Neurodivergent People: Employment

Ian Sollom Excerpts

Tuesday 9th September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Ian Sollom (St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

I thank my neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Ely and East Cambridgeshire (Charlotte Cane), for securing this important debate. I would like to use my time to focus on some of the great work being carried out by organisations in my constituency and to share some of the practical suggestions they have made to me for improving the current system for those organisations and the people they work with.

One organisation that I have had the good fortune to visit, and whose work I have witnessed at first hand, is Switch Now. It is a qualified alternative education and training provider that supports neurodivergent people—whom it refers to as co-workers—into employment and, importantly, helps to keep them there. Switch Now was formed 10 years ago in St Neots and predominantly works with 18 to 35-year-old neurodiverse people. It works through the British Association of Supported Employment model—the BASE model—which sees it collaborate with the local community and partner organisations to find suitable jobs in inclusive workspaces. To do that, it works closely with employers to support them in hiring neurodiverse people and in making the adaptations that make a difference. Sometimes those can be as simple as swapping from analogue to digital clocks in the workplace. That can make a huge difference to the inclusion of some neurodiverse people.

One of the key elements with alternative providers such as Switch Now is how they look at the individual and their needs, and support them in the learning, skills development and work experience required to get into employment or regular voluntary activity—as others have noted, it is important that we do not take a one-size-fits-all approach to training and skills if we are going to support neurodiverse people into work.

Switch Now’s founder, Catherine, says that its model of looking at and securing an individual’s development and training needs means that, when they do gain employment, they are less reliant on social care and benefits in the long term, and can look forward to a more fulfilling future. At present, Switch Now is working with nearly 30 young people, who are given both on and off-site training and gaining work-based qualifications.

However, there are not nearly enough organisations like Switch Now, and there are barriers to these providers. Changes to the post-16 alternative provision framework have meant that organisations such as Switch Now have less direct contact with the young people they wish to help. They now see referrals on paper, and they do not have the opportunity to meet people in person. That is very slow and makes planning quite difficult.

As always with this type of provision, funding is a challenge, particularly when it comes to best practice. However, Switch Now’s long-term success means that, over the past 10 years, 83% of its co-workers have been supported into full-time, part-time or voluntary work, because it uses that person-centred method. I encourage the Minister to reflect on the BASE approach, and on providers such as Switch Now, and to see how levers in the DWP can be used to support those providers and to support individuals into work.