Disability Studies: Theory Policy and Practice

1
Disability Studies Theory Policy and Practice

• UK survey of supported employment Richard Wistow
  and Justine Schneider
• http//www.dur.ac.uk/employment.officers

Project partners Remploy, Mencap, Scope, Shaw
Trust, Norman Mackie Associates
2
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?

3
Method

• Over 3,000 people from England, Wales, Scotland
  and Northern Ireland were surveyed.
• Over 600 questionnaires were returned between
  October and December 2002.
• 150 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.

4
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.

5
Approach to analysis

• 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)

6
Who are the service users?
7
Employers of EOs
8
What do they do?

• Individual counselling about work
• Promoting employment opportunities
• Job/Vocational profiling
• Job finding and placement
• Giving careers/training advice
• Specialists did some things more often than
  generic EOs
• ( plt0.05 plt0.01, plt0.001)

9
What are their qualifications?
n457

• 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)

More generic (mixed model) staff have this
qualification (plt0.05).
10
What are their main training needs?

• Giving benefits advice
• Giving careers/training advice
• Individual counselling of clients
• Promoting employer rights and responsibilities
• Developing Person Centred Plans

11
Summary

• EOs are employed by a range of organisations
• They operate within different work settings.
• In our sample, specialist EOs outnumbered generic
  by 21.
• 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.

12
Service users
13
Who are they ? (n1154)
14
Who are the service users?
15
Types of placement used
16
Employers of EOs
17
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
18
What EOs offer mean inputs
plt0.05
19
In paid work by agency

• Specialist agencies placed 66 in paid work.
• Generic agencies placed 38 in paid work.
• plt0.001

20
Hours worked by disability group
plt0.001
plt0.001
plt0.001
21
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 R2 adjusted 0.42, SE
9.9, F 54, plt0.001
22
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.

23
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.

24
Further details

• The preliminary findings reported here are from a
  study that is still in progress and due to finish
  in autumn, 2003.
• Richard.Wistow_at_dur.ac.uk
• Justine.Schneider_at_dur.ac.uk
• Centre for Applied Social, Community Youth
  Studies, University of Durham, Durham, England.
  DH1 3JT