VIAS News

AUGUST 2008

DATES for your DIARY

The first VIAS A.G.M. will be on Wednesday 10th September at 6pm at Adelaide’s - a venue in Glasgow.

More Jobs- HOW Conference October 30th 2008 in the Scottish Youth Theatre in Glasgow.

We are busy planning the follow up Conference to our More Jobs NOW conference.

We have already confirmed workshops on

• What works – securing more money by working (Jen Dolan); working full time (North Lanarkshire)
• sharing good practice – making videos (Foxy Films) creative story telling (lipSync) and research (UCLAN and Advocating Together) on what works and why work is important,

We are working with Workforce Plus to let everyone contribute their ideas and opinions to the national agenda on work and have many other exciting ideas.

A link to the booking form is here.

Or email Julia at info@viascotland.org.uk

Talking about what work means to me

We want to collect peoples’ stories about getting work – how they did it and what it means to them. We want anyone who wants to share their story to get in touch with VIAS.
We also want anyone who has a DVD that tells their story about work or who knows of DVDs that tell other peoples’ stories to let us know; so that we can watch them and maybe get a copy. We plan to work with Annette Allison of LypSync to gather more stories. Let us know if you’d like to do this.

Life Changing Work

We are starting a pilot research project, to test the idea that working more than 16 hours a week can change your life. With the support of Advocating Together (Dundee) and North Lanarkshire, Julie Ridley (University of North Lancashire), Julia Cowie and Susan Hunter (Edinburgh University), Fiona Wallace and Keith Lynch will be interviewing a small sample of 6 people who have experience of working full time. We want to see if we can identify what is important about working full time (over 16 hours work a week) Does it offer more than working a few hours –if so what.

JULY 2008

Is 16 Hours a week – the Gold Standard?

VIAS is actively involved in discussions about whether 16 hours a week (or more) paid work is the ‘gold standard’ in employment that we should be aiming for. 16 hours is seen to be unrealistic as an expectation for people with very complex needs, but 2 – 4 hours a week can result in very low expectations and often turns into an end in itself. Such jobs fit nicely with the £20 earnings disregard, but do not bring the wide benefits of working at least 16 hours They often mean that people get given unrewarding work – in the back room of the charity shop, in simple repetitive office tasks, in trolley shifting – which make them say that they don’t want to work, or to work more hours.

VIAS is not saying that anything below 16 hours paid work is of no value. We are saying that we need to see work as the norm for people of working age, not a small fill-in for part of the week. If we are saying ‘the same as you’, how can we square this with ‘Well it’s OK to live your life on benefits’, when we do not believe this to be right for the majority? Agreed, the benefits trap seems to make getting real jobs a huge problem, but should that stop us ? We need to use 16 hours paid work as the goal, to challenge our assumptions and try and work out the way to move everyone on. It is not helpful that some agencies will not support people who do not think they want to work full-time: there is scope for individuals to have different pathways to 16 hours, and fewer hours may be a clear step on the journey. People with learning difficulties should be able to access mainstream employment services if we expect them to work.

I would even argue that to say ‘well, she’s happy with 4 hours and doesn’t want more’ is a cop-out. When we closed long-stay hospitals, did we do it by saying ‘people are settled here; they’re safe here; they don’t want to move’, or did we say ‘this is wrong; we need to support people to experience a fuller life in the community?’ Are people asking to go back? I haven’t met them.

I remain moved by a story John O’Brien told when he was talking to people at Birkwood long-stay hospital. He spoke of a man with very little movement. His circle of people who knew him well got together to help decide what he might do on leaving school. They though about what he was good at, and someone said ‘well, he’s really good at sitting still’. So they looked for work for him as a life model, where this is a really useful skill. Then someone noticed that he had very beautiful hands, and he got work as a ‘hand model. It makes me remember that we must value what individuals can offer, not fit them in to what has been done before, but challenge ourselves to do better.

Julia Cowie

JUNE 2008

More Jobs Now Conference 2008 - Evaluation.

Lots of people have taken time to tell us what they thought about our Jobs Conference – People First groups, Social Work, Inclusion Glasgow and Partners for Inclusion, Threshold, Careers Scotland and One Parent Families. THANK YOU.

Nearly everyone enjoyed the conference –

“interesting, thought provoking, useful”

“a chance to share experiences network and hear what’s happening”

“made me think”

“inspirational, keynote excellent”

“a good range of workshops”
“made me think it was possible to get a paid job”

A few people found Steve Parr’s and VIAS’s position – aiming for full time work (16 hours or more) as the norm – difficult. Some supporters for people who are taking their first steps into the world of employment and the people they support found the conference “offensive, hurtful and devastating”; because these first steps can seem huge and this should be better recognized.

However most people would like to come to our next conference and would like:

“more Scottish input, real people talking about their work, young people and employers to come, discussion on college courses, self employment, wages and benefits - the how in detail”
 

News updated by Paul Cargill