Have just seen the Employment Support Survey (complete by 21st March). It says parents/carers can fill in but the actual survey is clearly set out for an individual with ASD. Unfortunately you cannot reply to these publicity emails.
The survey is a really good idea, so anyone out there with job hunting or jobcentre plus experiences should fill it in and get things flagged up.
The email also has a "Find out more" link at the bottom of the page, and this is where I continue to feel NAS needs to think it through more.
It leads to a page "Finding work, or in employment" under Living with Autism option. This has three picture links, the first is "Looking for Work". Entitled "Employment Support for jobseekers" the introductory paragraph seems only to be addressing:
training for people who are in work, or help finding work if you live in Cardiff or Glasgow?????
There are some good information pasges on the website, but NAS really does need to edit these and evaluate them from a user perspective. A section on looking for work ought to lead into something meaningful, and while, if you persevere, you will find helpful pages, the contradictions are off-putting.
The second picture is "in work or self-employed". But the section this leads to only employees not self-employed.
The third picture link is "students in further or higher education" which actually leads to "post-16 services: student support" which is merely a list of only 6 services - Lancashire, Leicestersdhire, London, Northamptonshire, Scvotland and Wales. Surely there's more than this around.
The Northamptonshire one is for students at Northampton College or Moulton College.
I could go on..... The problem is a lack of what's called "joined up thinking", and also NAS needs to look at the website from the user's perspective.
Its good that NAS has set up this survey. But NAS needs to plan thinbgs better or the impact will be understated.
