Becoming an inclusive employer - understanding the needs of people with disabilities

Oxfordshire Careers Hub, a partnership between OxLEP Skills and the Careers and Enterprise Company, has arranged for BASE (British Association of Supported Employment) to deliver a series of workshops for employers. These sessions will support you to work with young people with neurodiversity, disabilities, and/or mental health conditions.

In this first workshop, we welcome you to discuss what working with disabled people can mean to you and your business. During this session we will work with you to break down the barriers, stereotypes and misconceptions that may be held with the aim to empower you to feel more comfortable and confident when working with people with disabilities. We will also cover what support is available to you as employers, from giving someone work experience to having a diverse workforce, covering a range of pathways. We strongly believe that employment is for everyone and you, as an employer, are a valued and integral customer for employment pathways, who also has support requirements.

The unemployment rate for disabled people is 6.2%, compared to the unemployment rate for people who are not disabled, which is 3.4%, yet we know that there is a clear case for recruiting disabled employees, including:

• Recruit from a wider availability of labour

• Reduced recruitment costs

• Supported selection process gives accurate job-client match

• Improved retention

• Improved image & external reputation

• Team-building & internal reputation

• Diversity-improved services and products

• Corporate social responsibility

• Reflecting local communities

This is one of two workshops. Where possible, the same person will need to attend the second session on Thursday 14^th March 2023 too.

About BASE and your trainer

BASE (British Association for Supported Employment) is a charitable organisation that is the national umbrella group for the supported employment sector. We aim to constantly champion an aspirational vision, that everyone who wants to work, has the right support to do so. In order to do this, we need to support a UK wide employer work culture, where inclusion is the golden thread and employers feel empowered to move from disability confident to disability confident in action.

Holly Kelleher (QTLS, BA Hons, MBA) has worked in training since 2003 when she started working in the Further Education sector delivering apprenticeships and associated employment preparation courses. In 2010 she moved in the supported employment sector, establishing Gateshead Council’s award winning Supported Employment Service GATES, developing travel training services and a Supported Internship programme delivered in Gateshead Metrocentre. She then moved to the private sector working on a range of projects, the majority of which were integrating commercial business and SEN education programmes to support people with learning disabilities and neurodivergence into paid work.