Yesterday Sarah, Luke, Abbi, Jamie and Ross spoke to UK House of Lords as part of an important Select Committee inquiry.

Last week our Chief Executive, Heather Hall, also gave evidence to the Public Services Committee in the House of Lords as part of their enquiry into The Transition from Education to Employment for Young Disabled People.

Even more importantly, the Committee heard directly from Young People at The Usual Place in an online meeting between Dumfries and London. The Committee will now reflect on what young people have told them about their own lived experience and what Government can do to make employment easier for disabled young people.

This is such an important discussion and it’s very welcome that the Committee has listened to people with lived experience. The transition from education to employment is massively important in the lives of disabled young people and their wider families, but also to the wider community and to creating a diverse workforce and empowering individuals and improving services to support positive outcomes for everyone.

The committee members asked young people to tell them whether their education helped to prepare them for work, about their experiences of looking for work and when starting in a job. They also wanted to now about the kind of support that should be put in place while working, how easy it is to get advice and information about support in the workplace and what the Government should do to make things better.

Some of the things that were said:

“My confidence has grown since I started working here.”

“You are a great bunch of young people. You have achieved a lot in your young lives.”

“I get a tonne of support from people in the Usual Place”

“I was fortunate my first experience was the Usual Place. It was the best place to have that.”

“At first I was a nightmare on the till now I am a natural on the till!”

“Started me off small as a trainee before I got my job. It helped me communicate better with people being on the till. “

“You always have a mentor with you all the time. If it got too much they could step in and help you. “

“It sounds like the Usual Place played a very important part in you getting and keeping a job”

“Process of access to work and how awful I felt, waiting 15 weeks and only had 3 days to finish it. “

The Committee will use all the information to help form a report which will make recommendations to Government. The summary note will be published as part of that report.

The Government then has two months to respond to the report, and tell the Committee what actions it will take. After that, there will be a debate in the House of Lords, where Members will consider the report and the Government’s response.

Massive congratulations to Sarah, Luke, Abbie, Jamie, Ross and Heather – it’s not every day you get to have your voice heard at this level and many people would not find it easy to do. You all spoke with confidence, honesty and integrity.

If you missed Heather’s evidence, which was filmed, you can watch it all here:

https://parliamentlive.tv/…/2e0ebd16-8984-4a25-a4e2…