Cambridgeshire County Council

Build aspirations and opportunities for people with learning disabilities (LD) and / or autism to gain and maintain employment” was the Ultimate Goal for a five day design sprint, or “hack”. It was run in July by LGSS Digital and included adult teams from Cambridgeshire County Council, partner organisations as well as service users (our “experts”).

We undertook user research to understand the needs of our experts and the pain they currently experience. Our final product was a set of wireframes for a website aimed at young adults with LD to inform them about opportunities available for when they leave full time education. Our prototype was tested and it proved that a resource with real-life case studies, videos and accessible media was needed.
The week highlighted the sheer commitment, drive and energy of the whole group around this important topic. Partners all do their own brilliant work but agreed that this website would help to unite them and make a real, collective difference.

The first iteration of the website will closely match our wireframes and we hope that further iterations will become a valuable resource for employers to understand how they might make their employment processes easier for people with LD and autism.

Discovery evidence

In Cambridgeshire, it is estimated that there are 4,552 people of working age with a Learning disability.

The target number of Adults with a Learning Disability and/or Autism to be in employment is 6%.  This figure stands at 2.6% in Cambridgeshire.

We know the positive impact finding meaningful employment can have on people with LD.  The impact has been astounding in terms of confidence, wellbeing, becoming a real asset in a workplace and less reliance on the council.

The reason why we have chosen to move to alpha with the website is mainly because of the discovery work carried out during the hack week.  The output from this is here: https://sway.office.com/iUH9ATBLwnEu47gz?ref=Link