Work support

Michelle, I have just successfully completed the AtW process but it was far from simple , if your aim is to achieve what you set out to do. I am happy to assist / share experiences. Regards Dan

I don't suppose you live in the Breckland area & have access to Thetford. If so i recommended you look for  "The Chances project" & ask for the women working for them called Lyn Keane. The Chances Project is another council run scheme so as an organisation/scheme it is terrible. But Lyn Keane who works for them is actually worthwhile to seek out and offers one to one support, Reviews you CV and teaches you the Do's and Don'ts on CV's and cover letters instead of just doing for you. She also doesn't pretend to understand Autism or ADHD and actually listens to you as an individual and comes up with coping mechanism, skills and out of the box methods to get you into long term sustainable employment. 

I am lucky enough to be getting Post Autism Support at the moment from the "Autism Service Norfolk & Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust" which has been actually been rather good. Because my situation was complex they changed their strategy towards me. They are currently during my sessions creating a health passport and list of reasonable adjust for future employment.

I've had the same experience with the Shawtrust they keep setting up online sessions with other people and cancelling them at the last minute. I've been with them since april 2020 and they have not help at all. They reviewed and altered my CV and i am now seeing someone from an organisation called chances and she agrees they are not helping me they are using me to achieve their targets. 

Genius within is basically where the shawtrust send people with Autism and Learning disabilities because the Genius within was built to support autistic individuals and people with learning disabilities and honestly as useless as the shawtrust. It's not a lack of understanding it a lack of everything.      

Hello M
I’m truly shocked at the hideous experience that @Blue has had. My experience is probably the polar opposite. I am doing my workplace coping strategies coaching sessions currently and it’s going really well. I found the application process befuddling and it took me three attempts at reading through the ‘do you qualify’ gumf  and in the end I just submitted it after my Occ Health dept said I would qualify. I too am NHS, have been since 1998 and was late diagnosed (aged 48) so struggled to get my head round how you could still qualify after having been in employment for so long.

I got an award to fund 10 hours of coping at work strategies for me and a disability awareness course focussed on ASD for my boss (who is sooooo supportive btw).

I’ve learned stuff I have not come across before and had the space to talk through what causes me issues at work and how I could work through them (Mis-hearing things, when my brain stops processing because i’m receiving too much verbal communication, needing to write everything down, being anxious about appearing stoopid, needing time out to process information, needing to organise and plan work in a way that is meaningful to me, etc, etc)

I would definitely recommend it and have posted the same so many times since I started my coaching. Just Google Access To Work Gov apply, or something similar, and go for it. 

I find telephone and video calls difficult and exhausting. It is definitely a downside of the world of work right now. 

Blue said:

I've also had negative issues with the Shaw trust the last three months as well, they keep trying to harass me into working with livestock again or in a slaughterhouse or seasonal work which is not a realistic long term employment goals either.

Genuis Within have been awful. They keep closing my referrals down and only offering group sessions, the basically offer pointless advice of the phone.no practical support whatsoever.    

I'm in Norfolk too.  I was referred to Shaw Trust in early 2020 for the current 'Work and Health Programme' with the hope that I could have got onto work trials, but then Covid lockdown hit and all I got was phone calls, and phones are the means of communication I find most difficult.  Shaw Trust just kept suggesting "do online courses", "have some video-call coaching" which all feel futile as these do not get me in front of an employer and able to show what I can do.  I too encountered Genius Within as this video-call coaching was with them, I found that really difficult.  With my very hesitant speech, being put through Zoom calls and asked a lot of questions was difficult and I clammed up many times. I was often unable to fully think through answering one question before another would be asked.

There have been many threads suggesting a consensus that DEAs in DWP and associated providers such as Shaw Trust and Genius Within have a lack of understanding of Asperger's.

I was denied multiple times because I wasn't autistic enough, They used the term high functioning a lot despite me having ADHD, Autism and other learning disabilities. But i do live in the most underfunded and backwards part of the country (Norfolk) . It sounds like you've got a good support worker. Just be careful as some of them are all about saving their organisation money instead of providing basic support.       

Denied on what basis? 

My workforce inclusion officer said she would support me to complete it and she gets it herself for autism, so I'd hope to not have any issues. I'd really like to have a work coach to help me manage my anxieties, but my manager has said she doesn't know much about autism so I definitely do not want her being fed negatives about autism...

I have been denied a few times by the Access to Work Scheme team when i really needed them, When they eventually agreed that i met the criteria they went behind my back, contacted my employer at the time &  basically confused that employer what autism spectrum disorder actually was. their interaction with my employer promoted my employer to start the managing out process because they were lead to believe i was a safety concern because of the possibility of me having a meltdown.

I should also mention that i was in work for three months with no problems and because the request was made at the start of me working it took them 3 months in to the employment opportunity before they got involved and did what they did. three months into an job is too late for them to intervene the way they did. 

I've also had negative issues with the Shaw trust the last three months as well, they keep trying to harass me into working with livestock again or in a slaughterhouse or seasonal work which is not a realistic long term employment goals either.

Genuis Within have been awful. They keep closing my referrals down and only offering group sessions, the basically offer pointless advice of the phone.no practical support whatsoever.