Welcome

The Employment Development Team exists to help and advise disabled people and their supporters about working in mainstream employment and being paid the same as other employees. We can help you in several ways so whether you are in a job and feel threatened, or you want to change jobs or if you are not employed at the moment and would like to work we can help.

We do not think disability should be a hindrance to your working.

Disability is defined by the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) as someone who has

“A physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day to day activities.”

If you are not sure if you are disabled by this definition please apply and we can still advise you on employment issues. If we are not the most appropriate service we will tell you of others who can help.

Getting started is easy, to access our service we will need some information from you on our Application Form which you can download and fill in and post to us. If you have a problem we can fill the form in over the telephone or you can get a friend or a professional person, like a lecturer or social worker to help. You can also access our service via a Disability Employment Adviser at Job Centre Plus.

Once we receive the form we will arrange for a meeting to plan your way into work. In planning we will look at what you have done in the past and what you would like to do in the future. We will look at education and training needs and help with a curriculum vitae (CV). We will appoint a key worker to support you through the early stages and together we will agree a number of actions. Support can be agreed and can include help with application forms, interviews and job coaching.

The team consists of a Manager, Two Senior Employment Co-ordinators, three job coaches, a Project Worker and Assistant Project Worker (who run the Catering Crew) and an Administration Assistant.

Longer term the team is committed to encouraging job generation through Social Enterprises and in supporting targeted training and development to meet local skills gaps in active partnership with Training Services and local businesses.

Support is not time limited and increasingly disabled people are finding that a job coach during the first few months of employment is a great way to enter into the full benefits of employment. Our aim is to remove any hindrance, real or perceived, from Disabled people working as they wish, in worthwhile and rewarding employment.