Harrogate charity fears children with dyspraxia and learning disabilities will get left behind in later life
A Harrogate charity has warned young adults with learning disabilities and autism are at risk of being forgotten when it comes to employment.
Harrogate Skills 4 Living Centre was set up in the late 1990s, but properly established 12 years ago - and in the past four years has set up educational programs to help vulnerable young people.
As well as running day courses and residential care, the charity also operates a program to help their students gain work experience and they do that through the social enterprise they set up.
“One of the things we recognised we needed was opportunities for people to build skills and confidence, so we set up our own Harrogate Chocolate Factory enterprise initially as an opportunity for people to get that and it really worked ever so well,” Hadyn Moorby-Davies, CEO of the Harrogate-based charity, explained.
“We’ve also opened a Harrogate Chocolate Factory café not so long ago, back in July last year which is also set up as a training café for people with learning disabilities and autism and it’s proving to be really successful.
“We rely so much on working, don’t we? Not just our income but also for our social lives and a sense of satisfaction as well. So many of our students they really aspire to work, they see their peers going out to work and they just want to do the same kinds of things, but they might just need that extra additional support.”
Although Harrogate Skills 4 Living Centre is doing it’s best to help its students succeed in full-time employment, Moorby-Davies shares the same concern the MP for Ipswich, Tom Hunt who suffers with dyspraxia and dyslexia, has.
Earlier this week, Hunt expressed his worry that those with the same condition as him will get left behind in education and won’t be able to live up to their full potential.
Moorby-Davies is well aware that those with special educational needs unfortunately are the ones who normally get left behind because they aren’t getting the funding they need.
He said:
“I think people with special education needs full stop are often left behind, they don’t necessarily get the additional funding that’s needed to help them with their needs. And a charity like ourselves we rely on funding whether it’s from education or social services.
“I worry a lot about the additional needs that young people have not being met at all and lacking opportunities to build confidence and to get out into the workplace and then being able to live an independent lifestyle.
“You tend to find that those who are on the cusp if you like, those that need a little bit of support tend to get missed whether it’s dyspraxia or dyslexia, or whatever that learning disability may be.”