the expert. She had a hard task teaching us all how to register, use the books, get refreshments....and she rose to the challenge giving us all a night out to remember.

There was also the occasion when a senior manager left boxes in a narrow corridor.....and promptly found one of the trio at his desk, reminding him about Health and Safety and asking him to move them immediately, which of course he did!

SEQOL is very proud to employ these three people with learning disabilities who now contribute to the service rather than use it. They are great role models for other people in day services who see them now experiencing a new way of life land enjoying the choices that earning your own money brings. It wouldn't be fair not to mention the commitment that work requires and that has needed them to turn down invitations that they would have naturally gone to before, like the day centre Christmas party that clashewith a shift. The plus side is that they are now included in SEQOL colleague socials.

They are role models for their colleagues too, demonstrating commitment, a good attendance record and a positive attitude. To become employed during an economic recesission a huge achievement that the trio can rightly be very proud of. For SEQOL they are the front face of the organisation, representing its strong values and mission to help people livthe best lives they can.

As the people progressed in the role and became an asset to SEQOL, energy2work was able to talk to them about a job opportunity. They had better off calculations which showed their financial situation would improve. An official work trial was set up which culminated in an informal interview. Access to Work supported the work trial, funding job coaches and a support worker for the few tasks that the job seekers were unable to achieve. The distance the trio had travelled from day one was remarkable and SEQOL had no hesitation in finding the budget to offer them contracts of employment.

The learning and development of the trio in this important and pivotal role will continue. One of the areas for development is to achieve skills in hospitality, working alongside SEQOL's catering team to set out buffets for catered meetings and events. With ongoing support from their job coach, they will continue to learn new skills, especially within the admin team, taking on additional tasks to become an increasingly valuable resource to SEQOL at a time when every role has to contribute to the financial bottom line.

: continued

What do the trio's colleagues say about them and their work?

“They lift the organisation with their cheerfulness and remind us why SEQOL was established; to help people live the best lives they can.”Chief Executive Officer

“The team fulfill an essential role and can be relied upon to do tasks that support and reduce pressure on many teams, such as making up folders and mail drops.”Business Admin Manager

“This team isa great example to colleagues. In nearly a year they haven't had one day off sick!”HR Officer

“I was treated professionally and with cheerfulness. A great experience for me!”A business visitor

In amongst all the efforts by everyone concerned to achievethis, there's been fun as well! One of the three has a passion

Photo courtesy of the Swindon Evening Advertiser

February 2013 22

Hackney young peoplecelebrated at V&A eventThe achievements of 17 young people from Hackney were celebrated at an event in the prestigious Sackler Centre at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South West London on Friday 7 December.  

Hackney Council’s Hackney One Team, formerly Hackney Recruitment Partnership teamed up with the V&A in 2004 to offer young people with learning disabilities the opportunity to do work experience and develop skills to allow them to do further education and gain paid employment. The scheme operates with a variety of local employers including the John Lewis Partnership.  

Speaking at the event Hackney Council Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care and Culture Jonathan McShane praised the scheme and congratulated the young people involved. Cllr McShane said: “One of the things we’re passionate about is helping young people with disabilities live as independently as possible. It requires real commitment from everyone involved in programmes like this and, most importantly, from the young people themselves, who have conducted themselves extremely well and proved how much potential they have.”

Rob Blackstone, Head of Adult Social Care LB Hackney awarding NVQ Certificate to Philip Yeboah.

Colleagues from John Lewis Oxford Street who are supporting the work experience scheme with the

Hackney One Team: Gurjit Dhanoa, Shabina Malik & Julie Tracey with

Mark Liddle, Transition Employment Adviser.

Jenny Edmonson, one of the teachers from the college who attended the celebration, said: “Students get so much out of it. They do real work and gain confidence.”

At the V&A Museum, at both its Kensington & Museum of Childhood site in Bethnal Green, the young interns assist in many activities and departments. They work in the shops, on the information desks, as tour guides, as escorts for people with disabilities, and also in administrative roles in the offices, all becoming valued members of the team.  

For further information about supported employment inHackney please contact Simon Thorne on 020 8356 7518 simon.thorne@hackney.gov.uk or Mark Liddle, 0208 356 7519 mark.liddle@hackney.gov.uk

Some of the young interns also spoke at the event about the impact working at the V&A had on them. Ibrahim Albayati aged 18 said: “I was helping in the shop at the V&A museum of childhood. Now I’d like to work in the Science museum.”

Lindy Radebe told how working at the V&A lead to a permanent job. Lindy said: “I used to work in the shop, in customer service and I always greeting visitors with a good morning. Now I work at Towpath café in Shoreditch. I take orders and deliver food to the customers. I do enjoy it but now we’re closed for winter we’re busy making jams to sell.”

Many of the young people who have volunteered in the V&A over the past eight years have been from Hackney Community College. The work experience counts towards an NVQ qualification and the young people all received awards today from Rob Blackstone, Hackney’s Head of Adult Social Care.

February 2013 23

Heroes and VillainsPaul Wilson

New Year is a time to take stock. It’s a chance to reflect on the year’s twists and turns. It keeps alive some way into January the Christmas season of goodwill to all men.

Well maybe not to all men. Just to those who deserve goodwill. To people like you and me. To decent people; to hard-working families; to taxpayers. To those of us who are `doing the right thing` by grafting away for UK Plc.

But, as the Government is sometimes anxious to explain to us, some people are not always so deserving of the nation’s goodwill; people like the shirkers. As honest folk set off for work at the crack of dawn and look up `at the closed blinds of their next door neighbour sleeping off a life on benefits` (as the Chancellor put it), they can be forgiven for wanting to exclude `the shirkers` from the list of those deserving of goodwill.

As the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement made clear, the Age of Austerity will be with us for several more years (at least), so it must surely be okay, following this line of thinking, for `hardworking families` to feel frustrated, maybe even a little bit angry, at the shirkers. After all, it’s because of them that we’re in this mess, isn’t it?

As ever with the politics of Us and Them, what seems at first glance to be a plausible dose of no-nonsense popular wisdom starts to unravel when the dividing lines begin to be unpicked.

Naturally, when we’re labelling people as shirkers we don’t mean to include those people who really are looking for work, do we? We applaud people who want a job but are finding it tough to win one, don’t we? Except that, just before her elevation to the Cabinet, Minister for Disabled People Maria Miller confirmed that she and her Cabinet colleagues believed the unemployment problem was down to a lack of `appetite` for the jobs on offer.

This was despite the fact that the latest official count of

unemployed people stands at 2.68 million, while the number of new workers being sought by employers in the last quarter of 2011 was 463,000. This works out at six people for every vacancy. And that’s the figure as it averages out across the country. In deprived communities, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research, the figure is closer to 16 jobseekers for every vacancy. Amongst 16-24 year olds, one in every five young person in 2012 couldn’t find a job.

In 2012, the fatally flawed Work Capability Assessment also dragged large numbers of people with multiple and complex disabilities and with life-threatening illnesses into the `undeserving` category. As one example of innumerable headlines through the year,

The Guardian reported last summer that arge numbers of patients with terminal and incurable conditions have been found fit for work after undergoing a 30-minute assessment, carried out by Atos Healthcare`.

Even people in work have found themselves on the wrong side of the fence now that benefits paid to families will no longer increase in line with inflation. Millions of people, many of them surviving on pay rates well below the Living Wage, will see their incomes fall in real terms. `We are at risk of consigning the poorest to a decade of destitution` observes Julia Unwin, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

There would be some measure of consolation if this situation represented a temporary blip. But there is a groundswell of economic thought that that the labour market may be entering a new phase of structural unemployment in which large swathes of semi-skilled work might be lost forever.

So it was interesting, in the midst of what has become an increasingly strident moral tone sounding off about shirkers and scroungers, that a recent piece of research by Professors Robert MacDonald and Tracy Shildrick from Teeside University and Andy Furlong from Glasgow University, involving intensive fieldwork, was unable to find any evidence of the fabled families with three generations in which no-one has ever worked.

February 2013 24

Heroes and villains continued

BASE statement on Panorama: The Great Disability Scam?

Paul WilsonProfessor MacDonald argued in presenting the research that, `Even two generations of complete worklessness in the same family is a very rare phenomenon. We found that families experiencing long-term unemployment remained committed to the value of the work and preferred to be in jobs rather than on benefits.`

In reviewing the data, Professor Shildrick observes that, `There was no evidence of a culture of worklessness; no evidence people didn't want to work and were happy to be dependent on welfare. In fact, workless parents were keen that their children do better than they had and actively helped them to find jobs.`

But in tough times it sometimes feels easier if there are people to blame. Not the bankers, or the politicians, or

the system, but people who are quite like you and me butjust a little bit different. People who it can feel good to feel bad about, because that’s how human nature sometimes works.

So, in the deep midwinter of austerity, here’s a new year’s wish – that we find a way to row back from the pernicious idea, currently gaining hold, of the deserving and the undeserving poor. People in receipt of help from the state are not the cause of our recession and do not deserve to be blamed. It wasn’t them who poisoned the credit derivatives trade or brought down Lehman Brothers. The whole point, after all, about a functioning welfare state - the crowning glory of European twentieth century social policy - is that we don’t need to live in a world of Them and Us but that we’re all in it together.

The Panorama programme on disability and the Work Programme broadcast on 28th January will come as no surprise to thousands of disabled jobseekers in this country. It is clear that the programme is failing many disabled people. The recent data release from DWP showed that just over 1,000 of the 68,000 ESA claimants referred to the programme had sustained work for over 3 months. The Panorama programme highlighted how so many people considered by providers as too hard to help are `parked`; a euphemism for ignored and neglected.

The Department for Work and Pensions knows that financial incentives drive provider behaviour, and the financial modelling of the Work Programme was meant to encourage providers to seek greater rewards by offering significantly higher outcome payments for those people with disabilities or long term health problems. It is an approach which, on the evidence, seems to be failing spectacularly.

BASE has always opposed the use of the DWP Commissioning Framework for providing welfare to work support to significantly disabled jobseekers. It is simply inappropriate. Most prime contractors don’t have the expertise to meet the needs of their disabled customers and yet they seem reluctant to refer on to specialist organisations. DWP claims that there are over 1,000 subcontractors on the Work Programme. Yet a BBC sample of 348 of these named subcontractors suggested that 40% of these didn’t even know that they were listed and some considered themselves to be just `bid candy` for the tenders that were submitted. Of those who were indeed subcontracting, 73% had received fewer referrals than expected and 41% had received no referrals at all.

The Government is this week launching a consultation on a new national disability employment strategy. Lessons must be learned and evidence-based support must be commissioned in the future. If personalised support is truly a Government aspiration then the Government should provide resources for an expansion of supported employment. It must also ensure that this provision meets agreed standards for each and every customer.

DWP recently published an evaluation of the Work Programme. It highlighted: • limited use of specialist provision to address individual barriers to work, and that the personalisation of support is often more procedural than substantive in nature; • deficiencies in communication and information flow (in both directions) between Jobcentre Plus and Work Programme providers; and • that many providers are prioritising more ‘job-ready’ participants for support, ahead of those who are assessed as having more complex/substantial barriers to employment.

We all want employment rates for disabled people to rise substantially, but the evidence now emerging from the Work Programme confirms without doubt that the programme is failing disabled people. The Government is right to talk about rights and responsibilities but this should work both ways. If the Government has the right to demand greater numbers of people actively seek work then it should also have the responsibility to ensure that adequate and suitable support is in place for every person seeking work.

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February 2013 26

Gloucester City Homes buildsinnovation into recruitment

Four people with learning disabilities have joined the Gloucester City Homes Estate Services Team thanks to a project involving GCH and a range of partners.

GCH is working with HFT, Pluss and Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) to provide a number of work opportunities for people with learning disabilities.

GCH has a commitment to providing opportunities for local residents either with GCH or its partner organisations and has provided a wide range of work experience opportunities, work placements and apprenticeships since its launch in 2005.

Working closely with the GCC contracted supported employment provider, Hft, GCH is employing four people on six-month paid employment placements providing support to their Estate Services Team.

Eamonn, Gareth, Ian and Jason had previously been long term unemployed and had been accessing the County Council’s Enablement Service. They had all been on benefits for a considerable number of years. Whilst the four of them had participated in a number of voluntary and work experience programmes, they had not had the opportunity to take on paid work or to be a valued part of an organisation such as GCH.

Hft and Pluss have worked closely with GCH to ensure potential hurdles such as the transfer from being on benefits to paid employment were overcome and that the whole experience was a success for both GCH and their new employees.

GCH is now working with Hft, Pluss and GCC to build a partnership to include other organisations, which will hopefully see a social enterprise formed to offer these four continued employment after their current contracts finish. It will also help to develop opportunities for other individuals with learning disabilities, other disabilities and mental health issues.

GCH Director of Housing and Business Development Anita Pope says:“The difference in the four people who have taken up this opportunity is amazing. Work has given them confidence and they have all been exemplary in the work they have carried out. This has been a really positive experience for GCH staff and it has really benefited the company by developing our understanding and experience of working with such an inspiring group of people. We are keen to

encourage other providers to take a similar approach and look at areas within their own organisations to provide similar opportunities.”

Jonathan Hansford, Project Co-ordinator for Hft’s Supported Employment Service in Gloucestershire adds, “I have really enjoyed working with Gloucester City Homes. Everyone I have met at the organisation has been very positive about employing Eamonn, Gareth, Ian and Jason in their Estates Service Workers Team. The guys are genuinely part of the team there and that is great to see.

“This has been a fantastic example of partnership working between Glos City Homes, Pluss, Hft and Gloucestershire County Council, and will continue to create other exciting opportunities for local people with learning disabilities.”

Perhaps the last word should go to the four new employees who said that “Everyone makes us feel part of GCH.” Ian Wildgoose added “I’ve loved working for GCH. Is our time going to extended because I don’t want it to end.”

February 2013 27

BASE member meetingsScotland:Contact: Alistair Kerr (Tel. 0141 333 0567)Email: Akerr@momentumskills.org

Next meeting: 22 February 2013All meetings are at Momentum, Savoy Towers, Glasgow

North East:Contact: Nerise Oldfield-Thompson (Tel. 01388 816895) Email: nerise.oldfield@durham.gov.uk

Next meetings: 22 February 2013 (Durham)

North West:Contact: Paul Wilson (Tel. 01254 680367)Email: paul.wilson@base-uk.org

Next meeting: 22 March 2013All meetings are held at Kings House, Manchester

Midlands:Contact: Harry Corrigan (Tel. 02476 785600)Email: hcorrigan@northamptonshire.gov.uk

Next meeting: 8 February 2013 (Coventry)

London & South East:Contact: Robert Elston (Tel. 020 8655 3344) Email: r.elston@statusemployment.org.uk

Next meetings: 2013All meetings take place at the Scope offices on Market Road, London

South West:Contact: Matt Britt (Tel. 0117 907 7200)Email: matt.britt@brandontrust.org

Next meeting: 21 February 2013 (Exeter)

Wales:Contact: Petra Kennedy (Tel. 01685 370072)Email: petrakennedy@mtib.co.uk

Next meeting: to be arranged

Minutes, dates and venues for meetings are listed on the BASE website at:www.base-uk.org/regions

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