Disability ServicesBury EST has been supporting disabled jobseekers into paid work since 1994. We are able to tailor our services to meet your individual needs and our Workstep project means that we can offer all the support you're likely to need to get on at work. Click on any of the links below to get a more detailed description of what we can offer. Vocational ProfilingWe use a form of assessment known as 'vocational profiling' with potential workers. This was originally developed in the USA and takes a holistic look at a person's situation. This profile is informal and may be completed over a period of time. Of course, we look at qualifications and experience but we also look at a wide range of other factors such as aspirations, preferences, finances, health, support systems, unaccredited skills etc. The profile is used to build a picture of how the person learns best and what sort of working situation would make the most of the person's potential. With the client's permission, we may contact other individuals who are involved such as family carers and professionals from other organisations. It makes sense to get to know the person well before making further plans. We want to know what makes the person tick, what gets them down and what motivates.This information is documented in the profile before an action plan is agreed with the client. Careers Advice & GuidanceWhat job would you choose if you'd never worked at all? Or if you had to leave a job after 10 years - your only experience of working? One of the most difficult things is deciding on a new career path and we can help by discussing the options with clients. People need information before embarking on a new career and we aim to provide that. We can also make referrals to the Adult Guidance worker operating in Bury and we are lobbying to expand this provision. We can arrange work trials to get a flavour of different types of jobs - sometimes this is the best way to find out what life is like in a factory, a residential home, an office or a cafe. You can make an appointment to see us or just turn up between 1 and 4 on Tuesday afternoons. We are also hoping to provide regular advice sessions at other venues such as Fairfield Hospital in the near future. Further EducationIf you're looking for a career change then going back to college may give you a chance to gain new qualifications to equip you for work. There are a range of options, including Bury College and community education through the Lifelong Learning Service. Additional support is available on some courses and we can put you in touch with the right people. Bury EST has collaborated with Parsons Lane resource centre and Bury College to establish a training programme in Catering that could see you gaining NVQ's. The programme is designed to help you gain qualifications to enter the catering industry or progression to Bury College's catering courses. For more information on this, please contact us. Welfare Benefits AdviceYou want to work but don't want to be worse off financially. We can guide you through the maze of welfare benefits and liase with Jobcentre Plus on your behalf. Whether it's claiming Disability Living Allowance or calculating how working will affect your Housing Benefit, we'll do our best to help you to maximise your income. This service is only available to clients seeking employment as we don't have the resources to provide a general benefits advice service. We may refer you on to specialist advisors where claims become more complex. It is your responsibility to inform the Benefits Agency of any change in your circumstances, such as starting work, but we can help with the paperwork and make those calls to speed things up. We are developing ever closer links with the Benefits Agency and can often sort out problems relatively easily. If you're looking to try out a bit of part-time work, we can help you to get approval for starting permitted work. We'll write to your GP and the Benefits Agency and ensure that your existing benefit entitlement is not threatened. When you start working over 16 hours a week, we can help you to claim Working Tax Credits. We'll make sure you have the right information to make a proper choice about working. Linking rules mean that if it doesn't work out, you can go back onto your original benefit entitlement, taking the worry out of trying out some work. It's all part of the service. Work Trials & Work ExperienceWe can arrange work trials to help employers to gauge the suitability of potential workers and to enable potential employees to see if the job is the right one for them. These trials can vary in length from a few days to several weeks depending on the circumstances. Periods of work experience can offer invaluable training opportunities for someone who has not worked for a number of years. It gives the chance to refresh those skills that employers value: teamwork, reliability, communication and competence. These placements may be about training someone up for a forthcoming vacancy or they may be about giving a training opportunity with no commitment to offering a job. We will not pressure employers into offering jobs if they have only agreed to a training placement. We will also make it clear to both employer and client how long the placements will last. We see no value in extending placements for the sake of it. It is possible for clients to try out a number of placements with companies to learn more of what is expected in different types of work. We can support work trials and placements with our trained employment workers. They can offer information, advice and suggestions to develop the placement and can offer training support to clients. The aim of these work trials is to develop the confidence and skills of our clients but they give valuable experience to employers seeking to diversify their workforce. Our support can give employers new skills in managing diversity in the workplace and there may be spin-offs that can be of benefit to the whole workforce. Jobsearch SkillsOnce you're ready to seek work, we can help you to maximise the chances of getting the right job for you. We can help with producing an up to date CV to present your skills and abilities to prospective employers. We can help you to look in the right places for job vacancies, whether it's through the papers, the Employment Service or by word of mouth. We can also help you to rehearse interview skills with practice sessions. We can offer you tips on interview strategies and how to present yourself for the best. We can also accompany you to interviews if you want. See the section on recruitment services for more information on this. If you've had mental health problems, we can advice you on whether to disclose this to potential employers. If you don't then it makes it difficult for us to liaise with the employer on your behalf. Either way, it's up to you and we can talk through the implications with you before you apply for work. Recruitment ServicesOur service is all about finding the right job for the right person. We're about matching client skills to employer requirements and enabling both parties to make the most of it. We take care to get a good profile of both the worker and the job. We want to make sure that the workplace is a safe one and that the support will be there for the new employee. We need to know that the culture of the workplace will get the most out of the worker's potential and support their personal and job development. We identify potential employers through a factfinding exercise that asks employers what their needs are. It's only by listening to concerns and worries that an employer will feel able to try something new like employing somone with a disability for the first time. We will carry out a Health & Safety check on the company to ensure that it knows it's responsibilities to its employees. We check insurance details, safety policies etc to make sure that legal requirements are followed and carry out a risk assessment before the job goes ahead. We like to clarify conditions of service like holiday entitlement and sickness policies as well as checking that wages are acceptable. We try to minimise the paperwork for employers but some of it is inevitable and we like to think that the time spent on this builds a rapport between ourselves and the employer. Finally we check that employee and employer are clear about each other's role and expectations. We agree levels of training support, quality and productivity requirements etc. We can provide workplace support if required and supplement the training offered by employers. It is quite likely that our staff may spend a day or two learning the job themselves before the client starts work. This means we can train workers using the right techniques from the start. We will provide workplace support as long as necessary and maintain contact for as long as either party requires it. Click here for examples of our work in securing employment. Workplace Support & TrainingThe first few weeks in a job are critical. A recent research showed that 50% of disabled employees lost their jobs within a year. We aim to provide the right levels of support so that the worker retains their job and develops in it. It's important that both employee and employer get off on the right track and our job is to help that happen. Both will have concerns. The employee may well be nervous about starting work for the first time or returning after a long break from work. They may be worried about what others think and may lack confidence. We can provide that reassurance and focus. Employers will have their own concerns. It may be that productivity is lower at the start but this will improve over time. If it desn't then we've got the match wrong and we'll review the situation. We can provide ongoing job coaching in the workplace. We use task analysis and 'Training in Systematic Instruction' techniques to structure training programmes where necessary. Our staff have a wealth of training experience and a unique capacity for lateral thinking that can solve the seemingly impossible. Whether it's colour coding or picture cards, aids or job adaptations, we'll try to make it work to everyone's satisfaction. We keep in regular touch to make sure everything's going OK and can help to refresh skills as needed. As the needs of the job change, we can come back to support the learning of new job duties. And we're always at the end of a phone if either employer or employee needs anything. Workplace AdvocacyThere may be times when you feel unable to stand up for yourself in the workplace - either with colleagues or your employer. We can help by negotiating with the employer on your behalf. We want to encourage both worker and employer to take their responsibilities seriously. We can't persuade an employer to keep you on if you're not turning up for work but we can help you to make sure that you're not treated unfairly. We aim to solve any difficulties or disputes amicably and to everyone's satisfaction. Where necessary, we'll remind employers of their duties under the Disability Discrimination Act and help clients to access legal advice. We'll also tell it like it is if you're in the wrong as an employee! Job RetentionBury EST has piloted work with people whose jobs are at risk because of the effects of a disability. Every month, 3000 people leave work for Incapacity Benefit, because of an acquired disability. Many of these people could have stayed at work if support had been offered to both employee and employer. Bury EST is working with employers on a local and regional basis to raise awareness of the sorts of support which could be offered. Access to Work can be used to pay for aids and adaptations and we encourage employers to examine the possibility of job adjustments in line with the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. Many of those whose jobs are at risk have experienced stress or other mental health conditions. GP's are able to refer workers on to counsellors and primary health care teams. In Bury, there are two teams and Bury South is actively sreeking to prevent people dropping out of work by offering counselling and Occupational Therapist support. This can be backed up by Community Psychiatric Nursing where appropriate. Please contact us if you feel your job is at risk because of mental health problems or because you have learning difficulties. We are a small team and can't promise to make things right but we'll listen to you, make suggestions and do what we can. We may be able to refer you on to other services where we feel this would be to your benefit. Click here for an example of our work on job retention. |
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