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5. Services for disabled adults, including employability and social care services

Background policy and statistical evidence

5.1 The disability equality schemes, action plans and annual reports produced by the 32 Scottish local authorities, in addition to guidance and research documents, especially in relation to employability and social work, have been examined to produce this report. We also drew on the Scottish Government's disability equality scheme, and note that some of the actions in the schemes of colleges and universities are also designed to support disabled adults. In the section on employability, we include parts of the schemes of some of the organisations concerned with employability which fall within the portfolio of the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, including Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and Skills Development Scotland, which combines Careers Scotland, Scottish University for Industry, and the key skills elements of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Wider policy context

5.2 Two strands of policy and practice will be discussed in this section. The first is employability, which encompasses both actions taken to enhance the employability of disabled people, and the behaviour of local authorities and Scottish Government as an employer of disabled people. The second strand is social work and social care, for which the Scottish Government Children, Young People and Social Care Directorate is responsible.

Employability

5.3 Training and skills development is now the responsibility of Skills Development Scotland, but when the disability equality duty was introduced these programmes were managed by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. This report draws largely on material from the Enterprise Agencies as Skills Development Scotland is not yet required to have a disability equality scheme in place. Careers Scotland has also been incorporated into Skills Development Scotland and it too is in a position to make an important contribution to increasing employability. At the time the disability equality duty was introduced Careers Scotland operated under the remit of the two Enterprise Agencies and is not listed in Schedule 1 of the Disability Discrimination (Public Authorities) (Statutory Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 and as such is not subject to the specific duty. It has, however, chosen to produce its own equality scheme, but has not published an annual report.

5.4 The development of a strong skills base is at the heart of the Scottish Government's policy agenda, set out in the Skills for Scotland strategy (Scottish Government, 2007b). Geared towards developing knowledge and skills throughout the population, the strategy is also extremely relevant to disabled people. It includes an express commitment to promoting 'equal access to and participation in, skills and learning for everyone'.

5.5 Particularly relevant programmes are the Skillseekers and Modern Apprenticeships for school-leavers and Training for Work for adults. Also important is the New Futures Fund. This was launched in May 1998 with a budget of £15 million over three years and was managed by Scottish Enterprise to promote the employability of people with multiple barriers to employment, including those on Incapacity Benefit. The programme was intended to complement the work of the New Deal by making provision for multiple disadvantaged people whose needs were unlikely to be met by other programmes. Although it is an employment programme it does not expect or require job outcomes: the emphasis is on small steps of progress.

5.6 When it was set up in 2002, Careers Scotland took over the management of two key initiatives which were already underway at the time of its inception, the All Age Guidance Service and the Inclusiveness projects. The aims of the two initiatives were:

• To improve the skills and employability of Scotland's most disadvantaged young people
• To raise awareness of and access to advice and guidance services to facilitate entry and re-entry to the labour market for people of all ages
• To improve access and opportunities to raise skill levels and achieve the full potential of people of all ages in the Scottish labour force.

5.7 As part of its welfare reform programme, the United Kingdom ( UK) Government has sought to reduce the number of Incapacity Benefits claimants. A number of UK Government initiatives, such as the New Deal for Disabled People and Pathways to Work, managed by the Department for Work and Pensions, have been implemented in Scotland, as well as the rest of the UK. Whilst these fall outwith the remit of Skills Development Scotland and its predecessor organisations, they are nonetheless important in terms of increasing participation in employment by disabled people.

5.8 Scotland has developed two complementary strategies to increase employability to work alongside these UK Government Programmes; Workforce Plus targets economically inactive adults (Scottish Executive, 2006a), while More Choices: More Chances focuses on young people who are not in employment, education or training ( NEET) (Scottish Executive, 2006b). Both strategies identify disabled people as one of their target groups. The Scottish Government is also working in partnership with COSLA on the development of a Supported Employment Framework for Scotland. Such a framework will help to ensure that disabled people in Scotland receive appropriate and flexible support to secure and sustain employment and is expected also that the model will be of value to non-disabled people who stand in need of additional support.

5.9 A key point in the Scottish Parliament Disability Inquiry is the importance of employment in helping disabled people lead independent lives. Employment is important because it enables people to develop stronger social networks, attain a sense of self-worth and avoid the poverty trap associated with a life on benefits. At the same time, attention has to be paid to ensuring that disabled people do not get stuck in low-paid entry-level jobs with no possibility for promotion, self-development and autonomy. Similarly, it should be recognised that, for some people, part-time, voluntary or supported employment may be the best option and for a very small minority, employment may simply not be feasible.

5.10 This is an area where responsibility crosses ministerial portfolio. Enterprise, including skills development, falls within the Finance and Sustainable Growth portfolio, but local authorities also have an important remit in co-ordinating actions with other agencies, including UK bodies such as Jobcentre Plus, and creating opportunities for specific groups of disabled people who might previously have spent their lives in day centres.

Social Care

5.11 People with learning disabilities tend to be socially and economically marginalized, with very low rates of participation in employment. The Scottish Learning Disabilities Strategy The Same as You? (Scottish Executive, 2000) drew attention to the considerable costs to local authorities of maintaining people in day centres (about £53 million a year). The number of people going to such centres grew from 4,400 in 1980 to 8,300 in 1998, at a cost of about £7,000 a place. In addition, in March 1998, hospitals had 270 day places for 489 people at a cost of £2 million. People in day centres tended to spend their time on leisure and development activities within the centre; 20% of activities in day centres involved education and employment, whereas 25% involved work-focused activities. Only 7% of people in day centres had paid work. Overall, day centres were criticised for not extending and developing individuals sufficiently, but it was also noted that carers were concerned about the withdrawal of day centre services, since they were necessary to enable other members of the household to engage in education or employment.

5.12 A key recommendation of The Same as You? was that local authorities should put much more energy into developing employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities. The report noted that this could be cost effective; the cost of a day centre place (£7,000 per annum) was compared with the cost of training and employment support. For example, a Training for Work place, funded by Scottish Enterprise, cost £3,200 and a place on the WORKSTEP programme, funded by the Department for Work and Pensions, cost up to £4,760. The Same as You? (Scottish Executive, 2000) noted that the benefits system often acted as a deterrent to people attempting to progress into employment, and suggested a more flexible approach to enable people to try out work without jeopardising their future benefits status.

5.13 It was recommended that a number of structures and mechanisms should be put in place to oversee the implementation of the strategy. Local authorities and health boards were advised to establish partnership in practice agreements by June 2001 and to appoint local area co-ordinators to integrate health and social care services for people with learning disabilities. It was also recommended that everyone with a learning disability should be able to have a personal life plan. A national change fund was set up to underpin the shifting focus of services, and a national centre for learning disabilities, the Scottish Consortium for Learning Disabilities, was also established.

5.14 A national short-life working group on employment was set up, and in 2003 its report Working for a Change? (Scottish Executive, 2003) was published. The report focused on the changes needed to lower the barriers for people with learning disabilities entering employment, which included a fairer and simpler tax and benefits system, the promotion of non-discrimination and equality, inclusive employment practices and individualised person-centred support. The fragility of supported employment services was highlighted and the difficulties encountered by people with learning disabilities in accessing Jobcentre Plus support were noted. It was recommended that Jobcentre Plus should make much greater efforts to engage with people with learning disabilities, and that supported employment services should forge stronger links with Jobcentre Plus. However, as noted in the Finance and Sustainable Growth report of this current project, the thrust of many Jobcentre Plus programmes for disabled people is to target those who are closest to the labour market and who can therefore be moved into employment with the shortest and least costly intervention. It was also recommended that Careers Scotland should be much more pro-active in including people with learning disabilities in its mainstream provision.

5.15 The question of which government department should take lead responsibility for people with learning disabilities was considered. It was recognised that both the Scottish Health and Education Departments have responsibilities in this area, but ultimately the Scottish Department of Transport, Enterprise and Lifelong Learning should be the lead agency, since employment rather than health and welfare was the major issue. This responsibility now lies within the Education and Lifelong learning portfolio. The need for much better liaison with the UK Department for Work and Pensions was also indicated.

5.16 Social services clearly have an important role in co-ordinating many aspects of the initiatives described in this section, under the headings of both employability and social care. They have a role both when disabled people are being helped towards employment and also when they and their families are being helped to cope and live as full a life as is possible. The key policy document, Changing lives (Scottish Executive, 2006d) sets out an ambitious change programme for social work/ social care, and, like the disability equality duty, it stresses the importance of the active engagement of user groups, including disabled people, in policy development and implementation.

5.17 Also embedded in Changing lives is the drive towards personalisation of services, which should be organised around users' needs and aspirations, not the convenience of the service provider, and the need to work collaboratively with other professionals supporting the clients, asserting that "tomorrow's solutions will need to involve professionals, services and agencies from across the public, private and voluntary sectors in a concerted and joined up effort." (Scottish Executive 2006d, p.10). The report stresses the need to build capacity to deliver personalised services and capacity for sustainable change.

Research and statistical evidence

Employment rates of disabled people

5.18 Over recent years, attention has been focused on the rate of economic inactivity among disabled people, driven in large part by concern about the rising numbers of recipients of Incapacity Benefits. In 2006, the employment rate in Scotland for non-disabled working-age people was 82%, considerably higher than the rate for disabled working-age people (48%). In common with the rest of the UK, this gap has narrowed by approximately 1% a year since the turn of the decade. In 1999 the employment rate for disabled adults was 38%, compared to 79% for non-disabled adults. Employment rates have continued to increase steadily for both groups during this time, but the gap has narrowed by 7% (National Statistics Scotland, 2006). Labour Force Survey data show that people with mental health difficulties have the lowest employment rate (only 20% are employed), followed by people with learning disabilities, whose employment rate is 24%.

5.19 Trends in economic activity show a similar pattern. In 2006, inactivity rates were almost four times as high for disabled adults (48%) than for non-disabled adults (13%). Inactivity rates have decreased steadily for both groups since 1999, although this has been most marked for disabled adults (National Statistics Scotland, 2006).

Skills and qualifications of disabled people

5.20 The Social Focus on Disability highlighted the large skills gap between disabled and non-disabled people (National Statistics Scotland, 2004). In 2001-02, 58% of disabled people had no qualifications, compared to just 24% of non-disabled people. Fuller information about the qualifications of disabled people is set out in table 3 below.

Table 3: Highest level of qualification obtained, population 2001 - 2002

Source: National Statistics Scotland, 2004

The qualifications within each group are:

Group 1: 'O' Grade, Standard Grade, Intermediate 1, Intermediate 2, City and Guilds Craft, SVQ Level 1 or 2 or equivalent.

Group 2: Higher Grade, CSYS, ONC, OND, City and Guilds Advanced Craft, RSA, Advanced Diploma, SVQ Level 3 or equivalent.

Group 3:HND, HNC, RSA Higher Diploma, SVQ Level 4 or 5 or equivalent.

Group 4: First Degree, Higher Degree, Professional Qualification.

5.21 Cambridge Policy Consultants carried out an Evaluation of Skillseekers and Modern Apprenticeships in 2006 for Scottish Enterprise (Cambridge Policy Consultants, 2006). This identified what they considered to be an under-representation of disabled participants with only 0.23% of trainees on the Skillseekers Programme and 0.34% of participants on Modern Apprenticeships and Adult Modern Apprenticeships.

5.22 From the data available it appears that participation by disabled people on the Training for Work programme is reasonably healthy. However data on the Skillseekers and Modern Apprenticeship programme confirms the very low level of participation identified in the Evaluation report (Cambridge Policy Consultants, 2006).

Employment and people with learning disabilities

5.23 In 2004, the Scottish Executive published a Statistics Release (Scottish Executive, 2004) summarising progress in relation to the recommendations of The Same as You? The data related to the year 2003 and the following main points were highlighted:

• An estimated 18,066 adults with learning disabilities were known to local authorities throughout Scotland.
• The ratio of adults known to local authorities with learning disabilities per 1,000 population is 4.4 for the whole of Scotland.
• 13 local authorities provided a Local Area Co-ordination services, delivering services to 9% of the total number of adults with learning disabilities known to local authorities.
• 23% of adults known to local authorities were living independently.
• 7,433 adults with learning disabilities visited a Day/Resource Centre during the typical week. Of these, 2,712 (37%) attended for the full 5 days and further 3,574 (48%) attended a centre and had alternative day time opportunities.

5.24 A breakdown was provided of the number of adults experiencing different types of employment opportunities.

Table 4: Adults with Learning Disabilities who have Employment Opportunities

Source: Scottish Executive, 2004

5.25 Overall, 2,493 adults with learning disabilities known to local authorities are participating in some type of employment, representing 7% of the total. This is exactly the same proportion as reported in The Same as You? (Scottish Executive, 2000). In addition, only 4% are involved in some form of open employment (which of course may be one or two hours a week). The statistical release concludes that all local authorities are making progress towards implementing the strategy's recommendations, although on the face of it progress appears to have been quite slow, particularly in relation to the appointment of local area co-ordinators and the expansion of open employment participation.

5.26 There is a growing body of research on the experiences of people with learning disabilities in Scotland. Findings from the study The Meaning of the Learning Society for People with Learning Difficulties (Riddell et al., 2001) illustrated the way in which provision for people with learning disabilities often had the effect of constraining them in 'special' rather than mainstream services. Only a small number of people attained mainstream employment and their position was tenuous, as employers sought the most effective and efficient workers. The ethos of supported employment agencies tended to reflect the principles of normalisation, maintaining that people with learning disabilities are able to do 'the same' work as others. The need for reasonable adjustments to regular jobs was under-played because of fears that employers would be reluctant to take on people with learning disabilities if they were going to be required to adjust established working practices.

5.27 Supported employment, which developed in the US to meet the needs of people with learning disabilities, is now being used to support many other groups, including young people with additional support needs. In Scotland, voluntary sector organisations such as Enable have taken the lead in developing practice, often in conjunction with local authorities.

Employment and people with mental health problems

5.28 People with mental health problems have very low rates of employment compared with other impairment groups (Riddell et al., 2005d). Relative to their participation in employment, they are more likely to bring cases to tribunal under the DDA and are less likely to be successful than other groups. People with mental health problems represent about a third of all new Incapacity Benefit claimants, and one in five days of certified work incapacity are due to mental health problems. For all these reasons, supporting people with mental health problems to obtain and retain employment, and making workplaces less stressful for all, is seen as a priority for the Scottish Government.

5.29 The Mental Health Framework for Scotland (Scottish Office, 1997) identified employment as of major importance for people with mental health problems. However, according to Durie (1999), it did not provide enough guidance on the restructuring of services to increase their focus on employment. The Scottish Development Centre for Mental Health (2001) argued, on the basis of the figures shown in Table 4, that there continued to be a major shortfall between the number of jobless people with mental health problems in Scotland who would be capable of working and the training and employment services available.

Table 5 Estimated level of places in Scotland for people with mental health problems

Source: Scottish Development Centre for Mental Health, 2001

5.30 The Scottish Executive commissioned Social Firms Scotland to undertake research into the experiences of people with mental health problems moving into work. Key findings from the Mind the Gap project (Robbie and Presland, 2003) were published as a briefing paper. The following four key areas were identified as requiring further action:

• Stigma and discrimination

• Joined-up approaches

• Service provision

• The Benefits System

5.31 With regard to tackling stigma and discrimination, Robbie and Presland (2003) reported that the Scottish Executive advertising campaign See Me was regarded as highly effective in challenging stigma and discrimination. Follow-up work was recommended by investing resources in mental health awareness training for public sector staff. In addition, they argued that pump-priming of service provision linked to the Transitional/ Intermediate/ Alternative Labour Market was required. Transitional Labour Market approaches, which include social firms and jobclubs, are based on the assumption that some people need additional support to become job ready, or may require long-term support to sustain employment. Most Jobcentre Plus programmes (with the exception of WORKSTEP) are geared towards the attainment of mainstream employment in a relatively short period of time. Such approaches may exclude people with enduring mental health problems, whose conditions may fluctuate. Robbie and Pressland recommended that the Scottish government should take a number of actions to improve the employment rate of people with mental health difficulties, including increasing substantially the Mental Illness Specific Grant and encouraging local authorities to contract with social economy organisations which are developing new models of employment provision such as social firms, enterprise projects, transitional employment schemes and clubhouses. They also recommended transforming existing day care and sheltered work provision into new models of support provided by external organisations, often operating with the social economy.

Poverty, disability and economic inactivity

5.32 Riddell et al. (2005d) in their review of the evidence base on disability and employment undertaken for the Scottish Executive, found a strong association between poverty and disability. Local authorities with high concentrations of social disadvantage have high rates of economic inactivity. Glasgow, for example, still has one of the lowest proportions of working age people in employment in Scotland. Just over 90,000 adults in Glasgow are claiming a non-Jobseekers Allowance key benefit, including 71,000 people claiming Incapacity Benefit. Recognising the need to tackle this problem, Glasgow City Council established a partnership group to identify groups at risk of economic inactivity and to devise a viable employment strategy.

5.33 In 2003, a consultation document, Equal Access to Employment, was published, which set out a future strategy for tackling this problem in the city. The report noted that, despite the economic growth of the city between 1999 and 2002, the benefits had not 'trickled down' to the most disadvantaged groups. The strategy developed a set of key principles including an emphasis on partnership working; mainstream employment rather than training schemes; and more accessible health and social care support. The report found that social work services spent about £8 million per annum on training and employment initiatives aimed at people with multiple barriers to employment, including people with learning disabilities and/or mental health problems. The projects, mainly funded under Section 10 grants, were not planned in a strategic manner, and did not encourage progression into mainstream employment. The aim of the new strategy was to build bridges between the health and social care sectors and mainstream employment programmes, in particular those funded by Jobcentre Plus and local enterprise companies. Supported employment is seen as one of the key means of bridging this gap. The Glasgow partnership has continued to operate with the broad vision of ensuring that "every adult in Glasgow, regardless of age, gender, background, ethnicity, personal or health history, should have the same opportunity as everyone else in the city to obtain and hold down meaningful, paid work." (Equal Access Glasgow, 2007, p.5) and it latest report notes that "learning form the projects is now influencing the delivery of services across the city and nationally. It continues to influence and shape the content of key policies in Scotland such as Workforce Plus and the City Strategy." (Equal Access Glasgow, 2007, p.11).

Reporting on progress

5.34 In the sections which follow, we shall present first the areas in which progress towards equality is evident from the disability equality schemes, action plans and annual reports, followed by discussion of the areas in which progress is not evident. The report will end with

• discussion of the use of categories of impairment in the schemes;
• the evidence of the involvement of and consultation with, disabled people and their families; and
• a summary and conclusions.

Reporting on progress: areas where progress is evident

5.35 The Scottish Government's own disability equality action plan includes actions relevant to improving the position of disabled adults. In particular, the Lifelong Learning Directorate action plan includes reviews of guidance on the Disability Students' Allowance, Partnership Matters, the funding practices and provision of further education opportunities available to people with complex needs and of information advice and guidance on funding for learners. It also lists programmes designed to improve the opportunities for disabled workers and learners - Workforce Plus, More Choices, More Chances, Get Ready for Work, Determined to Succeed, and the Education Maintenance Allowance.

5.36 Many councils set objectives about improving support to enable disabled people to access services and take part in the life of their community, through, for example, the provision of equipment and adaptations to enable independent living, of support within their own homes, and of independent advocacy services. The range of approaches to describing their services, however, makes both comparisons and assessment of progress towards equality of opportunity for disabled people difficult. Some reports include statistics of numbers of people receiving services, and even details of their budgets available for those services; other focus on the quality of service, and changes intended to improve that, in particular, increasing the involvement of consumers in decision-making. There may, in fact, be no difference in the quality or quantity of services in those council areas: the differences may be only in the decisions made about what to include in the disability equality scheme and annual report.

5.37 Improving communication about services is also highlighted: many councils have been improving the accessibility of their leaflets and websites and at least one has been working on enhancing the marketing of the availability of library services for disabled people. Another points to its Welfare Rights Service in a central and accessible location, offering drop-in service or home visits, as a step towards equality.

5.38 Physical accessibility of council buildings is also prioritised in the council action plans, through access audits of premises and consultation with user and disability groups to ensure that appropriate adjustments are made. Improvements to signage, accessible communications, including loops, provision of parking and transport for disabled persons and further training of employees are all directed towards improving equality of opportunity for disabled adults in the community.

5.39 Some councils report that they offer a Supported Employment Service, providing placements and employment opportunities with tailored assistance and support to enable people with a disability to enter sustained paid employment. South Lanarkshire Council, for example, reports that its Social Work team supports adults with learning disabilities through community support teams, colleges and resource centres; that work taster sessions are provided to allow people to gain experience that can lead onto full-time employment; and that projects are run in conjunction with two local cafes to provide access to employment in catering.

5.40 Also in Social Work, the restructuring and rethinking of services in the wake of Changing Lives, with its heavy emphasis on personalisation and involving service users, seems likely to move these services in the same direction as the disability equality duty. One council, for example, draws attention to its routine consultation with people who use their Home Care and Support Service, and to the predominantly positive feedback from regular questionnaires. Another describes its social work department as "actively and regularly involved in consumer involvement/ consultation", through questionnaires, interviews, focus groups and one day events, and through the involvement of service users and carers in the Changing Lives agenda. Other councils' action plans, however, may contain no targets for specific departments, or include social care targets which are very broad, such as "Improve respite care provision" or "Identify and address carers' needs." The amount of information about social work departmental plans is far less than that provided in the education authority schemes and action plans, which are required to be produced separately, but the comments in the plans and reports of those council which do list departmental action points suggest that this is an area in which progress is being made.

5.41 The Training for Work programme, run by Skills Development Scotland, provides support for people who are unemployed and looking for work. It allows people to undertake training linked to local labour market opportunities, enabling them to secure and sustain employment. Scottish Enterprise include in their Annual Report information about participation in their Training for Work programmes by equalities groups as follows:

Table 6: Participation in Training for Work programmes by equality groups

Source: Scottish Enterprise, 2007

5.42 Although around 20% of the working age population are disabled, approximately half are in work and not eligible for these programmes. When it is considered that a proportion of the remainder will be incapable of work these attendance figures in Table 6 appear to demonstrate a good level of participation by disabled people.

5.43 Careers Scotland undertook a questionnaire survey of disability organisations and individual disabled people to assess their views of the work of the organisation. Although the sample size is not large enough to draw robust conclusions (37 of 130 organisations who were sent the questionnaire responded) the report provides some significant feedback about the work of the organisation and how it is seen by disabled people. Around half the organisations did not know whether Careers Scotland adequately supported the members or users of their organisations, and a further 27% concluded that they did not.

5.44 Finally, an important part of the progress noted in this focus area concerns the councils' and other organisations' duties as employers. Relevant action points include training to promote positive attitudes towards disabilities, removing physical barriers in the workplace, monitoring recruitment and promotion procedures and reporting on the statistics, reviewing the uptake of training by disabled employees, and setting up a disability forum where employees may draw attention to barriers to equality.

5.45 To sum up the evidence of progress, activity is discernable in the following areas:

• formation and promotion of policies at Scottish Government level
• at local government level, some social work action points geared to improving the quality of life of disabled adults and their capacity to engage with life in their communities
• also at local government level, action points to enhance communication with disabled clients and improvements to the accessibility of council buildings, signage, etc.
• to enhance employability for disabled adults, a series of programmes, including some supported employment schemes, and a Training for Work programme in which participation by disabled adults appears to be at a good level
• in their role as employers, a range of actions to promote positive attitudes towards disabilities, removing barriers in the workplace and involving disabled employees in consultation bodies.

Reporting on progress: areas where progress is less evident

5.46 Most of the local authority schemes do not present enough detail about services to disabled adults in their own homes and in the community to allow a full assessment of progress towards equality of opportunity. This is not necessarily a criticism: the disability equality scheme is a summary document covering all aspects of council services, and cannot convey the full impact of, for example, social services, on the quality of life of a diverse range of clients in the community, especially when those professionals are working in partnership, say, with health professionals, careers advisers and council employees responsible for housing.

Participation in Training Programmes

5.47 The Scottish Enterprise annual report shows very low figures for participation by disabled people on their Skillseekers programme: they made up only 0.3% of the total participants in 2004-05 and only rose to 0.4% in 2005-06 and 2006-07. No reasons are given for this low rate of participation. Research is required to establish why so few disabled people access these important programmes.

Careers Advice

5.48 As explained in the introduction, Careers Scotland is not subject to the Specific Duty and has not published an annual report. Brief descriptive references to their work are included in the reports of both Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, but no statistics are provided on their work. An equality impact assessment report on the Careers Scotland website indicates that they have reviewed the way in which they record data on their clients, although it is not clear whether this has been implemented yet. This should enable them to identify disabled clients, and provide evidence of the outcome of the support provided. Keeping appropriate records of communication with disabled clients with is an area in which many other organisations, including local authorities and further and higher education institutions, are also seeking to improve.

5.49 To sum up, assessing evidence progress both in the area of social work and of employability is complicated by lack of detail in many of the local authority schemes. Areas in which organisations have themselves identified as requiring improvement include communication with service users, record keeping and enabling disabled people to participate in programmes to prepare them for employment.

Categories of impairment employed

5.50 Many of the Council disability equality schemes do not offer statistics of the disabled adult population. There is no standard practice in use of categories of disability: for example, the Renfrewshire scheme cites statistics of those in six groups: learning difficulties, blind, deaf, mental health, homecare with learning disabilities; homecare with physical disabilities, while South Ayrshire lists its current expenditure for occupational therapy, older people, learning disabled, physical disability and children with special needs.

5.60 Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Careers Scotland do not set out how they define disability for the purposes of their schemes. All three schemes use the general term 'disabled people' throughout and make no reference to the needs of particular impairments. The statistics they provide do not attempt to break down the disabled population by impairment even though this might provide some useful insight into how they could improve their services to disabled people.

Consultation and involvement

5.61 Almost all Councils mention their links with voluntary groups who work with disabled people in their area and seek to involve them, alongside disabled clients and employees in their consultation processes. They report a wide range of consultation and involvement activities, including customer services questionnaires; focus groups with disabled persons and members of voluntary sector organisations; and invitations to council employees and their trade unions to join in equalities planning. One council reports holding three involvement events when producing their disability equality scheme, to seek the views of disabled adults, representatives of disability organisations, disabled children and their parents. Another announces a promotional campaign to promote the potential for disabled people to become more involved in public life; while a third authority describes using surveys to gauge the gap in the level of satisfaction with services between disabled and non-disabled users.

5.62 Further examples of consultation and involvement in this focus area include:

• seeking feedback from disability access panels, user groups of mental health and learning disability services, and sensory disability group
• establishing groups of disabled people to participate in impact assessment
• support for community based disability organisations
• setting up an equipment and adaptation evaluation panel involving service users and carers who are in receipt of equipment and adaptations from the Council, giving them the opportunity to appraise items of equipment currently supplied and to recommend continued use or a change to another product
• working in conjunction with DisabledGo, an social enterprise company who offer a web-based guide on venues in local areas to empower disabled people to enjoy the benefits of, and contribute to, their local community, by researching and inputting material for their local guide
• organising consultation days to bring together people with learning difficulties, families, carers and key partners to examine practice and improve services for people with learning disabilities in the local area
• maintaining a consultative forum for disabled staff, and ensuring that their views are heard and they have an opportunity to influence the practice of the council in its capacity as employer, as well as in its capacity as service provider.

A few councils report difficulties in encouraging membership of consultation groups, finding that both disabled employees of the council and people from the wider community are sometimes reluctant to serve.

5.63 The schemes of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise demonstrate only limited involvement of disabled people in their production. Scottish Enterprise has established an Equality Forum to involve disabled people . Highlands and Islands Enterprise participated in the Highlands Wellbeing Alliance, engaging in discussion to inform its work. This organisation clearly has a broad remit, discussing many aspects of the social inclusion of disabled people and other marginalised groups. There may be a need for a forum specifically focusing on the inclusion of disabled people in employment.

Summary and conclusions

5.64 Progress in closing the employment gap between disabled and non-disabled people over the past few years has been slow at around 1% a year. The Equalities Review, Chaired by Trevor Phillips, concluded that at the current rate of progress the gap might never be closed (Cabinet Office, 2007). It is not possible from the evidence available to establish how far the training programmes formerly managed by the Enterprise Agencies are contributing to this slow improvement. The Skills for Scotland strategy (Scottish Government, 2007b) makes it clear that these programmes have an important role to play in building a strong Scottish economy. If they are to contribute to achieving disability equality in employment it is important that participation levels by disabled people rise to reflect their proportion of target audience for these programmes.

5.65 Local authority disability equality schemes and annual reports examined provide ample evidence of activity, of efforts to support disabled adults in the community, increase their opportunities to participate in the community and to achieve employment. There is no doubt that the Disability Equality Duty has helped to focus attention on the barriers that they face and to encourage councils to review their policies and services. Yet even for councils who present findings of user satisfaction surveys, it is impossible to assess from these documents alone how far these efforts are making a difference to the lives of disabled adults in the community. To demonstrate that, more in-depth research with service users would be required.

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