News

The Power of Procurement in Action

14/07/22

With the current economic climate, good news is often in short supply, which is why we're delighted to share this Supported Business success story from Alistair Kerr, the BASE Scotland Chair. It's a fantastic evidenced based example of collaboration between Scottish Government Procurement, Scottish Prison Service Procurement, a Tier1 Construction Company & BASE Scotland Network, that cuts across a number of Scottish Government Policy intents supporting people living with disabilities or who are disadvantaged is some unique way to achieve individual goals and ambitions.

Read more

Welsh employment support services extended

27/04/22

The Out of Work Service and In-Work Support Service, which are helping Welsh people to rebuild their lives, will be extended until 2025.

The Out of Work Service helps the most vulnerable and those "furthest away from the labour market". It is specifically focused on providing long term support to people recovering from mental health or substance misuse issues. The service provides support through a national network of peer mentors – people who have themselves recovered from issues such as mental ill-health or substance misuse. 

Read more

Supported Internship quality framework published

06/04/22

The Supported Internship Quality Framework has been published. It was developed for the Department for Education by the Education and Training Foundation and their centres of excellence. The framework has been developed over the last 6 months and aims to improve the quality of Supported Internships (SIs) provision and outcomes. BASE has fed into discussions and we have asked for a review of the framework in 12 months.

Read more

IPES performance statistics

04/04/22

DWP has published statistics for the Intensive Personalised Employment Support (IPES) programme following a Freedom of Information request from BASE. The statistics have not been publically available until now despite IPES starting delivery in late 2019.

The data shows that there have been a total of 6044 programme starts since December 2019. 1071 lower threshold outcomes have been achieved so far resulting in 787 higher threshold outcomes.

Read more

DfE publishes the SEND Review

29/03/22

The Department for Education (DfE) has today published the SEND review. The Green Paper, SEND Review - right support, right place, right time, launches a consultation that seeks responses by 1st July 2022. BASE will be seeking member views on the SEND Review proposals before submitting a response.

The review has identified 3 key challenges facing the SEND and alternative provision system:

Read more

Guide to London's Supported Internships

01/03/22

The West London Alliance has published its 2022 West London Guide to Supported Internships. It contains the details of 32 supported internships in London and incorporates a map in the centre pages showing their locations.

Over 450 young people with learning disabilities are now undertaking Supported Internship programmes in London every year, with an average employment achievement rate of over 60%.

Read more

Mencap seeks changes to apprenticeship eligibility

07/02/22

Mencap has published a report about supported apprenticeships that argues for changes to the eligibility criteria. Mancap wants a cognitive assessment to replace the current requirement of an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), Statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN) or Learning Difficulty Assessment (LDA).

Mencap surveyed apprenticeship employers and training providers to gauge their views on the minimum standard flexibilities for apprentices with a learning disability or learning difficulty (LDD).

Read more

Levelling Up White Paper published

03/02/22

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) has published the Levelling Up White Paper. The White Paper aims to close the gap between rich and poor areas by 2030 through improving services such as education, broadband and transport. It sets out 12 ambitions covering a variety of themes where inequality is experienced across the country.

Read more

47% of employers say there aren't enough disabled applicants

03/02/22

Global business collective, the Valuable 500, today announces new research showing that almost half of businesses believe that a key barrier to the recruitment and retention of disabled employees is the lack of candidates.

Read more

Scottish Supported Business blog

25/01/22

BASE Scotland Chair, Alistair Kerr, has written a blog for the Scotttish Government's public procurement website about the role of Supported Businesses within Scotland's economy.

 

Read more

Pages