From Systems Failure to Systems Change

Employment rates are lower for adults with learning disabilities and autism than they are for those with any other types of disabilities or health conditions. Current systems are often failing to provide the connected and consistent support young people with learning disabilities or autism need to enter secure employment. This Participatory Action Research project will explore how youth-led service commissioning can lead to systems change and enhance access to secure employment for neurodiverse young people.

Connected Futures is a programme funded by the Youth Futures Foundation (YFF) aimed at supporting young people to get good jobs through funding local partnerships in eight areas across the UK. The Connected Futures Partnership in East Midlands operates in Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham, and Nottinghamshire (D2N2), and includes the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, Direct Education Business Partnership (DEBP), a specialist education and employability provider, and Nottinghamshire County Council.

The Partnership in East Midlands is investigating employment pathways available to young people with learning disabilities (LD) and/or autistic spectrum conditions (ASC) across the region. Across England, only 4.8% of working age adults who receive learning disability support from the NHS, are in paid employment (NHS England, 2023). Those figures are lower in D2N2 region, with 1.1% in Derbyshire, 1.8% in Derby City, 1.5% in Nottinghamshire and 1.6% Nottingham City. We know that employment rates for adults with learning disabilities and autism are low than they are for those with any other types of disabilities or health conditions (ONS, 2022). Understanding the specific structural barriers they face is therefore crucial.

The Direct Education Business Partnership has hired Youth Voice Ambassadors (YVAs) – young people with learning disabilities and/or autism, aged 18-24 – to co-develop future commissioned support services. Through Participatory Action Research, this project aims to support the Connected Futures Partnership in East Midlands to understand how youth-led service commissioning can enhance access to secure employment for neurodiverse young people, and amplify youth voice.

The project builds on and expands previous research undertaken by YFF on the systems that prevent young people from entering secure employment and on the impact the 8 Connected Futures Partnerships are having, and the challenges they are facing, in enhancing youth employment. Furthermore, this project will contribute to the understanding of the needs and priorities of young people with LD/ASC in relation to employment, as well as on how embedding youth voices in service commissioning and policy making can foster youth employment.