Life Without Barriers has an ambitious plan for ECEC to follow for recruitment

Although more than 20 per cent of Australians have a disability, only half of them who are of working age have secured employment. To combat this statistic, Life Without Barriers has launched an Access Inclusion and Employment Plan (AIEP), cementing its commitment to improving employment opportunities for people with disability across Australia over the next three years.

Central to the AIEP is a goal for 15 per cent of the Life Without Barriers workforce, at all levels, comfortably identifying as having lived experience of disability within the next three years.

The AIEP outlines 66 actions to improve access and inclusion within the organisation, for the people Life Without Barriers serve, and within the communities in which they work and live. This includes enhancing the organisation’s leadership role in the sector, attracting and recruiting people with disability and having robust processes for adjusting work for individuals with a disability.

The organisation hopes the measures will serve as an inspiration for other sectors and industries, with Life Without Barriers Chief Executive Claire Robbs saying bold and accountable measures are needed for there to be an impactful change in the employment barriers for people with disability.

“As a top industry for employment growth, the care and support sector can set an example for government and corporate employers by employing people with a disability,” Ms Robbs said.

“The barriers people with disability face in accessing fair and equitable employment are barriers we create in society,” she added. 

“It is incumbent upon us to eradicate the unconscious bias and misconceptions about people with disability in the workforce.” 

Despite Australia’s relatively low unemployment rate of 3.5 per cent (August 2022), the rate of unemployment for working-aged people with a disability remains double that of the general population.

“We know that the majority of working-age people with disabilities do not require additional support or time off work because of their disability, yet we continually see this group under-represented in that labour market,” Ms Robbs said.

“We will achieve the targets set out in the AIEP by leveraging our resources, experience and scale to enhance our workforce practices and lobby and encourage all Australian employers to do the same.”