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Background: People with an intellectual disability prefer more choice with employment options and more community facing roles rather than just traditional supported employment roles. However, data reveal that transition rates from supported to open employment in Australia remain very low and these findings are also found internationally. Method: To examine current organisational and policy barriers preventing transition from supported to open employment, a series of 27 in-depth interviews were conducted with people with an intellectual disability, staff from supported employers, and staff from open employers. Results: There were several key policy and organisational barriers identified. These included inflexible funding models and packages, lack of knowledge and experience of open employers, and insufficient training, pathways, and supports for people with an intellectual to make that transition. Conclusion: The findings highlight some of the broader policy and program reforms that are required, commencing in school and inclusive of all employer groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, many people with a disability work in Supported Employment Settings (previously known as Australian Disability Enterprises or ADEs). SESs are in a unique position to provide training and support to people with a disability as a transition step to employment in the mainstream labour market. This paper examines how one case study SES facilitates pathways to open employment for supported employees. We explore three key questions: what do these pathways look like, what role can Supported Employment Settings play in facilitating these transitions, and what are the challenges in doing so? We argue that successful pathways involve SESs and employers working together to create bespoke opportunities tailored to individuals. Through a detailed picture of the actors and relationships that are involved in setting up employment pathways, our findings demonstrate the need for both employee and employer preparation and how this can be carried out through purposeful planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This article provides a qualitative account of four models of support for adults with intellectual disability in individual supported living (ISL) arrangements. Materials and Methods: Completion of the first 50 evaluations of 150 arrangements for the third phase of the ISL project provided the examples. Results: Four approaches are described: living alone, co-residency, relationship and host family. Within each type, wide variations occur particularly based on security of tenure, formal and informal support and management variations. Conclusion: Fifty evaluations so far illustrated a wide range of approaches to ISL, providing evidence of the critical importance of the formal and informal support environment and reinforcing the contention that ISL is appropriate for people with high support needs.

People with intellectual disabilities and their families are increasingly being asked to provide input into the services they receive. Under the aegis of the United Nation Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, support plans crucially depend on a participant's articulation of his or her preferences and life goals. Yet, research highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of different methodological approaches has not been published. This study compared the results of a suite of qualitative methods (questionnaire, focus group, semi-structured interview, "case in point" ethnographic observation, photographic images, and carer proxy response) by identifying the advantages and disadvantages of each method employed. It also foregrounds an effective mix of methods that is likely to produce an adequate representation of the views of people with disabilities within the context of open-ended exploratory questions.

Background: Social enterprises have the potential to address some of the current barriers that people with an intellectual disability experience in transitioning to open employment opportunities. However, it is unknown in detail how social enterprises are able to facilitate this transition, which limits ability to scale-up these organisational characteristics and strategies., Method: Twenty-seven in-depth interviews were conducted with staff, supported employees and partner organisations of a social enterprise to understand the organisational characteristics that enables successful transitions., Results: The organisational characteristics of the social enterprise that enabled transitions included offering a variety of roles and workplace environments for people with intellectual disabilities. Organisational characteristics also included having dedicated staff roles to support people with intellectual disabilities to develop skills to transition and for these support staff to network with open employers to facilitate the transition., Conclusions: The results provide an adaptable model for other social enterprises in how to structure their organisation to facilitate transition to open employment opportunities., (© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)