Our focus this month is on disability. Our features include organisations that provide training and support to help disabled people get into the jobs market.
It begs the question whether such support will be able to continue in a climate of public spending cuts. However, one of our features shows how private sector organisations can help get long-term disabled people back to work.
Equality Act update
In his Diary, Michael Rubenstein gives an update on implementation of the Equality Act in October. He also comments on the short “quick start” guide to the Act published by Acas, pointing out that “Acas’s interpretation of the Act, even in such a short document, is problematic”. For example, on preemployment health inquiries, Acas’s statement that a jobseeker cannot take an employer to an employment tribunal because it asked prohibited questions is “seriously misleading”, as asking prohibited questions will be treated as prima facie direct discrimination.
Support for people with learning disabilities
We report on a project in the London Borough of Havering, where two women, previously special needs lecturers, run Realistic Opportunities for Supported Employment. It provides support for people with learning disabilities, and for the employers who take them on. The individual “clients” are assigned their own job coaches who provide intensive support, including travelling with them to and from work and working alongside them, for as long as needed until the individual is able to carry out their job independently. The clients are placed in real jobs, with 35 so far being placed and a three-year waiting list at current rates. The project has a high success rate, with 79% of clients remaining in employment after six months.
Real apprenticeship for unemployed disabled people
A private sector organisation that is helping long-term unemployed disabled people back into work is MITIE. It has been running its Real Apprentice scheme for unemployed people for five years, and in 2009 it piloted a programme designed specifically for people with physical, mental or learning disabilities. Key to the programme is that the company worked with JobCentrePlus to ensure that the apprentices could continue to receive their benefits while training full time; thus, at no additional cost to the taxpayer, disabled people get free training and work experience that prepares them for work.
The benefits for the organisation include raising its reputation as a responsible business and providing “a crucial differentiator when MITIE puts in bids for contracts”. Also, the positive attitude of the apprentices had a motivating effect on the whole team.
Support provided by disabled people
Breakthrough UK is a disabled persons’ support organisation that demonstrates what can be achieved by a user-led body. Two-thirds of its staff are disabled. It has successfully provided employment support since 1997, and the chief executive officer believes that the organisation is well placed to “go from strength to strength” despite the climate of public sector cuts.
Equality in the law profession
The EHRC has recently published a report highlighting equality practice in professional organisations. We look at what The Law Society has been doing to increase diversity and inclusion within the legal profession. Central to its initiatives is its Diversity and Inclusion Charter, which law practices can sign up to to indicate their commitment to equality. To support this, the charter has a procurement protocol that helps users of legal services to embed equality and diversity into the procurement process. The society has also produced equality and diversity standards and a toolkit. The standards provide a framework to help law practices identify good practice. The toolkit guides them through the process and includes an assessment tool to enable them to measure their performance on equality.
Subscribers to EOR Online can read the full text of all the articles mentioned above as well as our usual news, diary and case reports in Issue 203.
If you don't already subscribe to Equal Opportunities Review, you can find out more about EOR here, or else go ahead and subscribe to EOR here.