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Social on Business
Business Start-up Provision for
Disadvantaged People |
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5.3 Comparison with results with an exiting program in the SEEDA Region to support disabled people who want to start a business
Since 2001 Enham has been running a program funded by JobcentrePlus to support disabled people who want to start a business. A comparison of the overall results between the projects reveals very little difference. In all projects the positive outcomes achieved are around the 50% level. However there are some noticeable differences in how outcomes are achieved between the Social on Business and Business Ability Projects which are: -
- In the Business Ability projects people have generally been referred at the point when they first think about starting a business. In the Social on Business Pilot people were referred at different points in time, sometimes after some work on the business idea had been undertaken but progress was floundering.
- Whilst the number of positive outcomes are similar in all projects a greater proportion of people in Business Ability projects have gone on to start a business, fewer moving into employment. This may be due to three factors: -
- Finding employment despite legislation may be more of a barrier to the disabled, hence the need to pursue the business idea.
- The need for some disabled people to work from home.
- People without disabilities coming into the program because of a belief that they could not find employment. Because the nature of the support also has a personal development element a greater proportion of these people are able to find employment having built their confidence levels. It is interesting to speculate that many people only entered the project because it gave an alternative, dismissing those programs offering simply employment. During the journey through the Social on Business project they discovered their potential and found employment was a real possibility.
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