Work matters to everyone, including disabled people.
Our mission is to help realise a world where disabled people have equal opportunity to take up employment and receive fair treatment in work.
We want to reduce and ultimately close the disability employment gap. This is the difference between the number of disabled and non-disabled people in paid employment. We do this by working with and supporting both jobseekers and employers.
As a charity in operation since 1993, Into Work has a track record of helping disabled and neurodivergent people and those with long-term health conditions to achieve their goals of finding and keeping a paid job.
Originally set up by Lothian Regional Council’s Economic Development department with funding from the Scottish Executive, for the first four years we delivered capacity-building and development services to other local organisations and local public sector projects before gradually shifting our focus to delivering our own employment services from 1998.
- We help the people who come to us to maximise their income and secure meaningful and sustainable employment.
- As a Disability Confident Leader, we support employers to reduce inequality and become more inclusive by changing their hiring practices.
We believe in the mantra ‘nothing about us without us’. It is important that we listen to the people that we support, so we design our services with the perspective and expertise of disabled people.
At Into Work, we follow the Social Model of Disability. It underpins our vision, values, and practice.
You can read more about the Social Model and how it informs our work here: Social Model of Disability Guidance in Into Work
Our values are very important to us and are at the core of who we are and what we do.
Flexibility
- We take time to get to know people and work with them on an individual basis
- We identify their specific needs and employment goals and adjust our support accordingly
- We encourage flexibility in others, particularly employers, demonstrating that workplace adjustments can make all the difference to someone being successful in their new job
Collaboration
- We’re good at what we do but we know we can’t do it all
- We work collaboratively with other organisations; initiating joint approaches to delivering services
- We provide opportunities for structured discussion, questioning and information sharing with staff
- We nurture and support creativity and the development of new ideas and ways of working
Perseverance
- We go the extra mile to deliver the best outcomes we can for individuals and for the organisation
- We challenge ourselves and ask the people we support, as well as employers, to do the same themselves
- We encourage open experimentation and accept failure as a necessary part of change and progress
Openness
- We listen actively, speak candidly, question thoughtfully and challenge openly
- We encourage honest communications with the people we help, with employers, our staff and our partners as we believe this is needed for our services to be a success
- We manage people’s expectations for the future by matching them to realistic opportunities appropriate to their skills, abilities and areas of interest
- We tell people when we believe things aren’t working out and we need to take a new direction with them
- We value all opinions. Our staff, whatever their job role, are encouraged to openly share their opinions and views
We cannot do our work alone. It involves working closely in partnerships with stakeholders. Together with The Action Group, Enable, and Forth Sector we run the All in Edinburgh project.