Today, the House of Lords Public Servives Committee published its report, Think Work First: The transition from education to work for young disabled people.
The report raises important issues and explores employment opportunities (and the lack thereof) for people living with disabilities. It was interesting to hear Stephen Veevers and Lynette Barrett, MBA speak on BBC News this morning alongside their story of Elliott.
Key recommendations from.the report include:
Co-production: It is vital that young disabled people – both those that are yet to leave education and those who have already made the transition – are able to be fully involved in helping to design and shape the services that support them.
Vocational profiling: This is a particularly effective way of identifying a young disabled person’s aspirations from an early age and can help schools and colleges to put the right careers support in place from the start. The Committee believes the Government should make vocational profiling a standard part of careers information, advice and guidance for young disabled people in schools.
Joined up support: The Government should work with local authorities to improve the availability of 'ready to work' programmes, such as that provided by ThinkForward, to support young people from school until they are settled in work.
Supported internships: The new Government should honour the commitment of the previous Government to double the number of supported internships and take steps to make as many young disabled people as possible eligible for them: not just those with Education, Health and Care Plans. Internships should be particularly targeted at those with the highest support needs.
Education: The Government must review and improve the support that young disabled people receive while in education, and it must also properly support local authorities to deliver EHCPs, both in terms of application timelines and the robustness of decision-making.
Careers advice: Many of the young disabled people who spoke to the Committee highlighted the poor careers advice they had received, and the Committee heard evidence from several witnesses of a lack of a systemic, specialised approach to training careers advisers working with young disabled people. The Government should review the training that careers advisers and leaders are expected to receive, making in-depth special educational needs training mandatory.
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