Jobs First – What works and doesn’t work

Jobs First – What works and doesn’t work Martin Stevens Social Care Workforce Research Unit King’s College London

Introduction • Background • Aims and methods • Emerging findings • Context • Culture change • Implementation issues • Kinds of supported employment • Workforce issues • Pathways • Conclusions

Background • Personalisation and employment • Valuing Employment Now • Multiple funding streams • Refocusing support on employment • Seven authorities selected, five took part • Comparison group study • Process evaluation

Context Financial climate “Adult social care - we have 35 percent savings to make over the next three years.” Jobs First Lead 04 Changing personnel and services “The decisions that the elected members will be willing to take in the face of what may upset their constituents. Say, for example, closing more day centres and getting people into employment, when you’ve got carers who may oppose that.” Jobs First Lead 04 High unemployment “I think that’s a barrier, that people’s perception that this is a bad time to get jobs and therefore, there is almost like, therefore they don’t have a right to a job, to get a job, do you know what I mean?” Jobs First Lead 07

More context Progress with personalisation “...we already had well established expectations around personal budgets...and when we put the application together for Jobs First I felt we were in a strong position, because we already had quite a lot of personal budget users.” Jobs First Lead 01 Impact of Getting a Life and Right to Control “We became aware of the first programme through the Getting a Life project. We just felt it fitted naturally to thinking about work pathways...And also we already had an existing project team for Getting a Life. We felt we had enough local knowledge and expertise to bring to the programme.” Jobs First Lead 01

Promoting the employability of people with learning disabilities • Attitudes of people with learning disabilities and their families/carers, care managers and care workers, members of the public, employers • Approaches to changing attitudes “We’ve seen a dad come along to Getting a Life event, huffing and puffing that he didn’t know why he’d come and it would all be a complete and utter waste of time and we showed the Value Now In Employment film and we had two people say their stories. He went away just with a very changed view on what his daughter’s life might be like in the future. That’s key.” Jobs First Lead 08

Prioritising employment as a goal Organisations • Woven into wider policies • Formally identified in the Resource Allocation System • Addressing barriers such as charging policies • Jobs First acts as a spur People with learning disabilities and their families • Jobs First made employment seem a real possibility • Fear of change was a big issue: esp benefits • Practical implications – eg time outside of home

Jobs focussed resource allocation, review and support planning • RAS to include resources for employment directly or indirectly • Employment to be considered when major life changes, such as housing, are being discussed. • Support planning and brokerage to identify general employment and other goals and supported employment and other services • Signing off support plans • Levels of management involvement • Sustainability • Faith in provision availability

Practice issues • Preparing people for the experience of work • Being able to maintain current friendships • Promoting understanding of work • How much to prioritise employment “You couldn’t expect someone to go without certain basic hygiene and support needs in favour of getting a job.” Jobs First Lead 02 • Support to employers • To identify jobs • Ongoing support • Developing natural support from colleagues

Personalised approaches • Personal budgets enhancing the value of person-centred planning “Again, it’s going back to that other thing about person centred plans sitting almost as a satellite thing and not really impacting. Well if [personalisation] is going to be the catalyst that makes those things happen then, yes.” Jobs First Lead 04 • Help to include people with more severe learning disabilities

Risks and protective factors of personalisation

Supported employment provision • A key aspect affecting success • Availability of supported employment provision affects care managers’ willingness to ‘sign off’ plans • Building on existing models of supported employment provision, including in house services • Some commissioning of new providers – framework agreements • Difficulty in developing a business model in the absence of block contracts • Costing supported employment accurately is a key factor

Workforce issues • Who should be a job coach • Specialists only? • More difficult for longstanding care staff “I'm not sure we can recycle people and skills in existing services to quickly meet the need for employment supports or whether we need a new set of skills and people in this role” Jobs First Lead 01 • Training – especially Training in Systematic Instruction

Social Care Funding • Incorporating employment into Resource Allocation Systems – what priority? • Role of social care funding? • Size of budget “What you could end up with is the RAS doesn’t come out adequate enough to meet the needs and they then have to go back through reassessment which is where we are at now with people coming through, that allocation is not high enough and send them back through review and that is what we’ve got today, today I had a conversation again about people that have come through. The allocation clearly isn’t enough back through.” Jobs First Lead 02

Accessing non social care funding • Work Choice – tied into services • College funding tied into courses • Access to work – tied into working 16 hours? • Right to Control? • How to integrate plans using multiple funding streams • Co-funding or double funding in times of austerity?

Emerging employment Pathway – local authorities • Secure high level leadership and practitioner commitment • Include employment as a domain in the RAS • Ensure everyone is in receipt of personal budgets • Identify national &local drivers for collaboration of Jobs Centre Plus (JCP) - Service dependency = benefit trap? • Ensure JCP Disability Employment Advisors are engaged • Secure agreement with JCP that all people with LD receive a ‘Better off in work’ calculation • Ensure staff have up to date awareness of benefit changes – eg ‘Universal Credit’ and implications of move to ‘Employment Support Allowance’ • Market scoping

Emerging Jobs First pathway - individuals • Ensure all elements person-centred • Provide timely and up to date information • Identify and document skills and experience • Establish or review eligibility • Support planning: better via independent sector? • Identify appropriate kinds of support to reach outcomes • Negotiate costs and finalise support plan – get sign off • Start job searching • GET JOB • Maintain access to flexible support • Access to Work funding application when working >16 hours • Re-Access job coaching and DEA referral if lose job

Conclusions • Value of other projects • Complexity of change required • Interagency working • Early work on changing attitudes at a senior and practitioner level • Exclusion of people with more severe and profound learning disabilities • Pathways to change

Thank You Martin Stevens – 020 7848 1860 – martin.stevens@kcl.ac.uk Jess Harris – 020 7848 1503 – jess.harris@kcl.ac.uk

Jobs First – What works and doesn’t work