Partnering to grow skills for a neurodiverse digital industry
Co-op Foundation’s Federation programme, supported by Luminate, provides capacity building opportunities that aim to develop and strengthen the skills, processes or resources that sustain organisations working towards more responsible and equitable design and use of tech. Key to this is a digital sector with more diverse teams, which can help to create more inclusive, innovative tech.
Introducing Digital Advantage and SENDCode
Digital Advantage and SENDCode are Federation partners working to create opportunities for under-represented young people with autism and special educational needs.
SENDCode is dedicated to improving lifelong outcomes for autistic young people, with an interest in digital careers, who are currently struggling to leave their bedrooms. They do this by delivering remote, face to face, 1:1 and group sessions for young people who are socially isolated and/ or autistic, offering training and coaching on developing a digital portfolio, from skills learned with them in game design, coding, web development, cyber security and video production. For many of their young people, the SENDCode trainer is the only outside person they engage with, following years of being housebound.
Digital Advantage has a vision for disadvantaged young people, particularly those with autism, and others that are not in employment, education or training, fulfilling their potential by gaining employment in the digital economy. They are on a mission to train and inspire the next generation of creative and digital talent to thrive in work, and life at the forefront of the digital economy. They help disadvantaged young people bridge the gap between education and employment by providing inspiring and innovative training, mentoring and digital work experiences, supporting them into rewarding roles in the digital economy. They also support public bodies, employers and other agencies working to improve the economy and the lives of young people.
A shared need for building capacity
Whilst some funding was needed to support operational and core costs such as space and equipment, SENDCode and Digital Advantage needed funding to build their capacity for forming an effective partnership to co-deliver an Independent Specialist College (ISC) for Manchester. They hoped to provide access to the college for neurodivergent young people who have skills in coding, programming, cyber security, graphic design, website creation, videography and animation.
Digital Advantage needed funding to accelerate the growth of its existing Supported Digital Work Hub based at Holyoake House, with SENDCode being an education provider. The ISC status was important for them both to move beyond project funding and towards more secure revenue streams that could sustain their work and open up opportunities for young people.
Where capacity building led
To aid their journey Digital Advantage and SENDCode used their initial capacity building funding from the Federation programme as a catalyst for additional resources via the Reach Fund, which in turn helped to secure social investment funding from Charities Aid Foundation (CAF). This would only be triggered if they were accepted by the Department for Education as an education provider.
The funding enabled both organisations to:
- Free up time to help with the application process for the ISC
- Gain specialist support from consultants and advisers to assist with the application process and develop a business plan, impact framework and theory of change
- Free up time to develop relationships with Greater Manchester schools and Manchester City Council SEND and Education teams
- Design the curriculum, systems and processes for the safe and smooth running of the college and to prepare for Education and Skills Funding Agency regulation.
In May 2022, they were notified that they had been successful in achieving their ISC Licence. The subsequent release of the funding from CAF meant that they could begin to recruit staff and students. They needed to get 10 students on the programme for a September 2022 start.
Learning and impact
The Digital Independent Specialist College (DiSC) opened its doors on 14 September 2022 for aged 16+ neurodivergent young people. The initial 10 students has now grown to 12 and they have 7 students working on a pre-internship programme and up to a further 9 undertaking a flexible, alternative provision programme in an adjacent space at the Supported Digital Work Hub.
Their key learnings focus on:
- Discovering what you don’t know, finding the people who can help and allowing sufficient time to explore.
- Building connections and collaboration are great sources of support for achieving and sustaining impact.
Knowing what you don’t know
Both partners found the process of becoming an ISC far from straight-forward and don’t believe they could have done this without access to education and other consultants who were funded through the Co-op Foundation capacity building grant. They discovered through the process that they needed further support to gain the social investment required for the cash flow of the project. Key learning from this was to ‘know what you don’t know’ and then to find experts that you can work with, and help them to help you.
The capacity building funding gave them the space to embark on the journey. It enabled teams to take a step back and work with others to undertake detailed administrative and managerial tasks. It enabled them to buy-in expertise. It freed up time to get their offer out to commissioning officers across Greater Manchester. Without this it would have been a real struggle to run their businesses and work on the development of the ISC at the same time.
Working in partnership enabled them to overcome some of the challenges of the complicated and time-consuming activities as they were able to share tasks, but another key learning was never to underestimate how much time it takes to prepare for something like this.
Building connections and collaboration
Digital Advantage found the Federation community itself has continued to be a source of inspiration and support. They valued shared learning opportunities as well as social and wellbeing events, which they stress should also not be underestimated for the informal support and connections they generate.
Alongside seeding the successful DiSC collaboration, capacity building funding opened up other partnering opportunities for SENDCode. It allowed the team time to focus on developing a prototype platform for neurodivergent (ND) young people to assess their own progress towards employment. It provided time for them to build relationships with the AI Foundry and University of Manchester, working with a researcher on developing the early prototype, which can now be used as the basis for exploration into a better user experience for a neurodiverse-friendly online tool.
What’s coming next
Office for National Statistics 2021 data suggests that just 29% of autistic people are in employment, yet a 2016 report on autism and the workplace revealed that the vast majority want to be in work. Two thirds of parents of autistic children feel that their school or college is not equipped to offer the type of support that they require. Digital Advantage and SENDCode are passionate about reducing these numbers. Being able to set up DiSC and their pre-internship programme is helping to achieve this.
Both the Supported Digital Work Hub and the Digital Supported Internship from DiSC are the first of their kind in the UK and demand for both is increasing steadily. They are planning to increase the number of places available for the next academic year, and potentially to expand into other areas of the North West in the coming years. In the meantime, they are building relationships with local industry to challenge perceptions.
You can find out more about Digital Advantage and SENDCode on their websites or connect with DiSC to hear more about its continuing impact.
This post was collaboratively prepared by Digital Advantage, SENDCode, and Paper Frogs, a delivery partner working on the Federation programme. The Federation programme is a Co-op Foundation partnership supported by Luminate. It is empowering people across Greater Manchester to challenge the ways in which technology and data reinforce inequalities.
