Education and children's policy

Employment

There are 140,000 blind and partially sighted people of working age in the UK.

• Only 27% are in paid employment, a shockingly low figure that has hardly moved over the last decade.
• Nine out of ten employers rate blind and partially sighted people as either ‘difficult’ or ‘impossible’ to employ.
• Seventy Four per cent of employers remain unaware of the Access to Work scheme.
  

(From ‘Beyond the Stereotypes: Blind and Partially Sighted People and Work’, RNIB, 2004)

People with sight problems succeed in a wide range of jobs, but most employers are ignorant of this. Despite the best efforts of blind and partially sighted people to find work, and the support of organisations like RNIB, the odds remain stacked against them. The attitudes of employers and service providers need to change to recognise the skills and potential of blind and partially sighted people and think beyond the stereotypes of people with sight loss.

Government initiatives are not delivering

Programmes such as JobCentre Plus, Work Preparation, Workstep and NDDP are not delivering for blind and partially sighted people and therefore are not providing a route off benefit and into work.

• Welfare to Work programmes are designed to assist those nearest to the labour market
  
• Jobcentre Plus’s funding regime can encourage programme providers to work with those applicants whom it is felt are more likely to find employment. ¹
  

¹ Corden, A. & Thornton, P. ‘Results-based funded supported employment: Avoiding disincentives to serving people with greatest need’ in DWP Report W160, (DWP, Sheffield, 2003).

A lack of focus on disabled people who are further from the labour market has caused numbers moving off benefit and into employment to remain below expectations.

Workstep: The number of blind and partially sighted people taking part in the programme in 1999 was 609, less than three per cent of the total number of participants. There is evidence that blind and partially sighted people are missing out on similar intermediate labour market initiatives. Supported employment providers need to pro-actively consider how to include more blind and partially sighted people in their provision.

New Deal for Disabled People: Two per cent of participants in NDDP state that ‘difficulty seeing’ is their main disability. Through our experience of providing NDDP services in the South West of England we believe that with appropriate levels of funding, greater numbers of blind and partially sighted people can be helped into work. However, at present NDDP does not have sufficient funding to provide adequate support and evidence suggests that Access to Welfare to Work programmes for blind and partially sighted people has been poor and they are not getting jobs in large numbers.

Our recommendations to improve this situation are as follows:

• Introduce contractual arrangements for specialist input to ensure that existing programmes like NDPP deliver impairment sensitive provision.
  
• Ensure that rehabilitation and training programmes are adequately funded so that they meet the needs of blind and partially sighted people.
  
• Promote the development of supported employment opportunities and intermediate labour market solutions.
  
• Promote the Access to Work scheme to employers, especially small employers, who are now covered by Part 2 of the DDA, following the removal of the ‘Small Employers’ Exemption’ in October 2004.
  

Disability Leave

Every year 3,000 people are forced to leave their jobs because they lose their sight. Yet with timely support through Access to Work, rehabilitation, special equipment and adjustments by employers most could remain economically active.

We want to see more effective intervention to support people losing their sight at work, including disability leave. Disability Leave is a scheme to enable newly disabled people and those whose impairments change to retain their employment, through providing a limited period for rehabilitation or retraining, bringing people into contact with the help available to them.

Protection for volunteers and access to support for employers

Volunteering is a key route into employment for the general population, and even more so for disabled people. However, volunteers are not covered under the DDA. This creates a number of problems:

• Direct discrimination against disabled volunteers cannot be challenged
  
• Discrimination in relation to benefits or training offered cannot be challenged
  
• A volunteer’s employer has no right to use the Access to Work scheme in order to fund any adaptations or special equipment that may be needed for them. This means that getting a voluntary position that properly caters for their access needs is very difficult for disabled people.
  

Volunteers do not have a right to claim under the Access to Work scheme for vital support from, for example, an interpreter or for additional transport costs. This is a disincentive to volunteer, as no help is available with extra costs that result from, for example, inaccessible public transport or other barriers.

Education and children's policy

Blind and partially sighted children and young people in the United Kingdom are entitled to enjoy the same rights and responsibilities and to make the same types of decision as their sighted peers. But their chances of being able to do this in the 21st century are limited by a number of barriers:

• information is often not available in a format they can read at the time they need it;
  
• fully inclusive provision is not always available in education and leisure;
  
• independence and mobility are badly affected by lack of education, hazards in the street and transport that is difficult to use;
  
• the attitudes of others can lead to low expectations and even to the victimisation of blind and partially sighted children and young people.
  

RNIB is working to address these barriers by influencing legislation and guidance and campaigning with blind and partially sighted children and their families.

For more information on education and children's policy:

• Shaping the Future - an executive summary of RNIB's recent survey of 1,000 blind and partially sighted children and young people with findings and recommendation on education, health, mobility, attitudes and awareness and leisure.
  

Information on Post 16 Education and Employment Policy.