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Your Submission
How are you going to share your experiences with us? I am using this form to make a written submission (with or without attachments) Who are you making this submission for? I am providing information on behalf of an organisation or institution How would you like us to use your information? Public What would you like to share with the Royal Commission about your experiences or knowledge of violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation of people with disability?
Disability Employment Services. Feedback from Young People supported by ARROS
Young people have shared with us regularly, that Disability Employment Services do not support them adequately or respectfully. In fact, we are yet to hear a positive story about a young person’s interaction with a Disability Employment Service. Young people with intellectual or cognitive disabilities have expressed feeling punished and threatened, intimidated, confused, and condescended. They say Disability Employment Services make them feel unsafe, unsupported, disrespected, not listened to, and not taken seriously.
The typical feedback our organisation receives from young people about Disability Employment services (DES) is captured in the following direct quotes:
“They don’t listen to me”.
“I tell them where I applied, and they call the employer to check. They don’t really help me”.
“They didn’t help me at all - they gave me all this paperwork to help to make a resume and it made no sense. They didn’t explain it or try to help me with it”.
“They don’t really help me, they just want my pay-slip, so they can get paid”.
“They said they couldn’t help me get a job because I had a disability”.
“Even if I don’t know how to do something or can’t do it, I’ll get a strike. I don’t like that; it makes my anxiety really bad”.
“I don’t think they are very thoughtful about people with learning difficulties or mental health issues”.
“They do all the talking in my job interviews, I just sit there”.
“I don’t know what they do. They call me every week and gets me to send them my pay-slip. That’s about it”.
“They sent me all this stuff to do but I don’t know what it means”.
“I don’t know how to do it; they don’t help me with it”.
“It sounded like threats to me. Threats are not good for someone with mental illness”.
For many young people, a lot of our work together is spent processing the interactions they have with their DES workers and completing tasks which DES workers have not supported them with. Most of the young people we work with do not wish to make complaints as they feel uncomfortable doing so and fear repercussions.
The following outlines our workers observations and issues that the young people frequently raise with us about Disability Employment Services.
They find it challenging to make sense of the information provided by DES providers. Information and instructions are routinely shared over the phone; information which they are not supported to understand or put into action. Young people often express uncertainty about how DES workers support them, or why they are asked to complete certain tasks. They are often unsure about how they were connected to DES providers and what supports they have access to. They are also unclear about the links between DES providers and Centrelink. This highlights that young people’s learning difficulties and communication challenges due to their disability are not understood by DES workers. It is unclear if this is due to worker’s lack of knowledge and or skill to work with people with intellectual disabilities and learning difficulties or a general disregard of their needs. This often results in young people having multiple negative interactions with DES workers, undue confusion, and misunderstandings. For one young person we support, if ARROS were not supporting them to process the information and process around their employment and income reporting, they may have faced significant consequences with Centrelink. For three months, this person believed the reason they were asked to provide their payslip to the DES worker, was so the DES worker could report their income to Centrelink. It was later discovered, the DES worker was not reporting to Centrelink, and had told the young person that because their earnings were so low, they did not have to report to Centrelink. Without ARROS support to clarify this issue, the young person may have incurred a significant debt with Centrelink.
Whilst supporting young people, ARROS workers have overheard DES workers being rude to young people and dismissive of their needs or concerns. Young people tell us their DES workers often speak very fast and give too much information which they struggle to comprehend or remember due to the impact of their disabilities. On several occasions we have heard DES workers quickly become frustrated when a young person has not understood their instructions. In one example a DES worker would sigh and raise her voice at them, saying “C’mon, I already told you that”. “I don’t have time for this, just do xyz ..”. When attempting to set meetings or interviews, if the times DES workers suggested did not suit the young person, they would express frustration at them for not changing their plans to accommodate their schedule. Due to their intellectual disability, young people often struggle to make plans that involve multiple appointments on the same day. They also feel pressure
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to be agreeable so, say yes to things without understanding how plans will fit together. Making plans and setting a schedule is quite a complex task. We do not believe enough support is offered to ensure young people understand the expectations or plans DES workers have made for them. In our observations, it appears DES workers have limited understanding of how to support people with intellectual disability as they do not ensure information is communicated effectively and understood by their clients.
Young people are not included in or supported to learn about job searching processes. DES workers apply for jobs with limited or no involvement with their clients. This means young people are not supported to learn how to do this on their own or contribute to the decision making process around which jobs to apply for. Young people with disabilities are consistently excluded from making decisions about their lives. Whilst applying for jobs on their behalf may be intended to be supportive, it does not support people to build capacity with those important life skills and contributes to people feeling excluded from making decisions about their own lives. It takes away choice and control. Particularly for those who struggle saying no, or challenging people in positions of perceived power and authority. Acquiescence is a common strategy people with intellectual disability utilise to hide their lack of understanding or difficulty thinking things through. Masking their communication difficulties is also an effective strategy to avoid the stigma of having a disability which contributes to increased risk of exploitation. When working with people with intellectual disabilities, it is vital to slow down and take the time needed to ensure information being shared is understood, and they have enough time to prepare for meetings, so they can contribute in ways they feel comfortable. When discussing interviews they attended, young people have told us they didn’t have to do anything, because the DES worker spoke for them. Whilst intended as supportive, this also does not support people to build any skills around applying for work or communicating with employers. Young people tell us their DES workers answer the employer’s questions on their behalf instead of allowing them to do so. When discussing these experiences with young people, it is very disheartening to hear them say they are not spoken to or encouraged to participate in their job interviews. They feel they do not have the opportunity to ask questions or practise any of the interview skills that you would expect DES providers would be encouraging clients to build capacity for.
They are not supported to learn how to report their earnings to Centrelink and are provided incorrect and misleading information about income reporting, resulting in possible financial penalties. Young people connected to DES providers are routinely asked to send their payslips to DES workers. In one example, the worker explained the reason for this being, so they could ‘report’. Because the worker used the language of ‘reporting’ when discussing their earnings, this action was interpreted as the worker reporting their earnings to Centrelink for them. The young person told us on multiple occasions that their DES worker reports their earnings to Centrelink. The lack of transparency about who the worker was reporting their earnings to, and the lack of time afforded to processing this information effectively, has resulted in this young person being at risk of financial penalty: having their payment cut or incurring a fine with Centrelink. Furthermore, whilst clarifying this information with the young person at Centrelink, they called the DES worker to discuss why their earnings were not being reported to Centrelink. The DES worker told them and a Centrelink worker that because their earnings were under the threshold, they did not need to report their income. This is incorrect information that should not have been communicated to a client. The DES worker also became hostile when we raised our concern about the reporting confusion with Centrelink. The young person told the DES worker multiple times that they believed reporting to Centrelink on their behalf was the reason for sending them their payslips. The DES worker did not accept any accountability and blamed the young person for the misunderstanding. The young person was made to feel like it was their fault for not understanding the specifics and limits of the DES workers role or reporting processes.
Disability Employment Service websites commonly state that their aims are to build relationships built on respect, transparency, and trust; to support people to reach their goals, build capacity and have access to training and employment opportunities. We do not believe this is an accurate representation of the actual support provided to young people with disabilities connected to DES providers. Despite being a client of DES providers, vulnerable young people have communicated to us that they are not supported to learn how to search for jobs, write a resume or prepare for an interview. They are not supported to understand what casual or part-time work means. They are not supported to understand their rights or responsibilities as employees. They say they feel pressured to undertake courses they have no interest in and are not supported to work through the material. Others feel they have been dissuaded from participating in courses they are interested in and have required assistance to advocate for their goals to be acknowledged and supported. They are put forward for jobs they do not want, cannot get to independently, or feel overwhelmed by. They are taken to interviews, where they are not included in the discussion. They say they are not involved in any of the processes or decisions regarding their employment and are frequently spoken to in a disrespectful manner with no transparency and minimal support.
Have you shared these experiences with anyone before? Who did you tell and what happened? We shared some feedback with a DES worker around a specific interaction with a young person. I shared that we were not happy with their process of supporting a young person and highlighted the danger the young person was put in, due to poor communication and lack of transparency. The worker became very defensive and blamed the young person with intellectual disability for misunderstanding complex information and not knowing about systemic processes between DES providers and Centrelink.
I then shared the above submission with the specific DES provider. A week later the regional manager contacted me and explained their processes and what their obligations are. The regional manager said he would recommend their staff ask people with disabilities to repeat back the information their DES workers have shared to make sure they understand. I spent a great deal of time explaining that his was not enough and that more training was needed for staff to understand disability and that they needed more time to support people ethically and adequately. He asked me to share resources with him and said he would contact us for links to training services and resources for his staff. We did not hear from him again. Are there any suggestions or recommendations you would like to share, including any examples of what worked well, or ideas for how things could be done better? You might also like to tell us about any people that have supported you. In our work, to support people effectively to find work and build skills that are meaningful to them, we’ve found it takes time. Relationship is central and the ability to be flexible and provide holistic responses to other aspects of their lives is a significant way to overcome various barriers for them accessing safe and meaningful employment. This requires a skilled workforce who have knowledge and skills to support people with disability. We use proactive outreach to meet people where they are at, at times that suit them. We do not exclude people from our service if they don’t show up, or are “too difficult”. We use a person centered approach and find creative and fun ways for people to build skills and work toward
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their goals. Many people we support have been signed up to on line courses by DES providers which are too complicated to complete or do not fit their goals. Others have been put in work that is too hard, too fast, too boring, too far away, or where they are bullied and unsupported. We would like to see people connected to these services be treated as unique individuals deserving of respect and care, not rushed and ignored, or forced into inappropriate workplaces so services can meet their KPl’s.
In a sentences, would tell nation for the future?
Systems need to do better. People with disabilities deserve better. I would like to see DES providers have appropriately trained staff with smaller case loads and adequate time to support their clients appropriately. I would like to see DES providers be more transparent about what they actually do.
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