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Working for a change? The same as you?
List of recommendations
Recommendation 1: Specifically publicising to people with learning disabilities the advantages of employment and the role of the new tax credits
We recommend that the Scottish Executive approach the Inland Revenue to request that they - directly or through a commissioned agency - specifically promote the new tax credit system targeting people with learning disabilities. The Executive should also ask the Department for Work and Pensions to commission and distribute accessible booklets about benefits and services they provide. This could include a web-based guide for people with learning disabilities addressing Frequently Asked Questions about moving into and sustaining employment.
work pay for people with learning disabilities who receive care and support Recommendation 2: Making at home
We recommend that the Scottish Executive continues its work on applying Supporting People to Scotland and consider the need for a guidance note clarifying that local authorities should disregard any earned income in their charging policies under Supporting People.
Recommendation 3: Ending benefits uncertainty and reducing the risks of taking work for people with learning disabilities
We recommend that the Scottish Executive works with other agencies, including Jobcentre Plus and the Department for Work and Pensions, to overcome institutionalised inequalities in knowledge and awareness of benefit/work transitions. It should do this by ensuring that people with learning disabilities in Scotland receive targeted, accessible, benefits advice and better-off-in-work calculations. This information needs to enable people with learning disabilities to understand if, and by how much, they will be financially better off than on their current benefits if they choose to work for any number of hours per week, however few.
The Scottish Executive should also enable the risk of taking employment to be minimised for people with learning disabilities. We recommend that the Scottish Executive asks the Department for Work and Pensions to consider protecting the level of benefits for people with learning disabilities beyond the present linking period if they are unable to continue in work for any reason.
Recommendation 4: Gathering statistics: raising the visibility of learning disability and enabling Scotland to measure progress
We recommend that the Scottish Executive examines, with the Disability Rights Commission and the Department for Work and Pensions, ways to develop monitoring and public reporting arrangements specifically for people with learning disabilities in areas such as employment (e.g. recruitment and retention) and education (e.g. student destinations). This should include examination of the feasibility of annual diversity reporting by employers, in anticipation of changes in equality legislation and promotion arising from the European Union Amsterdam Treaty.
Recommendation 5: Working with employers to promote a new Scottish 'all means all' inclusive business culture
We recommend that the Scottish Executive works with Scottish employers and representative organisations, to develop the capacity of all Scottish employers to include all in the workplace, including people with the most significant learning disabilities. Representatives should include the Federation of Small Businesses, the Scottish Trades Union Council, the Scottish CBI, NHS and COSLA representatives, the Equality Commission and representatives of people with learning disabilities. This work should address options for providing practical support to help Scottish employers include all at work, including implementation of inclusive practices, advice on individual situations, links with specialist and mainstream employment agencies.
Recommendation 6: Providing leadership on the development and implementation of policies which enable people with learning disabilities to achieve their potential for employment
We recommend that Transport, Enterprise and Life Long Learning be the lead department for the Scottish Executive on employment for people with learning disabilities. As part of this leadership it should work closely with other departments, in particular with the areas of education, social justice and local government. It should establish and chair a cross-cutting
national steering group including business representatives, health and local authority Partnership in Practice representatives, supported employment agencies, Local Area Co-ordinators, Disability Rights Commission, Education, Jobcentre Plus, Department for Work and Pensions, Careers Scotland, people with learning disabilities and families to oversee and drive the implementation of this report.
Recommendation 7: Joining it all up locally
Local authorities are best placed to devise effective local arrangements for planning, delivery and monitoring of employment services for people with learning disabilities. We recommend that in this community planning process, they work with other key local agencies including their local Scottish Enterprise company, local Careers Scotland and link Department for Work and Pensions staff, along with supported employment agencies, other relevant voluntary sector providers, local employers, schools, colleges, people with learning disabilities and families.
We also recommend that local authorities demonstrate leadership by example by employing a locally proportionate number of people with learning disabilities within the local authority itself.
Recommendation 8: A step change in mainstream opportunities for young people with learning disabilities
We recommend that local education authorities should work with relevant agencies, such as Careers Scotland, further education colleges, and health and social work agencies, in order to plan and manage the transitions process effectively. School leavers with a learning disability should have access to a personal key worker to assist them through the transition process from school to post-school employment, education and training.
In order to further establish equal opportunities for young people with learning disabilities, personal key workers should be able to access financial resources to assist young people with learning disabilities, where needed, with a positive post-school option. Options for school leavers should be as varied as people's needs and aspirations, but would be expected to include:
Paid work.
'Gap year' opportunities to pair up with another young person to travel, live and work internationally.
Leadership opportunities like the Princes Trust or Fairbridge.
Mainstream training for work opportunities.
Volunteering opportunities.
An integrated college course.
Recommendation 9: Filling the knowledge gap
We recommend that the Scottish Executive commission a coherent three year programme of research and development activities to inform policy which supports the employment of people with learning disabilities. This should take account of the research into supported employment for people with learning disabilities in Scotland due to be commissioned in late 2003. We recommend the following areas for action.
Research for, and production of, a series of guides to good practice in supported employment for different audiences, including community planning teams, health and social work professionals, agencies in the employment field (mainstream and specialist), employers, and people with learning disabilities and their families.
Development of proposals for professionals working in supported employment, including role definitions, salaries and rewards, and qualifications.
Development in consultation with the supported employment sector of responsive monitoring and evaluation methods.
Development with relevant partners of a national approach to marketing inclusive employment to employers; Promoting first level mainstream competence in service provision for people with learning disabilities across a range of agencies by making sure that good quality training is provided (e.g. across all Jobcentre Plus staff, local authority front-line staff, schools and colleges).
Research into achieving the mainstreaming of, and sustainability of, funding for supported employment (i.e. research to overcome short-term, project-based funding), and into best practice models of change to achieve the shift from care-based to employment-based lives for people with learning disabilities.
Research that provides cost and benefit analyses of employment versus non-employment for people with learning disabilities over people's lifetimes.
We recommend that any research programme should include employment-related participatory action research programme run by, and for, people with learning disabilities.
Recommendation 10: Practical leadership for the supported employment strategy
The next steps for implementation of this report involve:
Providing assistance and support to the different agencies identified to implement this joint strategy.
Commissioning the programme of research and development work, described above.
Working across departments of the Scottish Executive and with all the stakeholders to keep developing and refining the national strategy for employment of people with a learning disability as set out in this report.
The Scottish Executive may wish to consider appointing a national development officer for the supported employment strategy, to provide this practical leadership.
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