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Midland Employment Support Agency Ltd.Trading as

EmployAbility Midlands

Annual Report 2013

“EmployAbility – Integration through Employment”

ForewordI am pleased, on behalf of our Board, to introduce the Annual Report for 2013. The country’s ongoing recession has not fazed our enthusiasm for ensuring people with disabilities can continue to make a positive impact in the workplace. While 2013 has been no less challenging than previous years, EmployAbility Midlands has managed to surpass the successes of last year, as the statistics in this report will demonstrate. This can be attributed in no small way to the ongoing support from our employers here in the midlands and on behalf of the Board of EmployAbility Midlands we would like to formally acknowledge the co-operation, support and assistance we receive from employers in all sectors. We continue to build on our relationships with employers and expand the networks established by our dedicated EmployAbility Team. For people with disabilities who want to work the challenges are always greater and 2013 was no exception. EmployAbility Midlands continues to play a vital role in the integration of people with disabilities into paid, sustainable employment. Supported employment can only be successful when there is co-operation and a willingness on the part of employers to give job seekers with disabilities the chance to show that they too can play an important role in the world of work.The Board would like to acknowledge the support of the Department of Social Protection in providing the core funding to deliver our services. EmployAbility Midlands continues to enjoy good working relationships with the staff of the Department at local level throughout counties Laois, Offaly, Longford and Westmeath. The success of this service would be impossible without the commitment and hard work of the Co-ordinator, Tony Reilly, and the EmployAbility Team. Working as a team enables us to build on our strengths and make the most of opportunities for the benefit of our service users. I would also like to thank my fellow Directors who always give generously of their time, knowledge and experience.

Joe Reilly Board Chairman

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COMPANY MISSION

“Supporting people with disabilities into paid employment while providing effective solutions to employers’ staffing needs”

IntroductionOnce again 2013 has been a very successful year for EmployAbility Midlands. Despite the recession and high unemployment levels, our organisation’s purpose remains constant: to offer a highly professional service that is clearly focussed on matching the abilities of job seekers with disability or illness and the recruitment needs of Midland employers. Being mindful of the pressure on business and the desire to encourage employers to be creative in their thinking when planning recruitment, we have actively promoted the use of the Wage Subsidy Scheme (WSS). This support has again proved a very useful incentive to employers & job seekers who meet the criteria. In 2013, we also administered the Workplace Scheme within the EmployAbility service which enables a job seeker to spend time in the workplace, to understand what the job entails and demonstrate their ability to do the job. Likewise, the employer has the opportunity to see how a person performs in the workplace while also experiencing the supports provided by EmployAbility Midlands. Having secured employment for 23 individuals using Wage Subsidy Scheme along with a further 18 using the Workplace Scheme in 2013, it is our firm belief that these schemes used in tandem with our EmployAbility service have the potential to secure more employment opportunities for our service users.We also continued to build on the achievements to date by delivering our service to a total of 269 participants with 134 new job seekers presenting to our service via the Department of Social Protection. With support from EmployAbility Midlands, a total of 127 job seekers with disabilities secured work placements in 2013. The success shown by these figures is due in no small part to the commitment and dedication of the entire team coupled with the constant new networks and employer relationships being forged & developed throughout the Midlands. EmployAbility Midlands will strive to ensure that the progress made in integrating people with disabilities into mainstream employment is not eroded in the current challenging environment.In 2013, EmployAbility has been included in the menu of services available under DSP’s newly launched Intreo service which makes us more visible to both employers and job seekers. Also, as part of our marketing & promotion strategy in 2013, EmployAbility Midlands continued to operate a number of outreach services in order to promote our service amongst individuals and communities. This approach involves our Employment 3

Officer being on site at local community project premises on a regular basis to meet with existing or new job seekers. The entire EmployAbility Midlands team is looking forward to 2013 and we are confident we can address the challenges, overcome barriers and continue to assist job seekers with disabilities to access mainstream employment. Finally, I would like to thank our Board of Directors who generously give their time, knowledge and expertise in governing the company and ensuring that as the service develops, we are always mindful of the service user and their needs.

Tony ReillyCo-Ordinator.

EmployAbility Service“Supporting people with disabilities to secure and maintain employment.”

While initially based on the Supported Employment model which was developed for people with learning difficulties, the National EmployAbility Service demonstrates that the service can successfully be applied to all disability groups.

As a strategy for enabling people with disabilities to access open employment, EmployAbility Service is based on the following key principles:

Placements in the open labour market Support throughout the entire process Paid employment Integration

EmployAbility supports Job Seekers:

To identify skills and abilities By facilitating work experience placements To find a suitable job With ongoing support during and after work

EmployAbility supports Employers by:

Providing advice and assistance on grants and financial supports Helping to recruit the right person Providing jobseekers on a short trial basis, free of charge Providing on-site support with induction and training Providing jobseekers to fill positions with short or irregular hours

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National EmployAbility Targets

Current targets require that each Employment Officer endeavours to: Work with 25 job seekers at any time Maintain 50 % of that number in employment Ensure that 50% of job seekers who exit the service do so while in employment.

On a strategic level the following key objectives have been achieved and implemented nationally:1. Developed operational clarity in respect of the target group for the service and developed appropriated assessment procedures.2. Identified and documented operational procedures in respect of key areas of programme implementation.3. Developed a national identity for the service and devised and implemented a marketing strategy for the programme.

Achievements

In 2013 we achieved the following quantitative outcomes:

o Delivered the service to 269 participantso Sourced 134 new referrals in 2013 o A total of 129 job seekers exited our service in 2013

A total of 153 individuals achieved a positive outcome as follows

New jobs secured in the open labour market 46 Internships secured 08 Formal work experience 73 Community Employment 02 Referred for further vocational skills training 24

In 2013 a total of 46 job seekers exited our service while in employment having completed the support & aftercare stages of the service. During the year 180 individuals were supported in maintaining & developing their placements.

Further to this we achieved the following:

o Demonstrated that the programme could successfully be applied to all disability categories

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o Successfully promoted our new brand – EmployAbility – to employers, job seekers and the general public throughout the midlands.

o Continued to deliver our Outreach Service in Longford and Westmeath.o Secured funding to administer the Workplace work experience scheme.

Employment Officer Sandra Ahern with Brian at Tesco, Kilminchy.

EmployAbility Midlands - LocationsIn 2013, EmployAbility Midlands provided a service in the counties of Laois, Offaly, Longford and Westmeath. Details of office locations are as follows:

TOWN LOCATION

TULLAMORE(Central Office)

Unit 53, 1st Floor, Bridge Centre, Tullamore, Co. Offaly

MULLINGAR C/o Friary House, Friars Mill Road, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath

MOUNTMELLICK C/o Mountmellick Development Association, Irishtown,Mountmellick, Co. Laois

LONGFORD C/o Dawn learning Centre, Grafton Court, Longford, Co. Longford

ATHLONE C/o Parish Centre, Chapel Street, Athlone, Co. Westmeath

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Outreach ServiceIn 2013 EmployAbility Midlands continued to provide a number of Outreach Services in order to further promote our service among individuals and community groups. . The key aspect of the outreach visits means the service is based in an existing community project with details of the Employment Officer’s attendance dates being promoted in advance. This year we developed the service further by providing ‘pop-up’ stands in rural locations throughout the midlands. To date, we feel we have forged strong links with existing services within local communities. Current: - Granard, Ballynacargy, Clara, & Edgeworthstown Planned: - Rathdowney, Portarlington, Birr, Edenderry, & Castlepollard/Delvin

Greg working in Cheers Coffee Shop, Tullamore Kieran at work in Oliver Douglas Hardware, Birr

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Referral Source 2013

Self Other DSP NLN Mental Health

VEC Addiction Services

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

Other Category includes – CE Supervisors, Social Workers, NUA Healthcare, APT, Resource Centre, NCBI, Women’s Refuge, Action Groups, Jobs Club and RehabCare

Referrals by Disability Category 2013

Mental Health Intellectual Physical/Sensory Other/Unknown0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

Referrals8

As part of our funding criteria for this 18 month service, all our Employment Officers must aim to work with 25 people at any one time. To meet this target, a considerable amount of time is spent introducing and promoting the concept of EmployAbility’s service to the relevant agencies, community groups and organisations in the Midlands. While participants of the National Service must come through the DSP Gateway system, we can only start new clients when we exit existing service users.The working relationship that exists between our Employment Officers, DSP Employment Service’s staff and disability service providers is crucial to the success of the service. Sharing of information, expertise and consultation between the organisations has ensured that the end user receives a professional service in an effective and efficient manner. This approach had a significant impact on the numbers of people presenting to EmployAbility Midlands service in 2013, as the above statistics verify. We received 134 new referrals in 2013 and the above chart is a breakdown of that number.

Workplace This is one of the most successful supports available to employment officers. Jobseekers are placed with employers for a 5-7 week period at no cost to the employer and receive a €20 per week payment from the EmployAbility organisation. This scheme enables a job seeker to spend time in the workplace, to understand what the job entails and demonstrate their ability to do the job. Likewise, the employer has the opportunity to see how a person performs in the workplace, while experiencing the range of placement supports available from EmployAbility Midlands. Having secured employment for18 individuals in 2013 using Workplace it is our firm belief that this scheme will fit seamlessly with our service has the potential to secure more employment opportunities for our job seekers.Traditionally, we have found that some of our service users don’t always demonstrate their abilities at interviews, and we now find that where an employer is open to accommodating our job seekers with a short on site work trial, early results are indicating that this approach is a more realistic route to employment.

Mateusz at Midland Fish Sean at work in Dolan’s Fitness DMarketing and Promotion

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2013 saw a varied range of new and tried and tested activities on the marketing and promotion front targeted towards our customers with the following aims:

To be recognised by job seekers with disabilities in the midlands as the best service to use when seeking to find & maintain a job/work/career.

To promote our organisation & service so that we are recognised by business as a real option when seeking to fill recruitment needs or manage situations where existing staff develop a disability or illness.

To generate a higher profile amongst key stakeholders and services in the community – general public, media, business, disability services, health services, community groups, education & training services

The national identity – EmployAbility - is now well established in the midlands. By establishing a coherent and visible identity for the service, marketing and promotion of the service to employers and people with disabilities is now being delivered in a more consistent and effective manner. The rationale for the name change follows on from the recommendations of the WRC report into the national supported employment programme. The fact that we have a national identity with twenty three service providers around the country makes us more recognizable to and more trusting in the eyes of employers and job seekers with disabilities. As part of our marketing & promotion strategy in 2013, EmployAbility Midlands continued to operate a number of outreach services in order to promote our service amongst individuals and communities. This approach involves our Employment Officer being on site at local community project premises on a regular basis to meet with existing or new job seekers. In 2013, EmployAbility has been included in the menu of services available under DSP’s newly launched Intreo service which makes us more visible to both employers and job seekers. Our Employment Officers in Athlone are involved in the Midlands Business Network. They meet weekly with employers where ideas, information and leads are shared. This has been found to be hugely beneficial and they have managed to secure numerous work placements and work experience through it.

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Elaine working in Shine’s Bar and Restaurant, Athlone

Company Website Our website is a continuous work in progress. Team meetings are a great source of ideas and thoughts on what we feel our website should deliver. During 2013 a couple of very good ideas for the website emerged; one of them being the creation a sub-page where we can display company logos of the companies that we work with – it is titled “Partners in Employment”. Work on this is continuing. A website’s success can be judged also on the amount of traffic it receives and we were not found wanting here – 4,576 hits on our website for 2013. This is in keeping with the figures from 2011 and a marked improvement on statistics for 2010. It goes without saying that the website is also a very useful tool for service users and employers to explore, in greater detail, what we are and what we do.

Marketing Plan As part of our marketing strategy, EmployAbility Midlands has put significant effort and time into developing effective networks in order to promote a quality service. While the Company has established local networks with organisations like FAS Employment and Community Services, Department of Social Protection, Disability Service Providers (including Mental Health Services), Community Partnerships and various employer groups, EmployAbility Midlands is also represented on: o The National Co-Ordinators’ Forum. o Westmeath Disability Working Group o Athlone Business Network o Longford Services to the Unemployed Working Group o Midlands Chambers of Commerce

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o Athlone Mental Health Association Participation in the above has enabled EmployAbility Midlands to contribute to the development of best practice in the service and to address issues in order to remove the barriers to employment for people with disabilities. Establishing and developing effective networks encourages, promotes and supports EmployAbility Midlands in delivering a quality service to our customers. A good interagency working relationship has assisted us in: o Identifying potential referrals o Identifying employment opportunities o Sharing of information o Identifying areas of best practice (Nationally & Internationally) o Providing the best possible service for the end user

In addition, EmployAbility Midlands undertook the following promotional activities to raise awareness of its service: o Delivered presentations to a number of relevant agencies and groups throughout the Midlands including the Disability Activation Projects, disability service providers, addiction services and CE Supervisors. o Our service featured in several provincial newspapers with case studies from employers and employees. o Further developed and updated our user friendly website www.employabilitymidlands.com o Continued to use Facebook to promote the service. o Delivered our Job Shadow Day across the Midlands, which on the day provided job seekers with the opportunity to observe competent employees going about their daily duties in a variety of work settings. o Provided Information Stands at Disability Awareness Days and Information Days across the Midlands sponsored by various groups including CIC, EDI Centre, Longford, Mental Health Services, Community Development Groups and local partnerships.

Lynn with Gemma and Sharon from Subway, Tullamore

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Staff Support and Development Our policy on staff development is to provide quality & relevant training for staff to assist them in providing the best possible service for our service users. Staff training needs are identified through

annual performance appraisal meetings, team meetings and one to one meetings with the Co-Ordinator.

With a limited budget, EmployAbility Midlands provided in house training for staff in 2013 under the following headings:

- Risk Assessment- Data Protection

All staff undertook a refresher course in manual handling and everyone successfully attained certification.Our new employment officer in Laois commenced the Foundation Diploma in Supported Employment course through the Open Training College.

Team MeetingsThe concept of the team working toward clear & common goals is a key part of our approach to service delivery. Our culture of teamwork facilitates the sharing of knowledge, solving of problems & ultimately the achievement of the companies objectives & targets.Regular team meetings form an integral part of our training and development strategy at EmployAbility Midlands.Our policy, whereby knowledge or information gained from attendance at any training or educational event is brought back and presented by that person to the entire team, continues. We also recognise that a significant amount of expertise exists within the team across a wide range of topics and we have used this to address certain internal training requirements such as marketing the service, health & safety, risk assessment, website development etc. EmployAbility Midlands also hold an annual planning day at which we review our performance over the previous year and then identify our targets & strategies for the year ahead and based on this, produce individual and team action plans. We then hold an annual mid-year review day to monitor progress in delivering our plans.

Health and SafetyEmployAbility Midlands continues to be committed to a policy of safety at our offices in Laois, Offaly, Longford and Westmeath. We recognize our responsibility to provide an environment that promotes the highest standard of health and safety as set down by the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and the European Union Law.Health and Safety Audits were conducted in May and November in all five of our premises by our internally appointed Safety Office. In 2013 we continued to uphold our policy of health and safety for all staff and service users.

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Risk AssessmentRisk is part of everyday life and managing it effectively is essential if organizational goals are to be achieved and organizational assets are to be safeguarded. Managing risk is an integral part of governance and so the Board of Directors has ensured that a proper risk management strategy is in place. The risk management process at EmployAbility Midlands is a cyclical process and involves:

Identifying risks Analyzing those risks Controlling the risk Monitoring the risk

It is EmployAbility Midlands policy to conduct risk assessments regularly and then to document, prioritize & control each risk on our risk register. The register is reviewed regularly by the team with an annual formal review by the Board of Directors.

Employment Categories 2013

Admin Retail General Op

Other Childcare Cleaner Car Valet Kitchen Assistant

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

Other Category includes – Porter, Lab Assistant, Assistant Manager, Fuel Delivery, Gardener, Bus Driver, Sewing, Construction

Employment Disability Categories 2013

Mental Health Intellectual Physical/Sensory Other/Unknown0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%

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Job Shadow 2013Having initiated and developed Job Shadow, we are very proud to see its popularity growing and being utilised all over the country by other EmployAbility Services. We continue to find it a useful tool for employers to experience the different types of disability along with the on-site support available from EmployAbility Midlands, and for jobseekers to showcase their abilities where it matters.

EmployAbility Midlands Team

.

Back Row L-R Joan Halpin-Hall, Rosemarie O Brien, Regina Delaney, Daniel O ReillyFront Row L-R Brenda Tallon, Wanda Shaw, Tony Reilly (Co-Ordinator), Sandra Aherne.

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Board of Directors

Mr Joe Reilly – Chairperson(Retired HSE Manager)

Mr Tony Corry – Secretary Mr Adrian StewartSector Manager Regional Manager(HSE) (NLN)

Ms Susan Ryan Tony McCormackManager Vice President(Citizens Information Centre) (Tullamore Chamber)

Mr Sean RyanCEO(Offaly CEB)

Staff MembersUnit 53, 1st Floor, The Bridge Centre, Tullamore, Co OffalyTony Reilly Project Co-OrdinatorWanda Shaw Employment OfficerRegina Delaney Administrator/Support

C/o St. Peter & Pauls Parish Centre, Chapel Street, Athlone, Co WestmeathJoan Halpin – Hall Employment OfficerRosemarie O’Brien Employment Officer

C/o Friary House, Friars Mill Road, Mullingar, Co WestmeathDaniel O’Reilly Employment Officer

C/o Mountmellick Development Association, Irishtown, Mountmellick, Co LaoisSandra Aherne Employment Officer

C/o Dawn Learning Centre, 6 Grafton Court, LongfordBrenda Tallon Employment Officer

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