December 5, 2016
Our main priority is to satisfy the funding agreements we have with HSC and CESS and that means achieving our KPIs.
The main KPIs for HSC are to be able to provide an employment service to more disabled people and to secure an increased number of paid job outcomes for our job seekers. Other priorities are to be able to fund more Employment Support Officers (Job Coaches) in order to provide a faster, more comprehensive a service to disabled islanders.
The main priorities for our agreement with CESS is to produce a Good Practice Guide for Guernsey employers and to develop an Employers’ Charter for Guernsey employers. Additionally, we have to develop and deliver presentation/training materials aimed at improving the awareness of employers regarding disability and employment issues.
One of the challenges we have faced was attracting suitable personnel to work with employers and disabled people. The absence of any disability legislation has also probably hampered the development of these activities as there is no added pressure on employers to fully engage with good practice and reasonable adjustments. That said, many employers have shown enthusiasm to be involved and our challenge is to provide useful services and guidance to those employers.
The signs are good; we have attracted considerably more disabled job seekers than the previous Interwork service. More importantly, we have supported almost 50 disabled people into paid jobs during 2016 (as at mid-October 2016) which is a 300% increase than in previous years when the service was run by HSSD.
Michael J Evans
Chief Executive
Guernsey Employment Trust