Discover the submissions that Rehab Group makes to Government, across a broad range of topics, in order to positively influence the lives of persons with a disability and people who are at a disadvantage.
In preparing our Pre-Budget Submission 2024, we consulted widely with more than 460 of our Service Users across the country. We also carried out a survey with a small cohort of frontline staff, including Care Workers, Instructors, Psychologists, Rehabilitation Officers, Supervisors and Managers.
Rehab Group believes that people with disabilities should live self-determined, independent lives. Budget 2024 must create a platform to deliver a more equal and just society and develop pathways to full community participation for people with disabilities. Our pre-budget submission is wide-ranging and cross-cutting and we emphasise the need for a whole of Government approach to Disability.
We have 10 headline asks for Budget 2024 to address the critical issues for our service users and the wider challenges facing disability services.
Rehab Group welcomes the opportunity to participate in this consultation on the Review of the Wage Subsidy Scheme. Rehab Enterprises is one of the largest employment providers for people with disabilities. We operate a unique integrated model of employment, where sectors employees with disabilities work alongside employees without disabilities across a number of sectors. We advocate for the rights of people with disabilities to access meaningful employment. There are many benefits for companies employing people with disabilities including: lower absenteeism; lower staff turnover; a more diverse and positive work environment; increased staff loyalty; and increased ROI on training and development.
Rehab is requesting the Committee’s support for a funding stream for the Transitional Workforce Solution model in the Social Protection envelope for Budget 2024 either within the existing programmes or through a specific TWS Programme.
Over the past year, Rehab Enterprises has been piloting the TWS Solution Employability Programme. The TWS goes beyond other existing employability programmes by supporting both the participant and the host company with end-to-end guidance and interventions, from a less formalised, friendlier recruitment process to providing employers with the confidence and knowledge to work with people with disabilities within their workforce. The programme also seeks to bring people with disabilities into mainstream employment as opposed to finding them employment in congregated settings within social enterprises.
Rehab Enterprises-Pre-Budget Submission to Joint Oireachtas Committee SPCRI Rehab Enterprises-Pre-Budget Submission to Joint Oireachtas Committee SPCRI
Rehab Group welcomes the efforts made to establish a new Pay-Related Benefits system for jobseekers. Over the course of February 2023 the advocacy team in Rehab Group conducted five focus groups with just under 40 students, primarily on vocational training, of National Learning Network to develop an understanding of their experiences and viewpoints for this submission.
In putting this brief submission together, we have drawn on the experience of the people we support and also the experience of frontline staff in supporting people with disabilities. We have also drawn on our experience as one of the largest employers of people with disabilities in Ireland.
Over the course of February 2023 the advocacy team in Rehab Group conducted seven focus groups with over 70 students of National Learning Network to develop an understanding of their experiences and viewpoints and to ensure their voices are heard with regards the future of Lifelong Guidance.
Rehab Group Submission Strategic Framework for Lifelong Guidance
This is an Easy Read document that will explain the key and most relevant points of Budget 2023.
This pre budget submission will give the service users of the Rehab Group an opportunity to highlight and address some of their key concerns prior to budget 2023.
In June of this year Rehab Group carried out 26 in depth focus groups with over 220 of its service users from across the country. In these focus groups we discussed what life is like for people with disabilities in an Ireland in the depths of a Housing and Cost of Living crises in 2022. We listened as they passionately outlined the difficulties they face in the current climate and the solutions they implored the Government to put in place.
Please read our submission and our Easy Read version below
In putting this brief submission together, we have drawn on the experience on the people we support and also the experience of frontline staff in supporting people with disabilities. We have also drawn on our experience as one of the largest employers of people with disabilities in Ireland.
Ireland has one of the lowest rates of employment for people with disabilities in the western world. There are many factors involved and the reasonable accommodations fund has an obvious role to play in addressing this dreadful record.
The central issue in this submission is the low take-up of the existing grant schemes. We also look at ways the existing grants could be improved.
The following submission sets out the priority areas that Rehab Group and, in particular, the people we support would like to see tackled by the Government in Budget 2022.
In our submission we draw on the lived experience of the 10,000+ people supported by Rehab, and we use the organisation’s wealth of knowledge on these issues. From that lived experience, we set out some of the priority areas that need to be addressed to tackle these issues in Budget 2022 and bring Ireland into line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Each year, Rehab asks the people using its services about what would make a difference in their lives in the forthcoming Budget. In this submission, Rehab presents its asks in relation to social welfare payments, the cost of disability and employment to the Department of Social Protection, Community and Rural Development, and the Islands. This is informed by the feedback we received from 33 focus groups held in 21 counties across the country.
This research paper sets out the main feedback from extensive engagement with people attending Rehab services in May 2021.
During May, we sought substantial and detailed feedback from people in RehabCare and students in National Learning Network (the training section of Rehab Group). We asked about the main
challenges that people in Rehab services faced but also what they would like to see tackled in the next Budget.
Over 200 participants took part in 33 focus groups across 21 counties. This report seeks to give voice to some of the main issues that were raised by participants and offers some key insights into the matters most affecting people with disabilities or mental health challenges in Ireland.
Our submission provides feedback on the draft Initial State Report produced by the State under Article 35 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). The evidence presented in this submission is based on the analysis and findings of focus groups carried out this year on the UNCRPD, other recent survey research we have conducted, and our experience as a front-line disability services provider and advocator for the rights for people with disabilities.
Please see below our submission as well as an Easy Read version and an Audio Description version on Soundcloud.
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rehab-group-uncrpd-easy-read-submission
Submission on Initial State Report on UNCRPD Audio
To view an animated video of our submission, click here:
To access an animated video of the articles individually, please refer to the list below:
Article 9 – Accessibility: Buildings and Services
Article 9 – Accessibility: Technology
Article 9 – Accessibility: Physical Environment
Article 9 – Accessibility: Transport
Article 19 – Living Independently and Being Included in the Community
Article 21 – Freedom of Expression, Opinion and Access to Information
Article 24 – Education
Article 25 – Health
Article 27 – Work and Employment
The current eligibility criteria for the SUSI grant is unsuitable for some people with disabilities in Ireland who want to access further and higher education. In this submission, we make recommendations to change the scheme to encompass part-time and online higher education courses, and to include FET in the eligibility criteria for the scheme.
National Learning Network (NLN) has welcomed the opportunity to contribute to the SOLAS 10-Year Adult Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy. Our submission details the challenges and opportunities for Ireland in relation to adult literacy, numeracy, and digital literacy, suggests how to work towards a society with services are universally designed and how stakeholders can collaborate to share learning and contribute to the knowledge base for best practices in adult literacy, numeracy, and digital skills development.
This submission seeks to give voice to issues affecting students with disabilities in the further education sector so that when setting its terms of reference and work-plan, the Disability Matters Committee considers these issues. NLN would particularly like to see an emphasis in the terms of reference and in the work-plan of the Committee on Article 24 (Education), Article 27 (Work) and Article 28 (Adequate Standard of Living & Social Protection) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
nln-submission-to-oireachtas-committee-on-disability-matters
Rehab Group supports over 10,000 people each year through a wide variety of social care, specialist training and other services. We especially focus on services for people with disabilities and people experiencing disadvantage.
This pre-Budget submission seeks to give voice to the concerns of the people who use our services.
One of the key objectives of the Apprenticeship Action Plan 2021 to 2025 as set out in the consultation paper is to encourage diversity and support participation by underrepresented groups in apprenticeships. This submission will look at ways that participation of people with disabilities can increase from a low of 2.7% at the end of 2019 to 7% by the end of 2025.
NLN Apprenticeship Action Plan 2021-2025 Consultation Paper V1.0 Final
Rehab Group made a submission in response to the Department Enterprise, Trade and Employment’s consultation process on developing guidance on remote working for employers and employees. We established this as an opportunity to make recommendations to the Department on remote working solutions for persons with disabilities. The submission also seeks clarification from the Department on the use of grants and supports for persons with disabilities who work remotely.
Rehab Group made a submission to the National Transport Authority (NTA) regarding the Limerick Shannon Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy (LSMATS). The submission urged that several key recommendations would be included in the Strategy to ensure its accessibility to all following its completion.
The Rehab Group made a submission to the Department of Social Protection, Community and Rural Development, and the Islands regarding Budget 2021 to advocate for adequate income supports for persons with disabilities in the coming year.
The Rehab Group made a submission to SOLAS on the Strategic Direction of Further Education and Training in order to outline actions that, if implemented, would ensure equitable opportunities for all potential FET students and increase the likelihood of students with disabilities achieving personal and academic success at graduation.
The National Learning Network used its expertise, and in particular its experiences on the Stepping Out programme based in Athlone, to highlight areas that are integral to ensuring the strategy’s success, and to emphasise the importance of early intervention, education and diversion of young people at risk of offending and those with a previous conviction.
Rehab Group highlights the challenges faced by individuals we support, students, and their families; their needs throughout lockdown; their current and future needs post-lockdown; and the additional support that the Rehab Group has provided, and will continue to provide, to individuals who use our services. People who access our services have struggled with the changes that the COVID-19 pandemic has presented.
Throughout this submission we at National Learning Network make reference to several issues that have arisen during the pandemic, the impact they have had on our students’ lives and the lives of their families, how we have responded to those issues, and what further action is required.
While the Rehab Group welcomed the National Disability Inclusion Strategy as an important step forward and a progression in important areas, it was important to highlight during the Strategy’s mid-term review areas that could be significantly improved.
submission-on-mid-term-review-national-disability-inclusion-strategy-2017-2021
Budget 2022 was announced on Tuesday, 12 October 2021.
This document sets out a short summary of the main changes that will affect the people who use Rehab’s services in an Easy Read format.