Disability Studies: Theory Policy and Practice UK survey of supported employment Richard Wistow and Justine Schneider Project partners: Remploy, Mencap, Scope, Shaw Trust, Norman Mackie Associates

Introduction An Employment Officer (EO) is someone who provides support to disabled people in finding and maintaining employment. What do they do? What are their skills and training needs? With whom do they work? How does EO input affect productivity?

Method Over 3,000 people from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were surveyed. Over 600 questionnaires were returned between October and December people were screened out from most of the analysis as they were deemed to have a mainly managerial role. –Over 100 clients & –Does ‘Individual counselling about work’ less than monthly EOs told us about their 3 most recent clients.

Main settings where EOs work PURE/SPECIALIST Supported Employment: real work for real pay with support as needed. Workstep/Employment Support (NI): formerly known as the Supported Placement Scheme. A national scheme (UK) where disabled people supported by agencies or individuals paid by Jobcentre Plus. Disability Team – Jobcentre Plus: through Disability Employment Advisers, they provide support to disabled people who wish to work, and also to employed people who have a disability. MIXED/GENERIC Work Rehabilitation/Training: provision of unwaged work-like experience within supportive settings. Day centre or resource centre Sheltered employment: paid employment opportunities within protected and supportive environments within a workforce of mainly disabled people Social Firm or consumer-run enterprise: provision of paid employment within a smaller, community-based commercial enterprise, where a proportion of workers are disabled.

By looking at the employment setting people work in, we distinguish between SPECIALIST and GENERIC employment officers: SPECIALISTS work in SE settings, and in government programmes; Jobcentres and Workstep. This can be seen as PURE SE (66%) GENERIC staff work in rehabilitation, day services, training, social firms or sheltered workshops. This is MIXED SE (34%) Approach to analysis

Who are the service users?

Employers of EOs

What do they do? 1.Individual counselling about work 2.Promoting employment opportunities* 3.Job/Vocational profiling ** 4.Job finding and placement *** 5.Giving careers/training advice Specialists did some things more often than generic EOs (* p<0.05; ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001)

What are their qualifications? * More generic (mixed model) staff have this qualification (p<0.05). Most common professional qualifications: 1. Counselling* (12%) 2. Adult Trainers Certificate (10%) 3. Diploma/Certificate in SE (8%) 4. Social work diploma (4%) 5. Mental Health Nurse (2%) n=457

What are their main training needs? 1.Giving benefits advice 2.Giving careers/training advice 3.Individual counselling of clients 4.Promoting employer rights and responsibilities 5.Developing Person Centred Plans

Summary EOs are employed by a range of organisations They operate within different work settings. In our sample, specialist EOs outnumbered generic by 2:1. Specialist EOs work differently from generic EOs. Relatively few EOs are professionally qualified. The areas of most training need reflect EOs’ desires: (1) to improve the services they offer and (2) to improve their ability to communicate and advocate more effectively within the constraints of a ‘disabling society’.

Service users

Who are they ? (n=1154)

Who are the service users?

Types of placement used

Employers of EOs

What we mean by ‘choices’ We asked the EOs how many realistic opportunities were open to each client. Those 17 who had more than 10 choices are omitted from this graph for ease of presentation. This variable indicates work-ability Mean = 2, Std. Dev. 1.95

What EOs offer: mean inputs * p<0.05

In paid work by agency Specialist agencies placed 66% in paid work. Generic agencies placed 38% in paid work. p<0.001

Hours worked by disability group p<0.001

Predictors of paid hours pw Increase hours Male*** Prior experience*** Not on benefits*** Earns at least NMW*** Greater number of choices*** Placed by Disability Employment Advisor* Decrease hours Learning disability*** Mental health need** EO works for social services* Greater time input from EO before placement* Multiple linear regression: R 2 adjusted 0.42, SE 9.9, F 54, p<0.001

Summary Certain disabled people face additional disadvantages in working more hours for pay (women, lacking experience, with learning disabilities or mental health problems, and on benefits). High levels of input by the EO before the job starts, are associated with fewer hours worked. The distinction between specialist and generic employment support provision is useful up to a point, but it can mask more fundamental differences in client group, outcome targets, level of impairment and employer organisation.

Conclusions This first attempt to map practice shows wide variation in employment support. EOs are characterised by low levels of qualification and high needs for training. Service users also vary, and many have multiple disadvantages. The UK could benefit from a concerted approach to address inequity in who gets Supported Employment, and how it is delivered.

Further details The preliminary findings reported here are from a study that is still in progress and due to finish in autumn, Centre for Applied Social, Community & Youth Studies, University of Durham, Durham, England. DH1 3JT