Australia’s Disability Employment Services Program: Participant Perspectives on Factors Influencing Access to Work

Abstract

Disability employment programs play a key role in supporting people with disability to overcome barriers to finding and maintaining work. Despite significant investment, ongoing reforms to Australia’s Disability Employment Services (DES) are yet to lead to improved outcomes. This paper presents findings from the Improving Disability Employment Study (IDES): a two-wave survey of 197 DES participants that aims to understand their perspectives on factors that influence access to paid work. Analysis of employment status by type of barrier indicates many respondents experience multiple barriers across vocational (lack of qualifications), non-vocational (inaccessible transport) and structural (limited availability of jobs, insufficient resourcing) domains. The odds of gaining work decreased as the number of barriers across all domains increased with each unit of barrier reported (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.07, 1.38). Unemployed respondents wanted more support from employment programs to navigate the welfare system and suggest suitable work, whereas employed respondents wanted support to maintain work, indicating the need to better tailor service provision according to the needs of job-seekers. Combined with our findings from the participant perspective, improving understanding of these relationships through in-depth analysis and reporting of DES program data would provide better evidence to support current DES reform and improve models of service delivery.

The Efficacy of Disability Employment Service (DES) Providers Working with Autistic Clients

“…First, given the high unemployment rate among autistic individuals in this study (52%), participants may have been more likely to rate DES providers negatively. This finding is similar to (Devine et al, 2021 ) who reported that unemployed individuals experienced more employment barriers and wished for more vocational provider support. Notwithstanding this, approximately 25% of all data were collected during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic which may also have impacted reported employment rates and subsequent ratings of DES providers.…”

“…Perhaps supporting this finding is that many of the autistic jobseekers in this research had achieved post-secondary qualifications. The lack of such qualifications is typically a barrier to employment (Ohl et al, 2017), so too for people with other disability types (Devine et al, 2021). Yet, most autistic people in this study had not been assisted into employment by a DES provider despite the majority having obtained further education.…”

Individual placement and support: A qualitative investigation of carers' experiences supporting someone experiencing mental illness into employment

“…The inclusion of social support in mental health delivery is important in achieving favourable outcomes, with family and friends often providing broader connections for the person (Coffey et al, 2019), and specifically, key support in the employment process (Fossey & Harvey, 2010). In the Australian context, Devine et al (2021) conducted a survey with Disability Employment Service (DES) participants to explore their perceptions of factors impacting on access to employment. Importantly, participants reported that they were more likely to gain employment via connections with family and friends than with assistance from their employment service, with lack of family help experienced as a barrier to finding and maintaining employment (Devine et al, 2021).…”

“…In the Australian context, Devine et al (2021) conducted a survey with Disability Employment Service (DES) participants to explore their perceptions of factors impacting on access to employment. Importantly, participants reported that they were more likely to gain employment via connections with family and friends than with assistance from their employment service, with lack of family help experienced as a barrier to finding and maintaining employment (Devine et al, 2021). Furthermore, a recent RCT of an IPS program found that social and emotional support were key predictors of employment at the 18‐month follow‐up (Fyhn et al, 2021).…”

What Does It Take to Get Somebody Back to Work after Severe Acquired Brain Injury? Service Actions within the Vocational Intervention Program (VIP 2.0)

“…First, providers appointed to partnerships included both government and insurance-funded service providers, with some differences between the two service models. The Australian Government Disability Employment Service (DES) program funds generalist disability providers to provide employment services for people with disability [ 29 ]. DES providers rarely employ allied health professionals to undertake assessments and guide vocational goal setting.…”