Connecting employers and employees with Down’s Syndrome

Donna Kidd, Defra group Facilities Management team, tells us more about the WorkFit programme.

We see fewer people who have Down’s Syndrome in the working environment than we would expect, and in Defra group Facilities Management (FM), we want to help change this.

• Around 1 in every 700 UK babies is born with Down’s Syndrome
• Fewer than 1 in 16 individuals with Down’s Syndrome are in paid employment
• Defra is the first Civil Service Department to offer employment programmes to individuals with Down’s Syndrome, and since we began, many more departments are now offering opportunities.

For the last three years, we’ve been working with WorkFit – the employment programme from the Down’s Syndrome Association – to successfully employ colleagues at Horizon House in Bristol, and the National Customer Contact Centres in Sheffield and Nottingham. We are also looking to recruit a colleague at Marsham Street, London in the near future.

What is WorkFit?

The Down’s Syndrome Association’s WorkFit programme develops and supports employment opportunities for people who have Down’s Syndrome. Defra has joined the likes of the Environment Agency, Ministry of Justice, Tesco, Wiltshire Police, Greggs, Marriott Hotels and many more in supporting the programme, and providing paid work for individuals with Down’s Syndrome. WorkFit officers support Defra to ensure that our office spaces and staff are equipped and trained to be confident in supporting WorkFit colleagues.

In addition to providing a valuable asset to the Defra workforce, our relationship with WorkFit has helped to strengthen and broaden the diversity of our workforce; it has also made a positive difference to everyone involved.

The story so far…

Watch the following videos with Tom, Ben and India, who are all involved in the WorkFit programme. Tom and Ben work for the Environment Agency and India works in Horizon House for the Defra group FM team. In the third video, Mark Williams, the FM Operations Team Leader at Horizon House, talks about the process.

India (pictured at the top of this article) and two other colleagues, Emily and Jenny, had originally been employed on 12 month contracts, but with the support of colleagues in the Civil Service Commission, we have been granted an ‘Exception’ to convert these posts to permanent roles, which is fantastic news.

It truly is life enhancing! So our question to you…’what’s stopping you from doing something similar yourself? Just do it!’

Credit Donna Kidd - Thank you for writing this blog and allowing me to share with my LinkedIn Network