Welcome to Influencing and Informing

Engage to Change

Influencing and Informing is a partnership between Learning Disability Wales and NCMH at Cardiff University. We are taking forward the policy, research, and legacy work of the Engage to Change project. We are advocating for a Wales National Job Coach Strategy.

We want:

• Children and young people who have learning disabilities to have access to individually tailored work experience placements in local businesses, supported by a job coach.

• Specialist job coach support for people with learning disabilities to be available through all Welsh Government funded employment, skills, and training programmes.
• Local authorities and Regional Partnership Boards to fund employment support for people with learning disabilities living in their area.
• Job coach support to be recognised as a profession with programmes and people providing job coach support working to the National Occupational Standards for supported employment and job coaches undertaking training in supported employment and systematic instruction.
• To make sure that people with learning disabilities, their families and others who support them know about pathways to employment and the support available to them.

To influence and inform others we will:

• Continue to work with Welsh Government, Members of the Senedd, DWP, local authorities, health boards, colleges, and other organisations with the aim of ensuring that supported employment, which includes specialist job coach support, is funded and available across Wales.
• Share information from the evaluation of the Engage to Change project to show what works and what is needed for people to get paid work.
• Share the journeys of Engage to Change participants who took part in supported internships, supported apprenticeships and those who were supported to get paid work.
• Engage with people with learning disabilities and families of people with learning disabilities.

The Engage to Change project successfully:

• provided employment support to 1,070 young people with a learning difficulty, learning disability and/or autism over a 7- year period that ended on 31 May 2023

The project is no longer accepting referrals.

Looking back – Our Pathways to Employment Film:

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