Evidence from ASDA to committee on the transition from education to employment for young disabled people

Public Services Committee

Asda Plc – Written evidence (YDP0078)

What incentives are there for business to engage in supported employment schemes like supported internships? Is there a commercial benefit? Are there disincentives, and how might they be addressed? 

DFN response

There are no financial incentives for businesses to engage in supported internships, but they do get the opportunity to support and train young people who want to work and who can learn the job over the course of an academic year so that upon graduation that employer may well have a fully trained, high performing employee in waiting. They also do not pay the interns during the programme year as a supported internship is a full time course of study and so technically the interns are still at college but have been ‘transplanted ‘ into the workforce so that they can learn skills in context.

The young people also have the support of a teacher and job coach who not only supports the young person but also the business to ensure that the training is effective and broken down into tasks that can be learned systematically. There is no doubt that the young people are a benefit to the workforce both in terms of providing mentors the opportunity to hone supervisory skills, teaching people skills relevant to roles where an employer has vacancies, their different ways of thinking, working and reflecting on the workplace bring a richness and diversity and they undoubtedly do add to capacity as they learn and the training fades and their competence grows.

The only disincentive that employers fear is that it takes time to train people, however the availability of job coaches and teachers is key and if any young person needs a significant amount of support to learn then the job coach will fulfil that need.

Asda response

For us, our stores are in the heart of communities and its important that we do our duty and support those communities by providing opportunities to those who would otherwise struggle to find employment. The way the partnership is ran by DFN allows us to bring interns into our business, and know we have the support of the job coach and teacher at all times whilst the interns are on site, lessening the load on our own teams to run the training. The coach and tutor are there every step of the way and that is so vital because anyone involved in this project wants the interns to have a fantastic experience and without the job coach and tutor, store teams wouldn't have the necessary skills and expertise to deliver this. Within our Queensferry store the positive impact the interns have made across the whole store – colleagues and customers is amazing. It does take commitment by the store to make this work, there is a significant time investment and so having the right GSM in place, who understands the programme and is an advocate for it, is critical to its success.  

What skills and training did Asda provide to interns during their internships? How might these skills enable interns to access work after their internship? 

DFN response

The interns are learning all the skills connected to working in store. They have worked in all the departments and learned the full gambit of skills necessary. They would be able to fulfil a retail position in any type of retail store both inside and outside of Asda given the breadth of departments in an Asda superstore. 

Asda response

In fact, two of the interns in our Queensferry store have just been offered permanent roles with us. 

What data have you collected regarding the impact of the internship on your staff and the store? 

DFN response

Nothing yet given it is just the pilot year but anecdotally the feedback from the manager and staff has been excellent.

What were the challenges to introducing a supported internship scheme? How were these addressed? (answers could include but are not limited to: attitudinal and skill issues with staff, putting appropriate adjustments in place for interns)

DFN response

There was a need to ensure that the manager and the staff were supportive of the programme and so a programme of training was put in place for the manager alongside all the other partners involved in the programme from the college. The manager briefed her staff about the programme, and it was warmly welcomed by the team. Training on disability awareness was offered to all staff.

What challenges do you foresee in rolling out supported internships to other Asda stores? How will you address these? 

DFN response

The commitment of the store managers is critical and so the roll out has been based on providing briefings to managers, hearing from the pilot manager and providing them with information about what is expected of them and their staff. They were then able to put the store forward if they thought that the programme would work well for them and the timing was right. That way the development is coming from people who have bought into the programme and its ambitions and aims.

Asda response

Its critical to identify the right leaders from the outset when looking at new stores and then making sure they are fully aware and briefed about what the partnership entails before they commit. People can be nervous because they worry about the commitment they'll be making and whether they have the skills/knowledge to support the interns and give them a great experience. We've spent a lot of time explaining the programme, going through how stores are supported and the fact that each store has a dedicated Programme Specialist to support them through the whole process is a huge advantage and goes a long way to relieving those worries. 

What was your experience of accessing relevant government guidance and advice regarding supporting young disabled people in the workplace? How did engagement with local government and with national government schemes (e.g. Disability Confident) work, if you engaged with them? 

DFN response

DFN Project SEARCH works as part of a consortium delivering a DfE commission designed to double the number of supported internships in England. At a strategic level you can therefore see that the government is committed to supported internships as an evidence-based way of enabling young people with SEND to access paid employment. 

Each individual programme in England and Scotland is developed in partnership with local authorities, FE colleges and supported employment providers. Each programme has its own steering group that includes senior representatives from these areas. The local store manager will be on the steering group and so can make and develop appropriate connections through that group.  In Wales, the programmes connect just with the FE colleges as the funding is different.

What kind of support would be helpful to companies looking to employ young disabled people? 

DFN response

In the case of young adults with a learning disability and young autistic adults, upon gaining employment they do not lose their disability and so from time to time they may need ongoing support. The provision of such support is inadequate as whilst the DWP's access to work programme should cover the cost of any ongoing job coaching that they might need from time to time there is often no job coach provision to tap into. Many local authorities over the years have ceased to offer adult supported employment support to meet the need for reductions in spending. 

Have Asda received any support from other businesses regarding the scheme, and would Asda consider providing support to other businesses looking to introduce a Supported Internship programme? 

DFN response

We encourage each of our programmes to set up business advisory groups. It will not be possible for Asda to employ every graduate and indeed some interns might like to work for a different business, maybe a local shop would be more attractive to them and so for that reason we need to connect with other employers. It would be great to see Asda managers taking a lead on hosting and developing those groups to benefit the community that they work in. 

Asda will also undoubtedly have other businesses who would like to visit their programme sites to learn from them and consider whether they too would like to host a programme. 

Asda response

We would be open to supporting other businesses.