Disabled people face a range of barriers to accessing and retaining work and volunteering opportunities, including inaccessible recruitment processes, lack of practical support, lack of understanding, prejudice and discrimination.
In Glasgow, only 45% of disabled people aged 16-65 are in work, compared to 67% of our non-disabled peers. Alongside our 1-to-1 and group Employability supports, GDA members also come together with employability planners and policy makers, to ensure their voices and lived experiences are heard in building solutions to these barriers and driving change:
- We work in partnership with Scottish Government and others to drive forwards actions within the Fairer Scotland for Disabled People Employment Action Plan, to halve the disability employment gap.
- GDA are an approved referral agency for the Glasgow Guarantee Programme
- GDA members contribute time and expertise working with partners across Glasgow to review and re-design employability services, including co-producing and testing out a new Quality Standard.
- GDA support partners in the Public, Private and Voluntary sectors to develop and drive forwards best practice in recruitment and retention of disabled workers, eg working with Social Security Scotland’s Equalities Network.
- Working with Scottish Government, Volunteer Scotland and other key partners to support more disabled people to take up and sustain volunteering opportunities, eg supporting targeted recruitment drives to ensure disabled people could connect with the Host City Volunteer schemes for the Commonwealth Games and Euro Championships.