5 Working with people with learning disabilities
In this course, you’ve heard a lot about the experiences of people with learning disabilities and their families.
Now you will turn to look in more depth at what it’s like to work with people with learning disabilities, and why people want to do it.
Box 1 The social care workforce in England in 2018
Most people who support people with learning disabilities are in the social care workforce, one characterised by low wages, poor working conditions and high staff turnover. Here are some key facts about the social care workforce in 2018:
- Accounts for 1.6 million jobs.
- A quarter of the workforce (25%) are on a zero-hours contract (335,000 jobs).
- The staff turnover rate was 30.7%, equivalent to around 390,000 leavers in the previous year.
- Many of these leavers move to other roles within the sector as 67% of recruitment is from within adult social care.
- Workers had, on average, 8.2 years of experience in the sector.
- The vacancy rate was 8.0%, equivalent to around 110,000 vacancies at any given time. The majority of these vacancies (76,000) were care workers.
- A fifth of all workers (320,000 jobs) were aged over 55 years old.
- The majority (82%) of the adult social care workforce were British, 8% (104,000 jobs) had an EU nationality and 10% (130,000 jobs) were of a non-EU nationality.
Activity 9 The view of a support worker
Kelly Edwards has worked with people with learning disabilities for over 30 years. She is employed as a support worker for a self-advocacy organisation, but is also a carer for people with learning disabilities who need one-to-one support.
Watch this film of Kelly Edwards talking about her job.
Transcript: Video 13
Complete the table below based on Kelly’s views:
| The qualities and skills Kelly thinks are needed to do the job | Why Kelly likes the job | What Kelly has found difficult about the job |
|---|---|---|
Answer
Here are some of the things you might have noted down:
| The qualities and skills Kelly thinks are needed to do the job | Why Kelly likes the job | What Kelly has found difficult about the job |
|---|---|---|
| Being caring | Seeing people achieve | Cuts to funding |
| Being patient | Making a difference to people’s lives | Seeing people lose their support hours |
| Being thick-skinned | Seeing people happy | Seeing people struggle with changes to the benefits system |
| Having a sense of humour |
You may have noticed that Kelly also said that people with learning disabilities have taught her most of what she needs to know to do the job well. Kelly enjoys her job and takes great pride in it. The challenges of the job that she describes are all related to wider social and political issues – cuts to funding and changes in the benefits system. What Kelly continues to like about her job is having the opportunity to work alongside people with learning disabilities, and supporting them to live the lives they want.
Good support is vital for people with learning disabilities. It’s crucial that great care is taken to recruit the right people to the job, to train them properly, and to give them good working conditions. This is a key challenge for the future.