Tag Archives: employment

The Unit. Day 67

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Bit of a gap in posts for various reasons, none of which relate to LB. For once. Anyway, LB’s life is currently reflecting Candy Crush. Groundhog day at level 125. [Yes you Candy Crushers, suck it up.. it’s a therapeutic tool for me at the mo’ and getting to 125 has taken many, many night time/early morning hours. And I’m STUCK]. The choice offering is interfering in LB’s (non) school attendance. Decisions made in the weekly community team meeting about going to the farm to work are sunk by him being given the option to say ‘no’. So he’s been unit-bound since the buffet lunch last Sunday.

Not a big surprise really. Give any teenager the choice of school/work or doss off, most would choose the latter. But most teenagers aren’t offered that choice. And most would eventually realise that they have to do something productive. The adult space opening to LB is looking alarmingly like a version of day-centre-life.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned an article about an Oxford based learning disabled man’s (Rob?) long term experience of a day centre that was in a Sunday mag years ago. Rob? said if they finished their task of sorting screws (or whatever it was) before the end of the session (probably around 3pm), the staff tipped the trays out so they could start again.  The futility of this activity was piercing. The article could have been (I wasn’t as up to speed in those days) heralding the increase in self-advocacy groups and advent of direct payments as I think Rob? went on to be an early member of My Life My Choice. These developments were great but we all know (well those of us who look at reality rather than the rhetoric *cough cough*) that this shift has been largely superficial. There are the lucky few  who have fallen into an exceptional (but still cash strapped) social enterprise or individual setting. Most are unemployed, unfulfilling any potential they have. Eh, what’s that? Remploy? How many ex-Remploy employees have found new jobs? Naw, let’s not go there…*

I think introducing choice has erased discipline for young dudes like LB. The number of injunctions he took out against the dishwasher, as his allocated family task, was hilarious, but the job got done. School similarly have been easing sixth-formers into working environments, trying to help them understand that work is a part of life. But once you take that discipline away, you’re left with yawning space to fill. With DVDs, trips to the shops or fast food restaurants and hanging around.

That’s it for now, really. Unless anyone has any hints about cracking level 125 ?

ryan5-210

* http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/23/remploy-workers-new-jobs-labour

Celebrating segregation?

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I ain’t surprised that only 35/1000 ex-Remploy workers have found new jobs, despite the 18 months of ‘individualised support’ offered to them by Maz Miller. I can’t imagine the impact on those 965 unemployed people (and, as importantly, their families). Of losing that structure, social dimension, coherence, and wage. I dread to think how it will affect their sense of self worth, isolation and health. Especially with alternative employment looking an impossibility. Anyone who talks about ‘benefit scroungers’ is talking crap. Apart from a small minority, work is a central focus of human/social life. End of.

I don’t support (or celebrate) the idea of segregated employment at all. I support the right for people to work, regardless of their ability, and this work should be mainstream (whatever that means).  But I know that’s an idealistic and, in the current UK economic environment, totally unrealistic position.

Closing the Remploy factories was a financially driven decision. While throwaway and meaningless statements about decreasing segregation were made, it was about saving money. We are no nearer to an ‘inclusive society’ than landing on the moon, finding out what ’causes’ autism, or whether there is life on Mars. Shedloads of money are thrown at the latter two but very little is invested in workable solutions to increase and support learning disabled people in mainstream work.

Until people (learning disabled people, carers/family members, general public, policy makers, practitioners, government ministers) start to talk openly and realistically about the issues involved, nothing will change. It reminds me of my early research looking at the experiences of mothers, learning disabled children and going out in public places. I found there were limits to the tolerance you could expect from other people. The bar is commonly set way too high (for prissy reasons) but, even when lowered, some things ain’t gonna be acceptable. Until we engage with these (sometimes awkward, uncomfortable?) issues, and have some open, creative and realistic thinking about what can work and how, why force (longterm) unemployment on hundreds of Remploy workers?

A fledgling plan

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Ok. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. But only in short bursts. I thought if I start to document these thoughts, it may a) give me a kick up the backside to explore it more fully b) contribute to discussion/different ways of engaging with young learning disabled people and c) maybe get some tips, experiences and links.

So, LB is 18 in a few weeks. He is very funny, hard working and sensible (in an unusual way) with some serious interests around transport, recycling and justice. “Transition” so far has been pretty shite as I’ve documented. The future is not looking bright.

The facts as I’ve gleaned them (not easy); He has one more full year at school after this one. After that, he will be entitled to direct payments to create support for him.  What this means is not clear. There’s a chance of a further year at a local college to learn (more) life skills. Given that his sixth form are currently doing a cracking full on job of teaching life skills, I’m not sure that there is much point in an additional year. Well other than to occupy his time. After that, it’s day centres (shudder) or a life of being taken into town to go to the cinema, bowling or hanging out at home with a paid carer.

The fledgling plan..

To set up a small social enterprise scheme; get a loan, buy a small van, a mobile industrial shredder, employ a co-ordinator and run an odd job business. The odd jobbers. The idea is to draw on the strengths of LB and other young people and celebrate diversity/eccentricity. LB is an attention to detail kind of dude when pointed in the right direction and encouraged to stay there. Other young people I know have an infectious joy in meeting people (though not always joyful to their parents) and interacting, strength, humour, an ability to hang out cheerfully and other skills. The plan is to create a community presence where the odd jobbers become known about locally. People, and local businesses, enjoy the service they offer on a social, as well as financial, level. Driving round, collecting shredding, or bits for the dump, small deliveries and so on. Creating employment (for however many hours a week) and the associated benefits (productivity, achievement, activity, purpose, structure, pay and a social life) which is priceless.

There are enterprises that are doing similar type work across the country. I was pointed in the direction of Props who offer brilliant opportunities for young people in the Bristol area. But there are layers of hoops and bureaucracy to negotiate as local authorities interpret what direct payments can be spent on very differently. We had a taste of this when LB went on a “summer holiday” with a few other young men, funded through direct payments, only to come back with an extensive learning log. Oxfordshire county council insist learning outcomes are attached to funding. Props have had to create an accredited course for their enterprise. Choice and autonomy within a personalisation agenda? Forget it in practice.

These are early thoughts. It may be a vague, unattainable, undoable daydream. [Like my decluttering intentions..cough cough]. I’ve no idea how it could work in practice. But it feels better to think in terms of action. And involvement. Rather than just letting things pass by.