Posted 23 Sep 2026
What effective employment support looks like
For many employment support programmes, getting someone into work is understandably a key measure of success.
But a job start alone does not tell us whether employment will be sustainable.
Will the person be able to navigate the workplace? Do they have strategies that work for them? Does their manager understand what support they need? Are there health, disability or neurodivergence-related barriers that haven’t yet been identified? And, importantly, will they still be in work six or twelve months later?
For people facing complex or overlapping barriers to employment, these questions matter.
They matter to the individual. But they also matter to commissioners, prime providers and organisations designing employment support programmes that need to deliver meaningful, sustainable outcomes.
At Genius Within, our experience across employment support, workplace psychology and neurodiversity has taught us that effective employability support needs to look beyond getting someone through the door.
The employment gap is about more than job vacancies
The latest Department for Work and Pensions statistics show that in April–June 2025, 52.8% of disabled working-age people were in employment, compared with 82.5% of non-disabled people.
The picture is particularly stark for some groups. In 2024/25, just 31.4% of disabled people who reported autism as their main health condition were in employment.
But perhaps one of the most important findings for employment support providers is what happens when people move into and out of work.
Across 2014–2024, workless disabled people moved into employment at an average annual rate of 7.6%, compared with 28.3% for workless non-disabled people. Disabled workers also moved out of employment at more than twice the rate of non-disabled workers: 10.1% compared with 4.6%.
So the challenge isn’t simply:
How do we help more people get jobs?
It’s also:
How do we help people enter the right work, overcome barriers, and sustain employment once they are there?
Sometimes the presenting barrier isn’t the whole barrier
Someone may enter an employment programme because they have been out of work for a long time.
But unemployment itself doesn’t tell us why they have struggled to find or sustain work.
There may be overlapping health conditions, disability, unidentified neurodivergence, difficulties with executive functioning, previous negative experiences of work, confidence, environmental barriers or a combination of factors.
This is where specialist provision can add value alongside mainstream employment support.
Rather than asking only, “What job could this person do?”, we need to understand what is helping or hindering their ability to enter, sustain and progress in employment.
And that understanding needs to translate into practical support.
Employment Support Personalisation matters
This isn’t simply our view.
The DWP’s 2026 evaluation of Intensive Personalised Employment Support (IPES) explored a programme specifically designed to support disabled people with complex barriers to employment into sustained work.
Its findings reinforce the importance of personalised support, continuity and trusted relationships between participants and their employment support professionals.
That closely reflects our own experience.
While delivering IPES, Genius Within achieved a 56% job outcome rate, compared with a 31% national provider average.
And of the Genius Within IPES participants who entered work, 83% sustained their employment.
For us, that distinction matters.
Employment support shouldn’t end when someone gets the job.
The workplace is part of the picture
Once somebody enters employment, the environment changes.
They may suddenly need to navigate new routines, colleagues, sensory environments, communication styles, workloads, expectations and unwritten workplace rules.
That’s why effective employability provision needs to be able to cross the boundary between employment support and workplace support.
Depending on the individual, that could mean identifying practical strategies, exploring workplace adjustments, supporting conversations with managers, helping someone understand how they work best or providing ongoing coaching.
IPES itself recognised this principle: DWP guidance provided for a minimum of 182 days of in-work support after a participant entered employment, including practical support, employer engagement and pursuing reasonable adjustments or Access to Work where required.
At Genius Within, this crossover is particularly important because our work spans both sides of that boundary.
We understand the journey towards employment, but we also work with hundreds of employers and thousands of people already in workplaces.
That gives us insight into what happens after Day One.
Work with the individual – and the employer
There is only so much we can achieve by preparing an individual for work if the workplace they enter presents unnecessary barriers.
Sustainable employment can require support on both sides.
An individual might need strategies for organisation, communication or managing their energy. At the same time, their manager may need support understanding reasonable adjustments, communicating expectations clearly or creating an environment in which somebody can perform at their best.
That doesn’t mean every participant needs intensive specialist intervention.
It means employment support models benefit from having access to the right expertise at the right point in the journey.
Sometimes that’s relatively light-touch support.
Sometimes it’s specialist coaching or workplace intervention.
Sometimes it’s understanding a complex combination of barriers that hasn’t responded to previous support.
The model needs to flex around the person, rather than expecting the person to fit neatly into the model.
Measure what happens after the job start
If we want sustainable employment, our measures of success need to reflect it.
Job starts matter. But so do:
retention, progression, wellbeing, workplace performance and the person’s ability to manage independently.
Our experience illustrates why.
Across our Work & Health Programme and spot delivery, 85% of the people we supported were retained in employment.
And our experience extends beyond employment programmes. Among people receiving our in-work services, 79% report improved performance at work, while managers report an average 44% improvement in performance following Genius Within support such as coaching.
These are different cohorts and measures, so they shouldn’t be treated as directly comparable. But together they illustrate something important:
There is value in continuing to support people once employment has been secured.
Specialist doesn’t have to mean separate
For commissioners and prime providers, bringing specialist expertise into an employment programme doesn’t necessarily mean creating another disconnected referral pathway.
Genius Within can provide end-to-end employment support or integrate specialist capability within a wider delivery model.
That can include profiling and planning, specialist coaching, job preparation, employer engagement, workplace support, retention and progression, alongside complex-case support where greater specialist input is required.
Our Partner Evidence Brief describes this as taking an integral role rather than occupying a narrow referral lane.
That distinction matters.
Participants shouldn’t have to repeatedly start again with a new service every time their needs cross an organisational boundary.
And delivery partners need clarity around who is accountable for what happens next.
Designing employment support for sustainable outcomes
The employment support landscape is evolving. But whatever individual programmes and commissioning models look like, there is an opportunity to think beyond simply moving people from “unemployed” to “employed.”
For people facing complex barriers, good employment support should help answer a bigger question:
What will enable this person to enter, sustain and progress in work?
That means understanding the individual rather than simply the presenting barrier.
It means recognising when specialist expertise could improve the pathway.
It means involving employers where the workplace itself is part of the solution.
And it means staying interested in what happens after someone starts work.
Helping them build a sustainable working life is the outcome that really matters.
How can we help?
Genius Within works with commissioners, prime providers and employment support partners to deliver specialist and end-to-end employment provision, including support for people with complex and overlapping barriers. If you’re designing or mobilising employment provision and would like to explore where our expertise could strengthen your model, get in touch.
Fiona Barrett, Chief Operating Officer
Drew Goddard, Social Justice Team Leader