» workplace

Letters: Disabled workers fight to save Remploy factory jobs

Mark Glasgow — Thu, 10 May 2012 23:53:43 +0000

As a group of disabled people’s organisations, run by and for disabled people, we – together with other individuals and

Support for carers must be central to social care white paper

Mark Glasgow — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:35:09 +0000

Government’s upcoming reforms must take the needs and contributions of unpaid carers into account, says Heléna Herklots We will all need care or provide care for loved ones at some point in our lives – it is an issue for all of society and all parts of government. As care and support for older and disabled people rises up the political agenda, decision-makers and the public are confronted with an array of stark statistics on the rising demand for care – with the number of people over 80 to double by 2020, 11 million people alive today expected to live to 100, the number of adults with learning disabilities to rise by a third by 2030 and the number of carers by 50% in the next 25 years to 9 million.

Link:
Support for carers must be central to social care white paper

Support for carers must be central to social care white paper

Mark Glasgow — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:35:09 +0000

Go here to read the rest:
Support for carers must be central to social care white paper

Sickness benefit: ‘They try their damnedest to avoid paying’

Mark Glasgow — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:14:33 +0000

A computer questionnaire now helps determine who is fit for work and who is eligible for benefits. But it is causing misery, with thousands of unwell people locked in a chaotic system of appeals How sick or disabled do you need to be to qualify for state support? Is it enough to be blind or do you also need to be deaf?

Visit link:
Sickness benefit: ‘They try their damnedest to avoid paying’

Remploy closures: an act of callous cost-cutting dressed up as progressive | Les Woodward

Mark Glasgow — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:43:01 +0000

Closing Remploy factories will not save disabled workers from ‘Victorian-era segregation’.

Originally posted here:
Remploy closures: an act of callous cost-cutting dressed up as progressive | Les Woodward

A lottery winner claiming benefits just does not feel right | Michael White

Mark Glasgow — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:47:03 +0000

Our sense of fairness is being tested in all sorts of ways, and next month’s budget will test it even further Have you been following the story of Jean and Michael O’Shea, their £10m lottery win and the £6,000-a-year disability living allowance (DLA) that the couple still claim? Probably not, it’s far too interesting to be much of a broadsheet story. That’s what makes it a challenge at a time when our sense of fairness is being tested in all sorts of ways.

Write for us about … negative attitudes towards disability | The people’s panel

Mark Glasgow — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:38:28 +0000

Originally posted here:
Write for us about … negative attitudes towards disability | The people’s panel

Write for us about … negative attitudes towards disability | The people’s panel

Mark Glasgow — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:38:28 +0000

Charities say the focus on alleged benefit fraud has caused an increase in abuse of disabled people. We want to hear your story Charities have warned that the government’s focus on alleged fraud and over-claiming to justify cuts in disability benefits has caused an increase in resentment and abuse directed at disabled people. Scope’s regular polling of people with disabilities shows that in September two-thirds said they had experienced recent hostility or taunts – up from 41% four months before

Letters: The benefits of a civilised society

Mark Glasgow — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:24:21 +0000

Today the welfare reform bill is expected to return to the Commons ( Report , 30 January). Under government plans, 670,000 households – two-thirds containing a disabled family member – would lose an average of £670 a year because they are deemed to have one or more additional bedrooms. Separated parents or grandparents who use their extra bedroom to share the care of their children or grandchildren; families in which two same-sex teenage children have their own bedroom for privacy and study; foster parents with rooms occupied by foster children – many, despite having nowhere else to move to, will see their incomes cut if the bill passes unamended.

Link:
Letters: The benefits of a civilised society

Perfect 10

Mark Glasgow — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:40:52 +0000

The Secret of Long Service

August sees a significant milestone for Able Magazine’s Production Manager. He’s been with Craven Publishing for 10 years. Based on this experience, we explore the long term benefits of recruiting disabled people.
Apart from proprietor and publisher Steve Craven, Terry Gillan is the longest serving employee at Craven Publishing. It’s no real surprise given that (depending on the sector) the average workplace attrition is around 10-15% per year. It’s an achievement for any employee at any organisation in the UK but it’s even more impressive when considered in the context of the ludicrously low employment level of disabled people.

Want to work
Data published by Shaw Trust (a charity that helps disabled people to find employment) tells us that there are around 1.3 million disabled people in the UK who are not only available for work but who actually want to work. It’s a difficult puzzle to solve then as to why only 50% of disabled people of working age are in employment compared with upwards of 80% of non-disabled people.

Let’s be (necessarily) realistic then. There are employers that cannot imagine taking on a disabled person. Terry proves what flawed thinking that represents. The job that Terry does is to be the ‘go to man’ for advertisers filing new copy for the magazine or needing to check anything from size and spec to deadlines. It’s probably a natural correlation to like what you’re good at and to be good at what you like to do. This summary also fits. Again, this is rare amongst the UK workforce given that according to online recruitment service: Monster, a mere 15% of people actually ‘like their job’.

Maybe it’s because Terry, as with many disabled people actually gets ‘stuck in’. During what amounts to ‘long service’ Terry has, in the course of his duties for Able Magazine tested numerous gadgets and gizmos for our product pages, given us the benefit of his expertise in wheelchair basketball and even learnt how to fly a light aeroplane for our ‘Get Active’ column. For the most part he hasn’t considered these tasks onerous. In fact much of that stuff has been fun but its Terry that continually puts himself forward for these projects. For him the job helps to define his character and personality: versatile, determined and generous in spirit. Readers of Able Magazine will realise that these are qualities found anywhere where disabled people congregate. If only employers would consider the fact that living with a disability in a largely non-disability world makes what they might call ‘workplace stress’ look like a cakewalk.

Statistics
Before disabled people even get to the job market there can be problems they have to overcome. No UK government has yet thought up a decent way to give children an ‘ideal’ education. No UK government has got close to such a theory with disabled children in mind. The statistics are damning with 23% of disabled people leaving school without qualifications compared with just 9% of non-disabled people. Of course, this immediately puts them in a weaker position than other candidates looking for a job.

Terry wasn’t quite in that position as a school leaver. In fact after leaving school he completed a National Certificate (NC) in computing. He embarked on the Higher National Certificate (HNC) in Computing but withdrew after his father unexpectedly passed away. “After that I took some time out, maybe a year and a half” he tells me.

At this point Terry started to look at his options. “I was just wondering about what to do. I got in touch with a disability employment advisor at the Job Centre who is there to help you find work. It just so happened that at the first time of trying, they had heard from Steve (Craven) who was looking for somebody and the rest, as they say, is history.”

Positive outcomes
Any employer that works with disabled people is likely to be able to share positive stories about good attendance and a genuine desire to work with enthusiasm and of course, this all agrees with the statistics produced on the subject. What statistics can’t explain are the human and psychological variables (again all positive) that take place. It’s a truism that employing disabled people is fair, is the right thing to do. As a result it seems that some form of employer Karma takes hold as good things begin to happen. Diversity means that your workers can relate to the general population (also known as ‘customers’) more thoroughly. With 20% of the UK population living with a form disability it is nothing more than common sense to have people on board who understand how they feel, how they react and crucially, how they buy things. Diversity also means that the organisation benefits from difference in understanding, perspective, life experience and ideas. This is a competitive advantage that narrow minded employers don’t have (and arguably don’t deserve).

When Terry first applied for the vacancy at Craven Publishing the job description was still fairly vague as Terry explains: “At the time he maybe thought that I might be a writer because he asked me to do a piece and send it in to him. I think I did something along the lines of a disabled person going out for a night on the town. This is 10 years ago so I was explaining the difficulties of trying to get into places and things like that. I sent it in and I got the job. I came in on a six month placement at first. During those six months I was basically getting trained up on Photoshop and Quark (magazine software) which we used at the time.” The point is that although Steve had an idea that Terry would be good at managing the advertising copy flow and he also realised and valued his viewpoint as a disabled person. To this end Terry isn’t unique as Craven Publishing continues to recruit towards a diverse working team. That’s why on every piece of craven Publishing headed paper the ‘two ticks’ logo is prominently placed next to our contact details. This is a logo that commits to being ‘positive about disabled people’ and is regarded as the symbol disabled people should look for when searching for an employer. If it stands for anything, it’s simply that the company in question has the right attitude towards inclusion.

Beyond just ticking a box and employing a ‘token disabled person’ Craven has helped Terry play to his strengths and as a result have got the best out of him as an employee. Perhaps it’s because of this management style that Terry has remained so staunchly loyal, saying: “Because I’ve been here for so long, I don’t see me ever leaving here. I would work here for as long as I could really.” Again, thinking back 10 years to his interview Terry says something that I didn’t expect: One of the questions that Steve asked me was, ‘if you saw a copy of Able in a shop, would you buy it?’ I said, ‘no I wouldn’t’, not because it’s a disability magazine but because it just wasn’t the sort of thing I was into.” We (Craven Publishing) started to make it more of a lifestyle magazine from then on. I wanted to help with that. I suppose working on a disability magazine was a chance to try to get your point across and make a difference. It (Able) is definitely something that I read now.”

Adaptations and adjustments
It does seem that in this case, there have been adaptations made on both sides (employee and employer) that have contributed to development for each, as Terry explains: “I’ve obviously seen the company grow from just four or five people to what it is today. I’ve seen it make that whole journey: it’s been good. It’s a great place to work.
Because I work here (and see the magazine come together) I realise that there are a lot of jobs out there for disabled people that I might not have realised were available. I thought my options were limited. Being here I have seen, just by what Able have covered that there are a lot more opportunities out there.”

There were also physical adaptations needed for Craven to make their then premises fully accessible. These were completed with help from the ‘Access for Work’ scheme that gives funds for this very purpose where adjustments to buildings and the like are required.

Terry has proven that despite a less than ideal start and a few bumps along the way that he, along with thousands of other disabled people have a great deal to offer. As for his advice, based on his own background and 10 good years at Craven Publishing working on Able Magazine; it’s simple: “Don’t listen to negative teachers.”

Forget the Ricky Gervais ‘mong’ row, disabled people need action

Mark Glasgow — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:08:23 +0000

The recent furore over the comedian’s use of the word mong obscures the real issues around disability rights and benefit cuts Ricky Gervais has now apologised for his use of the word mong on Twitter. The golden boy of comedy, who’s been responsible for some painfully truthful and funny representations of disability on TV in the past (think The Office and Extras), has listened to the debates by campaigners such as Nicky Clark and many others and has responded with an apology. So what can we learn from Mong-gate?

Excerpt from:
Forget the Ricky Gervais ‘mong’ row, disabled people need action

Could the Paralympics leave a golden legacy for disabled workers?

Mark Glasgow — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:41:45 +0000

Paralympic campaigners and organisers hope the Games will decisively change perceptions of what disabled people can achieve – on the field and in the workplace Bwerani Francis, 18, is midway through a garage mechanic’s course. Nadia Kabir is 19 and wants to be a receptionist

Excerpt from:
Could the Paralympics leave a golden legacy for disabled workers?

Positive action schemes are not perfect – but they are making a difference | Kamilla Baiden

Mark Glasgow — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 11:06:32 +0000

People who think such programmes are unfair need to appreciate the wider picture about minority backgrounds What is diversity? We hear it in the news on a daily basis: in education, the workplace, sport and the media

View original post here:
Positive action schemes are not perfect – but they are making a difference | Kamilla Baiden

The evidence is growing that the cuts are savagely targeting disabled people

Mark Glasgow — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:08:24 +0000

A Papworth Trust survey is the latest to reveal grave concerns at the government’s handling and understanding of disability benefit reforms Earlier this year, Scope conducted a survey showing that of the proposed £90bn cuts, £9bn will fall upon disabled people . This week’s survey results from disability charity the Papworth Trust add to weight to claims that disabled people are the hardest hit

Disabled face increasing hostility from strangers, survey finds

Mark Glasgow — Tue, 17 May 2011 11:16:32 +0000

A disabled protester during last week's London march against cuts to disability services. Photograph: Sarah Lee

Disabled people have faced greater hostility from the public since the government launched its controversial benefits reforms, according to a survey by a leading charity.

A majority said that they experienced hostility, discrimination and even physical attacks from strangers every week and more than a third claimed the position had worsened over the previous 12 months.

Victims blame ministers for portraying all people with disabilities as scroungers as they seek to cut the number of people on disability benefits, including the 2.9 million people in receipt of disability living allowance (DLA) and the 1.9 million people deemed physically unable to work currently given incapacity benefit.

The government has presented changes, including the introduction of medical and psychological tests for those claiming the allowance, as a way of getting tough on people who are cheating the system. But Scope, a charity for disabled people, which commissioned the survey, said there was powerful evidence that the “backdrop of negativity” behind the cuts was leading to a rise in hostility and even violence towards some of the most vulnerable in society.

Excerpt from:
Disabled face increasing hostility from strangers, survey finds