JOINT COMMISSIONING PARTNERSHIP BOARD
THURSDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2008 AT 10AM
THE EMPLOYMENT STRATEGY FOR PEOPLE WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES
Authors: Graham Munn, Judith Jackson
Tel: 01438 843232
1. Purpose of Report
To present the Employment Strategy for People with Learning Disabilities to the Joint Commissioning Partnership Board (JCPB) for their consideration and approval.
To present this Learning Disability Strategy within the context of a general partnership approach to employment and training.
2. Summary
The Employment Strategy for People with Learning Disabilities has been written to up-date an earlier version (2003 – 2006 Employment Strategy) and to ensure that significant developments both national, such the those indicated in the version of Valuing People Now that was circulated for consultation and which we believe will be included in the final version, and also more local changes in Hertfordshire, such as the inception of Work Solutions, are taken account of.
The Employment Strategy for People with Learning Disabilities aims to deliver the key objectives identified in the Valuing People Now consultation document. Employment is considered a priority area. A main strand running through the Valuing People Now consultation document is supporting people with learning disabilities “to live an ordinary life in the community”. With respect to employment the use of person-centred plans is promoted to design opportunities and supports for people to achieve paid employment, training and education and voluntary work. Specifically Valuing People Now consultation document states the key objectives to be:-
· To support people with learning disabilities to live an ordinary life in the community alongside their fellow citizens as described by human rights legislation, race relations legislation and the Disability Discrimination Act.
· To use outcomes from person-centred plans to design new opportunities and supports for people, with paid work at the centre of this.
· To improve partnership between different sectors to achieve greater effectiveness in responding to individual needs identified from person-centred planning
· To make current work programmes work better for people with learning disabilities
· To make sure the benefit system helps people into work
· To support and encourage employers to employ people with learning disabilities
· To have a greater focus on those who need specialist support to enable to help them find and maintain work
The proposed strategy is attached as Appendix A and has been developed within the broader context of the Joint Commissioning Team’s general approach to employment and training across all care groups. It is important that such a general cross care group approach be established as this will enable us to develop more mainstream / cross-cutting solutions across care groups in future. Some further explanation of these general principles is therefore provided under the background information below.
3. Background Information on the General Joint Commissioning Context.
The Joint Commissioning Team wishes to develop similar ‘Employment’ strategies for all its care groups and believes that these can be based on and share a set of common principles such as outlined in the Learning Disability strategy.
The Joint Commissioning Team propose that a set of common principles be adopted to guide the Employment Strategies of all are groups. These should reflect and be consistent with the objectives as outlined above and with those set by the different care groups. These principles will guide and lead care groups in the development of their individual strategies.
The key principles suggested are: -
· Recovery and Independence
Employment support is considered an essential component of approaches and interventions designed to promote and enhance recovery and independence. For people with mental health and substance misuse problems the ‘Recovery Approach’ will be implemented and for people with Learning Disabilities the principles of promoting ‘Independence’ will be employed.
· People with learning disabilities, mental health and substance misuse issues want to lead ordinary lives and do the things that most people take for granted. They want such things as to get a job, study at college, have relationships and friendships, and enjoy leisure activities.
Yet for many people this does not happen. For many people with learning disabilities in particular but not exclusively, they still spend too much time in traditional day services.
· Individual Placement and Support (IPS)
Employment support services will implement the IPS method which it is believed can be generalized and made applicable to all care groups.
Some of the critical components of the Individual Placement and Support model in mental health which make it so successful are:
• The goal is to achieve open paid employment.
• The agency providing supported employment is committed to competitive employment as an attainable goal for those with severe mental illness.
• Supported employment programmes use a rapid job search approach to helping clients obtain jobs directly (rather than providing lengthy pre-employment assessment, training and counselling).
• Staff and clients find individual job placements according to client preferences, strengths and work experiences.
• Assessment is continuous and based on real work experiences.
• Follow-on support is continued indefinitely.
· Clinical and Vocational Integration
All employment support services, in line with the IPS approach, will establish the closest possible link between their service and the clinical / care team working with the service user. In practice this will mean vocational advisors / support workers being based with and working in those clinical / care teams.
· Individual Budgets
All ‘care and treatment’ plans will be personalized to meet the individual’s needs and include consideration of the service user being allocated their own ‘individual’ budget to potentially use on vocational support
· Accessibility
Services will be equally accessible to all care groups in the community and particularly to those commonly under-represented, including: -
o Women
o People with learning disabilities
o People with physical and sensory disabilities
o Ethnic minorities
o People misusing substances and alcohol
o People in contact with criminal justice system
· Choice
At the heart of any employment support service should be ‘choice’ for the service user. The service should offer the maximum opportunities for choosing the type of work, the number of working hours, location, level of responsibility etc. Choice should also apply to the type and range of training and education that might be associated with the desired work.
· Service user driven
The process of seeking and retaining work should be led by the service user. Their motivation and effort is key. Employment Support Services should also be service user led where possible and / or have service users playing significant key roles in the running and management as well as the delivery of the service.
· Cost effective
Employment Support services will need to demonstrate that they are cost-effective and have unit costs that reflect this and are competitive.
· Carer Support
Carer Support will be an integral part of any employment support service. Carers supported to accept and assist the person they care for look for work and / or training and education will help the cared – for person more. Carers need the offer of training and education and to learn about the importance of work for the recovery journey of the person they care for, and to learn / relearn other roles for themselves other than ‘caring’, including perhaps help for themselves to access employment opportunities.
Overarching Principle
The significance of employment to a person’s quality of life is at the heart of these proposals. Employment strategies recognise this and aim to make employment support an essential and integral part of the range of services available to people. Employment, educational, and volunteering opportunities help promote an individual’s independence, general well being and support recovery, and should be seen as core elements of any care and treatment plan.
Services commissioned should make it a priority to enable people to retain and gain paid employment and mainstream education, including the provision of support to retain and gain employment/education; and where it is not possible for a person to access paid employment due to the extent of their support or supervision needs, or there is an individual preference not to access paid employment, then access to mainstream education and voluntary work should be provided.
4. Conclusion/Recommendations
The Board is asked to approve the Learning Disability Employment Strategy
The Board is asked to comment on the suggested key principles for Joint Commissioning employment support services across all care groups.
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