The Government has signaled its support for the principles of supported employment and its willingness to work with local authorities. This enthusiasm needs to be matched by local authorities, NHS trusts and further education colleges collaborating to continue to invest in high quality local support, says Huw Davies.
Action to help disabled people into work is urgently needed. Employment rates for adults with moderate to severe learning disabilities hover stubbornly around the 7 per cent mark though this varies considerably with rates being significantly lower in the north. For adults who use secondary mental health services, the rate has improved to around 9 per cent while around 15 per cent of people with autistic spectrum conditions are said to be in work. The latter is an unofficiaI estimate as nobody collects figures.
It is encouraging that DWP seems open to new ideas about how best to support people with disabilities into work. Off the record, they are saying that the way they commission employment services isn’t working and they want to better understand what works.
Cross-Government review
We are currently going through a cross-Government review of the disability employment strategy, a process that began in early summer but isn’t officially a full consultation. The review follows on from Fulfilling Potential, published in September 2012, which sets out the Government’s approach to supporting disabled people to “fulfil their potential and play a full role in society”.
This was followed by Fulfilling Potential: Building a deeper understanding of disability in the UK today, a document that analyses the data around the current experience of people with a disability in the UK. We’ve also had Getting in, Staying in, Getting on, Liz Sayce’s report of specialist disability employment support and Raising Aspirations, Rachel Perkin’s review of mental health and employment. Both sought to identify what works before making recommendations for action.
As CEO of the British Association for Supported Employment (BASE) I am uncharacterically optimistic as I think DWP finally understands that employment support is complicated and that a generic approach will not suit everybody. There is a recognition that different approaches are needed for different customer groups and that within these groups there are individuals with a diverse range of needs.
The starting point has to be a deep understanding of what works best for whom. We know that many people require light touch support. They should be supported by mainstream services because their impairment requires fairly simple adjustments and facilities. And yet the experience of profoundly deaf people using their local job centre is not a happy one. BSL interpreters are routinely unavailable and the system unintentially discourages their engagement.
In theory, there is no reason why the mainstream shouldn’t be able to offer more individualised support to people with a disability. This was the idea behind the use of differential payments within the Work Programme. In reality the Work Programme has been appalling at supporting people on Employment and Support Allowance. Performance has been well below the minimum levels set by Government and shows little sign of improving. It’s particularly poor for those who have been reassessed from Incapacity Benefits. This is not surprising with a target-driven programme that encouraged providers to tender at low prices. They are reluctant to invest time and effort on individuals they perceive as the ‘hardest to help’.
If ‘hardest to help’ is meant to refer to people with learning disabilities it is unhelpful to say the least because 65 per cent of them want to work and we know that motivation is one of the most important factors in achieving employment.
Work Choice, the Government’s national disability employment programme, very nearly didn’t happen. It’s well known that at least one minister wanted a single programme that would use differential payments and a supply chain of specialists to support everyone. I’m sure they’re glad that didn’t happen. Work Choice performance has steadily improved as the programme matures and I’d expect job starts to plateau at around 40 per cent.
Persistent concerns
Yet all is not well with Work Choice. While it’s undoubtedly streets ahead of the Work Programme in its ability to support people with disabilities there are persistent concerns about the ability of people with significant disabilities to access the programme. I’ve never understood why a more specialist programme should have a shorter time to find someone a job than the mainstream programme but the result has been that many people have been filtered out by Disability Employment Advisors who think that they’re not ‘job ready’, whatever that means, and will be unlikely to become employed within 12 months. Work Choice was designed so that referrals could be made directly to the programme by health and social care providers, thereby bypassing the DEA. This Statutory Referral Organisation referral route works well in some areas but has collapsed in others.
What should be done? Work Choice is due to end in 2015 and we’re not sure what will come next. There seems to be a consensus that a disability programme should continue but that’s not much help if you can’t get on it.
The Government review has established a range of task and finish groups. These are covering themes such as Young People and Transitions, Labour Market Interventions, Engaging Employers, Job Retention. There is a group looking at mental health issues, the only disability-specific task group. There has also been a series of regional consultation meetings. Former Minister for Disabled People, Esther McVey, launched an excellent campaign to engage employers through the Disability Confident initiative. All of this is to be applauded.
The problem is that DWP has such a high turnover of staff that they’re in danger of forgetting all the evidence identified in the past and so we have to start from scratch, again. This is compounded by having three different Ministers for Disabled People in 16 months. This strategy review is meant to be co-produced. I agree with the principle but in practice that seems to mean involving an Olympic athlete or two in the discussions. There’s a real danger of a disconnect between policy makers and the reality of life for people who simply want a job.
Best practice
Before Valuing People came to an end three years ago, much work was done to identify best practice and to pilot different approaches. We had Project Search which led to the current roll out of supported internships and Jobs First which sought to braid different funding streams through individual budgets, later followed up through In Control.
Liz Sayce’s report came down heavily in favour of personal budgets. While I have no objection to people using personal budgets there is no evidence that it has led to significant improvements in employment rates or that the retail model it demands can function in a welfare to work environment. Jobs are not a commodity that can be bought. You can buy the process but at £5-10,000 personal budgets are nowhere near sufficient to buy that level of support. Instead, personal budgets have undermined the cause of personalisation as they become a vehicle for rationing support.
If you want to buy something, you need to make an informed choice based on knowing what is your best option. Jobseekers and employers have no way of knowing which services are the best because we don’t have an inspection or ratings system. Quality has gone out of the window at a time when resources are tight and outsourcing at the cheapest rate is favoured. It is hardly surprising that support is not as effective as we, and jobseekers, would like.
We know what works. Supported employment works. It’s been around for over 30 years, surviving on fragmented funding and operating under the Government radar. It’s not complicated; individualised support that identifies people’s strengths and aspirations, focuses on job outcomes, identifies good job matches and provides ongoing support to disabled workers and their employers.
The trouble is that supported employment is mainly delivered only by specialists, generally small local organisations who have been excluded from the current round of DWP programmes. The challenge is to harness this expertise in a way that is manageable for jobseekers, providers, DWP, and employers.
BASE has submitted proposals to the strategy review. We favour the continuation of a mainstream disability programme like Work Choice but we also propose a third tier of provision, one that is locally commissioned but attracts national funding. The reality is that people use a range of local services and employment needs to link into them. People with substantial disabilities do not walk into job centres and so we must go to them to raise aspirations for working.
We’ve seen in areas like Windsor & Maidenhead and Gloucestershire that employment rates can be improved dramatically by coordinated local support. Employment rates for people with learning disabilities have doubled in a year or two in both these areas. Because supported employment is not a statutory duty there has been significant disinvestment in services over recent years. We need DWP to acknowledge the effectiveness of this provision and to signal its support by using national funds to reward job outcomes.
Sustainable jobs
The challenge will be to replicate this success in other boroughs. This will require investment in workforce development and quality assurance processes as well as a single-minded focus on achieving sustainable jobs. We now have agreed National Occupational Standards for the sector and Ofqual approval for a Level 3 Certificate for Supported Employment Practitioners. BASE hopes to start delivering the certificate in early 2014.
We’re also consulting on a set of draft quality standards for the sector. There is no point in encouraging a market of providers if the customer has little information with which to differentiate between them. Employers have cried out for better coordination of employer engagement. They have no idea of the quality of local support which is why they have signed national agreements with well-known providers. A quality kitemark will help them to have confidence in working with local providers.
We have never had a better opportunity to influence the debate. The Government has signalled its support for the principles of supported employment and its willingness to work with local authorities. This enthusiasm needs to be matched by local authorities, NHS trusts and further education colleges collaborating to continue to invest in high quality local support.
Huw Davies is Chief Executive of the British Association for Supported Employment.
