Adult social care

Supported employment and volunteering

Our friendly team helps people with learning disabilities, learning difficulties or autism to learn new skills and flourish in the workplace.

We can help you to find and keep a job or volunteering role that you enjoy.

Our support includes:

  • help to find out what kind of job would be good for you
  • training so you can build basic skills that employers value
  • travel training
  • job searching tips
  • support to write your CV and prepare for interviews
  • job coaching and support at work so you can learn your role
  • chances to meet local employers that offer work experience, taster shifts or working interviews

Speak to our team 

To find out more, please email supportedemployment@barnsley.gov.uk or call (01226) 774528.

Meeting our team

  • When you get in touch we'll tell you more about the support we provide.
  • It’s good to talk about what work or volunteering you'd like to do and what you might be good at.
  • They'll talk to you about what you like to do and what you don’t like.
  • They'll help you to see what skills you already have. You can also talk about any skills you'd like to improve.
  • You can come up with a plan together.

Speaking to employers

  • Our team speak to local businesses so they can create roles for people that might need some extra support.
  • If there’s a job that we think you'll like, we might ask if we can introduce you.
  • Sometimes we can set up a working interview. This means you can try out the job as a trial.
  • Another way we can help is by creating a work placement so you can get some experience.

Finding the right match 

  • It’s good for us to show your CV to businesses if we think you might be a good match. This means we can see if the role would be a good fit for you.
  • We can work together to help you search for jobs too.
  • We work with employers to see if they can offer a job that would match your skills.

Getting settled in

  • We want to help you learn your job and feel confident.
  • Work placements are helpful because we can show you what to do.
  • Sometimes our job coaches can come to work with you until you're confident to do it on your own.
  • We can help you to learn how to travel to work if you need it.

More about the service

The service supports people who are over the age of 18 and either:

  • have a learning disability or difficulty
  • had an education, health and care plan during school
  • are otherwise neurodivergent (this includes adults with autism)

The service is part-funded by the UK government’s Local Supported Employment (LSE) scheme. This scheme is designed to help adults over the age of 18 who have learning disabilities or autism into work.

We work with the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, Sheffield City Council, City of Doncaster Council and Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. We also work with Speakup Self Advocacy as part of their 'Employment is for Everyone' project to create opportunities across South Yorkshire for people with learning disabilities and autism.

We want to hear from the people we’ve helped into jobs and volunteering roles so we can find out what we’re doing well and where we can continue to improve. Take part in our short survey today.

 

Hear from people we've helped

Jess's story 

"For people with learning difficulties, meeting employers can be hard. A working interview let me show that I can do my job." - Jess at Market Kitchen.

Supported employment - Jess

 

Lee's story 

"My job coach helped me to build my confidence. She made me feel better about meeting people. It really helps a lot." - Lee at RSPB Dearne Valley – Old Moor.

Learn more about Lee's story by checking out our YouTube video. 

Supported employment - Lee

 

Dylan's story 

"The best bit about doing my job is it has built up my confidence and it’s helped me communicate better with other people." - Dylan at Cannon Hall.

Learn more about Dylan's story by checking out our YouTube video. 

Supported employment - Dylan

 

Interested in creating supported employment and volunteering opportunities?

Do something amazing for your business and think about offering a great opportunity for someone. Find out more if your business is interested in creating supported employment opportunities.