Learning Disability Week: people moving successfully into work
Learning Disability Week (#LearningDisabilityWeek) : people moving successfully into work
Learning Disability Week 20th -26th June in the UK
The week marks Learning Disability Week in the UK, an annual campaign run by Mencap to raise awareness about what life is like for people with learning disability. The theme for this year aims to explore the issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, like mental health and anxiety.
Mencap state that there are 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK, approximately 1.3 million of whom live in England. There are approximately 732,000 adults of working age with a learning disability in England, but only 5.1% of adults with a learning disability known to their local communities are in paid work, according to the NHS Digital report 2021.
Yet people with a learning disability make fantastic employees. Research from Mencap suggests that employees with a learning disability have less sickness absence days, better timekeeping, great productivity levels and will stay in their job longer than their non-disabled colleagues. On top of this, it is great for businesses to boost morale and improve diversity within their organisation.
Learning Disability Week is proudly supported by Seetec Pluss, one of the UK’s leading employment and health specialists, offering a range of services to assist people back into employment, including specialist services in Plymouth and Dorset, and the Work and Health Programme funded by the Department for Work and Pensions. Seetec Pluss supports people with learning disabilities to get skills and confidence they need to find suitable jobs, fill local vacancies, and build sustainable careers.
Christopher joined the work and health programme after living in Devon for 14 years. He was in temporary work, however struggled to sustain long-term employment. At the Job centre, Chris’s work coach helped him look for jobs, tailored his CV and set up his emails. He faced difficulty and was introduced to his work and health employment coach Anthony. With Anthony they looked at roles in more detail and considered other environments that were more supportive and understanding of his needs.
Following his application for a cleaning role in a local care home, Chris said: “The interview went well, and I was offered a trial shift to go and see if I like the role, which I did!
“I am really enjoying it. Now that I am working, I feel really pleased. I miss being able to drive but have found joy in using my electric bike to go to work. I am being paid weekly and just overly so pleased to be working again.”
Nicola Miller was referred to the Work and Health Programme, delivered in West Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire by partners Maximus. She has a speech and language impairment (Aphasia) which affects her talking and listening, and affected her confidence. Her employment coach helped her with her CV, condensing down the information to ensure that her skills where highlighted. She applied for a role as an NHS Administrator and was invited in for an interview. Nicola worked alongside her coach to identify her strengths and weaknesses in interviews and highlight areas she needed to work on. A few days later Nicola was offered the role!
Following Nicola’s completion of the work and health programme, she said: “I have a speech and language disability which meant I needed help to find suitable vacancies, and to make applications. When I was successful in making a shortlist, my employment coach helped me prepare for the online interview. He liaised with me to prepare answers to questions that where provided. Following on from the interview which went well, I got the job!”
“Throughout the whole process, my employment coach maintained regular contact with me, and I am very grateful for his support.”
Sean’s journey with Pluss began in August 2021 with the Plymouth Learning Disability Supported Employment Service. He started taking wellbeing sessions with his coach, carrying out activities within the community to build his confidence and help with his social anxiety. During this time Sean’s anxiety improved, which led to him wanting to try work placement. He attended the “Transferring life skills to work skills” course which was developed by Seetec Pluss and Oncourse Southwest.
Following the completion of his course, he started an 8-week work experience at the Tesco Store on Ebrington Street, his weekly task was to date check different aisles of products.
Once he completed his eight-week work experience at Tesco, Sean was offered a work experience role at the Co-Op warehouse. He worked on booking new stock onto the system, assisted in a weekly stock check, and even carried out a health and safety review with one of the managers and picked store orders for next day deliveries.
The management were so impressed with Sean’s work that he was offered a temporary summer job lasting four months, which he is currently doing on his own without any support
Following his successful completion of his work experience and gaining his summer job at Co-Op, Sean said: “I’m really enjoying the work I am doing at Co-Op and have made some friends.”
His manager at Co-Op has said: “Sean has settled in well and doing fantastically. He is really conscientious and likes working in a group.
“He is very enthusiastic, and I am sure he will be a good addition to the group.”
Neil Cattle, Operations Manager at Pluss, stated: “We are proud to support Learning Disability Week. Our services aim to support people with a learning disability to gain the skills and confidence to secure any job. We know that people with learning disabilities make fantastic employees with a range of talents and experience, and the motivation to work.
“With the help of our teams and services, we want to continue empowering people with learning disabilities to gain confidence and feel supported in any ventures they wish to pursue.”
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