Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 12 May 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters

Employment and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Discussion

Mr. Willem Le Roux:

Good morning. I work as a co-ordinator at the Central Remedial Clinic, CRC, on the employment plus programme. With me are Anthony Redmond, Deante Troy and Stephen Coates. I will hand over to them shortly. They have some interesting points they want to make.

For me, and on behalf of our small staff team, I just want to say that it is a real privilege to work with all our course participants. Helping someone on their employment journey is one of the most rewarding jobs you could have. Our programme is funded by Pobal. We are grateful for its support and assistance. The need for an employment programme for people with disabilities became evident after many adults completed the ability programmes and achieved their major wards at Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, levels 3 to 5, inclusive. The next step is getting into employment, so our programme aims to increase the labour market participation of people with disabilities, increase employment skills and employability, increase good practices and supportive work places and increase paid work and placements for people with a disability. Through our interventions so far we have one course participant who entered into employment with a private sector company, two adults who secured community employment, CE, scheme places and one adult who is applying for the same. Six adults are actively involved in work experience at present and one adult identified self-employment as his preferred route. We have 20 adults on our programme altogether and everyone can now access the services of a guidance officer as we have partnered with Ballymun Job Centre.

Although the programme focused mainly on employment supports, we found it necessary to introduce other supports relating to mindfulness, well-being, healthy living and stress management. We have had some good results, which gives much hope and optimism. However, we have had some difficulties as well, which highlight some of the barriers people with disabilities face when looking for employment.

One thing I have noticed is that for many of our current course participants, it is their first time meeting up with a guidance counsellor. If you consider the average age profile of our participants, which is between 25 and 30, you might think that this is well overdue. Guidance counsellors can play a vital role in advising young people so that they can make informed choices about their future in relation to employment, education and training. Imagine the progress we could make if this process started early for people with disabilities and where they can develop career management skills early and possess the ability to have an honest and authentic understanding of themselves when leaving school. Unfortunately, access to guidance counselling is not equal for all. In 2019, Indecon published a review on career guidance. It stated:

Special school staff generally, as part of their ongoing work, undertake guidance activities, including planning for the child’s future, assessing further education options, training, employment or other placement options subject to the individual’s abilities. There are no guidance counsellors allocated to these schools and in Indecon’s opinion there is merit in policy providing enhanced provision for career guidance training for teachers in special needs schools, and also in enhancing the access of such schools to wider career guidance supports.

One final word from me on partnerships. During the height of the pandemic, the CRC was fortunate to work with an employer to create a work experience partnership. This relationship has developed over time and is still growing. It took a long time to establish this partnership. It required staff and our adults to work differently, take on new risks and have new expectations. Partnerships like this could pave the way towards employment in the future. It will be useful to promote and encourage such collaborations with both public and private sector partners.

I will now hand over to Deante, who will share his thoughts on the recruitment process.