Question: I hear you are hosting an employment summit in London on May 15, can you tell me how the summit came about?
Su Sayer:The summit focuses on employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities, and supported employment in particular.
We've been concerned for a while about the very low numbers of people with learning disabilities who have a job - only around one-in-ten - even though many more would like the chance to work.
Our experience suggests that employers often have quite low awareness of the potential contribution that people with a learning disability can make to their businesses.
There's an assumption that people are going to be less effective than other employees, and that somehow giving people a job is an act of charity. Employers we work with are often surprised what good workers people with learning disabilities often turn out to be.
We wanted to bring together employers, policymakers and people with an experience of working with learning disabled people to challenge some of the myths.
Question: What is supported employment and why is it important?
Su Sayer:Supported employment means a real job with a mainstream employer, with a disabled person working alongside non-disabled colleagues, and getting support from a job trainer. It can be a very effective means of helping people with even quite severe learning disabilities find work.
We work with each person to find out what they want to do and where their skills and interests lie. We use this to create a vocational profile and then match the profile with what employers want.
Our job coaches provide training and support for the employee, their colleagues and for the employer. We also provide ongoing support, so that if someone experiences a problem after they have been in their job for a while, we help them and their employer resolve it.
Question: What role can employers play in ensuring equal opportunities for people with learning disabilities?
Su Sayer:They need to think creatively about their recruitment procedures. People with learning disabilities don't always do particularly well in traditional job interviews, but a job trial can often give them the opportunity to show off their skills.
Employers also need to think about the kind of reasonable adjustments that people might need - this might be giving them a bit longer than other employees to learn new tasks, or it might mean exempting them from certain tasks that they might find especially difficult.
One of the employers we work with, for example, exempts his learning disabled employee from using the saw mill at work - but other staff are also exempted, for example, if they have a bad back.
Question: Should the government be doing more to support people with learning disabilities to find work?
Su Sayer:There's an underlying assumption that people with learning disabilities don't have much to contribute economically. This is an image that we all need to work together to change. Supported employment can help to do this. We would like to see an expansion of current provision in this area so more people who want to work can have the opportunity to do so.
Question: Phil Hope, minister for the third sector is speaking at the summit. Why is it important for you to have his involvement in the event?
Su Sayer:The minister's role is to raise issues affecting the third sector across government and this is very important as many supported employment providers are small third sector organisations.
In his role within the Cabinet Office, the minister also has responsibilities in relation to social exclusion. People with learning disabilities are one of most socially excluded groups in society and we're pleased to see that the social exclusion task force has been set the important goal of getting more people with learning disabilities into work.
We're also pleased that Naomi Eisenstadt, director of the task force, will be attending our event and participating in the question and answer session.
Question: Who else will be speaking at the summit?
Su Sayer:We've got some very influential speakers and delegates coming. As well as Phil Hope and Naomi Eisenstadt, we also have Susan Scott-Parker, the chief executive of the Employers Forum on Disability, and Huw Davies who is chair of the British Association of Supported Employment. United Response's president, the broadcaster Martyn Lewis will be leading the day's discussions.
Employers and policymakers across the private, public and third sector will be attending, along with people who have been supported into employment.
Question: What do you hope to achieve from the summit? Who can attend and how can people register for the event?
Su Sayer:We are hoping that the summit will give employers, policymakers and organisations representing people with learning disabilities the opportunity to share and learn from each others experiences and to work together to create more employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities. This is a free of charge event and anyone wishing to register or find out more should go to our website
www.unitedresponse.org.uk