Supporting young people with a learning disability and or autism into employment

About

We wanted to better understand the scale of need for employment support, the current employment support provision across England, what works and what is promising for young people with a learning disability or autism, and how to address the gap between current provision and current need.

To answer these questions, we commissioned Cordis Bright to carry out research with a range of stakeholders including local authorities, service commissioners, employment support providers, employers, policy-makers, academics, and young people with learning disabilities and/or autism who have used different kinds of employment support.

The report is structured in sections covering the scale of need, an overview of current provision in England, what interventions have promise, and improvements and actions for commissioners, providers, policy makers and employers.

Key findings

Standardised national data about employment rates of young people with learning disabilities and/or autism is limited. What is available indicates a significant and disproportionate number of people with learning disabilities and/or autism are not accessing paid work.

Stakeholders agree that young people need more support, particularly those transitioning between education and employment and those with higher levels of support need.

Young people who do not have an Education, Health and Care Plan may be deemed ineligible for support interventions to help them with post-education destinations.

There is typically no ‘single front door’ to accessing support. Support can be accessed at different timepoints along an individual’s journey from education to employment, and varies greatly based on location, providers in the area, and a wide range of eligibility criteria including age and complexity of support needs.

Stakeholders identified four promising models of support:

1. Work trials: short work placements of usually less than five days, which may serve in place an interview process, and include some light support alongside the placement.
2. Supported internships: a more substantial, but still temporary, employment placement which includes supplementary classroom teaching and support from a job coach.
3. Supported employment: an internationally recognised model used not only for young people, but tested for a range of groups; the employment is a permanent role and also includes support for the employee to maintain their job.
4. Job coaches: an individual who can be a part of a programme of support or employed directly; they provide tailored support to both the employee and employer.
   Next steps

Whilst some progress has been made, change is happening slowly.

Based on stakeholder views, Cordis Bright recommends the following areas most in need of attention to improve employment outcomes for young people with LDA:

• Expand provision to build on what works and address known gaps. This includes building on the evidence base of what works and ensuring high quality support is available for young people and employers. Commissioners and policy makers could also review the availability of funding to ensure it is sufficient to deliver high quality support.
• Strengthen local partnerships to maximise the impact of support. Commissioners and policy makers should create local systems that prioritise and support young people with LDA to access employment. This includes clarifying the roles of key stakeholders within local authorities, and encouraging the development of local strategies that match the needs and gaps of local areas.