New Report on Barriers to Employment
We have produced a new report that looks at the barriers and solutions to people with learning disabilities and autistic people working in health and social care.
How we approached the project on Barriers to Employment
- It was important to us that this work was led by experts by experience
- We had a steering group of 5 adults with a learning disability or autism
- We ran 5 workshops attended by 65 people with a learning disability or autism
- We interviewed 4 professionals who work in employment support for adults with learning disability or autism

We came up with three key barriers to people with learning disabilities and autistic people working in health and social care. :
Barrier 1 – Benefits and the job centre.
There was quite a lot of negative discussion around benefits and the help available from job centres.
Barrier 2 – The recruitment process.
This was highlighted many times, both by disabled people and by professionals working in the field of employment support. It covers all areas of recruitment from where and how jobs are first advertised to the application process, the interview stage and beyond. It was repeatedly pointed out that an online only, non-flexible approach to recruitment was a barrier.
Barrier 3 – Society and employer attitudes
This was also another theme that came up often. It covers both attitudes in wider society and employer attitudes to having people with learning disabilities and/or autism in the workplace. It includes discrimination, fears about what it would be like to recruit someone and the need to make reasonable adjustments. It also covers what people with learning disabilities feel is a general lack of opportunity in employment.
We also identified three solutions to help more people with learning disabilities and autistic people work in health and social care.
Solution 1 – Change recruitment processes
There is an obvious answer to barrier 2, which is to change the recruitment process to be more flexible and accessible. This is something that supported employment agencies can help with. However, we feel from our research that a cultural change is required at leadership level that enables greater freedom in relation to processes.
Solution 2 – Employer awareness training
We believe that the best way to change attitudes towards neuro diverse people is to have them working in health and social care, so people experience them as colleagues, rather than patients through a ‘medical’ view. However awareness training can also go some way towards changing
attitudes and training led by experts by experience will help. There was a call for more of this type of training as a solution to barrier 3.
Solution 3 – Use supported employment
This was the most popular solution by far. Disabled people really feel that having support to get into work is essential and many people had good experiences of supported employment. Some people did say that it does very much depend on the particular job coach and how well they are able to support the process.
How the wider project on Barriers to Employment worked
We were part of a co-production project with 6 other community groups. We were asked to look at how the NHS and social care could have more representation of certain groups in the workforce. These groups were:
- neurodivergent people (people with learning disabilities and autistic people)
- people with caring responsibilities (including young carers)
- people from Black, Caribbean, or African heritage
- migrants, refugees and asylum seekers
- deaf and hard of hearing individuals
The work was funded by Health Education England (HEE) and was coordinated by the South East London Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Strategic Alliance and the South East London Integrated Care Board.
Each community group was given funding to do the research in a way that worked best for the community they were working with. The groups involved were:
- Lewisham Speaking Up
- Policy Centre for African Peoples
- Bromley Mencap
- deafPLUS
- Bexley Deaf Centre
- Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network
- LOVO (Ladies of Virtue)
A final executive summary of all of the groups findings was produced and was presented to senior health and social care managers in September 2024. We will meet again in a year’s time to see what progress has been made in widening the participation of under represented groups in the health and social care workforce.
A great example of true co-production
We believe this project was a great example of true and effective co-production. Each group was given funding to carry out the project in a way that suited them. The funding also helped each group to thrive and was an incentive to get involved. The end result was a real, honest reflection of people’s lived experience, captured in a way that the NHS probably couldn’t do by itself. Trusting and investing in organisations that were expert in their fields and connected to their communities has delivered what we think is real insight.