Retention Pathway Support Project

The Retention Pathway Support Project aims to work closely with employers to improve job retention for disabled employees, provide information and support on employing disabled people and to ensure that the solutions provided are sustainable and practical for employers to put into place.

Data from the DWP, Work, Health and Disability green paper: data pack (2018), highlights that disabled individuals in employment were more likely to fall out of work than non-disabled individuals. Additionally, the Scottish Government labour market flows analysis confirms that in 2018, disabled people were almost twice as likely to move out of work compared to non-disabled people.

We’ve identified that there are two main issues that exemplify the need for this project:

  1. Too few employers are currently encouraging disabled people into their workplace due to lack of knowledge concerning the available support during the employment journey, fear of managing issues poorly and the subsequent impact of this and mistaken views about disabled employees. Some employers don’t feel adequately prepared to take the first steps on the retention pathway.
  2. Where disabled people have been employed in organisations, successful retention is significantly more likely when the organisation has a disability or support focus at its core and is therefore considered “specialist” in some way. This supports our understanding that employing disabled people is not perceived as being a mainstream element of being an employer and is too often “left to the experts”.

Project Outcomes

The project will be delivered by the Libertie Project and Into Work.

They will deliver the Retention Pathway Support Project to ten employers over a 12-month period from April 2021. Prior to this an innovative model will be developed that includes a range of bespoke interventions that can be tailored to each employer’s needs.

The project staff will assess each businesses’ needs and develop an individual action plan to be put into practice by March 2022.

We’ll offer consultancy, training, workshops and mentoring on a wide range of topics, including some of the following:

Reasonable adjustments
Agile working
Financial and other support available
Community benefits for public procurement tendering
Recruitment and retention benefits, diversity and inclusion
Supported employment programmes
Developing a loyal workforce to reduce staff turnover
Equal Opportunities and the Equality Act
The social model of disability
Effective policies, procedures and practices
The Disability Confident Scheme
Perceived barriers, stigma and the fear of doing the wrong thing
Building employer confidence
Mediation
Performance management
Workplace conversations

We aim to develop this as a fully costed project that will be offered to employers through the Centre of Excellence from Spring 2022. More details on the employers we are working with and the staff delivering the project will be added here soon.