16th July 2020
Dear Senate Select Committee,
I would like to introduce DXC Technology and the work we have been doing over the last seven years with the employment of people with autism.
We (HP Enterprise Services) created the Dandelion Program in partnership with the Australia Federal Government to investigate how we could improve the long-term career opportunities, employment and lives of people on the autism spectrum. The Dandelion Program is one of largest autism employment programs (with over 120 people employed and providing 70+ work experience opportunities) in the world, that has been reference in books and in academic and management journals.
Michael Fieldhouse What is unique about the Dandelion Program is the establishment of a Social Impact Leader longitudinal research study alongside the operation of the program. Globally, & Dandelion Program Executive there have only been two employment programs that have had independent research programs performed. The first was project ‘Search’ in Virginia that DXC technology looked at improving a person’s employability by increasing work experience during high school. The second is the Dandelion Program’s two three-year longitudinal studies which were co-funded by Services Australia and the www.dxc.technology Department of Defence.
The program has evolved over the years via leveraging this research and through collaboration with employers, the autism community and autistic people in the program. What makes the Dandelion Program different from any other program globally is its focus on developing the skills necessary to commence a career rather that just getting a job. From the global research we did in 2013, there was a high failure rate post-employment for people on the spectrum.
The key items in the terms of reference we can contributed to include:
A) international best practice with regards to diagnosis, support services and education, effectiveness, cost and required intensity;
B) the social and economic cost of failing to provide adequate and appropriate services, including to support key life stage transitions of autistic people
C) the interaction between services provided by the Commonwealth, state and local governments, including: Focus on mental health and employment
What we are able to provide the Committee is perspectives from employers that have successful programs and the challenges that arise. The point we need to focus on is sustainable employment, so we can make a systemic difference. Key learnings from the longitudinal research study with La Trobe University include:
The importance of training for co-workers and managers, uplifting their autism skills and knowledge
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Support for individuals to assist with workplace integration Autism-related and specific mental health support Development of self-determination and advocacy skills as a critical success factor.
Please refer: Attachment A: Key program objectives and concepts Attachment B: List of journal articles and books that Dandelion is featured in
There are a number of key elements we have been working on for last 7 years:
- What are the key elements for sustainable employment? o Developing the Autism@Work Initiative with the Department of Social Services to assist the Disability Employment Services (DES) Program. The intent of this is to use our knowledge and tools to help DES providers become more skilled and confident when employing people with autism. o Making our knowledge available to employers globally We have open-sourced the Dandelion Program materials via Cornell University and these have been downloaded by over 600 organisations in 91 countries thus far: Refer Attachment C: Benefits of employing autistic people (most downloaded document that we have open-sourced) https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/dandelionp rogram/ o Educating employers on the benefits and challenges of hiring people on the spectrum We are the founder and a key sponsor of the Autism@Work summits globally and have partnered with the Autism CRC, SAP and Untapped to establish the Autism@Work summit in Australia which is in its 4th year https://www.autismatwork.org/ One of the founders of the Autism@Work Roundtable in US https://disabilityin.org/what-we-do/committees/autism at-work-roundtable/ Helping provide understanding of how to start an employment program. Refer Attachment D: How do I start a program? o Partnering with leading organisations across the global to develop tools and IP
Stanford University – Neurodiversity Initiative
Cornell University – Institute of Employment and Disability
La Trobe University - OTARC
Israel Ro’im Rachok Program - the most successful autism employment program o Development of tools to assist with sustainable employment Life Sherpa – Mobile support applications Uptimize – E-learning platform used by Google,
Salesforce, JP Morgan Chase, ANZ and NAB
DXC.technology
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o Development of mental health tools in partnership with Untapped. The research was funded by DXC and ANZ Bank, and performed by La Trobe, Stanford and Cornell universities.
- How to improve the transition points for young people on the spectrum? o We partnered with Untapped to develop the neurodiversity hub to assist higher education become more autism-friendly, leveraging the knowledge of universities across the global https://www.neurodiversityhub.org/
o Queensland Department of Education has partnered with Dandelion Program and Untapped to develop the “All Kinds of Minds” initiative.
What we are able to bring to the Senate Select Committee are employers’ views on what is required for sustainable long-term employment and the potential to mitigate the dead-ends that autistic people face on the journey to sustainable employment.
Please find attached the 2019 Dandelion-in-Review report (Attachment E). We typically release this on World Autism Awareness Day. Unfortunately it was delayed due to COVID-19.
Kind reaqards
Michael Fieldhouse
Attachment A: Key program objectives and concepts Attachment B: List of journal articles and books that Dandelion is featured in
e Attachment C: Benefits of employing people with autism (most downloaded document that we have open sourced)
Attachment D: How do | start a program?
Attachment E: 2019 Dandelion-in-Review Report