Inclusive Offer toolkit

Supporting everyone

We believe that everyone should be able to benefit from being in work. This includes:

  • care leavers
  • adults and young people with learning difficulties or disabilities
  • young people who have been through the Youth Justice System

Find out how you can support these groups by browsing our resources.

Supporting care experienced young people

Care experienced – what does it mean?

A care leaver is a young person aged 16-25 who is (or has spent time in the past) in either foster or residential care. They are likely to be preparing to leave as they progress to adulthood. Most young people prefer the term ‘care experienced’. You may also hear phrases such as children in care (CiC) or LAC (looked after child).

A young person who is care experienced may require more support in the workplace. They often don’t have the family support structure or may not have had a nurturing environment when they were growing up. Care experienced young people often:

  • Are more likely to experience poverty. They are also more likely to be homeless and unemployed.
  • Report feelings of loneliness or having no-one to turn to if something goes wrong.
  • Don’t always feel fully equipped to live and work in the ‘adult world’.
  • Want support to develop skills personally and professionally.
  • Have low self-esteem, resilience or poor mental health.

How to support them

  • Show respect and understanding
  • Be non-judgemental
  • Respond to issues in a personal way
  • Show that you are committed
  • Don’t give up

Care experienced young people should be provided with additional support when entering the world of work. It’s a good idea to start by learning about who is involved in their lives that is on hand to offer support.

  • Care experienced young people will have a social worker. These are usually from the Future Directions team. They will work with young people to make sure they are prepared for adult life. Find out more about Barnsley’s Future Directions team on our local offer for care leavers.
  • Depending on their living arrangements, they may have foster family or wider family members. These are people who they trust and are happy for you to liaise with if needed.
  • Any care experienced young people working at Barnsley Council can have access to the Lead Pastoral Mentor from the Employment and Skills service. Contact InclusiveOffer@barnsley.gov.uk to get in touch and discuss this further.

All young people will benefit from mentoring. Visit our coaching and mentoring section under managing development to find out more. Mentoring can help care experienced young people to feel like they have someone to turn to if approaching their manager feels too formal/scary!

Care experienced young people may join you at a time in their lives where lots is changing. They may be leaving their current foster/residential home due to their age and moving into independent living accommodation for example. Big changes can have a negative impact on young people and raise feelings of trauma. It’s a time where they’ll need additional support and lots of compassion. You'll benefit from accessing the ‘Trauma Informed Practice for the Workforce Post-16' training to develop your understanding and learn about trauma-informed approaches.

Some young people may approach you about personal issues they are facing outside of work. If this happens, take a look at our supporting personal development section which is full of advice and resources that you can use. If you don’t feel that you can provide the right amount of support or expertise, signpost and connect your employee with someone who can. This may be their social worker or an advice service. It might not be easy for them to reach out to multiple people. The more you can assist them with this, the better. Even if it’s a case of helping them complete a form or making first contact with other services together.  

Care experienced young people can feel that they have a lack of control over their lives. If they can be actively involved in making decisions, this can empower them. If you can, giving them projects or specific tasks that they are in charge of can give them a real sense of ownership. This will help them to develop their self-esteem and will also build trust between you.

What does a manager need to be for a care experienced young person?

It’s really important that anyone working with someone who is care experienced really understands the cohort. Do your research, speak with supporting professionals, and most importantly ask the individual about what they need.

Have empathy – these young people have often been through a lot, and this can have an impact on their working lives. For example, they may be late which can be frustrating, but there may be a lot happening at home. By being patient and consistent you can help to minimise that impact.

Use positive regard – the idea that you will treat someone positively and with compassion regardless of what they do. There was a study done by McHenry in 2018. This showed how athletes who had positive regard from their coaches were more motivated, confident and able to take on new challenges than others. One way we can use positive regard when working with young people is to use the PACE model as part of your conversations:  

  • Playfulness – this is the lighter side of life, something we all need! It can diffuse a difficult or tense situation and give hope. However, it is not making fun of someone. It can be hard for those with adverse child experiences to understand some banter and sarcasm so avoid this.

  • Acceptance – is unconditional positive regard. You are accepting thoughts, feelings, and perceptions without judgement. You may not agree but accepting their experience is what is important. It doesn’t mean accepting inappropriate behaviours but accepting the motives behind it. ‘It must be hard if you feel I’m always getting on at you’

  • Curiosity – shows you don’t know best, but that you genuinely want to understand so you can help and get the best out of someone. It can pull them out of a fear or anger state into a place where new possibilities can arise. ‘tell me about what gets in the way of you getting here on time’

  • Empathy – Empathy is about putting yourself in someone else's shoes and allowing yourself to feel what they must be feeling. It gives us a sense of compassion for the person and their feelings. It communicates understanding and creates safety. ‘You look worried, I’m guessing you’re afraid of doing it wrong’.

Our top tips:

  • Wherever possible, use an informal approach. Relaxed chats, without jargon and with simple and accessible language is helpful in building rapport.
  • Work with social workers/families to ensure the young person has good strategies in place at the beginning of their working life. Do they need transport help, do they have the right uniform to wear, do they know what their responsibilities are?
  • Use a buddy to ‘touch base’ with the young person each morning, e.g. “How has your morning been?”, “Is there anything you want to discuss before we start work today?” These can help young people make the transition from home life to work life each day. This is useful when they may have come from a turbulent or difficult situation, or if they are living independently. Especially if you're the first person they’ve talked to that morning.
  • Providing a safe space - figuratively and literally. You want them to feel that work is safe place, where they will be respected and heard. You can do this by using positive regard and continually offering support. You might also want to offer them a physical safe space. This may be your office or somewhere they can go if they need some time to process.

Further resources:

Supporting young people with SEND

You may have heard of the word neurodiversity before. The dictionary definition of it is “the range or differences in individual brain function and behavioural traits. It's regarded as part of normal variation in the human population.” We all think and experience the world in different ways. This can mean different interests, strengths and needs.

Neurodivergence can vary from individual to individual. It's therefore vitally important that you don't stereotype. If an employee tells you that they're neurodivergent, the best thing you can do is learn. Ask them about their strengths and needs and how you can best support them. What works for one person may not work for another.

Here are some strengths of people who fall within this group:

  • Attention to detail
  • Artistic skills
  • Conscientious and diligent
  • Mathematical abilities
  • Analysing information
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Good memory

Here are some common needs:

  • Sensitive to lights, sounds, textures
  • Difficulty in reading or writing text or numbers
  • Social difficulties

Explore the different areas of this section to find out more about how you can support your colleagues.

Further resources

Confused about disability-related terms? Find simple definitions from the Business Disability Forum.

For any further SEND training enquiries please email sendimprovementservice@barnsley.gov.uk.

Accessibility guidance and support

Some employees with special educational needs and/or disabilities may require reasonable adjustments. These are changes we can make that will help them to do their job. This may be a change in equipment or the way you converse with them. This is the case if the employees disability puts them at a disadvantage compared to others who are not disabled. Adjustments can include:

  • Changing lighting or the layout of a workspace.
  • Ensuring they can access workspaces.
  • Following up verbal instructions with written form.

The aim is to give all employees an equal advantage at work. These changes can be made in agreement with HR. Occupational health specialists can help you to make the right decisions with regards to what adjustments can be put in place.

If you are a Barnsley Council employee you can find more about accessibility guidance and support here.

Further reading

Working with young adults with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC or also known as Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD)

Induction:

  • It’s important for some people with autism to have a planned and supported transition into work. This will allow them to feel happier in the new space. You could do this by planning an onsite visit. This will give them the chance to meet staff in advance of their first day.
  • Provide a programme of work which will give structure and aid settling in. See our example work plan template.
  • Discuss their support needs up-front. This will help them do more on their own.
  • Set out what you expect of them clearly. Find out what they expect of the work too.

On the job:

  • The best way to work with young adults with autism is all about the individual. There is no one approach as we're all different.
  • Set out what you expect of them and structured daily/weekly/monthly tasks. When structure is important, explain change as much in advance as possible.
  • When planning tasks, expand on ones they are good at, whilst slowly adding different types of tasks.
  • Remember that having autism does not equal having a learning disability. Your employee may however benefit from the following support when learning new tasks:
    • Using short, simple commands.
    • Using their name before giving an instruction.
    • Going back over things that were covered during onboarding.
    • Avoiding certain phrases, for example ‘the cat is out of the bag’.
    • Asking follow-up questions or asking them to repeat instructions to check they understand.
  • Consider sensory stimuli, such as lighting and noise. Think about things you can do to help make this better.
  • Be patient and explain boundaries.
  • Consider giving them a buddy in the team.
  • Problem solve if they are anxious. For example, ‘if you are late because of a bus it’s no problem. To solve that you just need to text me to let me know’. Or ‘if the copier doesn’t work on our floor, you could try another floor upstairs’.

Further learning

If you're not a Barnsley Council employee you'll need to request access to POD to be able to view those eLearning courses. To get access, email POD@barnsley.gov.uk and they will be able to set you up.

Learning difficulties and disabilities

Around 20% of people in the UK are thought to have some form of learning disability or difficulty.

A learning difficulty refers to a diagnosis such as dyslexia, dyspraxia or dyscalculia. These conditions don't affect someone’s mental ability. but it may create an obstacle to a specific form of learning. For example, a person with dyslexia may have issues reading text in small fonts or on white paper.

A learning disability refers to a diagnosis which does affect someone’s mental ability across all areas of life. Sometimes people can have a Mild Learning Disability (MLD) or a Profound Learning Disability (PLD). Some people can have other specific conditions such as Down’s syndrome or autism too.

Having a learning difficulty or disability doesn’t mean that young people can’t learn and be employed. It just means they may need some extra support.

There are many benefits to employing someone with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. This includes high levels of commitment, low absences, creative thinking and highly developed morals.

Remember that not all employees may share that they have a learning disability or difficulty. For this reason, you can complete our hidden impairments eLearning.

For more about how to support employees with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, complete our learning disability awareness eLearning.

If you're not a Barnsley Council employee you'll need to request access to POD to be able to view these eLearning courses. To get access, email POD@barnsley.gov.uk and they will be able to set you up.

If you want to discuss how to support a young person’s learning difficulty or disability further, please contact us online.

Further reading

Supporting young people who have been through the Youth Justice System

Youth Justice Services work with young people and their parents/carers when a young person is involved in the criminal justice system.

We strongly believe that young people who have been involved in the criminal justice system deserve opportunities to learn and thrive in the workplace. We asked the Youth Justice Service:

What do we need to know about your young people?

  • Once relationships are built, they are trusting and open, but it can take more persistence in making those relationships in the first instance.
  • They often have low self-worth.
  • They can find success intimidating.
  • Rejection sensitivity – they can be used to rejection based on the stereotypes that surround them
  • They have not had a lot of power or control in their lives previously.
  • They are sometimes not used to a lot of praise.
  • Usually, they have had poor educational experiences.
  • They have adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

ACEs that contribute to young people offending include:

  • Poor educational experiences
  • Difficult home lives, including being care experienced
  • Poverty and inequality, including high unemployment
  • Undiagnosed SEND (Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities) such as ADHD or Autism
  • Poor mental health
  • Childhood abuse and/or exploitation
  • Drug and alcohol misuse

Despite their past experiences, these young people also have lots of strengths, including being really engaged with employers and wanting to learn and earn.  Young people who have experienced the youth justice system are resilient and open to support. They often have a great sense of humour too!

What do these young people need?

  • They need to be treated as a blank canvas. Meet them as a human being first for an informal brew & chat before being given a piece of paper about their previous offences
  • They need a kind, nurturing, non-judgemental environment
  • They require perseverance and patience
  • Treat them fairly - i.e., not punishing an adult for an offence they did as a child
  • Use consistency in terms of approach and messages. Any changes need to be taken slowly. For example, a change in mentor should be discussed well in advance, with a crossover between mentors so relationships can be built
  • Be honest and transparent, with clear and consistent boundaries
  • If something is going wrong, consider the approach of how they are challenged. Problem solve with them rather than dictate to them.

Further resources

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