Giving small organisations a platform

Gillian Parker reports on the recent BASE conference.

————————————————————————————————————————————————–

BASE – The British Association of Supported Employment – is an independent association whose members help find jobs for people with disabilities. Supported Employment is built on the social model of disability. BASE members work to a zero rejection policy which supports anyone with a disability to find and sustain paid work through matching the right job and the right support with each individual. Membership includes large national organisations, smaller local council and NHS services, social enterprises, schools and colleges.

For more information on BASE & Supported Employment visit the website at www.base-uk.org or follow us on Twitter @base_tweets or base.uk on Facebook
Workshop presentations are available at http://base-uk.org/base-conference-2015/workshops
Thinking about joining BASE visit http://base-uk.org/about/join

————————————————————————————————————————————————–

The increasing importance of a specialist disability employment programme was stressed by Steve Hawkins CEO of Pluss, the main conference sponsor. Without Work Choice and the smaller specialist organisations which support people with more complex needs, he felt, it will be difficult to reduce the disability employment gap and this is why BASE is so important in providing a platform for the smaller organisations.

Rapt attention
The panel discussion, chaired skilfully by BASE’s chair Paul Wilson, was about the future of DWP’s Welfare to Work programme. It drew rapt attention from delegates keen to hear from commissioners, providers and the current head of Disability Employment Strategy at the DWP, on the options for future employment programmes.

Questions addressed by the panel included whether a single programme can work effectively, how well people with disabilities have been served by the existing programmes and what the evidence says about what works. Alas there was no announcement on the future strategy for work choice by the DWP other than no decisions have been made. It’s difficult to ascertain how much effect quiet lobbying like this has upon policy. This year BASE had opened out its conference by offering 30 complimentary places to parents and carers of people with disabilities. So if nothing else the representatives from the DWP came into contact with them as well as people with disabilities and it is hoped that experience will remain with them when considering the effects of their decisions.

Support for initiatives such as the Neighbourhood Network scheme by Leeds City Council was praised by Chief Executive, Tom Riordan. Support for these types of schemes has enabled the Council to concentrate its budget on more targeted and specialised learning disability services (LDS) and as a result Leeds LDS had been transformed from inadequate to one of the best in the country.

Of the smaller workshops the one that stood out for me was delivered by Mark Cook of Anthony Collins Solicitors entitled Social Value in Public Services – what’s legally possible? With cuts to local council social care budgets, access to supported employment services is increasingly a postcode lottery and dependent on local authority priorities. Mark illustrated just how the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 can be utilised to fund supported employment opportunities. Existing legislation already provides a vehicle for supported businesses and other social enterprises to succeed in winning local authority contracts. The key to effective procurement and commissioning lies in embedding social value at the core of policies, along with building into contract award criteria specifications to enable organisations to compete on a level playing field.

Team player
Mark Appleton was this year’s recipient of the David Grainger Award. This is presented to a person with a disability who has made outstanding progress in their employment and is a significant team player who always supports his or her colleagues. Mark has now completed two years service at Vision Office where he received specialist support from Pluss. He said: “… it is great to feel part of a team and it has helped me overcome a lot of my personal issues and get on with life again”.

Changing a million minds
One presentation has remained etched in my memory. Laura Green’s talk caused more than a few glistening eyes around the room. It encapsulated just what it means to be ‘disability confident’. To hear a young entrepreneur like Laura who has learning disabilities speak honestly, without a sense of entitlement, about her yearning for a ‘real job’ and avoiding someone else’s ‘master plan’ for her life, was a great reality check. What defines Laura is her attitude to life; she has a ‘passion for fashion’ and has found a way to create and sustain her business Serendipity.

As she said: “My business may not make a million pounds but I will change a million minds “.

Not bad as a mission statement, is it?

Gillian Parker is an associate working free lance for BASE.