Gaelen Williams Project Officer NDS WA Transition to

Gaelen Williams Project Officer (NDS WA - Transition to Employment Project)

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Contents of Webinar 1. Customised Employment and the NDIS – Process 2. A sample of Customised Employment Success Stories 3. Format of the Customised Employment Training session 4. Customised Employment Frequently Asked Questions

Customised Employment and the NDIS – Process

Customised Employment and the NDIS What is Customised Employment? • Customised Employment is an individualised approach to vocational supports and services: one person at a time. • It consists of two stages: The Discovery Process and Job Creation. • The goal of Customised Employment is to tailor meaningful employment / selfemployment opportunities to fit the skills, interests, strengths, and support needs of the individual whilst meeting the needs of business / the market for a service or product.

Customised Employment and the NDIS Customised Employment in Australia • The School to Work transition pilot project trialled the Customised Employment approach in the Perth Hills and surrounds through support from the NDIA in Western Australia. • This pilot gave students in Years 10 - 13 150 hours of Employment Support to support transition. • Whilst hours are not prescriptive, evidence suggests a thorough Discovery Process to be impactful at between 25 - 50 hours of support depending on the needs and capacity of the individual (The Job Developer’s Handbook – Griffin, Hammis and Geary – Pg. 30). • Ongoing support with job creation, establishment and continuation will differ for each individual.

Customised Employment and the NDIS Planning Document – breakdown of required hours: 1. The Discovery Process 2. Job Creation • Self-Employment / Micro-Business / Business-Within-A-Business • Job Carving

Customised Employment and the NDIS 1. The Discovery Process • Discovery is a process of getting to know an individual that enables a picture of the person to emerge. • Discovery relies on experiential situations in real environments to reveal clues about vocational interests. • Discovery is the foundation upon which all customisation of employment rests. • In discovery, information is gathered about an individual's interests, strengths, the types of supports that are most effective, the skills the individual has, and the types of environments and activities where this person is at his/her best. This information is gathered in a series of interviews, observations, and activities that occur in natural environments and that are typical to the individual.

Customised Employment and the NDIS 1. Discovery Process STAGE ACTIVITY INVOLVES HOURS One Home and Neighbourhood Observations Support worker will: Interview person with disabilities including their family members where applicable. Accompany and enable individual to tour their neighbourhood whilst providing necessary care and support. 1 -3 hours Two Others to be interviewed Support Worker will Conduct further interviews with other individuals the person with disability and their family recommend. These could be school representatives, work experience hosts etc. 1 -3 hours

Customised Employment and the NDIS STAGE ACTIVITY INVOLVES HOURS Three Discovery Visits Support Worker will: 1 -3 hours Observe individual in activities that give context to their Interests, Talents & Skills – PHOTOS and/or VIDEOS are taken (with permission) to help in the production of a visual resume or online career portfolio Four Vocational Themes Support Worker will: Support the individual to highlight emerging themes (i. e. Organising, Cleaning, Cooking or Food Prep) that meld Tasks, Interests, Talents, and Skills. Support individuals to conduct at least 2 information interviews and some work experience that could be as a minimum 6 half days over a 2 week period. Including on the job support, communication support, personal care and transport. 15 - 20 hours

Customised Employment and the NDIS STAGE ACTIVITY INVOLVES HOURS Five Vocational Profiles Support Worker will: Support individuals to summarise information gathered from stages 1 -4 and facilitate keeping the Discovery Team updated of outcomes from stage 4. 1 -2 hours Six Job/Business Development Plan Support Worker will: Support individuals to put together a Business Development plan that takes into account the following areas: List of Twenty Places where people with similar Vocational Themes Work. Creating an online career portfolio using a free template found at www. portfoliogen. com, visual and print resumes and cover letters selecting at least 3 or 4 places from the List of 20 to arrange Informational Interviews for moving into the job development stage 2 - 4 hours

Customised Employment and the NDIS STAGE Seven ACTIVITY Informational Interviewing INVOLVES Support Worker will: Assist person with disability and selected members of the Discovery team to select 3 or 4 businesses from the list of 20 and arrange Informational Interviews for job development. Support individuals to prepare for informational interview, including develop questions, dress, communication strategies etc. Support individuals to participate, including personal care, transport, communication or other support. HOURS 10 - 15 hours

Customised Employment and the NDIS 2. Job Creation The remaining amount of time allocated to the Customised Employment approach is then spent developing and implementing the Job Analysis Record. Time taken to implement the JAR is highly dependent on the requirements of the individual, and will focus on: 2. 1 Self-Employment / Micro-Business / Business-Within-a-Business 2. 2 Job Carving (Job Creation)

Customised Employment and the NDIS 2. 1 Self-Employment/ Micro-Business/ Business-Within-a-Business • Microenterprise is a relatively untapped but legitimate and often successful employment option. • Operating on a small scale, filling a niche in the market place, it is ideally established around an individual’s interests and hobbies. • Participants can explore, develop and potentially operate their own small business or microenterprise, gaining new skills in business, customer relations, marketing, social media and the industry that they are operating in. • Having the opportunity to use their unique skills and abilities to generate some income and gain a public profile. This can often lead to the formation of natural relationship and social and community inclusion.

Customised Employment and the NDIS Stage Activity Involves Hours One Getting Started – business idea and program process The Support Provider will: Interview the participant (the individual who is exploring the microenterprise option), often their support network (family, friends, mentors) at times, a DSO that is currently providing the participant services, the DSC LC or WA NDIS coordinator. This interview process will determine the idea being put forward for the business and discuss how the process works and what is involved. Conduct survey to use as a flat line in determining outcomes 1 -3 hours Two Feasibility Study of idea The Support Provider will: Conduct a feasibility study on business idea including financials, projected profit and loss, is there a market? Equipment or materials needed. 10 -15 hours Three Business Planning The Support Provider will: Communicate with family to work through business plan template Produce business plan 15 -20 hours

Customised Employment and the NDIS Stage Activity Involves Hours Four Financials, risk management and legal requirements The Support Provider will: Research budget and produce budget plan Research risk and produce risk management plan Research legal requirements and advice participant and involved parties 10 -15 hours Five Training The Support Provider will: Interview participant to determine level of skills, education, qualifications. Research and suggest any local courses or tafe courses that can be undertaken to improve either business skills or skills in the chosen industry Support participant to enrol in course Support worker will: Support participant in attending course 5 -10 hours Unknown

Customised Employment and the NDIS Stage Activity Six Marketing and Advertising Seven Supports Involves Hours The Support Provider will: Research and determine marketing and advertising strategy. The Support Provider will: or support worker will: Support participant to execute marketing and advertising strategy, this may include setting up a business Facebook page. Designing flyers and letter box dropping etc. The Support Provider will: Produce a support plan for participant to conduct their day to day business operation The Support Provider will: or support worker will: Support participant to operate their business 10 -15 hours 1 – 38 hours per week depending on individual and work available

Customised Employment and the NDIS Stage Activity Involves Hours Eight Exiting the Program The Support Provider will: Invite all peoples involved with the participant’s business venture to a meeting Produce all documents including all plans, templates advertising logo’s etc. that the participant will need to continue in the operation of their business team Give participant information on other community groups that they can use for guidance with business matters eg: small business development centre Conduct survey 3 hours Nine Measure and Report The Support Provider will: Collate findings of the initial and final surveys to determine outcomes. Follow up with participant and support team in 3 and 6 months Produce case study of participants journey to highlight acquired skills and outcomes 10 -15 hours

Customised Employment and the NDIS 2. 2 Job Carving (Job Creation) • Job carving is an approach that utilises the negotiation of a specific job design to suit a person with a disability. The job design can include components of a number of duty statements and be selected according to the interests, skills and abilities of the person. • Job Carving benefits both the organisation/business and the individual by aligning the strengths of the individual with the needs of the organisation. • It requires providers to assist employers to undertake this process and work with them to match the employer’s needs and a job design that maximises the skills and abilities of the job seeker with a disability.

Customised Employment and the NDIS Stage Activity Involves Hours One Employer engagement The Support Provider will: 10 – 40 hours Support the individual to utilise the necessary resources required for the individual to engage with the employers (business cards, career portfolio, resume et cetera) Support individual to cold canvass for job opportunities by utilising the discovery record Two Role negotiation The Support Provider will: 10 – 15 hours Support the employee and employer to establish a new position description using evidence from the discovery process, and taking a range of chores from other position descriptions.

Customised Employment and the NDIS Stage Activity Three On-the-job support/employer The Support Provider will: assistance Provide one-on-one support to the employee to learn the requirements of the job, and establish the processes and practice required to do the job, in collaboration with the employer Involves 40 – 60 hours Four Ongoing support 1 – 38 hours per week depending on the work available and individual needs The Support Provider will: Provide support to the employee to manage the disability related barriers to remaining employed Hours

Questions

Customised Employment Success Stories

My name is Kyal Chamberlain I’m a 16 year old student with autism and ADHD. I live at home with my parents, sister, brother and family dog Apollo. Through the NDIA School to Work pilot, I work 5 days a week totalling 23 hours per week running my micro-enterprise called Kyal’s Doggy Delights. I produce and sell nearly 300 packets of doggy treats each week. Kyal

Hello, my name is Phillip Kalimeris I’m a 20 year old young man with autism and an intellectual disability. I have been working at Intelife an Australian Disability Enterprise in Western Australia for approximately 4 years learning a variety of skills and making some great friendships. Since early 2017 and with the combined help from Intelife and Therapy Focus who helped me using the Customised Employment approach, I have now got paid ongoing work at the Altone Golf Course cleaning golf buggies as part of my business. Since the end of 2017 I am also picking up jobs such as cleaning cars and general home cleaning which I offer to retirement villages. Through the employment support I receive from NDIS, my support worker helps me to deliver brochures in order to grow my business, picks me and my equipment up and returning me home, assists me with time management while I’m working and because I can’t read or write, I get support to help me write out tax invoices at the completion of all jobs. I now work 2 days a week at Intelife and 3 days per week running my own business. I work in employment that is meaningful to me for a total of 25 hours per week. Phillip

Abdu Hi my name is Abdu, I’m a 15 year old Year 10 student. I have been diagnosed with ASD, ADHD, SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder), Social Anxiety and a non-diagnosed mild intellectual disability. Through the NDIA School to Work transition program I am looking forward to starting my job next year with the WA Police doing some administration work. I will hopefully be working between 3 and 5 hours per week.

My name is George, I am 27 years old, have Epilepsy and Autism. Currently, I am employed with the Ability Centre. I work 3 days a week totalling 15 hours per week. I am a Gardener there. Some things I do are mulching, mowing, fertilizing, weeding and pruning and I have completed Cert 1 Horticulture. George

Daniel “I work at Curtin University” “Live in my house with my best mate Rhys” “love gardening, swimming, wine and watching tennis”. My son Dan, says this, who enjoys a typical life of any 25 year old despite having mixed seizure disorder and undiagnosed complex disabilities. My son feels proud of the work he does!

Joel “It makes me happy to have work experience”- Joel is currently completing a 10 week work experience placement at a funky café in Midland with support from his mentor. He loves going to work experience every Saturday and the feedback received from the café owners and Joel’s mentor is that he is a very valued member of their staff.

Hi, my name is Kiara Hicks and my micro business is called "All Thingz Dogz". I sell gourmet dog treats, doggy gift bags and a range of doggy accessories. All gourmet treats are handmade by me with all natural ingredients and lots of love! Kiara

What began as a simple recycling activity several years ago, has now diversified into a wonderfully creative and meaningful enterprise. This business benefits the lives of Josh and Courtney, as well as the community and environment in which we all live. www. facebook. com/thereallyusefulrecyclers. WA Josh and Courtney

Lizzie works two days per week doing a ‘tea towel run’ for local businesses in Perth. With the assistance of her Mum and mentors from Inclusion WA, Lizzie visits 9 businesses. She collects their dirty tea towels and delivers beautifully cleaned, ironed and folded tea towels, straight to their kitchen. Lizzie

Karla has always loved animals and turned this love into her very own dog sitting and walking business. Karla now has regular customers, who she walks through the week with support and also has regular customers, who she looks after when their owners go away for the weekend or on holiday. Karla

Dwayne performs a range of tasks at work, including labouring work, cleaning and sweeping up, moving furniture from different storage units, and garden maintenance. He has been supported to get a tax file number, set up his own email and his own bank accounts. He is now planning to get trained on using heavy machinery so he can get a fulltime job. Dwayne

Questions

Frequently Asked Questions and Summary

Frequently Asked Questions and Summary Frequently Asked Questions: 1. Is customised employment real employment? 2. Isn't customised employment the same thing as job carving? 3. Is customised employment about helping people find their dream job? 4. Is customised employment just a new name for supported employment? 5. Wouldn't a standardised vocational evaluation be more scientific than discovery?

Questions

THANK YOU Contact Information: Peter Darch Project Lead (Transition to Employment) Mobile Number: 0438 809 391 Email: peter. darch@nds. org. au Gaelen Williams Project Officer (Transition to Employment) Mobile Number: 0415 999 707 Email: gaelen. williams@nds. org. au employmentpathways@nds. org. au