APPENDIX 8
Memorandum from Penny Melville-Brown,
The Gateway Partnership (JG 14)
CONTEXT
1. The following inputs are drawn from our
observations based on running one of the Innovative schemes (The
Gateway Partnership) set up under the New Deal for Disabled People.
The views are based on experience that some 20-40 per cent of
the scheme's participants have expressed concern about travel
and transport in relation to their employability; additionally,
it is estimated that attendance at training and other events provided
by the scheme would have been reduced by some 50 per cent without
the transport arranged by the project. In addition to our own
forthcoming evaluation of the project, DSS and DfEE have an external,
independent research organisation that is currently evaluating
all the schemes.
GEOGRAPHICAL JOB
GAP
2. Disabled people can have very localised
job gaps because many have substantial real or perceived problems
with travel/transport.
PERCEIVED PROBLEMS
3. Unemployed disabled people have often
become restricted in their travel. If they are without a car,
they may depend on public transport or taxis. For many, public
transport is not accessible due to their disability and/or the
lack of such transport (eg in rural areas). Use of taxis may be
the only practical, reliable, door-to-door means of travelling
but use will be restricted due to cost. Consequently the unemployed
disabled person may adopt a lifestyle of infrequent travel only
for vital activities; this lifestyle can condition the disabled
person into accepting that life, and work, is restricted to a
very small local area. For example:
— one of the Employment Service Personal
Adviser Pilot schemes reported that unemployed disabled people
were reluctant to travel even a few miles;
— some clients of the New Deal for
Disabled People innovative scheme, the Hampshire-based Gateway
Partnership, have expressed similar reluctance that is likely
to be repeated elsewhere in the country.
4. This conditioning can be reinforced by
the unemployed disabled person's lack of confidence. Hence, even
if able to use public or other transport in principle, concerns
about safety, ability to cope in a public area etc can be undermining
in practice. The Gateway Partnership's programme of motivational
and personal development training endeavours to overcome such
low self-confidence. For example:
— a long term unemployed agoraphobic
client was provided with considerable personal support to extend
his travel area; he is now in full-time employment.
ACTUAL PROBLEMS
5. As mentioned above, public transport
will create real geographical job gaps due to its lack of accessibility
and/or inadequate service. Many unemployed disabled people are
unable to afford a private car, even if able to drive. Even if
using a car, often there are no/inadequate disabled parking spaces
adjacent to the work place. For example:
— a Gateway client secured a job and
could have driven to work yet lack of a disabled parking space
resulted in use of taxis for several months.
LABOUR FORCE
SURVEY
6. The above problems result in geographical
job gaps that will usually be specific to each unemployed disabled
person. These gaps are unlikely to be revealed by the survey.
Inclusion of details of, for example, use of ATW transport support
and availability of accessible public transport would improve
the survey's accuracy.
IMPACT OF
SUPPLY-SIDE
POLICIES
7. New Deal for Disabled People innovative
schemes provide a range of methods to help disabled people move
into work. Some provide "dedicated" jobs at specific
localities, eg a call centre, a shop; such central localities
have travel benefits. Other schemes offer motivational training
aimed at helping individuals manage their own lives and, inter
alia, travel independently where possible. Other schemes promote
self-employment, often the preferred option for disabled people,
which avoids/limits transport difficulties through emphasis on
work from home. Some innovative schemes also emphasise retention
of disabled people by their existing employers; this will not
necessarily remove travel problems but the individual can benefit
from higher self confidence, a familiar environment and infrastructure
plus, hopefully, positive support and adjustment by the employer.
Consequently, the New Deal for Disabled People schemes may offer
a variety of solutions for individuals; job gaps.
8. It is evident that many disabled people
have no knowledge of the potential transport support available
via Employment Service Access to Work (ATW) provision. As a result,
many will not make even the first step towards work; even those
more motivated to work will have very limited aspirations and
significant, personally localised job gaps. Improved awareness
of ATW plus extension of such support will offer further solutions
to individuals' job gaps.
Penny Melville-Brown
The Gateway Partnership
October 1999
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