Supported Employment

Supported employment is widely recognised as a model for successfully integrating people with disabilities into the labour market. Mentoring and peer support can support the transition into employment and enable the new employee to maintain their employment and develop at work.

Our projects use this 5 stage model to support our clients into employment.

1. Job Readiness

The person with disabilities is eager to find work and engage with an organisation to support them with this process.

2. Vocational Profile

The tool used by supported employment agencies to get to know the client, develop trust, establish skills, abilities, support/development needs, aspirations and goals.

3. Job Search/Job Development

The agency works with the client to search for jobs in the open employment market or to directly market their clients to employers - matching skills to employers' needs.

4. Employer engagement

Introduce client to employer, break down barriers, job analysis, negotiate job description, disability awareness to managers and co-workers, enter a contract with the employer about what support/job coaching will be provided.

5. On/off the job support

Job coaching, support, monitoring visits, phone calls, peer support.

Supported employment works best when the person with disabilities is matched to the right job. But what makes a job the right job? The following is a list of key factors:

• Match duties to skills
  
  
• Job location, travel to work, days and times of work - travelling distance, geographical location can be crucial to success.
  
  
• Match the job to client goals, aspirations, abilities and interests.
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• Financial issues - wages, benefits incentives crucial.
  
  
• Workplace culture - this is a huge area and includes formal and informal organisational structures, dress code/appearances, the formal and informal "rules", internal communication, hierarchy etc. Supporting the client to understand the work culture is critical to successful job matching and peer support plays an important role in developing awareness of workplace culture.
  
  
• Support within the workplace - managers, co-worker support
  
  
• Support out-with workplace - home-life, support and encouragement from family and friends.
  
  
• Health and disability - includes client awareness of their disability and support needs plus employer and co-worker disability awareness.
  

What is peer support?

Peer support involves establishing natural supports in the workplace, where a co-worker takes on a mentoring role to support the new employee at work. This can help eliminate any difficulties that people with disabilities face at work, while freeing-up managerial time and supporting the new employee to become more independent at work. Note, the supported employment organisation continues to support the client and employer but will hand over the day-to-day, routine support to the employer to be managed through peer support.

Good peer support is made up of the following elements:

Disability Awareness
The employer, co-workers and the mentor has a clear understanding of the client's disabilities, their difficulties and support needs.

Communication
The service provider will work with the employer to identify effective communication appropriate to the client's level of understanding, and will help to develop checklists, timetables, work prompts and training etc. They will put in place arrangements to encourage regular review and feedback between client, employer, mentor and co-workers. Communications should also include a change management strategy, to prevent any changes at work escalating into a crisis situation.

Mentor
It is essential the co-worker nominated as the mentor has been consulted, given a choice and is willing to provide the peer support. Providing peer support and mentoring to individuals can be stressful, particularly when clients have "hidden" disabilities, e.g. mental health difficulties. Therefore it is essential that the mentor is given proper training and support to carry out their role. The mentor's workloads and targets should also be reviewed to eliminate stress. Employers can be compensated for the provision of support through Access To Work or Workstep.

Employers' Needs
An understanding of the employers' needs is also crucial to good peer support. It can be useful to outline what support will be provided and by whom, to define and agree the review process, monitoring meetings, withdrawal and aftercare provision.

Influencing Factors - Maintaining Employment
The influencing factors in successfully sustaining employment are the elements that make a job the right job, e.g. duties, location, hours of work, travel, pay, support etc. A successful job match can fall apart almost overnight if anything occurs to upset any one of these key factors. Good peer support and provision of aftercare can prevent any changes from escalating out of control. The planning process should take account of any potential barriers to make the job match a success. The service provider should clearly inform the client, the mentor and the employer that they are available for mediation or to advise on any problems that arise in the future.

Peer Support and Work Placements
It is also possible to provide peer support for work placements. The same process as for placing people into employment can be followed. However, if placing two or more clients into the same organisation at the same time, it is advisable to negotiate separate peer support and mentoring arrangements. To meet the needs of individual clients, supported employment has to be individually packaged and joint mentoring arrangements will not necessarily meet the needs of either client.