Real Jobs: the perspectives of workers with learning difficulties

In a central New Zealand region, 14 people with learning difficulties who were identified by disability agencies as successfully employed were interviewed. Semistructured interviews with the paid workers covered topics such as getting and learning their work, pay, choices about social opportunities and career paths. Interviews were transcribed and constant discussion, and challenging of qualitative data identified the following themes: the effect of paid work on lifestyles, how other people were important for support and workers' aspirations for the future. The effect of paid work has meant major changes for a few people by becoming independent of the benefit system and buying their own home. For other workers, it meant having to learn to use the public transport system and choosing their own social activities. Workers' perspectives were used to provide better understanding of the supports needed by adults with learning difficulties to enhance their employment rates and careers in the paid workforce.     

An Employment Project as a Route to Social Inclusion for People with Learning Difficulties?

Government policy to reduce social exclusion focuses on increasing employment opportunities and incentives, especially for disadvantaged groups. This paper discusses the findings of an evaluation of a project in the North West of England for people with learning difficulties, which sought to create opportunities for paid and/or integrated employment. The findings suggest that this goal can be undermined by many factors such as the isolation of social care services from employers and the disinclination of service organisations to include users, carers and staff in the development of new service approaches. Social welfare policies also mitigate against this aim, by failing to enable providers to translate the rhetoric of social inclusion into a reality. We discuss some of the obstacles preventing people with learning difficulties from inclusion into mainstream employment, by considering their impact upon the achievements of the North West project.     

The impact of mental illness on employment: consumers' perspectives

This paper is based on a qualitative study of employment for people with mental illness. Forty-one consumers of mental health services were interviewed to obtain their perspectives on employment. One of the major issues they discussed was the ways in which mental illness affected their employment experiences. These effects were complex and interrelated and varied between individuals depending on their unique characteristics and circumstances. Participants described effects relating to the need to maintain mental health, difficulties with work performance, and work confidence and work goals. Understanding consumers' perspectives on how mental illness affects employment is necessary for practitioners and researchers seeking to explain or improve consumers' employment outcomes.     

A Question of Friendship: Community Care and the Relationships of People with Learning Difficulties

There is evidence that a number of people with learning difficulties living in the community do not enjoy a range of satisfactory social relationships. This paper will examine the way that the issue of the apparent loneliness of people with learning difficulties has been approached in the community care literature. I will argue that there is a clear assumption in much of the literature that friendships between disabled and non-disabled people are of greater value than those relationships between disabled people. The low value accorded to friendships between disabled people is very damaging to their individual self-esteem, as well as to the possibility of political action based on a sense of solidarity. The paper will point also to the constraints that many people with learning difficulties face which render it difficult for them to form friendships and, therefore, reinforce their isolation.     

The role of self-advocacy in work for people with learning difficulties

This paper explores the relationship between self-advocacy and work for people with learning difficulties [1]. Explorations are based mainly on a participant observation study in which members of a self-advocacy group for people with learning difficulties included the researcher in their regular meetings. Discussions about work, most broadly defined as meaningful activity which makes a contribution to society, emerged as a critical preoccupation. We examine the importance of self-advocacy as a vehicle for people with learning difficulties who want to remove or circumvent barriers which surround their employment. Our research shows that understanding the role of self-advocacy in relation to work creates many development opportunities for both disabled employees and their prospective, or actual, employers. It is suggested that self-advocates can themselves achieve change in employers' attitudes by challenging oppressive images of people with learning difficulties in the workplace. It is hoped the paper will advance recognition of the importance of self-advocacy for maximising the participation of people with learning difficulties in work, and for acceptance of their status as workers.     

Normalisation and 'Normal' Ageing: the social construction of dependency among older people with learning difficulties

This paper discusses the new phenomenon of the survival into old age of the increasing numbers of people with learning difficulties. This raises both theoretical and practical policy issues. In the UK health and social services for older people and for people with learning difficulties have followed quite different paths. One has been based on a limited, age discriminatory view of 'normal' ageing; the other has focused on a potentially liberating concept of normalisation. This distinction is being challenged by the advent of older people with learning difficulties, which is raising questions such as, what is the meaning of normalisation in older age? We focus on this key question, illustrating the different principles behind service provision for these two groups and argue that the concept of normalisation is flawed when applied to older people. The alternative of social integration is proposed as the basis for organising health and social services for both older people and those with learning difficulties.     

Cash payments in context: (self-)regulation in the new social relations of assistance

Cash payments to meet social care needs offer the possibility for the direct employment of personal assistants using public funds. Empirical work internationally has identified the benefits of cash payments. However, there has been less interest in the relationships between employers and their employees. This article offers some reflections upon the employment relationship from the perspectives of employers who have learning difficulties and their personal assistants. The study involved eight employers, their supporters and their personal assistants in an English city. A grounded theory approach was utilised and interviews were analysed using a framework approach. This article argues that the relational aspects of direct employment arrangements have not been adequately considered in academic literature and the policy framework. These insights can add to debates around how social care support mechanisms can offer responsive assistance whilst questioning the assumed ‘empowering’ effect of an unregulated market.     

Social firms: Sustainable employment for people with mental illness

Objective: Social firms or enterprises aim to offer sustainable employment in supportive workplaces for people who are disadvantaged in the labour market. Therefore, this study sought to explore employees' views in one social firm about the features of their workplace that they found supportive.Participants: Seven employees were recruited, all of whom experienced persistent mental illness, and had worked in this social firm for between eleven months and six years. Methods: A semi-structured interview, the Work Environment Impact Scale (version 2.0), was used to explore participants' views of their workplace and to rate how its physical and social characteristics impacted them. Participants also rated their job satisfaction with a modified Indiana Job Satisfaction Scale. Results: Features of the social firm workplace identified by these employees as contributing to their sustained employment and satisfaction were the rewards, task demands, work schedule, and workplace interactions with supervisors and other co-workers. From their views, guiding principles for the development of supportive workplaces and evaluation of their capacity to afford sustainable employment were derived. Conclusions: This study adds to current knowledge about workplace supports from an employee perspective, and is of relevance for informing future social firm development, workplace design and evaluation.     

Who am I? Concepts of disability and their implications for people with learning difficulties

The relationship between concepts of disability, group membership and self-concept was examined. It was argued that people with learning difficulties have been categorised, by non-disabled people, as 'belonging' to a devalued social group with a rigid boundary based on IQ level. Findings from studies of self-concept have shown little evidence of a sense of belonging. It was suggested that people with learning difficulties may prefer not to identify with this social group because of the negative effect it may have on their self-esteem. The analysis based on intergroup and social identity theories proposed that people with learning difficulties may be encouraged in creating a positive self-concept by abandoning the IQ criterion for social categorisation; softening the boundaries between disabled and non-disabled people; and adopting collective rather than individual strategies for social change.     

Helping People with Learning Difficulties into Paid Employment

Summary

Welfare to work policies have developed partly from policy rhetoric that argues employment as the best way of ensuring social inclusion for marginalised groups. In the United Kingdom, welfare to work policies for disabled people have developed within an enabling rather than a mandatory system, although organisation and practice have lagged behind. This article explores policies that provide this enabling context for facilitating the transition of people with learning difficulties from benefits to paid employment. It also explores the role of social workers, examining the degree to which their practice reflects the empowering rhetoric of the policy framework and of contemporary social work values.     

Mental health support needs of people with a learning difficulty: a medical or a social model?

People with learning difficulties, like all disabled people, face social oppression. Much recent policy and practice are underpinned by at least some understanding of this oppression, and the social model of disability has been influential in discussions of services and supports for people with learning difficulties. However, in the area of mental health, the picture is somewhat different. This paper argues that the medical model has predominated in discussions of mental health support for people with learning difficulties, and that a social model approach could have much to offer. The paper draws on an ongoing action research study in which service providers, families and young people with learning difficulties are working together to articulate what is needed, in order to find routes to improve the support offered to young people with learning difficulties and mental health support needs.     

The Paradox of the Quality of Life of Adults with Learning Difficulties

This paper is based on an empirical survey conducted in 1995 in Hungary. Data came from a stratified random sample of about 1300 adults with learning difficulties from all over the country. The author combines qualitative and quantitative methods in analysing the quality of life of people with learning difficulties and takes into consideration that their quality of life is as much determined by sociological factors as by the biologically and educationally understood level of difficulties. The paper shows that success in education and in the labour market does not equate to successful social integration. The quality of life of adults with learning difficulties is sometimes better in social circumstances which are less favourable for high achievement in education and in the labour market. Though the people from more privileged backgrounds may seem to lead a more active and social everyday life than those with working class origins they are still considerably less integrated in their social environments.     

Concepts of access for people with learning difficulties: towards a shared understanding

This article explores both the process and outcomes of a seminar series on the concept of access for people with learning difficulties. The seminar topics chosen to foster dialogue across professional and disciplinary boundaries included access to information, education, employment, the law, health, leisure, community, past histories and future plans. The seminars brought together people with learning difficulties and their support workers, researchers and professionals, to examine the expert knowledge of people with learning difficulties in negotiating access, the role of practitioners in mediating access and the contribution of research to understanding access. The aim was to develop a rich, shared understanding of the concept of access for people with learning difficulties. However, a huge amount of ‘access work’ had to be done to achieve this. The article discusses that access work and proposes a multidimensional model of access and ways of promoting it.     

Facilitators and barriers to employment: the perspectives of people with psychiatric disabilities and employment service providers

This study examined the perspectives of people with psychiatric disabilities and employment service providers regarding factors that most directly help or hinder consumer efforts to obtain and maintain employment. Forty-four adults with serious mental illness (SMI) (consumers) and 30 providers participated in 12 focus groups across Massachusetts. We began both consumer and provider groups by posing two broad questions: 1) what factors most help people with SMI get and keep jobs (facilitators), and 2) what factors most prevent people with SMI from getting and keeping jobs (barriers)? Data were analyzed qualitatively and both person and environmental factors were highlighted. Among facilitators, participants agreed that quality consumer-provider relationships and individualized employment services are most instrumental in helping consumers achieve employment goals. Participants identified a range of environmental barriers, including issues related to the service system, entitlement programs, non-human resources, and social stigma. Implications for services are discussed.     

Young people's time use and maternal employment in the UK1

This paper analyses the relationship between young people's time use and maternal employment in the United Kingdom (UK). Two dimensions of young people's time use are important for understanding the impact of maternal employment. The first of these is family context. This concerns the time young people are near their parents or not. The second relates to young people's activity patterns. Combining information from both dimensions is necessary to provide a comprehensive overview of the impact of maternal employment on young people's time use. The paper demonstrates that young people's time use is associated with maternal employment both in terms of activity patterns and family context. Young people with employed mothers spend more time alone with a father, and more time with neither parent. More specifically, young people with mothers employed fulltime (FT) spend significantly more time watching TV than those whose mothers are not employed, especially when they are not near any parents. There is a negative association between FT maternal employment and the time young people spend in achievement‐related activities, concentrated in time when alone with a mother. Unlike time in leisure activities or time watching TV, time in achievement‐related activities when in the presence of a father does not increase to compensate for the loss in time spent in achievement‐related activities when alone with a mother.     

The current situation of supported employment in spain: analysis and perspectives based on the perception of professionals

At present, supported employment is emerging in Spain. It must be recognised that these programmes are more effective than the traditional sheltered structures, in accounting for the number of placements achieved in the mainstream employment market. Despite this fact, recent developments arising from social welfare policies do not encourage the consolidation of supported employment. This article briefly traces the evolution of employment integration of disabled people in Spain, and gives the results of research on professional workers in supported employment programmes. This data enables us to consider proposals to extend the experience of supported employment, thereby improving the employment situation of people with disabilities in our society.     

Support and Access in Sports and Leisure Provision

This paper will look at different ways of enabling people with learning difficulties to engage in leisure opportunities: the Support Model and the Access Model. These models will be put in their social context and then critiqued.

The support model will be be contextualised in the theory of normalisation, access in disability theory. The support worker role will be shown to be useful in motivating people with learning difficlties into new activities, as well as having a protecting element, and unwittingly, disguise the level of discrimination people with learning difficulties are subject to.

The access worker role will be shown to have strengths in understanding discrimi nation. With this analysis, it has the potential to dismantle disabling practices. However, the needs of people with learning difficulties have ramifications for disability theory. In practice, that means that ideas of self-advocacy need to be taken on board.

Through interviews with sports personnel, social workers and people with learning difficulties, the implications of creating fully comprehensive access will be examined. I will conclude that both effective support and comprehensive access must be in place before people with learning difficulties are able to make a meaningful choice as to how they are enabled to participate in sports. It is only at that point of choice that the two models become complementary rather than competing discourses of provision.     

Adults with cystic fibrosis and barriers to employment

Existing research on cystic fibrosis (CF) tends to view CF as a long‐term medical condition of childhood, thus reinforcing the mistaken view that few children with CF survive into adulthood. Despite the fact that people with CF are increasingly living into older age there has been little research into the employment of adults with CF. Those studies which have been undertaken portray CF as a ‘serious illness’ which causes employment problems. In contrast, this paper discusses findings from a study which explored the employment experiences of adults with CF from a social model perspective. The findings reveal barriers to employment which are similar to those experienced by other disabled people, as well as barriers related to the ‘impairment effects’ of CF. The authors conclude that adults with CF have valuable perspectives to contribute to social model analysis and the development of employment‐related policy solutions.     

Paradoxes, locations and the need for social coherence: a qualitative study of living with a learning difficulty

Policy rhetoric over recent decades has promoted social inclusion of the more vulnerable sectors of society, such as people with learning difficulties. This study aimed to describe the experiences of people who live with learning difficulties in order to inform local service development. Thirty-five people with a learning difficulty and/or a family member were interviewed. A model of social coherence was developed that moves beyond the self-limiting debates about social inclusion and exclusion. It is underpinned by a sense of location for the person with a disability in relation to services and carers, family and community, dependency and risk, temporality and space, events, control and society. Key recommendations are for services to know the individual and his/her family; to be responsive to individual needs; to enhance the capacity of families and communities to support people with difficulty in learning; and to help these people to feel more valued.     

关于当前形势下促进就业问题研究

参照国际经验,结合我国实际情况,在经济增速减缓和结构调整加快的新形势下,未来我国就业可能出现的问题有:"结构性招工难"的矛盾放大、高校毕业生和大龄失业人群等就业难的问题加剧、就业区域转移的态势迟滞、劳资矛盾与纠纷增多。今后几年,应紧紧围绕"实现更高质量就业、实施更加积极的就业政策"的要求,立足当前,着眼长远,贯彻落实就业优先战略,及时调整政策关注点和实施手段,建立健全促进就业的长效机制。