In 2020, the National Board of Social Services initiated the development of a knowledge platform with knowledge about disabilities and employment.
In developing the knowledge platform, they hired VIVE (The Danish Center for Social Science Research) and the consultancy Implement Consulting Group into a joint project team to help them.
In Denmark, people with disabilities generally have lower attachment to the labour market than others. There are several support options in this area; however, it can unfortunately be difficult to get an overview of the many possibilities. This is one of the reasons why the National Board of Social Services in collaboration with VIVE and Implement Consulting Group has now developed a new major knowledge platform for disabilities and employment.
In Denmark, almost 760,000 Danes live with a disability or a long-term health issue. Although they should all be seen as individuals, each with their own background, personality and voice, there are some commonalities, including that fewer of them are employed compared to the rest of the population.
The depressing statistics cannot be explained by the fact that people with disabilities do not want to get a job. Many of them do want to work, but they experience physical, attitudinal and structural barriers that make it difficult for them to get a job.
Lack of overview
A lot of knowledge and many support options, tools and initiatives are available in this area. Unfortunately, municipalities, workplaces and people with disabilities and their families find it difficult to get a collective overview and put the different options into practice.
In 2020, to meet the needs of the various players, the National Board of Social Services launched the initiative of developing, collecting and targeting knowledge about disabilities and employment in a knowledge platform. The initiative is based on the rate adjustment pool agreement regarding getting more people with disabilities employed, which was entered into at the negotiations on employment for 2019-2022.
Clear and easy access to knowledge
In 2020, Implement Consulting Group and VIVE (The Danish Center for Social Science Research) joined the project.
“We started by asking ourselves: How do we disseminate knowledge about disabilities and employment to municipalities, public and private workplaces as well as citizens with disabilities? And so how do we provide the target groups with clear and easy access to knowledge that people with a specific disability can be included and retained in the labour market more easily?” says Tina Hjulmann Meldgaard, Project Manager and Management Consultant at Implement Consulting Group.
Today, the result of the initiative can be seen on the website of the National Board of Social Services, where citizens with disabilities, social workers and workplaces can now find knowledge about needs, tools, initiatives, legislation, technology support and citizen cases on a large knowledge platform.
