A Greater Social Impact
Behind the scenes with SBS:
Brandon and Grace on the small screen
People with disability have the same right to employment opportunities as everyone else. Unfortunately, there are still many barriers that prevent people with disability from accessing these opportunities and enjoying true economic inclusion.
Recently, two people from the Scope community met with SBS World News to shed light on this human rights issue.
Grace Poland, a Scope customer, and Brandon Tomlin, a staff member, met with SBS journalist Sean Wales to explain their experiences of discrimination and ableism in the workplace.
Sean joined Brandon and Scope Speech Pathologist Georgia Burn at Scope head office in Hawthorn. They focused on the importance of Customised Employment and what employers can do to better support people with a disability.
Using assistive technology to communicate, Brandon said workplaces who haven’t embraced inclusive policies have no excuse.
“With the knowledge that there are over 245,000 people with a communication disability [in Australia], using ignorance to justify not talking to or including people with disability is no longer acceptable,” Brandon said.
Grace welcomed Sean into her home, where she expressed her frustration and exasperation at not being able to find suitable employment.
Highly educated with a double degree in law and arts from the University of Melbourne, Grace has been looking for work for more than a decade.
“I’ve been told I have to fit into a box or be normal, but that’s not how it is,” she says.
“If I didn’t have Customised Employment, I wouldn’t have the support and opportunities that I need because they understand people with disabilities way better than just your normal employment coach.”
Frustrated at the barriers she has faced so far, Grace said Customised Employment has given her new hope.
“Before Customised Employment, nobody had ever helped me with employment skills and for someone as educated as me, I’ve fallen through the cracks and can’t contribute to society.”
“Workplaces need to listen to individuals about their needs and actually have a plan for how they’re going to integrate that person in the workplace and allow that person to use the technology that can help them.”
Well done to Brandon and Grace for helping to bring attention to this very important issue.
Customised Employment
Scope is developing new and innovative ways to support people with disability to achieve employment in the community. Customised Employment is the centrepiece of this strategy. Through this program, people are supported to realise their ambitions for a career, not just a job.
Customised Employment is a flexible process designed to personalise the employment relationship between a job seeker and an employer in a way that meets the needs of both.
As a customer-driven process, Customised Employment is designed to meet the needs of the job seeker, to identify their ideal working conditions, and the needs of the organisation, to have a valued and contributing employee. Customised Employment aims to support a person with disability not just to find and keep a job but to potentially build a career.
Together with the University of Melbourne, Scope is positioned to validate the Customised Employment model in the Australian NDIS environment.
Through a process of testing Customised Employment with as many customers as possible, we propose to find out how Customised Employment works best in Australia, who it works best for, and how customised employment is best delivered at scale in an NDIS context, and to achieve meaningful employment outcomes for people with disability and their employers.
As part of Scope’s Strategic Plan 2020–2022, Scope has committed to promoting and facilitating the social inclusion and economic participation of people with disability.
This has been identified as a national priority by the Productivity Commission (2017), and the most recent figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) underscore the dire circumstances in which 52 per cent of Australians with disability are unemployed.
Research and Publications
The research team has been building and extending its focus on improved outcomes for people with a disability.
We have continued our research focused on identifying pain and have developed an online course for disability support workers to help them identify pain in people with intellectual disability and limited communication.
Our research partnership with Monash University into falls prevention is continuing with a focus on identifying factors that may place people at risk of falling.
We have embarked on new research focusing on young people in residential aged care and how young people may be better supported to find more suitable accommodation or live a better life in residential aged care.
Working with the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), we are exploring how capacity building supports can be used to help people determine how and where they want to live. All this research aims to improve life outcomes for people with disability.
Our research team has led Scope’s responses to various Government consultations, including the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Inquiry into Independent Assessments, and the National Disability Insurance Agency’s consultations into the Access and Eligibility Policy with Independent Assessments and Supporting You to Make Your Own Decisions.
Disability Royal Commission submissions and advocacy
The voices of people with a lived experience of disability is central in the development of all advocacy activities undertaken by Scope.
Together, Scope made nine submissions to government consultations and enquiries this financial year. These included:
- The Victorian Government on the State Disability Plan 2022–2026 (Inclusive Victoria)
- The Department of Families, Fairness, and Housing (DFFH) for the Disability Act Review
- Two submissions to the Australian Human Rights Commission related to Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–2031
Further advocacy work amplified the voices of people with disability and included submissions to:
- The Department of Social Services regarding the National Disability Employment Strategy and the new Disability Support Employment Model (the latter was submission made jointly with Disability Services Australia)
- DFFH consultation ahead of their Youth Strategy
- Two online submissions to the National Disability Insurance Agency – “An Ordinary Life at Home” and “Support for Decision Making”.
Scope has developed a strategic advocacy platform informed by the views and voices of customers. Our work features customer stories to bring the subject matter to life.
This has focused to date on Customised Employment and includes detailed research, data, and evidence in a presentation format. The NDIA has reviewed the Customised Employment Resources and they have also been made available on social media.
Further resources are in development on topics including Communication Access.
Scope worked in partnership with Ability First Australia to consult with government about issues important to people with disability and providers.
