Good Sammy Open Employment Trials. Final Evaluation Report

People with disability are twice as likely to be unemployed or work fewer hours compared to people without disability. Most people with intellectual disability in Australia in paid work continue to work in disability specific employment settings. The barriers to open employment for people with intellectual disability are structural, systemic and attitudinal. These barriers start from young adults finding their first paid work through to people who have worked in closed employment for many years. Good Sammy Enterprises (GSE) trialled two new models of employment support, the Traineeship and licences trial (2 years) and the Hybrid employment trial (3 years). The trials offered training and work experience, with the goal to assist people with disability to build their capacity for open employment and to secure open employment with full award wages in workplaces outside GSE. The Social Policy Research Centre UNSW and Centre for Social Impact (CSI) UWA evaluated the trials with 18 months longitudinal mixed methods. The effectiveness of the processes to achieve these goals was mixed. At the end of the trials, 3 people were in full award wage open employment and 7 people worked in businesses outside GSE and were paid a supported wage by GSE (provision of service). Other participants gained work experience, skills and confidence to consider open employment in the future. GSE explained the results as partly due to the various needs of the participants (new and existing GSE employees), changes to the disability employment support services (IEA/DES), the timing of trails and the gap in the funding structure from the uncertainty of NDIS. The trials generated useful advice for future initiatives to enhance pathways to open employment by GSE and similar programs. Future initiatives would continue to focus on the following.