Employment
Moving from education to employment can be nerve-wracking when you don't have someone to support you.
We've pulled together a list of fantastic websites and information on all things employment, volunteering, work experience and training.
- Employment and Training Providers/ networks
- Employment Rights
- Resources for Families, Support Professionals and Employers
- Resources for Young People
- Workplace Problems
1. Employment and Training Providers
Breakthrough UK
Breakthrough UK supports disabled people in Liverpool and Manchester into employment and training.
Care Trade
CareTrade strives to improve the life chances of school leavers and adults with autism by creating inspirational and sustainable opportunities that will help them achieve their potential and be as independent as possible.
Mencap
Mencap run a jobs and training services to enable people with a learning disability to develop the skills they need for the workplace. Mencap support people to find, and stay, in employment, and to make the most of their experiences as employees.
My Job, My Choice
Stockport Council are working with Pure Innovations on a supported employment project to help disabled people get ready for the world of work.
Paperworks, Leeds
Paperworks trains adults with learning disabilities, sensory impairment and developmental disorders in work skills training. Trainees carry out real work in our print finishing and packaging workshop alongside 1:1 and group training. Paperworks has sites in Leeds and Harrogate.
Project Search
Project Search is a model which helps disabled people secure and keep paid permanent jobs.
Prospects employment support
Prospects is an employment and training service for people with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who wish to work.
Remploy
Remploy is the leading provider of specialist employment services for disabled people and those with complex needs.
RNIB College Loughborough
RNIB College Loughborough supports people with sight loss and other disabilities to access education, work and housing, to enjoy a healthy lifestyle and positive relationships.
Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation for Disabled People
QEF works with people living with physical and learning disabilities or acquired brain injuries to gain new skills and increase independence.
South East Employment Network
The South East Employment Network is a large group of people guiding jobseekers with additional needs on their journeys to find and keep paid employment.
Supported Traineeships at Central Manchester University Hospitals
Information about the Supported Traineeships at Central Manchester University Hospitals which are helping young people with learning disabilities gain skills and paid, permanent employment, in Manchester.
Ways to Work
This is a partnership project to encourage employers across the Humber sub-region to consider providing employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities and learning difficulties.
Whizz-Kidz work placements
Whizz-kidz offer a range of work placements and internships designed for young wheelchair users in higher and further education.
Work In Progress
This research project investigated how Supported Employment Agencies can best support people with a learning disability into employment. There is also a DVD illustrating good and bad employment support
2. Employment Rights
Citizens Advice Bureau
This page has information about disability discrimination.
Employment Rights
Information from Directgov about disabled people's employment rights.
Equality Act: Guidance for Workers
This guide from the Equality and Human Rights Commission summarises employees rights under the Equality Act 2010, including rights relating to disability discrimination and reasonable adjustments.
Equality Act 2010: What do I need to know? Disability quick start guide
This guide is by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Equality Act 2010: What do I need to know as a carer?
This guide is by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Mencap's charter of employment rights
This is Mencap's charter of employment rights.
Work Smart
This page has information about disability discrimination.
Yours Rights At Work
A guide by the Equality and Human Rights Commission for people with a learning disability and their supporters.
3. Resources for Families, Support Professionals and Employers
Ability Profiler
Ability Profiler is an online profiling tool which maps out the student's strengths, support and development needs including gaining an understanding of the impact of their disabilities and/or Health Conditions. This information can be used to inform the individual and the education setting in making a decisions about their life, learning and planning for employment. It can assist the education setting for monitoring distance travelled.
Access to Work
Access to work can help you if your health or disability affects the way you do your job. It gives you and your employer advice and support with extra costs which may arise because of your needs.
Apprenticeships for young people: A good practice report
This report presents some of the common factors that have led to high performance in the work of 15 providers who are extensively involved in delivering apprenticeships to young people. It explains how the providers have successfully recruited young people as apprentices: introducing them to the world of work; supporting them in developing vocational skills and completing their apprenticeship frameworks; and supporting their progression into employment and further study.
Apprenticeships in England for young people with dyslexia: Access Arrangements in Functional Skills
This Factsheet looks at which Access Arrangements may be available to you when taking Functional Skills qualifications and options open to you when completing your Apprenticeship if you failed a Key Skills qualification previously.
Autism Transition Toolkit
This toolkit, produced by the Autism Education Trust, is a summary of common issues surrounding transition for young people on the autism spectrum, as well as a guide to the considerations that should be taken by those supporting them.
Aspirations For Life
This website provides a variety of resources to help raise the employment aspirations and expectations for children and young people with learning disabilities.
Best practice guidance for local commissioners
This document sets out a set of principles to guide how people with learning disabilities are supported in relation to employment. It considers the provision or commissioning of employment services by local authorities, and sets out the business case for investment in these services.
British Association for Supported Employment
BASE is a membership organisation for supported employment agencies and supported businesses in the UK.
Case Studies
These real life cases from the Equality and Human Rights Commission show how disabled people and employers have worked together to each other's benefit. We have also produced some video interviews illustrating some of the cases.
Disability at Work
The Equality and Human Rights Commission have information, case studies and links for employers and employees.
Disability Employment Advisors
If you have a health condition or a disability that affects your ability to work, JobCentre Plus offers a service for disabled workers by putting them in touch with a Disability Employment Advisor (DEA).
Doing what works: individual placement and support into employment
This briefing outlines the evidence base for Individual Placement Support (IPS) and provides information on how to 'do what works'.
Economic Evidence Around Employment Support
This report summarises the economic evidence around employment supports for disabled people (including those with mental health problems).
Employer's Forum on Disability
Advice on disability issues in the workplace for employers.
Employer Toolkit
Online toolkit designed for employers that want to develop a more inclusive and accessible Apprenticeship offer.
Employing disabled people and people with health conditions
Guidance on employing disabled people and people with health conditions by the Department for Work and Pensions.
Employment factsheets
Disability Rights UK have produced a series of factsheets for disabled people on work including information on tax credits, access to work and employment contracts.
Employment - what we have learned
This article summarises work done under Valuing People Now to improve employment prospects and outcomes for people with learning disabilities in England.
Empowering Families
Empowering Families provides impartial information, advice and support for parents and carers of young people with special educational needs and disability. You can obtain information through the website; contact a Virtual Adviser for advice or ring the helpline to speak to someone. Helpline: 0845 408 5088 (Mon – Fri 3.30pm - 7.30pm).
Financial Case for Supported Employment
The report identifies positive outcomes from the work of Kent Supported Employment (KSE), with disabled people being on average 55% better off financially, with the cost of KSE being 12% less than the cost of a day service, alongside significant savings to the taxpayer.
Great with disability
This website offers advice and support to students, and a recruitment platform to employers.
Job Jumpstarter Pack
Download vInspired’s Job Jumpstarter Pack to help your child write a stand out CV, excel at application forms and polish their presentation skills. Help your child land the job the job they want.
Helping the inbetweeners: Ensuring careers advice improves the options for all young people
Barnardo's report on the state of England’s careers provision. Published August 2013.
How to guide: learning from the Valuing People No employment demonstration sites
Best practice guidance that sets out learning and case studies from the Getting a Life, Jobs First and other Valuing People Now Employment demonstration projects. It gives practical information and examples of how to improve employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities at a local level.
Inspire, Motivate and Engage: Mentoring programme for young people
Inspire, Motivate and Engage are a very successful free online mentoring programme for young unemployed people aged 18-24 across the UK. They match the young person's career aspirations to the mentor's field of expertise, therefore allowing the young person to learn valuable insights into their career of choice, as well as developing their employability skills. The young people also get a nationally recognised accreditation on completion of the programme to help them get ahead.
Job coaching or supported employment: Approach and progress in developing standards
This paper discusses what makes good supported employment. The document looks at the definition, guiding principles and stages of supported employment.
Knowledge Base
The knowledge base is an open, freely accessible trove of information and resources, both for supported employment and for disability / employment support generally.
Looking for work if you are disabled
Advice from the Department for Education
Lost in transition? The changing labour market and young people not in employment, education or training
The number of young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) has been rising for the last decade. This report examines how the characteristics of NEETs have changed over this period, and how longer-term labour market change has affected the transition for young people from education into employment.
Mencap you can work it out
Report by Mencap, entitled 'You can work it out! Best practice in employment for people with a learning disability'.
Pathways to getting a life: transition planning for full lives
This document reports on the transition work undertaken in the Getting a Life programme, which ran from April 2008 to the end of March 2011, as part of the Valuing People Now employment work. Getting a Life was set up to look at the support needed by young people with a severe learning disability to achieve paid employment and full lives when they leave education.
Personal Budgets and Supported Employment
This guide sets out what the key issues around personalisation and supported employment are, particularly for people with a learning disability and people with autism. It describes the supported employment model and current funding streams that can be used. The guide explores some of the challenges for jobseekers and for supported employment providers and how these might be overcome.
Personalising welfare to work: the case for personal welfare budgets
This paper presents the case for personal welfare budgets (PWBs).
Practical Funding Guidance for young people seeking, and in, paid full time work including self employment
Guidance by the South West Employment Institute.
Project Search: Evaluation Published
The Project Search model helps disabled people secure and keep paid permanent jobs. An evaluation was conducted of 14 Project Search ‘demonstration’ sites in England during the 2010-11 academic year.
Real Opportunities
Real Opportunities have a variety of resources on Supported Employment.
Supported employment and job coaching: best practice guidelines
This is a 7 page factsheet on supported employment.
Supported Employment National Occupational Standards
The Learning and Skills Improvement Service has developed new National Occupational Standards for Supported Employment, which provide the statements of skills and knowledge needed by the supported employment workforce.
Supported Internships factsheet
Factsheet on Supported Internships by the Preparing for Adulthood programme. This factsheet explains what a Supported Internship is, the policy surrounding them and how to set one up.
Supported Internships Advice
This advice is non-statutory from the Department for Education, has been produced to help recipients develop and offer supported internships.
The Employment Support Service (TESS)
Employment support in Coventry for disabled people and people with mental health difficulties.
When I grow up I want to be... A resource for families of disabled children
This brochure tells positive stories of people with learning disabilities in work and gives you resources and ideas to help you celebrate your child's potential. The brochure also aims to ensure support professionals working with your child think
in the same positive way as you do.
WorkFit- Connecting Employers and Employees with Down’s syndrome
The WorkFit programme is a national employment programme designed to help people with Down’s syndrome find jobs and train employers on how to recruit and support someone with Down’s syndrome in the workplace.
Working with Schizophrenia: Pathways to Employment, Recovery & Inclusion
This report highlights the barriers experienced by people with schizophrenia in the UK to entering and remaining within the labour market, and what can be done to overcome these barriers and to support people with schizophrenia to live full and meaningful lives including employment.
Your future, your choice: Bridging the gap 2013 edition
RNIB, in partnership with other key organisations, has produced transition guidance for young people who are blind or partially sighted across the UK. These guides outline support and services available to assist young people through their journey from school, to further and higher education, and into employment.
4. Resources for Young People
Aspire2 magazine
A magazine to help young disabled people to raise their career aspirations, fulfil their potential and make the transition into work.
Axis Education
Resources to help young people with learning disabities develop the habits, behaviours, and attitudes they need in order to keep a job.
Disability Horizons
A positive, interesting and useful disability related website with articles and resources to help people with disabilities achieve whatever they wish. The magazine and website includes articles, resources and links about travel, work, art and culture, relationships and much more.
Great with disability
This website offers advice and support to students, and a recruitment platform to employers.
Into Apprenticeships
A guide for young disabled people, parents and key advisers about applying for apprenticeships in England.
Starting work
RNIB have information on their website for young people starting work..
WorkFit- Connecting Employers and Employees with Down’s syndrome
The WorkFit programme is a national employment programme designed to help people with Down’s syndrome find jobs and train employers on how to recruit and support someone with Down’s syndrome in the workplace.
Young Workers
For young workers and those involved in work experience.
5. Workplace Problems
Disability Law Service
This organisation provides advice on a range of issues including employment.
Equality and Human Rights Commission
This page provides information on solving workplace problems.
Acas
This organisation works with both employers and employees to solve workplace problems.
Equality Advisory Support Service
A helpline is provided for people who think they may have experienced discrimination.