Committee
Equal Opportunities Committee, 15 Nov 2005
15 Nov 2005 · S2 · Equal Opportunities Committee
Item of business
Disability Inquiry
I had better own up to the fact that I worked in further and higher education and was seconded to the fast track project, so I worked in a similar area for approximately 18 years. I am concerned about the lack of flexibility in skillseekers programmes and about the fact that they are very target-driven. I have a difficulty with equating that with best serving the needs of disabled people, unless you can tell me that there have been improvements in assessment procedures and so on. The funding mechanism is also rigid and that forces 16 to 18-year-olds down the skillseekers routes when other types of training might be more beneficial. Obviously I have been out of the job for the past five years. Have there been improvements in the skillseekers approach, and is there enough flexibility in the funding, choices and assessment processes?
In the same item of business
Cathy Peattie:
Lab
Item 2 is the committee's disability inquiry. This will be the first of our formal evidence-taking sessions on the theme of work. I am pleased to welcome Mor...
Morag Gillespie (Glasgow Caledonian University):
Our research has highlighted inconsistencies. The most significant finding is perhaps quite an obvious one: the issues that people needed advice on were clos...
Sheila Riddell (University of Edinburgh):
There is a need for better communication and for knowledge of programmes that are specific to Scotland—the ones that are run by Scottish Enterprise, by local...
The Convener:
Lab
Both the reports that I mentioned suggest that the current system of monitoring and evaluating schemes that assist disabled people to get into work could be ...
Sheila Riddell:
The most important thing to know is the proportion of disabled people in employment. In Scotland, the proportion is low; it is less than 40 per cent, which i...
Morag Gillespie:
I agree that it is critical to monitor that, but I suspect that a developmental issue arises, especially in the advice services. Those services may be less u...
The Convener:
Lab
So the monitoring should be kept fairly simple but consistent, so that appropriate information can be gathered.
Morag Gillespie:
Yes. Monitoring is one of the processes that should be led from the top, as it is not helpful if 20 different routes of funding are looking for 20 different ...
Sheila Riddell:
There is a tension between whether employment or employability is seen as being the outcome. There are arguments in both directions. It will be difficult for...
The Convener:
Lab
Yes, but is that to do with outcomes? We heard from one organisation that sometimes it has nine weeks in which to get people job ready. For some people, that...
Sheila Riddell:
I am not sure that there is an overemphasis on outcomes. For economic reasons, Jobcentre Plus has tended to focus on the people who are closest to the labour...
The Convener:
Lab
Absolutely.The type of assistance that is offered differs from scheme to scheme, depending on its purpose and, as has been mentioned, the focus of the organi...
Morag Gillespie:
One of the key points behind that was that the people to whom we talked do not distinguish well between the type of advice needs that might be met by traditi...
Sheila Riddell:
One of the aims of bringing together the Benefits Agency and the Employment Service in Jobcentre Plus, which was radical, was that people who gave employment...
The Convener:
Lab
That takes me to my next question. Both reports highlighted the training of staff who assist disabled people into employment as crucial to ensuring the succe...
Sheila Riddell:
The professional status of disability employment advisers is an issue. There is no career route and they come from all sorts of backgrounds. There is no trai...
Marilyn Livingstone (Kirkcaldy) (Lab):
Lab
The witnesses have spoken clearly about the need for partnership working and for an holistic approach to all advice provision and service delivery. Are we ma...
Morag Gillespie:
We need to look at the situation on two different levels—from a national and a local perspective. Local authorities have an important co-ordinating role to p...
Sheila Riddell:
An interesting point here is that much of the support has been privatised for many years. In the 1980s, the Employment Service stopped doing a lot of trainin...
Marilyn Livingstone:
Lab
Morag Gillespie spoke about local and national perspectives. When you spoke about the national level, did you mean the relationship between the UK and Scotti...
Morag Gillespie:
That is part of it. Before I address that point, I will comment on a service that is a good model for the improvement of access to services for disadvantaged...
Sheila Riddell:
I agree. If we are to crack the problem of large numbers of people being on incapacity benefit, we will need to consider the broad issue of the types of work...
Mr Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con):
Con
You mentioned jobs that are at the margins of employment. I presume that you are also talking about the quality of earnings. Is that a disincentive to disabl...
Sheila Riddell:
I think so. If there is not a great difference between being on incapacity benefit and earning a wage by working extremely hard, it is not surprising that ma...
Gareth Mulvey (Glasgow Caledonian University):
One of the interesting things that we found in our research was the incredible difference between the range of jobs that people had done previously and the j...
Morag Gillespie:
A point that is worth bearing in mind for the future relates to the question of low wage rates. Sheila Riddell is right that employment is the route out of e...
Marilyn Livingstone:
Lab
Thank you for your answers. When we took evidence about people being job ready, we heard from young people and adults alike about their lack of confidence. S...
Sheila Riddell:
We need to think more creatively about the sort of long-term support that people need. It is one thing to get somebody into a job, but quite another to retai...
Marlyn Glen (North East Scotland) (Lab):
Lab
We have touched a little on the idea of a Scotland-wide scheme. We heard evidence about inconsistencies in services, and one of the suggestions that the comm...
Sheila Riddell:
Do you mean a Scotland-wide scheme of employment support?