Employment Support - Information for employers

Support for employers

The important thing to remember is that as an employer you have our support. Our team's remit is to support the employer as well as the employee. We realise that employers don't always have the time or expertise required to give appropriate support. The people we work with have a variety of skills but they sometimes need things explained in a different manner.

In the first instance we will support with the induction process and if necessary attend this with the individual. We will assist with any initial training and provide ongoing support with any mandatory training.

In-work Support

We offer practical "in-work" and ongoing support. We will work alongside the person and give systematic instruction until such times as they can do this independently. Only then will we reduce the support but will continue to monitor, appraise and support the placement for its duration. Some people may only need "in-work" support for a few hours, whilst some could require a few days and for others it could be a few weeks.

View our Employers guide to in-work support (PDF, 3 MB).

Benefits

"The experience and life skills of disabled people are valuable assets; they have a wealth of information which can bring significant commercial benefits"

• How many customers do you have who have, or who are related to, someone with a learning disability?
• By employing or giving work experience to someone who has a disability, you and your staff team will develop a deeper understanding of the needs of customers who are also in this group. This has a positive influence on your brand by impacting upon your customers.
• By being more aware of the needs of these individuals, the productivity and diversity as well as the product or service you provide can only be improved.
• Your company's reputation will be one of equality and diversity.
• Our team will provide free equality and diversity sessions for your staff group.

Free awareness sessions for your workforce

We can provide awareness on the following:

• Disability discrimination act
• Equalities act
• Makaton (basic sign language)
• Communication (what to say and what not to say regarding people with disabilities)

Reasonable adjustments

Reasonable adjustments are a key part of the disability discrimination act and can be central to enabling a disabled employee to retain their employment. Unfortunately, employers often underestimate the extent of their duty to make adjustments and can thus fall foul of the law.

You can find more information on this at the Public and Commercial Services Union.

• Everyone we work with has skills to offer. We will give advice and support on reasonable adjustments, this could mean a slight change to a task or leaving out a specific one but taking on another task in its place
• It could also mean that where a person does not have good reading skills, we could provide pictorial information instead
• Most reasonable adjustments do not incur a cost but a change to a routine or task

What is expected of an employer

• As an employer you will have valid employer's liability insurance.
• You will be responsible for providing each employee / person undertaking work experience / voluntary work with the relevant induction training and fire safety procedures.
• This will be supported by a member of our team who will provide support during the induction where necessary
• You will be expected to sign our workplace agreement which will state agreed working hours / duration of placement, dates, tasks and agreed support from our team.