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work

A self-employed route to work

Two self-advocates in Wales got fed up of being excluded from the world of work. They
decided self-employment was the way forward and set up Barod, which means ‘ready’ in
Welsh. Bryan Collis reports

magine saying to 100 pupils: “When supporting new businesses often do not accessible, train people and do social
you leave school, only five or six of know how to provide support that is research and evaluation. Sometimes, we
I you will have a job in any given year accessible to people with different feel we belong in the business world;
until you are 65.” Well, we doubt learning needs. sometimes, people make us feel that we
you can. do not belong.
This is the case in special schools in Ready to run a business We started a two-year research project
England. In 2018-19, just under 8,000 Seven years ago, Barod was set up by two called The Bridge to see if other self-
adults with learning disabilities who self-advocates and two allies to make advocates could become self-employed or
receive long-term support from social money and create inclusive employment. start their own businesses and social
services were in paid employment The self-advocates were fed up of being enterprises from within self-advocacy
(NHS Digital, 2019). This includes any told they were not ready and needed to go organisations. It was funded by Drill
paid work or self-employment of one on yet another course or work placement. (Disability Research on Independent Living
hour per week or more. There are and Learning), through the National
no numbers for Scotland, Wales or Lottery Community Fund.
Northern Ireland. “ There is a history of We wanted to see if our story would
In the absence of real work, many be true of others, whether they were
people instead start to call day services schemes that say they are starting their own businesses or trying to
and day opportunities “work”. Family about work but do not make money for their organisation.
carers may just want or need the support provide or lead to real We worked with Social Firms Wales,
that school previously provided (unpaid My Life My Choice, People First Dorset
care for five days a week during term work for real money and Carmarthenshire People First to
time) to continue. ” do the research. We worked
People with learning disabilities who try co-productively with mixed teams of
to work are often put off by other people. We chose the name Barod, the Welsh people with and without learning
Other people say, “You will lose your word for “ready” as a way of saying we disabilities all the time.
benefits”, “You won’t manage a full-time were ready to work and ready to run
job” or just “It’s not for you”. a business. Research themes
And, if you try to access mainstream Today, we have 12 employees, of whom We found five main themes.
business support, you can be put off by eight have a learning disability. No one
your disability adviser at the job centre. works full time and we are all paid the The leap of faith
That happened to one of the people same hourly wage. You can do all the preparation and
who was planning to co-found our We rely on doing business successfully, research you like, but there comes a time
organisation, Barod. People tasked with not on grants. We make information when you have to jump.

A call for real work with real pay

ome strong messages for action shop floor, in hospitals or banks. We support allowance to universal credit
arose from The Bridge research can be photographers, chefs, because of changed circumstances is
Sproject into setting up in business. receptionists and trainers. Public stopping people from seeking work.
● There is a history of schemes that say bodies should be working out how to The system that was supposed to
they are about work but do not provide provide real work opportunities for make work financially worth it has
or lead to real work for real money for people with learning disabilities. backfired for this group of people.
people with learning disabilities. This ● ●Everyone needs to raise awareness of ● ●We want real work for real pay. A
needs to change. Employment means the value of people with learning six-month work placement may be too
you are paid at least the legal minimum. disabilities to employers. short for someone with a learning
● ●People want a chance to work. That ● ●Business advice must be accessible disability to reach their potential and
does not mean just cleaning, to people with learning disabilities. for an employer to decide to offer
gardening, pot washing, stacking Use our jargon buster. Use the them a job. Ten years in work
shelves or pushing trolleys. It can be business blocks approach. placements and still not being paid the
working in an office, a factory, on a ● ●The fear of moving from employment national living wage is exploitation.

14 Vol 33 No 3 | Spring 2020 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk