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APPENDIX 2: RESEARCH MEASURES
KEY STAKEHOLDER TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS
1. Could you please comment on your organisation's
interest in employment support for people with learning
difficulties and/or
ASD.
2. What is your job remit within your organisation?
3. Does your organisation have a policy in relation to
employment for people with learning disabilities (
HR & with partner agencies) and how
do you go about implementing it?
4. From your organisation's point of view, what systems
are proving effective in promoting/supporting people with
learning disabilities and/or
ASD into employment?
5. What are the barriers to such developments from your
own perspective (and in general)? (
Prompts from PiP co-ordinators, survey)
- benefits trap
- low expectations by individuals ,families,
systems
- employment practice re equality
- lack of awareness ie Sc. Ex. should promote
investment in diversity- -- -golden hellos,
champions for employment
- poor co-ordination of employment services
e.g. Job Centre Plus, Careers
- funding for supp. Employment not mainstreamed,
leading to a funding maze, short-termism, and the
more able/successful target population
6. How can these barriers be tackled? What would be the
3 most important priorities in achieving change from
your/your organisations perspective?
- Would you include any of the following ? (from
the short-life working group)
- mainstreaming approach to employment ie
specialist agencies complementing not replacing
employers
- a simplified, equitable and reliable benefits
& taxation system which finds a way to fund the
gap between productivity and earnings for those
with high support needs
- positive duty to promote diversity not simply
follow legislation: diversity requirement eg health
& safet,y minimum wage
- inclusive employment practices eg work place
culture, reasonable adjustments, assistive
technology
- person-centred support incl potential of Job
Centre Plus personal advisors,
LACs, Direct Payments
7. What impact, if any, has the
Same As You? had on your organisation's
work/planning?
8. How can collaboration at a strategic level be
encouraged to flourish across traditional departmental
boundaries such as Careers, Employment, Equality, Benefits,
disability, Health?
9. The need for a lead-agency to promote and co-ordinate
employment initiatives was identified by a short life
working group set up by the National Implementation Group
for the
Same As You?
10. Which organisation or department do you see as best
placed to do this?
11. What do you think of the proposal that the agency
selected should have firm roots and influence within the
business culture - namely the Dept. of Transport,
Enterprise and Life-Long Learning?
QUESTIONS FOR PEOPLE IN SUPPORTED
EMPLOYMENT
A The job & workplace
1. Is this your first job? Can you tell us briefly about
any other
paid jobs you had before this one?
2. What's your job? And how long have you been doing
it?
3. Can you tell us about the job you're doing just
now:
Prompts
What things do you do in your job?
What kind of workplace - small/big firm, shopfloor,
office, outdoors etc
Do you work on your own or with others?
Start and finishing times?
4. Has anything changed about your job since you first
started?
5. If so, has this made it better for you or not?
6. Do other people at work do the same job as you?
7. Do other people work the same hours as you?
8. How do you get to work?
Prompts:
Do you walk?
Take a bus?
Take a taxi?
Some other way?
Satisfaction with your job
9. What makes you feel happy in your job?
Prompts:
The work you do?
The place you work?
Hours?
Wages?
People you work with?
10. Are there any things about your job that you are
unhappy with?
11. What do you think makes a 'good' job?
12. What do you think makes a 'good' employer?
B Employment support
Getting the job
13. Did anyone ask you what kind of work you wanted to
do before you got your job?
14. Did anyone help you to look for and get this
job?
15. Did you choose this job?
Support on the job
16. How did you learn to do the job you do now?
Who helped you to do that?
Prompts:
Your supervisor at work?
Other people you work with?
Staff at the supported employment service?
Any others?
17. Does anyone help you to do your job now? Who?
Prompts:
Your supervisor at work?
Other people you work with?
Staff at the supported employment service?
Any others?
18. What do you get help with?
19. Is there anyone to help you if you get into
difficulties with your job? Who?
20. Has this ever happened? Can you tell us about
it?
21. Who would help you to learn a new task in your
job?
Prompts:
Your supervisor at work?
Other people you work with?
Staff at the supported employment service?
Any others?
22. Are you happy with the help you get from people at
work to do your job?
Prompts:
Do they help you in a way that makes you feel
OK?
Do they help you when you need help?
23. Has anyone helped you to change to a better job
where you work now?
Satisfaction with the employment support
24. Are you happy with the help you get from [name of
supported employment agency] to do your job?
25. What would happen if you wanted a different or a
better job? Who would help you to change your job?
26. Are there any changes you would like to your
employment support?
C What having a job means
27. What's the best thing for you about having a
job?
28. What's the worst thing for you about having a
job?
29. Do you think that having a job has made a difference
in your life?
Prompts:
How you feel about yourself?
Making new friends through the job?
Going out more?
How much money you have?
Learning more skills?
30. If you have more money now, what has that allowed
you to do?
Prompts:
Buy/do things you couldn't afford before?
Save up?
Go on holiday?
31. Is the wage you get the same as other people doing
the same job at your work? If not, what's the
difference?
32. Is there anything else about having a job that's
important to you that we haven't mentioned?
D The future
33. Has anyone talked to you about what you might want
to do in the future?
34. If you could do whatever job you wanted, what would
be your 'ideal' or 'dream' job?
35. Over the next few years might you want to:
Get a better job? Here or somewhere else?
Give up work or retire?
Stay in the job you have now?
36. What advice would you give a friend who wants help
to get a job?
37. What do you think should be done so that more people
with learning disabilities and autism and aspergers can
work?
38. Is there anything else that we haven't asked you
about that you would like to tell us about your job and
employment support?
39. We can send you a copy of our write-up of this
interview. Would you like one ?
Questions for family members
1. How did you feel about X [
name of person in supported employment ] getting
this job?
2. How did you hope that X would benefit from having a
job ?
3. Have your hopes [or, if mentioned, fears] worked out
?
4. Do you see any differences in X since s/he got a
job?
Prompts:
How she/he feels about herself/himself ?
Range of friendships?
Better off financially?
More skills ?
Other opportunities ?
5. What difference has X being in a job meant to you and
your family?
6. What would you say to another family whose relative
might be taking up a job?
7. What do you think should be done so that more people
with learning disabilities and/or
ASD can work?
8. Is there anything else that would be helpful for the
research that you would like to tell us ?
QUESTIONS FOR EMPLOYERS
Can we start with your experience of employing
X
- What decided you to consider employing X.?
- Before you employed X what did you expect it would
be like?
- Did it work out that way?
- Did you have any worries or concerns about taking X
on as an employee?
- As far as you know, how is X managing the job?
- Have you seen any differences in X since s/he came
to work for you?
Prompts
- more confident?
- -more friends?
- more skills?
- Better off
Can we talk about any impact X being here has
had on the company?
- Has X's presence as an employee made any difference
to your company?
(
for example, the employer who said there was less
swearing)
- Do you think you have you learned anything as a
company from employing X?
- Do you think your other employees have learned
anything from X being employed here?
- What do you do to ensure that all your employees,
including X are treated fairly and equally?
Can we finish with some general points
- Are there any particular lessons to be learned or
points you'd like to make from the experience of
employing X?
- What would say to another employer who was worried
about employing someone with a learning disability
and/or autism?
Prompts
What are the problems?
What are the pay-offs?
Would you encourage others to follow your example?
- What would you say to government about what needs
to change to encourage employers to take on people with
learning disabilities and/or autism?
- Is there anything else you'd like to say about this
before we end the interview?
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