table of contents - home page - text-only home page Employment briefly University of York Requests Employment & Disability Research from Selected Countries GLADNET has received the following request from our colleagues at the University of York, UK. This message will be placed on the GLADNET learning network under the heading "best practices." Persons replying to Ms Thornton are kindly requested to cc GLADNET, so that your response can be seen by all our community. The Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York (UK) is carrying out a review of the international research literature on: 1. government-initiated programmes and services aimed at supporting disabled people to take up and sustain employment; and 2. government-initiated programmes and services aimed at helping working people who become disabled to stay in their jobs. We want to identify research evaluations in selected countries: UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, France, Sweden and the Netherlands. We are particularly keen to identify reviews of the research literature which cover any of these countries. We are inviting colleagues to tell us about research reports and reviews, including working papers from research in progress. Unfortunately our scope is restricted to material written in English and French. Our review has three main objectives: to provide an overview of programmes in the study countries to report on the effectiveness of programmes, covering both outcomes and processes to understand the factors which affect the implementation and impact of programmes - to discover what works, for whom, in which contexts. We are interested in programmes which include people with health problems or impairments within the general target group (such as Îwelfare-to-work' programmes) as well as those designed specifically for disabled people. The focus is on co-ordinated programmes (such as case-management) but we are also interested in learning about evaluations of specific services which can be drawn on through integrated programmes. The background to the review is that it has been commissioned by the UK Department for Education and Employment to inform the development of the New Deal for Disabled People. The New Deal for Disabled People is a Government programme with two main elements. The first element offers individually tailored support to recipients of income replacement disability benefits who want to work. Twelve pilot "personal adviser service" projects, as well as schemes trying out innovative methods, are drawing to a close. In the next phase public, private and voluntary sector Îjob brokers' will operate throughout most of the country, with output-related funding. The support provided through the New Deal for Disabled People can include preparation for work as well as matching people to job opportunities. The second element is focussed on ensuring that working people who become disabled do not leave employment (and so claim disability benefit). The Government is about to launch pilot projects aimed at people absent from work through ill-health. These projects will work with employees themselves and their employers, and aim to engage other significant actors such as medical advisers. Please contact us with details of research reports, or let us know about possible sources of information. All contributors will be acknowledged in our research report due to be published mid 2001. Contact information: Patricia Thornton Social Policy Research Unit University of York York YO10 5DD UK telephone: 44 (0)1904 433608 facsimile: 44 (0)1904 433618 e-mail: pat3@york.ac.uk web site: www.york.ac.uk/inst/spru Carl Raskin Executive Director Global Applied Disability Research and Information Network on Employment and Training GLADNET Association Box 612 Station "B" Ottawa, Ontario Canada K1P 5P7 tel: 613 825 6193 fax: 613 825 2953 e-mail : info@gladnet.org web site: www.gladnet.org table of contents - home page - text-only home page