In mid-July 2021 Y.O.U began working in partnership with The
Scottish Union of Supported Employment and The Public Social Partnership. Dr Danielle Farrel Managing Director of Y.O.U was assigned the Lead Lived Experience Co-Ordinator role. This involves leading a small team of co-ordinators who are responsible for recruiting people with lived experience on to SUSE’s work streams.
 
SUSE is the lead partner in the Disability Employment Gap Public Social Partnership (PSP) which has been commissioned by the Scottish Government. A PSP is a strategic partnering arrangement which gives the third sector the opportunity to design future public services by trying and piloting new ideas and approaches.

The Disability Employment Gap PSP is a unique and forward-thinking initiative in the Scottish employability landscape. We aim to contribute to the ambition set by the Scottish Government in The Fairer Scotland for Disabled People –Employment Action Plan, to half the Disability Employment Gap by 2038.

The Disability Employment Gap PSP is focused on working with Scotland’s employers. We will develop and deliver a range of innovative projects which enable employers to address the gaps in their knowledge and expertise and improve the employment prospects of disabled people. We hope to achieve a lasting culture change in our workplaces by addressing employer concerns regarding their legal responsibilities, embedding equality and diversity
in workplace cultures and sharing our knowledge of reasonable
adjustments and available support – to enable disabled people to take up and sustain paid employment.
 
The lived experience co-ordinator team are currently working with SUSE’s existing partners as well as external organization as appropriate to identify people with lived experience who they either employ or support who are willing to participate in the monthly work streams to share their experience and knowledge of living with disability with their colleagues and the employers that they are working with. It is part of the co-ordinator team role to consult with each participant who is interested in becoming involved within the work stream to find out what support they require to participate fully and also to link them with their preferred work stream and also with the lead of that work stream, to introduce them to each other and
also to insure that the lead of each work stream has the right support to ensure that they can support the individual with lived experience confidently and efficiently.
 
In my role as lead, I am responsible for over seeing this work and for supporting the rest of the team appropriately to ensure that they have the right support to fulfil their role. In my role I have also been allocated a number of partners to contact in relation to connecting those they work with or support to the work streams. I meet with both the co-ordinator team and the chief executive officer of SUSE on a regular basis to update him on the progress of the project and to address any matters that require resolution in terms of insuring participants can participate fully.
 
The lead co-ordinator role has been a brand-new role for Dr Danielle Farrel and Y.O.U however it has opened doors to new partnership working with SUSE and we look forward to seeing how this progresses.

Most recently Dr Danielle Farrel and Y.O.U have taken on a second lead role within the Public Social Partnership that SUSE host. They are now leading on the delivery of the under-represented groups workstreams.This involves working with a range of employers across various sectors on a consultancy basis and ensuring they can access therange of services being offered within this particular workstream. This also involves delivering some of Y.O.U's training to these employers.