A Social Report for Ireland Volume II - the NESC Website

people with disabilities 273The OECD has identified as key challenges for Ireland the low rate of employment forpeople with a disability and the lack of co-operation of the various employment policyinstitutions. For example, despite policy responsibility for vocational training of peoplewith a disability transferring to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employmentand other training and employment supports to FÁS, responsibility for rehabilitativetraining and sheltered workshops remains with the Department of Health and Children.Many other structures remain unchanged, for example, the system of specialist trainingsupport through private non-profit providers, who receive funding from FÁS.Indecon (2007) has carried out a review of the efficiency and effectiveness of vocationaltraining services and rehabilitative training services for people with disabilities providedby specialist training organisations. They reported that there are 57 separate agenciesproviding rehabilitative training and 38 providing vocational training. 192 People withmental health and intellectual disabilities are the two major disability groups servedby the rehabilitation training provided, while ‘depressive disorder’ and ‘physical medicaldisability’ are the major disability groups in vocational training. The main conclusions ofthe review were the importance of training schemes having links to other activities, suchas job search and job coaching, the creation of individualised training packages, and theneed for evaluation and feedback from people with disabilities themselves. Feedbackin the Indecon study indicated that training was effective in terms of outcomes, healthand social gain, training delivery / standards and certification, but that funding and theavailability of places was inadequate.The OECD criticised the sheltered employment scheme in Ireland for its lack of ambitionin relation to progression, potentially to the open labour market, and noted that thelegal status of workers in sheltered employment in Ireland remains a controversialissue as there is no guarantee of a minimum wage, a legal contract of employment oremployment protection (OECD, 2008b: 125). At a more general level, the OECD has calledfor greater streamlining of services in Ireland, with greater flexibility and considerationof more part-time options. The need to work with, and support, employers is alsoacknowledged. The role of employers was also recognised in the Goodbody (2008)review of the wage subsidy scheme, along with the importance of the medical card topeople with disabilities.In a study of chronic illness, acquired disability and employment, WRC Social andEconomic Consultants (2008) found that there is a need to support both employmentretention and employment reintegration. 193 The longer a person is absent from work theless likely they are to retain their employment or reintegrate back into employment.For this reason early intervention is advocated as is the need to identify the particularneeds of the population of Illness Benefit recipients (the focus of the study) so as to beable to ‘better tailor responses to their particular and individual needs’ along the linesproposed in the developmental welfare state and in the National Disability Strategy(WRC Social and Economic Consultants, 2008: xxii). It is recognised that the retentionand reintegration of people in receipt of long term Illness Benefit will be even morechallenging in the current economic and employment context.192. Rehabilitative Training focuses on the enhancement of an individual’s core functional skills, life skills and social skills.The level of outcome from Rehabilitative Training is not predetermined but is dependent on the developmental capacity of each individual.Vocational Training focuses on the attainment of a predetermined level of competence in a specific employable skill (Indecon, 2007: ii).193. The processes involved in assisting an employee who is absent from work due to the onset of chronic illness or acquired disability (CIAD) toreturn to work in his/her job or to another job with his/her employer is referred to as employee retention. The process involved in assistinga person with a CIAD who has lost their former employment to take up employment with an employer other than their former employer isreferred to as employment reintegration (WRC Social and Economic Consultants, 2008: viii).