ECL Inclusive Employment service teams up with NHS Trust to make applying for a job more accessible for people with learning disabilities and/or autism

This arrangement with ESNEFT was borne out of a conversation between the two organisations about how they could join forces to create an innovative way to help the trust be more inclusive to people with learning disabilities wishing to apply for job roles.

ECL highlighted to ESNEFT that NHS online application system, TRAC presented a barrier for people with learning disabilities and/autism wanting to apply for roles due to its complex nature. The two organisations agreed to work together to create an alternative, more inclusive process for candidates with learning disabilities.

The result is a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure a more streamlined application process for Inclusive Employment candidates. The arrangement means that ECL Inclusive Employment candidates wishing to apply for NHS band 2 and 3 roles will have their CVs directly accepted by ESNEFT.

Peter Cook, Associate Director of Innovation and Education, East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust said: “We felt really strongly that we could do more as a trust to make our application process more inclusive for people with learning disabilities and/autism and so joined forces with ECL to see if we could come up with a way of removing some of the barriers they face. By allowing ECL candidates to bypass the use of the TRAC system, we hope to make applying for a job within our trust more appealing and less stressful for these individuals.

“The arrangement, while not formal or legally binding is a mutually beneficial agreement - ECL’s candidates have a more streamlined process and ESNEFT benefits from access to a pool of talent that would previously have been put off applying for our roles by the application system.”

As a result of this new way of working, three ECL candidates have already found employment with ESNEFT; two individuals with autism were successful in obtaining a job share for a Junior IT Helpdesk Analyst role and one candidate has achieved a role within the ESNEFT administration team.

Emma Young, ECL Inclusive Employer Engagement Lead said: “Over the last six months ECL and ESNEFT’s recruitment team have worked closely to look at different approaches to making the application process more inclusive. This arrangement is about ensuring that the process is still fair but making it somewhat easier for ECL Inclusive Employment candidates to apply for jobs. It will be reviewed regularly to assess its success.

“Our longer term objective is to hold inclusive recruitment events with ESNEFT as well as to continue to look at innovative ways to achieve successful outcomes for people with learning disabilities seeking employment within the trust.”

ECL’s Inclusive Employment service supports adults with learning disabilities and/or autism to achieve their ambitions of paid employment, as well working to change employers’ attitudes towards inclusive recruitment.

To date ECL’s Inclusive Employment service has achieved over 420 successful paid employment outcomes. Of these,135 have transitioned directly from day services. It has facilitated more than 11,913 job applications, 1,730 interviews and 253 work trials. In addition to working closely with the Essex business community to encourage more companies to become inclusive employers.