For many people with a learning disability, securing and sustaining paid work can often appear overwhelming and out of reach. Only 4.7% of people with a learning disability, who are known to their local authority, are in work, a statistic that has only continued to decline over recent years.
Now a unique partnership between The Felix Project, Unity Works and Greencore has shown how you can bridge the learning disability employment gap and create opportunities for individuals to gain the experience and skills to propel them into their future careers.
Unity Works which wants to see an inclusive world where people with a learning disability who want to work, can work has partnered with The Felix Project, a charity that rescues surplus food from the food industry and delivers it to around 1200 frontline organisations and schools in London, and Greencore, one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of convenience food.
At the start of the year The Felix Project launched their six-month trainee placement which saw two young men with a learning disability, Tomide and Israel, work at their Poplar site to gain skills and experience working as Packing Assistants in a fast-paced environment alongside staff and The Felix Project’s many corporate volunteers.
Unity Works played a key role in supporting The Felix Project to launch this programme, creating accessible job descriptions, adverts, and providing a preselection of candidates as well as supporting in an accessible recruitment day. They then provided ongoing support to both new starters and to The Felix Project to ensure everyone was supported in their roles.
Both Israel and Tomide settled into their roles and by the time their placements ended, they had both become integral members of their team even progressing so far as to support with the inducting and ongoing support of The Felix Project’s corporate volunteers.
Of his time on the programme Tomide said: “When I first even got the job here, I was really, really shy… but once I met everyone, my mindset changed and so did my confidence. Felix has changed me. It’s changed my mindset. It’s changed my vision. It’s changed my goals. It’s changed everything in life for me.”
Wanting to build on the programme’s success, The Felix Project reached out to one of their partners, Greencore and both Tomide and Israel moved into full time roles as operatives at their site in Bow. The involvement of Greencore has been fantastic, both in terms of the skills Tomide and Israel have learned and the way in which Greencore has been open to adapting their internal processes for people with a learning disability, enabling both employees to sail through their probation period. Upon completing his probation Israel said “I am loving the job and being employed, it has been life changing and given me a real sense of purpose.”
Helen Smith, Unity Work’s Employment Services Manager said: “This partnership has shown what is possible when organisations come together and provide people with a learning disability have the skills and abilities to excel in the labour market and show themselves as valuable members of the workforce. This Learning Disability week, I call on employers looking to make their workplace more inclusive and to offer opportunities as those The Felix Project and Greencore have”.
Rob McEwan, Site Operations Lead at Greencore, said: “We are incredibly proud to welcome Tomide and Israel to our team here in Bow. Their journey demonstrates the real impact that inclusive partnerships can have, not only in opening doors to employment but in enriching our workplace culture. At Greencore, we believe everyone should have the opportunity to thrive, and we are committed to adapting our processes to ensure that people with a learning disability can succeed and grow with us.”
The Felix Project have since started a new trainee programme and is hoping to replicate the success. Nick Kerle Head of Production at The Felix Project said: “I was so thrilled by the results from the first course and am already confident the second in take will do just as well. It has genuinely given me such a sense of satisfaction and pride to know we have helped people, who previously struggled to get into work because of learning difficulties, actually get a career. The catering industry is crying out for people, and I hope this programme shows what can be achieved when we all work in collaboration.”
