Published on 12, July, 2020
Could we have more information from NAS about David Cameron's Disability Confident initiative launched in July, and how NAS is getting involved?
Part of this is about trying to persuade employers to recruit disabled people. That's something we need to explore on this discussion forum.
They are using poster like "Great Minds Think Differently" and "Unlock Potential" - just I must be looking in all the wrong places for them.
The section on making reasoonable adjustments is frankly scary. Offer a blind person a glass of water.
There's a "Hidden Impairment Toolkit" that includes autism and asperger's syndrome, produced by HING Hidden Impairment National Group. This is the organisation set up to guide the Department of Work and Pensions in understanding disabled needes during the re-assessment of pension eligibility.
So no guesses for how reliable HING's toolkit is going to be. Why isn't NAS providiong a toolkit - unless the best NAS could offer was the Triad of Impairments....
But otherwise autism isn't mentioned.
Is there something we should be told?
Thanks Anil A Mod for getting back to me on this and clarifying what is happening.
When I started this thread on 24th November I hadn't yet seen the launch document dated 21st November. Or the Research report that has percentages that don't add up to 100, and disability categories that read more like their in-house categories for excuses for not working.
I guess though launched in July it hasn't got going until now.
I would also draw to your attention what is showing up in responses to my other thread under Work and Volunteering: Jobcentre Plus disability employment advisers.
My impression of Benefits Offices and Jobcentre plus is secondary information, but I would expect them to make things difficult and act as gatekeepers because they see their role as discouraging people from claiming benefits.
But for Disability Confident to work, Jobcentre Plus has to pass unemployed disabled individuals on to the employer networks and other facilities set up under Disability Confident. One respondent is being gatekeepered away from access to DEAs.
Another has been on Work Choice, but the staff on it clearly don't understand autism.
And if you've seen DWP IHR 16 - their research report on disabled benefit claimants, its not difficult to understand why it is not working.
Can NAS act to draw attention to the failings of the DWP to support the project on the ground?
Hi Longman,
I passed on your original comment to our policy team who've responded with.
"The NAS is a member of the Hidden Impairments National Group (HING) and commented on the toolkit. On the whole we believe it is a good resource. However, more needs to be done to ensure that Jobcentre Plus staff and others tasked with providing advice and support for people with autism in seeking and maintaining employment have appropriate training. More also needs to be done to make employers more aware of the condition, alongside the disability confident campaign. We met last week with the Department of Work and Pensions to discuss plans for the new disability employment strategy. It was a positive meeting and they are keen to ensure the needs of people with autism are included in the the strategy. We have offered to facilitate a focus group with people with autism and family members to help inform the strategy and we can let you know when that is happening, although places will be limited. The DWP are also working with the Department of Health on the review of the adult autism strategy. The results of the 'engagement exercise' for the review - this was a series of focus groups, seminars and a survey - will be published in early December. The reviewed strategy will be published in March. We expect the results of the 'engagement exercise' to have some focus on employment and we will share that once it is available."
A roadshow was launched 21st November www.gov.uk/.../national-drive-to-boost-disability-employment-first-ever-disability-confident-roadshow-tours-britain The title to search for is "National Drive to boost disability employment first ever disability confident roadshow tours britain"
The Department of Work and Pensions underlying knowledge of disability needs is a real cracker, accessable from this website with a link to the "research report" in the section More Information.
A survey was carried out by a Principle Research Officer at the DWP entiled "A Survey of Disabled Working Age Benefit Claimants (IHR16)" published July 2013.
The survey asked 1349 claimants a number of questions for a range of parameters NONE OF THEM TO DO WITH DISABILITY!!
Question 5 does ask for disability category code 1-10 of which 10 is "Anything else (specify)". 4 is Dexterity, 5 is Memory and 8 is Stamina or breathing or fatigue.
9 is Socially or Behaviourally, for example associated with autism, attention deficit disorder or asperger's syndrome.
1 Vision 2 Hearing 3 Mobility - for example walking short distances or climbing stairs. Noting about wheelchairs! Respondents had to chose one category to describe themselves and there was no complex/multiple option.
Table 5.6 tells us the numbers in each category including each parameter they've compared it with (being 5 claimant types, three age groups 18-34, 35-54 and 55 plus, seeking work (yes or no), 4 qualification categories, oh and whether they considered themselves disabled (yes, no or sometimes).
Vision 8%, hearing 8%, mobility 62%, dexterity 35%, learning or understanding 22%; memory 29%, mental health 49%, stamina or breathing 40%. socially or beheviourally 11%; anything else 17% and refused 4% Yes I know they are percentages and they don't add up to 100, or 1349. None of the disability categories subsequently figures in any of the 26 tables. They just refer to "disability" like disability is a condition in itself.
It horrifies me that I'm paying taxes for something this badly put together by a Government Department.
One of the questions was about whether or not you think yourself disabled such as: "I have a disease but its not a disability" and "my health problems are quite common". There isn't actually a question under this whether or not they think they are disabled - just bland statements - pick one. Very leading.
It staggers me to ask whether we have any hope of a future in this country. High paid high pensioned Civil Servants produce work like this so atrociously poor its an embarrassment to be British.
One of the things Disability Confident is supposed to do is get local authorities involved with employers. Some local authorities are already engaged, eg Devon and Cornwall.
Most are not. Perhaps NAS could campaign to give this a bigger profile.
Perhaps discussants on this forum could write in if there's no sign of their local authority taking part.
Quite....my concerns exactly - NAS could improve......
But I'm not sure that a company set up by the Department of Work and Pensions is likely to be any better.
OK....OK...I'm probably being unduly pessimistic. Lets give HING a chance.......
...sorry, just re-read your post, I'm doing my special "missing bits of text" thing again.
It does say on the "HING thing":
Following a recent internal review of our group we are currently updating our resources for employers which includes our website.
If you would like to be contacted after we have completed the update of our resources please contact info@hing.org.uk with your organisation name, and contact details as well as the nature of your enquiry and we will be in touch at a later date.
Perhaps the HING thing will be better than what the NAS can offer. After all, not all information on the NAS website is 100% correct.
Is it this you have read:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/employing-disabled-people-and-people-with-health-conditions/employing-disabled-people-and-people-with-health-conditions
If so, have you seen this section:
6.1 Supporting people with hidden impairments
The Hidden Impairment Toolkit offers hints and tips on how employers can better support people with hidden impairments such as:
The Do It Profiler gives resources for employers to help them to better understand the issues around specific learning disabilities and their relevance to the workplace.