Memorandum 12
Submission from Skill: National Bureau
for Students with Disabilities
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. Skill: National Bureau for Students with
Disabilities promotes opportunities to empower young people and
adults with any kind of disability to realise their potential.
2. The Sector Skills Councils are being
advocated as the mechanism for increasing the demand-led nature
of skills and qualifications through their involvement of employers.
The balance to be achieved in a demand-led system is establishing
whose demand is leading: that of the learners or of the employers?
Employers may have low levels of awareness and understanding of
disability issues and they may be missing out on valuable people
through prejudice: diversity is often seen as the result not as
a criterion. Skill believes that the Sectors Skills Councils (SSCs)
could still do much more work with employers not only to increase
their awareness of disability issues and understanding of legislation,
but also of the funding and support available.
3. A key aspect of generating growth in
the skills agenda has been through regional response. Skill is
concerned about how the SSCs will allow for a regional response
to locally identified and funded need. The development of the
proposed Skills Funding Agency and facilitating its regional activities
will be essential to deliver this aspect of the agenda. In terms
of higher education, in recent years, the regional agenda has
taken more prominence as institutions have collaborated with statutory,
community and voluntary sector organisations in their respective
regions to further meet the skills demands of that region. Aimhigher
has done much to diversify the student body but more still needs
to be done to ensure that disabled people have genuinely equal
access to HE.
4. One aspect of lifelong learning, particularly
in the workplace, that can often be overlooked is that of retraining
for employees who become disabled whilst in post. In addition,
the government's recent announcements on the withdrawal of funding
for Equivalent and Lower Qualifications, whilst many disabled
people will be exempt from this, present another barrier to those
wishing to retrain and seek an alternative career.
1. SKILL'S
ROLE
1.1 Skill: National Bureau for Students
with Disabilities promotes opportunities to empower young people
and adults with any kind of disability to realise their potential
in further, continuing and higher education, training and employment
throughout the United Kingdom. Skill works by providing information
and advice to individuals, promoting good practice and influencing
policy in partnership with disabled people, service providers
and policy makers.
1.2 Skill would like the Committee to note
that it is responding to the recent DIUS and DCSF Green Paper
Raising Expectations: Enabling the System to Deliver and
this will cover in more detail issues relating to further education
funding and the future of the Learning and Skills Council.
2. THE ROLE
OF THE
SECTOR SKILLS
COUNCILS
2.1 The Sector Skills Councils are being
advocated as the mechanism for increasing the demand-led nature
of skills and qualifications through their involvement of employers.
The following statement from World Class Skills encompasses
many of Skill's concerns:
"The skills deficits in England are heavily
differentiated by age, disability, ethnicity and gender, but also
by geography and socio-economic group." [30]
2.2 The balance to be achieved in a demand-led
system is establishing whose demand is leading: that of the learners
or of the employers? The demand-led system places power to choose
in the hands of the individual and the employer but, with this,
comes increased responsibility to make truly informed choices.
Employers tend to focus solely upon recruiting enough people with
the skills and attributes they require but the low levels of awareness
and understanding of disability issues amongst many employers
mean that they may be missing out through prejudice.
2.3 Investors in People UK delivered a report
in June 2006[31]
based on a research programme that sought evidence on how employers
promote equality of opportunity in the development of their organisation's
people. It found that diversity is a well-recognised issue but
is most prominently linked with ethnicity issues rather than with
issues of disability. Many organisations maintain that as they
select and recruit the best person for the job; diversity is seen
as the result not as a criterion. This is a worrying indicator
of lack of disability awareness of employers.
2.4 In addition, the then Disability Rights
Commission published a report in 2007[32]
stating that the risks of disclosing unseen disabilities and health
conditions in the teaching, nursing and social work professions
are compounded by the stigma attached to them. A supportive workplace
or training environment was found to be key in encouraging disclosure
among employees and those training within the three professions
examined. Participants in the study said that major shifts in
attitudes and behaviour were needed in the workplace to overcome
their fears about disclosure.
2.5 Skill therefore believes that the Sectors
Skills Councils (SSCs) could still do much more work with employers
not only to increase their awareness of disability issues and
understanding of legislation, but also of the funding and support
available. Therefore, more training and education to give disabled
potential employees true equality of opportunity in recruitment,
training and development of career pathways is urgently needed.
2.6 Skill is also concerned about the mechanisms
that the SSCs, as well as the UK Commission for Employment and
Skills, have for engaging with small and medium-sized employers,
and employers at a regional and local level. A recent study by
JobCentre Plus[33]
found that there was a difference in the awareness of the availability
of Access to Work between SMEs and larger employers. IN addition,
although there was no difference between SMEs and larger employers
in their stated willingness to employ hard to place groups of
people, there was a difference in whether or not they had actually
done this in the preceding year.
3. REGION-BASED
AGENDA
3.1 A key aspect of generating growth in
the skills agenda has been through regional response. This is
connected to the proposals in Raising Expectations: Enabling
the System to Deliver which will place local funding and delivery
at the heart of the funding mechanism. Skill is therefore concerned
about how the SSCs will allow for a regional response to locally
identified and funded need. The development of the proposed Skills
Funding Agency and facilitating its regional activities will be
essential to deliver this aspect of the agenda.
3.2 In terms of higher education, in recent
years, the regional agenda has taken more prominence as institutions
have collaborated with statutory, community and voluntary sector
organisations in their respective regions to further meet the
skills demands of that region. HE is now recognised as a significant
contributor within regions as well as locally and nationally.
Aimhigher and other widening participation initiatives have done
much to diversify the student bodies, but more still needs to
be done to ensure that disabled people have genuinely equal access
to HE. Whilst the future of Aimhigher funding has been secured
by HEFCE until 2011, it is extremely disappointing that the regional
strand of Aimhigher has been removed and will no longer be funded
beyond August 2008. The impact of this on the regional skills
agenda will have to remain to be seen, particularly on disabled
students as many of the Aimhigher initiatives that specifically
targeted disabled students were run at the regional level.
4. LIFELONG LEARNING
One aspect of lifelong learning, particularly
in the workplace, that can often be overlooked is that of retraining
for employees who become disabled whilst in post. Employers have
a duty under the Disability Discrimination Act to make reasonable
adjustments for disabled employees, which includes people who
become disabled whilst in post. In meeting this duty, employers
may need to adjust a person's job and role and may need to provide
training and learning opportunities for them. Skill believes that
it is important that employers meet this duty as without it disabled
people can face poverty as a result of unfair dismissal. In addition,
the government's recent announcements on the withdrawal of funding
for Equivalent and Lower Qualifications, whilst many disabled
people will be exempt from this, present another barrier to those
wishing to retrain and seek an alternative career.
April 2008
30 DIUS, 2007, World Class Skills: Implementing
the Leitch Review of Skills in England, Section 14.1 Back
31
Investors in People, 2006: Recruitment & Selection of a
Diverse Workforce, Research Report, Prepared by Discovery. Back
32
Stanley et al, 2007: Disclosing Disability: Disabled
students and practitioners in social work, nursing and teaching,
Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King's College London. Back
33
Bunt, et al (2007). JobCentre Plus Annual Employer (Market
View) Survey 2006-07. DWP Research Report 437, pp 76-79. Back
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