APPENDIX 13
Memorandum by Mencap
Summary of Recommendations
1. The Single Work Focused Gateway should not treat
people with learning disabilities as a homogenous group. The Gateway
must be geared to an individual's need.
2. Mencap recommends that certain categories of disabled
people with the greatest support needs and full time carers should
not be compelled to attend an interview at the Gateway.
3. Claimants will need to be assured that information
volunteered in response to questions on employment prospects should
not be misused to review benefit entitlements. The flow of information
between personal advisers and benefits adjudication officers should
be clearly demarcated. The Single Work Focused Gateway is part
of the claims process but it will not help anyone if eliciting
an expressed interest in work is taken to imply capacity for work.
4. Mencap is concerned that in describing interviews
as "work focused" the Government may be placing disproportionate
priority on getting people into paid employment at the expense
of other kinds of support, such as entitlement to benefits. Personal
advisers should also encourage people to claim disability and
additional benefits and in-work benefits to which they may be
entitled.
5. Mencap recommends that a disabled claimant should
have the option of being referred to either a dedicated specialist
personal adviser for a discussion on work and access to appropriate
benefits or a dedicated specialist adviser for a discussion on
access to and take up of disability-related benefits alone. Disabled
claimants should not be referred to a mainstream personal adviser.
6. A Single Work Focused Gateway staff member, responsible
for the registration and orientation of the people with learning
disabilities, will act as an ambassador for the Gateway. There
is a need to take account of the high profile of the project and
recruit staff of a sufficiently high calibre who are able to handle
complex situations.
7. Systems need to be put in place to deliver a comprehensive
package of training in learning disability awareness based on
explicit standards for all those responsible for the assessment
and subsequent placement into jobs and retention of people with
learning disabilities.
8. Personal advisers should be encouraged to develop
specialist areas of knowledge on disability matters. Personal
advisers should be expected to pool good practice and provide
support and advice to each other as well as building links with
disability organisations dealing with particular client groups.
Personal advisers who successfully engage with people with learning
disabilities should be championed.
9. It is important to recognise that it is unworkable
to expect disabled people with intellectual or communication difficulties
to attend an interview without support. It is important that a
person with a learning disability is permitted to be accompanied
by a parent, relative or advocate to a work focused interview.
10. Clear guidance should be issued stating that
capacity to undertake unpaid or therapeutic work does not equate
to capacity to undertake paid employment and should not trigger
a reassessment of their capacity to work.
11. Mencap recommends that personal advisers develop
links with specialist employment organisations in their locality.
The extent to which such links are developed should be monitored
and published.
12. A meeting should be held to compile a job search
profile for the individual. The concept of employability rather
than full time, paid employment is a more useful starting point
for personal advisers working with people with learning disabilities
who are keen to enter the labour markets or in danger of losing
their current employment.
13. Mencap recommends that regional and local capacity
should be established to enable disability organisations, such
as Mencap's Pathway Employment service, to maximise their contribution
to the Gateway.
14. Mencap recommends that disability organisations
which play a role in the delivery of the Gateway are guaranteed
a proportion of their contact income in order to lessen the risk,
and encourage involvement. Funds should not follow the clients
or be based on outputs.
15. Mencap fears that the lack of capacity in the
voluntary sector, including disability organisations may lead
to contracts being awarded to big training providers who are geared
up to bidding.
16. Mencap calls on the Government to clarify the
relationship between New Deal (volunteers for work) and the Single
Work Focused Gateway (benefit claimants).
17. Mencap urges the Government to evaluate the personal
adviser pilot schemes comprehensively by making explicit the outcomes
on which they will judge the schemes success.
18. A personal adviser will need to ensure that a
person with learning disabilities is provided with ongoing and
appropriate support in the workplace. Support should be extended
to employers and employees in relation to matters of retention
and adaptation to changing conditions and work practices, as well
as publicising Access To Work.
19. Mencap recommends that prior to the national
introduction of the Single Gateway, the Government, in consultation
with disability groups, produces a booklet setting out a number
of quality standards relating to the support and advice extended
to people with disabilities, including learning disabilities.
20. Mencap would caution against internal targets
such as the number of interviews conducted in a week by a personal
adviser or a target of a specified number of people entering work.
Targets should include positive measures such as setting more
people in contact with the labour market, the consequence with
may be reduction in expenditure, or ensuring that people with
learning disabilities are claiming all their benefits.
21. Mencap urges the Government to evaluate the personal
adviser pilot schemes comprehensively by making explicit the outcomes
on which they will judge the schemes a success. Successful outcomes
will differ tremendously from claimant to claimant, and it is
not appropriate to have a reduction of claimants on a particular
benefit as a target.
Mencap would also caution against other output related
targets such as the number of interviews conducted in a week by
a personal adviser or a target of a specified number of people
entering work.
1. Introduction
The aspirations of people with learning disabilities
are higher today than they have ever been. They are demanding
their rights in all areas of life including education, training
and employment. Increasingly, the expectation on many young people
with learning disabilities is that they will go to college and
that from there, will choose to continue their progression onward
into employment.
"Many people with learning disabilities would
like to work. This is for the same reasons that other people seek
employment; it increases their income, their independence, their
sense of purpose and contribution. their status and self respect."
from Building Expectations, The Mental Health Foundation, 1996.
Mencap's experience of client requirements puts employment
opportunities at the top of the list for those able to express
a choice. Reasons for this are stated as: to increase income,
to further independence, to have a sense of purpose in life, to
contribute to the economic well being of the country; to gain
status and to achieve dignity and self esteem. By definition people
with learning disabilities need support in order to learn and
develop new work skills and tasks. They tend to learn new skills
at a different and usually slower pace. But people with learning
disabilities can learn and ultimately achieve levels of performance
comparable to non-disabled peers. Indeed, the biggest obstacle
for people with learning disabilities with the potential to earn
a living is not lack of skills, it is a lack of people believing
in them.
Mencap is pleased by the emphasis the Government
has placed on giving greater support to people, including those
with disabilities, to find work, whilst reiterating the commitment
that the welfare state should support those who are unable to
do so 90 per cent of people with severe learning disabilities
of working age are not in paid work, and those who are working
are commonly in part time low paid work Mencap's research has
shown that there are many people with learning disabilities who
would like to work and that more people could be supported into
work, but event doubling the current proportion of people with
severe learning disabilities in work would still leave 80 per
cent without work.
People with learning disabilities who are able to
enter employment tend to be concentrated in low skilled, low waged
jobs. Their disability may mean that they are only able to work
part-time. They may spend frequent periods out of the labour market
because of discrimination or ill health. There are people with
substantial learning disabilities who, if jobs were available,
and if appropriate resources were invested, might secure full
or part time employment. Those disabled people who can work require
welfare and work, to help meet disability related costs and to
top up low earnings. Disabled people who are born with multiple
or severe learning disabilities may never be able to enter the
labour market and are likely to depend on earning replacement
benefits for the rest for their lives.
In short, the Single Work Focused Gateway should
not treat people with disabilities as a homogenous group. The
Single Work-focused Gateway will have to be mindful of the wide
range, type and degree of disability and uniqueness of each individual—their
abilities, aptitudes and preferences. The Gateway must be geared
to an individual's needs—planning must define the needs
and aspirations of each service user. Personal adviser's should
not make assumptions about an individual because of their disability
or have low expectations about the ability of a person with learning
disabilities who wants to undertake work.
2. Mencap's Employment Service for People with Learning
Disabilities
Mencap's Pathway Employment Services are designed
to support people with learning disabilities in pursuit of their
employment aspirations. First established in 1973, Pathway continues
to be a significant and established national contributor, in service
delivery. Mencap's Pathway Employment Service has placed over
3,500 adults with learning disabilities in employment over the
last fifteen years. These jobs have been predominantly in the
service sector. It has had a long history of working closely with
employers on a local level. Mencap's Pathway Service has developed
good links with a number of companies, such as Marks and Spencer,
Tesco, J Sainsbury's, and C&A. We have services throughout
the country and many of our services are engaged in contracts
with the Employment Service.
3. Scope of the Single Work Focused Gateway
The Government has started a number of pilot schemes
which allow disabled people to attend interviews on a voluntary
basis. From April 2000, however, it will be compulsory for disabled
people to attend an interview as a condition of their benefit
entitlement. Mencap has already expressed concern regarding the
proposals to force people to attend personal adviser interviews.
Many people with severe learning disabilities are unlikely to
ever work and their parents will understandably regard an interview
to discuss job seeking activities as a waste of time.
Mencap recommends that for severely disabled people
and full time carers attending an interview at the Gateway should
be optional rather than compulsory. People with profound and multiple
disabilities with the greatest support needs, for example, middle
rate/higher rate DLA mobility and care components should not be
forced to attend a Single Work Focused Gateway. They will have
care or supervision needs throughout the day or night. It would
be in nobody's interests to insist that even the most severely
disabled people can only secure benefits by virtue of an interview
about work they have no prospect of getting, with people who have
no means of communicating with them.
Mencap feels that compulsory interviews could be
inappropriate for severely disabled people and full time carers.
First, in principle, it is unfair to force those working full
time as carers to take time off to attend an interview to discuss
work. Second, it is unfair to jeopardise the sole income of severely
disabled people and the sole income of those with potentially
vulnerable dependants. Thirdly, such people may experience practical
problems associated with attending a work-focused interview especially
when reimbursement of their costs of attendance is in doubt. Mencap
recommends that the Government should first await the outcome
of the pilot studies before reaching a decision on compulsion.
The Government proposes that a claimant's initial
contact with the system will be with a person with responsibility
for registration and orientation who will then refer a person
to a mainstream personal adviser for a discussion about work.
Mencap recommends that a claimant should have the option of being
referred to either a dedicated specialist personal adviser with
experience in employment and knowledge on disability issues for
a discussion on work and access to appropriate benefits or a dedicated
specialist adviser for a discussion on access to and take up of
disability related benefits alone. The specialist adviser should
also be responsible for establishing links with disability organisations,
such as Mencap.
The person responsible for registration and orientation
may consider that it would be inappropriate to refer a person
with learning disabilities to a personal adviser given the degree
of disability. However, in such circumstances the right kind of
support may be specialist advice on relevant benefits rather than
a referral out of the Single Work Focused Gateway. This model
would ensure that a person with learning disabilities gets the
right form of support at the right time.
4. Advice on Benefits
The Government has indicated that the Single Work
Focused Gateway will perform a dual role. It will advise people
with disabilities on the range of benefits that they are entitled
to and will support claimant's efforts to find work. A relationship
of trust will need to be developed between the personal adviser
and disabled person and this will be crucial. There are inherent
difficulties in expecting a personal adviser to monitor a claimant's
benefits and provide assistance on possible work opportunities.
Claimants will need to be assured that information volunteered
in response to questions on employment prospects will not automatically
be used to inform a review of benefit entitlements. Often, it
will be relevant to future prospects not to current capacity.
The flow of information between personal advisers and benefits
adjudication officers should be clearly demarcated.
The Government's consultation paper "Support
for Disabled People" described the single gateway as
a "mechanism for ensuring that people are given a personal
adviser who will help them access information on work, benefits
and other government sources." However, Government's
policy statements on the Gateway to date hove focused on the work-focused
aspect, a term which the Government has described as "conducted
for such purposes connected with employment and training".
Mencap is concerned that in describing interviews as "work
focused" the Government may be placing disproportionate priority
on getting people into paid employment at the expense of other
kinds of support, such as entitlement to disability benefits.
There is good evidence to show that disabled people
are not claiming their full entitlement to benefits. People with
learning disabilities and their supporters are also not aware
of the full range of in-work benefits available to them. This
can result in people wrongly believing that they would be financially
worse off in work or that is not financially viable to remain
in work on a part-time basis. The Single Work Focused Gateway
should advise people on all benefits they could claim and be willing
and able to discuss different scenarios with people. The onus
should not be on people with learning disabilities to ask the
right questions.
The Single Work Focused Gateway should also provide
for increases in existing awards of benefit where justified and
a commitment to pay benefits within a prescribed period of time.
There are fears that the new process might delay payments. Personal
advisers should encourage people to claim in-work benefits to
which they are entitled. Given the low level of take up of disability
benefits—the Single Work Focused Gateway has a major role
in promoting take up amongst eligible client groups. Such initiatives
provide scope for partnership, co-operation and sharing of experience,
information and expertise with local authorities and the voluntary
sector. Mencap also recommends that Government should initiate
a take-up campaign on benefits for disability groups similar to
the campaign directed at older people.
5. Registration of People with Learning Disabilities
at the Gateway
The initial contact with the system will be with
a member of staff responsible for the registration and orientation
of new claimants. A claimant will be required to supply basic
information, including personal details, reasons for claiming
benefit and other details necessary for processing the benefit
claim. This person will be responsible at this stage for deciding
whether people with learning disabilities should be referred to
a personal adviser for a discussion about work opportunities.
This staff member will act as an ambassador for the
Single Work Focused Gateway. They are the first point of contact
for its customers. There is a need to take account of high profile
of the project and recruit staff of a sufficiently high calibre
who are able to handle complex situations and understand the needs
of a person with a learning disability. The person needs to be
non-judgmental and provide unthreatening opportunities for people
with learning disabilities to talk about their needs. In some
cases, a staff member will be able to identify a person with a
learning disability because he/she has been referred by a social
worker or specialist college. In other cases a person with learning
disabilities may arrive without being referred in such a way or
will not be accompanied to the interview by a social worker/parent.
Guidelines should be developed which can assist staff members
responsible for registration to identify people with a learning
disability and their support needs.
A considerable amount of information could be obtained
from individuals if the person responsible for registration is
given the appropriate guidance on how to broach a sensitive subject
and appropriate questions to ask. The Government's emphasis on
training has solely focused on the role of personal advisers.
The staff member responsible for registration should work towards
NVQ level 3.
The role of personal advisers in offering individualised
programmes to disabled people will be of crucial importance. Considerable
time and resources will need to be deployed to ensure that agencies
are fully accessible, that all staff are fully trained even before
the pilot schemes begin, and that advisers are aware of the particular
needs of people with learning disabilities and allow more time
to be spent on each case.
6. Training of Personal Advisers
The DSS and DfEE need to be put in place systems
to deliver a comprehensive package of training in learning disability
based on explicit standards for all those responsible for the
assessment and, subsequent placement into jobs and retention of
people with learning disabilities. All participants need to be
provided with a minimum level of awareness of learning disability
issues, contact points for obtaining specialist information and
advice on employment issues. Guidelines should be developed which
can help personal advisers to communicate with people with learning
disabilities and advise them on employment opportunities accordingly.
There should be opportunities for on-going training
and development of personal advisers. Those who interview people
with learning disabilities about benefit entitlement and future
work possibilities should have appropriate expertise both to conduct
the interview and to understand their specific work and benefit
requirements.
Personal advisers should be encouraged to develop
specialist areas of knowledge. For example, personal advisers
could specialise in assisting benefit claimants with disabled
children, or claimants with sensory impairments, learning disabilities
or mental health problems. Personal advisers should be expected
to pool good practice and provide support and advice to each other
as well as building links with disability organisations dealing
with particular client groups. Personal advisers who successfully
engage with people with learning disabilities should be championed.
Although local autonomy will be the strength of the
Work Focused Gateway, it is essential that good practice demonstrated
in one area is adopted elsewhere and that initiatives identified
as essential, particularly with regard to training of personal
advisers, are developed in each locality.
7. Advocacy Support
It is important that as far as possible a person
with a learning disability understands the role of the Single
Work Focused Gateway, understands his/her rights and entitlement
to benefits and how to claim them. It is important to recognise
that it is unworkable to expect disabled people with intellectual
or communication difficulties to attend an interview without support.
To the end, it is important that a person with a
learning disability is able to be accompanied by a parent, relative
or advocate to a work focused interview where appropriate. The
support of another individual can be vital in order to help a
claimant to communicate their own view, to boost confidence, provide
them with expert advice and help them with communication difficulties.
People with learning disabilities may have difficulty
in taking in new information, handling complex material and communicating
effectively. They may need support to help think what they want
to say and express their views or may need encouragement to answer
questions. The aim of advocacy in all its forms is to ensure that
people with learning disabilities are not deprived of their rights
through lack of information, lack of resources or lack of someone
to speak up for them. This will have costs implications for the
Benefit Agency in terms of provision of support and because each
interview takes longer to complete. It is important that these
considerations are built into the budget for the personal adviser
scheme.
8. Other Steps to make the Single Work focused Gateway
Fully Accessible
For some claimants, an interview at a home at a convenient
time will be preferred to attending the Benefits Agency or Employment
Office. However, it should not be assumed that just because a
person has a particular disability they should be automatically
be interviewed at home. The claimant should be consulted in order
to have the opportunity to choose between an interview at home
or in an alternative location. Above all, the Single Work Focused
Gateway should be implemented as a service to individual claimants.
Personal advisers must be flexible enough to take account of an
individuals' circumstances. The Government will need to clarify
how much money has been set aside for home visits, and on what
basis they are anticipating demand. Disabled people who have to
attend an interview should have reimbursed to them such costs
as may be reasonably incurred by them, including the cost of advocate
support, where appropriate. So far the only undertaking given
relates to "exceptional circumstances".
The Government has given assurances with regard to
the accessibility of premises for disabled people in regard to
the pilot schemes. Mencap trusts that when the scheme is rolled
out to cover the whole country, the standards will not be any
lower than those set for the pilots. There is a common misconception
that disabled people are physically disabled and that the provision
of portable items such as portable ramps, chair or cushions and
aids to communication will resolve many of the difficulties or
barriers to access facing disabled people. The problem facing
people with learning disabilities, however stems not from physical
barriers but an unwillingness on behalf of people to provide a
service on equal terms. Access for people with learning disabilities
depends much more on "people" than on ramps and the
barriers are "people" rather than stairs.
The Government has proposed a three day limit for
someone to attend an interview following a referral by the staff
member responsible for registration. The Government has also put
in place a mechanism leading to reduction of benefit for non-attendance.
A three day limit is unrealistic for people with learning disabilities
who may rely on someone else to read and explain their correspondence
to them or who need special transport arrangements.
9. Volunteering
Mencap is concerned by the emphasis the Government
has placed on paid, full time employment. It appears to undervalue
the contribution to society made by volunteers, parents and carers.
People with learning disabilities may need alternatives to full-time
paid employment, including unpaid voluntary work, therapeutic
work and part-time work. Opportunities to volunteer enable those
with learning disabilities to gain self confidence and can help
those individuals who want to enter the labour market. Success
measures should explicitly recognise the number of disabled people
engaged in voluntary or therapeutic work. Mencap believes that
volunteering opportunities should be developed for all those with
learning disabilities who are about to leave school or college
with options developed in conjunction with the Single Work Focused
Gateway. Clear guidance should be issued to personal advisers
stating that capacity to undertake unpaid work does not equate
to capacity to undertake paid employment and should not trigger
a reassessment of their capacity to work.
10. Conducting an Interview with a Claimant with
a Learning Disability
A personal adviser assessment will be required to
discuss with the claimant current skills, qualifications, job
competencies and barriers to work. Together the personal adviser
and the people with learning disabilities could work out an action
plan looking at career development skills gaps, training needs
and rehabilitation. A personal adviser should treat the people
with learning disabilities with the same respect as their non-disabled
counterparts. Mencap recommends that the following approach is
taken.
10.1. A meeting should be held to compile a job search
profile for the individual. The Government has proposed that a
claimant should provide information in areas relevant to the employment
prospects, such as educational qualifications, previous work history
and vocational training. However, an interview with a person with
learning disabilities will need to be more tailored to their needs.
This will involve putting together a plan of a person's current
daily activities, at home and out of home, the type of support
that person currently receives and what kind of support works
well when teaching a person a new skill. A personal adviser should
consider the interests that the person has in activities in an
out of the home.
10.2. A personal advisor should consider whether
a person currently works and examine all work opportunities including
household tasks, work tasters, skilled work and paid work. The
candidate's ability, willingness and motivation to work towards
entering the labour market should be discussed and assessed. The
personal adviser will need to have knowledge of the local area,
including specialist colleges and the type of open and supported
job opportunities that exist. What type of support does the person
need when using public transport? What local resources are there?
Is there a specialist employment service, job clubs or training
schemes. Building links with employers is essential. Employers
with a record of having people with learning disabilities on their
work force are much more likely to employ a person with a learning
disability rather than those with no experience.
10.3. The concept of employability rather than full
time, paid employment is a more useful starting point for personal
advisers working with people with learning disabilities who are
keen to enter the labour market or in danger of losing their current
employment. The information element of a personal adviser should
straddle all the work opportunities available to people with learning
disabilities, such as improved access to education, training and
employment support services.
There are a number of training models in services
that can place people with learning disabilities in employment.
There are time limited courses usually undertaken in Further Education
Colleges or training centres. Sheltered employment has provided
work for people who would otherwise remain unemployed. For some
people with learning disabilities work in a day centre should
be viewed as a stepping stone to open employment. Supported employment
allows a person to be placed in a suitable job and providing them
with training and other support. It may provide people with learning
disabilities with a real job in a real work place. At this stage,
it may be appropriate to seeks the advice of a specialist disability
organisation, such as Mencap's Pathway service, where available
locally, on what option would best suit an individual.
10.4. Once a claimant has been assessed along the
lines outlined above consideration should be given to offering
the claimant and employer a range of support when they take a
person with learning disabilities onto their work force. Types
of assistance include information packages about financial incentives;
regular visits; a job coach; and feedback about the impact the
job has in the individual's life. Details of Pathway's services
and its approach to interviewing people with learning disabilities
are set out in Annex One.
10.5. The form of support offered must be meaningful
and offer progression to a person with learning disabilities.
Interviews should not simply tick people off; they should be subject
to quality control to ensure that individual get a individual
service. For instance, it should be recognised that referral to
a training course may not always be satisfactory outcome for a
person with a learning disability, particularly if that person
has already been on a similar course in the past. We are aware
of people who have had several rounds of "work experience"
but no sign of an actual job. That individual may be looking for
support in order to access supported or open employment. There
is also anecdotal evidence at colleges of Further Education across
the country, of the "revolving door" syndrome, where
students with learning disabilities are repeatedly enrolling for
education provision because there are no vocational support services
available to enable them to effectively make the progression into
work.
11. Involvement of Disability Organisations in the
Delivery of the Gateway
Disability organisations, such as Mencap's Pathway
service, can play a key role in the delivery of the gateway. A
personal adviser will provide a balanced package of work focused
help. In many cases, a personal adviser, if not a specialist,
will feel it is appropriate to seek the advice and support of
a disability employment specialist, such as Mencap's Pathway,
which can provide guidance on the employment of people with learning
disabilities.
Single Work Focused Gateway staff should be encouraged
to develop links with other service providers in order to build
up their knowledge and expertise of people with learning disabilities
living in their local community. Mencap's Pathway will also have
developed good links with the local business community and specialist
colleges. Mencap recommends that personal advisers develop links
with specialist employment organisations in their locality and
that the extent to which such links are developed are monitored
and published. Regional directors should come together to evaluate
good practice in their area.
From November 1999, the Government plans to invite
external providers to be involved with the management of the operation
of the Gateway. There will be scope for the voluntary sector to
provide or train personal advisers or manage part of the caseload
based on agreed outputs. The Government needs to clarify details
of the contractual arrangements and methods of working between
the Employment Service, the Benefits Agency, local authorities
and the voluntary sector.
The most pressing concern is whether disability organisations
will have the capacity to delivery elements of the Gateway. There
is strong anecdotal evidence to suggest that local authorities
have cut their funding to local employment projects, such as those
provided by Mencap's Pathway Service. Recent research by Mencap
has demonstrated that funding to Pathway services from local authorities
has fallen and at least ten Pathway services have folded in the
last five years. organisations supporting people with learning
disabilities will not be able to develop an active role in advising
personal advisers or delivering aspects of the Single Work Focused
Gateway unless funding to support them is increased. Mencap recommends
that regional and local capacity should be built to enable disability
organisations, such as Mencap's Pathway service, to maximise their
contribution to the Single Work Focused Gateway.
There are also a number of lessons to be drawn from
the delivery of the New Deal programme. First, there should not
be any financial risk associated with taking on a contract to
deliver management of the Single Work Focused Gateway, particularly
if payment is largely in arrears and is tied to the individual.
If numbers passing through a programme are not as high as predicted
then the contract income will be lower than expected. Mencap recommends
that disability organisations are guaranteed a proportion of their
contract income in order to lessen the risk and encourage involvement.
Funds should be not follow the client or be based on outputs.
Mencap is aware that there has been considerable
concern expressed over the private sector's involvement in the
New Deal. Private sector lead areas have been described as the
"privatisation" of New Deal. As a result, there is concern
that private organisations with no community links, may manage
a significant proportion of the delivery of the Single Work Focused
Gateway. Mencap recommends that lead organisations must consult
with all disability groups on the front line, including those
representing people with learning disabilities, if they are to
gain an understanding of local circumstances. It is also especially
important that tendering documents make certain requirements on
accessibility, training and the option of home visits. Mencap
fears that the lack of capacity in the voluntary sector, including
disability organisations may lead to contracts being awarded to
big training providers who are geared up to bidding but not to
delivering a specialist service.
12. Relationship between the Single Work Focused
Gateway and New Deal
It is unclear, at this stage, how the single gateway
for benefit claimants will relate to the gateway for the New Deal
programme or whether it is the intention to merge the two gateways.
First, there is a risk that the proliferation of New Deal programmes,
pilot programmes and personal advisers will become a source of
confusion for employers and potential employees alike. Second,
there is concern that an increased emphasis on job opportunities
by the Single Gateway will put increased pressure on disabled
people to take part in the New Deal for Disabled People.
We are pleased that there is no element of compulsion
in the New Deal for disabled people and very much hopes this principle
is maintained once the single Gateway is rolled out. Mencap calls
on the Government to clarify the relationship between New Deal
and the Single Work Focused Gateway, particularly when both are
in operation in the same area. In particular we are concerned
that the New Deal at present especially for those anxious to work
as time limited funding, whereas Gateway funding is a core programme
and may be seen more as "benefit control".
13. Ongoing Support
Barriers to employment, including benefits traps
facing disabled people, are problems which need to be addressed.
The structure of the social security system particularly the excessive
use of means tested benefits has contributed to this problem.
This is likely to be exacerbated following the passage of the
Welfare Reform and Pensions Bill. However, there appears to be
a tendency to focus heavily on the issue of benefit traps—it
will be necessary to address other barriers such as the means
of getting to work and the retention of those disabled people
in the workplace who are able to work.
Mencap recommends that prior to the introduction
of the Single Work-Focused Gateway, the Government, in consultation
with disability groups, produces a booklet setting out a number
of quality standards relating to support and advice extended to
people with disabilities, including learning disabilities. This
would include commitments on accessibility by people with learning
disabilities to the recruitment, retention, training and promotion
processes and the need to ensure that disability awareness training
is made available to all staff.
Mencap believes that the Government, in conjunction
with disability groups, should raise awareness of the positive
business reasons for employing people with learning disabilities.
An employer faced with an option of taking on an unemployed person
or a disabled person, with learning disabilities, requiring additional
support and training, will need further incentives before taking
on that disabled person. It would not be acceptable for a personal
adviser to refer a person to a job if the support mechanisms are
not on place to support the person in the workplace.
14. Job Retention
The Government will also need to address job retention
issues as part of its drive to increase the number of disabled
people in work. A personal adviser will need to ensure that a
person with learning disabilities is provided with ongoing and
appropriate support in the workplace. Support should be extended
to employers and employees in relation to matters of retention
and adaptation to changing conditions and work practices.
The tax and benefit system should also be further
examined with a view to offering further tax or other advantages
to employers who employ people with learning disabilities. One
option would be to remove the employers' contribution to Access
to Work, a scheme which has played such an important role in providing
meaningful employment opportunities for disabled people.
Access to Work helps to meet the costs of special
equipment and alterations, the cost of getting to work and the
cost of a Support Worker in the workplace. However a report by
the Disablement Income Group suggests that only 6 per cent of
Access to Work recipients are funded for support workers. Mencap
is concerned that whilst there is evidence to suggest that Access
to Work offers valuable support in the workplace, it needs to
be better published and the range of assistance that is available
under the scheme should be made clear to employers and employees.
The Government will need to measure the numbers of people claiming
help to the Access to Work scheme. In addition, Mencap believes
that the employers' contribution to Access to Work should be removed
with further publicity given to the benefits of that scheme.
15. Outcomes for the Gateway
Mencap urges the Government to evaluate the personal
adviser pilot schemes comprehensively by making explicit the outcomes
on which they will judge the schemes success. Successful outcomes
will differ tremendously from claimant to claimant, and it is
not appropriate to have a reduction of claimants on a particular
benefit as a target. Mencap would also caution against other output-related
targets such as the number of interviews conducted in a week by
a personal adviser or a target of a specified number of people
entering work. One of the difficulties with the Benefits Integrity
Project was that officers had target completion rates of 15 cases
per day. This did not give staff enough time to make thorough
assessments of the information available to them, with disastrous,
consequences for disabled people. It is essential that personal
advisers are able to devote as much or as little time as is needed
for interviews. For example, a personal adviser will need more
time to complete an interview with a claimant with a learning
disability because it may take longer to explain the information
and take longer for the claimant to understand complex benefit
issues. However, a claimant's concentration may be poor over long
periods of time and it may be necessary to conduct two short interviews
rather than one lengthy one.
Targets should be a positive one of setting more
people in contact with the labour market, the consequence of which
may be a reduction in expenditure, or ensuring that people with
learning disabilities are claiming all their benefits. For example,
in the case of a Severe Disablement Allowance claimant, a personal
adviser interview may be judged as a success if the claimant goes
on to take up other benefits to which they are entitled. One option
would be for Government to develop performance indicators that
would measure the number of people in receipt of Disability Living
Allowance who are in work or in receipt of therapeutic earnings,
as well as disabled people remaining in work.
Information on the evaluation of the pilots schemes
should be made public and a report submitted to Parliament. The
views of people with learning disabilities on the running of the
Gateway should be sought.
Richard Kramer
Head of Campaigns
29 April 1999
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