Consultation on Solas

Consultation on Solas

Introduction

The National Disability Authority is the independent statutory advisory body on disability policy and practice, and on universal design.

The National Disability Authority welcomes the Government decision to establish a new further education and training agency, Solas, which will have the strategic responsibility for further education currently delivered by Vocational Education Committees (VECs) and training currently delivered by FÁS. This provides the opportunity to link the continuum of education and training.

Solas remit

Includes people with disabilities

The National Disability Authority advises that the new agency, as with all public bodies, has a remit to serve people with disabilities as part of its mainstream clientele, in line with the provisions of s 26 of the Disability Act 2005. Under those provisions, where practicable and appropriate, education and training for people with disabilities and others should be integrated.

It is important to build in the remit to serve people with disabilities from the outset in designing the new agency, ensuring the structures of the agency are fit for this purpose, and building in the requirements for serving students and trainees with disabilities into strategic planning and into work programmes.

It may be helpful, as in the Comhairle Act 2000, to provide explicitly in the legislation to establish Solas that people with disabilities form an integral part of the remit of the new body.

Across diversity of disability

The remit of Solas to serve people with disabilities is not limited to any one category of disability. It is important therefore that the further education and training services would reflect this diversity, and would be designed and delivered in a person-centred way around the needs of the individual learner.

Accessibility and Universal Design

Related provisions of the Disability Act deal with obligations of public bodies on accessibility of premises to people with disabilities, accessibility of information, and with accessibility of procured goods and services (this could include the accessibility of contracted training courses). The National Disability Authority has a suite of guidance materials on accessibility and Universal Design which may be of assistance in delivering accessibility, as well as the Statutory Code of Practice on Accessibility of Public Services and Information provided by Public Bodies.

Delivery of education or training by distance learning, including e-learning, should also be designed as accessible to people with disabilities. Universal design of curriculum is also important, to ensure that the learning is accessible to people with different forms of disability or learning styles.

Pathways to work and social inclusion

Further education and training play a key role in providing a pathway for people with disabilities into employment. This includes providing effective bridges for young people with disabilities from school into further education or training, and providing opportunities to the many people with disabilities who have left the workforce, so they can re-engage and acquire skills that can lead to work.

Address education and skills deficits that are holding people back

Between a third and a half of people with disabilities who are not employed would wish to work, and among the obstacles they identify are lack of education or training. The employment rate of people with disabilities is directly proportional to the highest level of education received.

NDA research shows that people with disabilities are more poorly educated than the population at large. There is also evidence that some young people with disabilities when they leave school have underachieved relative to their peers, and further education and training is essential to develop their talents and capacities to the full. Furthermore, people who acquire a disability in adult life are disproportionately drawn from people with lower levels of education. Manual workers, who are more vulnerable to disability, may lack the skills to transfer to other occupations without further training.

The ESF-funded pilot scheme in the BMW area which sought to re-engage people on long-term disability payments found that outdated skills and poor levels of education were obstacles on the road to employment, and that education, training and personal development courses were required as the first step of the journey towards work.

A focus on capacity

Too often there is a focus on a person’s incapacity and their support needs, rather than their capacity and what they can achieve. As the World Report on Disability has noted, there are few jobs which someone with a disability cannot do, and few people with disabilities who cannot work. For example, many people with significant intellectual disabilities are employed through supported employment, and are making a contribution.

A further education and training system that is focused on maximising people’s capacity, their self-belief, identifying what they can do and building on that, can play a part in breaking a cycle of low expectations.

Not just about work

For some people with disabilities, there will be limited capacity or aspiration to work. However, further education and training can play a valuable role in supporting the development of individual talents and aptitudes, in supporting inclusion and social engagement. For example, Dun Laoghaire VEC has developed courses in conjunction with Brain Injury Ireland and with St John of God’s Carmona service which offer meaningful engagement and development to course participants.

The new model of adult day service envisaged in the HSE’s report New Directions envisages moving from a model of segregated day services towards one where people are supported to participate in mainstream community opportunities, including mainstream training and learning. VECs can have an important role in this model.

Building links

Building key links is essential for successful engagement of people with disabilities. These include links with

• Schools, both mainstream and special schools, and with a particular focus on young people with disabilities at risk of falling between the cracks
• The new National Employment and Entitlements Service
• Disability service providers and mental health teams
• Voluntary and community groups

Mainstream and specialist training

At present, about 80% of training of people with disabilities is carried out by specialist training providers, with limited direct involvement of FÁS with this group. It is important to look beyond segregated provision and consider how and where mainstream education and training can be appropriate.

There may also be scope for ‘reverse integration’ where other people who are distant from the labour market, and who may require the kind of programmes now available in special training centres, can avail of those centres.

Contracted services

The NDA would welcome an approach to contracting provision of training and further education services on the basis of meeting quality standards and serving the diversity of learners.

Where services are given directly or contracted out, it is important to ensure that there are safeguards in place to ensure that providers do not cherry pick those who are easiest to train or most likely to achieve success in employment, to the exclusion of those who need higher levels of support to achieve their potential.

It is particularly important to design payment and incentive systems in a way that would prevent such cherry picking. In some UK contracting, higher unit costs are payable in respect of particular categories of learner or trainee to avoid the risk of cherrypicking.

In measuring performance of contracted services, the progression rate is an important variable to measure. It is important however to recognise that lower progression rates of people with disabilities may be affected by, for example, episodic mental illness, as well as by challenges they face in getting employment. With the need for nuanced measurement, the NDA would welcome more emphasis on achievement of results that reflect appropriate objectives for the mix of learners involved, and that reflect.

Person-centred learning

For learners with disabilities, it is important that training and education are designed around the individual and their learning style, rather than a one size fits all approach.

To assist Solas in its work, an appropriate case management systemwould be useful. This case management system could incorporate the supports necessary for individual learners that will aid them into further education and ultimately employment or further inclusion in the community.

For learners or trainees in receipt of HSE-funded disability supports, it would be important to link into and build on their person-centred plan in designing a learning programme.

What kind of training?

The Solas consultation paper asks what type of training should be provided.

The National Disability Authority advice is that this should reflect

• The learner’s needs
• The requirements of the current and future job market, as ascertained from solid forecasting exercises and surveys of employers

It is also essential to develop core transferable skills such computer skills as well as ensuring that people with disabilities can access basic maths, literacy, lifeskills training and personal development and efficacy as required.

It is also important to provide a balance between classroom or centre-based learning and on the job learning, supplemented as appropriate by classroom training.For some groups of people with disabilities, including people with intellectual disabilities, a ‘place and train’ model has proven successful.[1]

Flexibility

It is also important that training is flexible as to trainees personal circumstances, for example persons with mobility disabilities who may require distance learning; learners with intermittent health problems who may need to start and stop and pick up again.

Measuring outcomes

It is difficult at present to get data on outcomes achieved from mainstream or specialist training. The current mix of FÁS databases does not make it easy to judge the efficacy of outcomes for trainees with disabilities from either mainstream or specialist training. Attention should be given in designing any new database to ensure that for monitoring purposes it is straightforward to track the outcomes achieved for learners with disabilities.

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[1] For further information, see attached briefing papers which look at paths to employment of people with intellectual disability and with mental health difficulties.