Education and Employment June 2010 ”We Can Work it Out”

Charlie McNally is going to talk briefly about why Northamptonshire County Council (NCC) is committed to employing more people with learning disabilities

The We Can Work It Out group will have made sure that all of the actions in the employment action plan are happening and will report to the Partnership Board. The list of the 49 actions in the plan are displayed for everyone to see today The We Can Work It Out group met on 12 th May to talk about progress and plans and we will meet again in September We have written an information sheet about work and we think all locality groups could talk about work

Targets for 2010 – 2011 At least 15 more people will have paid jobs of 16+ hours and At least 45 more people will have paid jobs of any hours There are 2 supported employment organisations in Northants to help make this happen – Employment and Disability Service (EADs) and Pure Innovations Person centred approaches, accessible information, working interviews and quality job coaching are all very important

More people will be able to volunteer if they choose Supported Volunteering projects continue to help more people volunteer in their local communities We are writing a draft volunteering strategy – with people who volunteer, community connectors and 4 of the volunteer centres in the county We want the locality groups to help us consult on the plan so that more people know about how to volunteer and more organisations include people with learning disabilities in opportunities

The Jobs First project will show how personal budgets can be used to support people into employment Jobs First will support 20 people in Northants to get paid work The first meeting of partners for Jobs First is happening in June The government wants to link funding like personal budgets, Independent Living Fund (ILF) and Access to Work so we can help people who need support spend their futures in work, and not in day centres

The Getting a Life project will support 30 young people towards paid employment and find good ways of working to achieve this Getting a Life (GAL) in Northamptonshire is working with young people and their families We had 2 launch events in May There are leaflets and displays about Getting a Life for people to look at today

…more young people will have work experience opportunities in Year 10. Research shows that this is very important. Connexions will help young people to do this Work has not yet begun on increasing the number of young disabled people to have work experience opportunities in Year 10. This is an area that will be looked at in partnership with colleagues in Connexions, schools and colleges as part of GAL

The County Council, the National Health Service (NHS) and other public sector employers will employ more people with a learning disability 9 people with learning disabilities have been employed by the Council over the past 3 months and there are 2 employed by Kettering General Hospital the Council is finding good ways of helping more people get jobs. It has produced an information pack for managers about how people with learning disabilities can make good employees. NCC is going to talk to other organisations about this.

….. less people will leave Northamptonshire to go to college as local services will work more closely together (including schools, FE colleges and Adult Education) to meet the needs and wishes of local students 2 applications have been approved in March and 1 application approved in May applications need to be approved by the end of July. We think there will be 6 more applications. This will bring the total to 9.

So we could be on target to have fewer learners leaving the county for education, but still a bit too early to confirm this As of 1 April 2010, seven staff from the Learning and Skills Council moved to NCC. NCC is now in charge of managing the out of county placement process At the moment the funding for this does not belong to NCC but this may change in the future

Local schools, FE colleges, Connexions and Adult Learning will support young people to prepare and hope for paid employment Feedback from Person centred reviews at Year 9 show that work is what young people want for their future – “work and friends” We are encouraging schools, further education colleges and Adult Education to work together to meet the needs and wishes of local students this is what Getting a Life will help make happen

Information events about employment and related topics will be held for people with learning disabilities, family carers and others. Signpost in Corby had an employment information event in April. 9 people said they wanted to get a job Day services are going to run more of these events Post 16 Choices events will include employment options and support available LDPB, We Can Work it Out and Parents in Partnership are putting on an employment event for people and carers on 14 th June in Wellingborough and Daventry

More family carers will be supported to enter or return to work. the new carers services will be starting work in July and information about these new services will be made available

Better off calculations will be easily available at Job Centre Plus and more people will be able to access them. Better off calculations are available and we are going to tell people about these at all the employment information events

Group Discussions 1. Why work? Talk in the group about what work means to people and ask someone to write some notes on flipchart paper (10 minutes)

2. What is work? The Work Definitions information sheet explains Work Permitted Work Work Experience Supported Employment Voluntary Work Better off calculations Talk about the information on the sheet so everyone understands the meanings (10 minutes)

3. Volunteering strategy (plan) We want the locality groups to help us consult on the draft plan so that more people know about how to volunteer and more organisations include people with learning disabilities in opportunities How do the locality groups think we could do this ? Talk about and ask someone to write some notes (10 minutes) Short Feedback – one idea - from each group to presenters (5 minutes)

4. Talk more about work We think lots of people want to work and get paid and that it is very important that everyone helps find ways of supporting more people in to work We think all locality groups should talk about work Do you agree? Voting Yes/No/Want more information (5 minutes)

THANK YOU