Functional Assessment to Predict Capacity for Work in a Population of School‐leavers with Disabilities

Abstract

This study reports on an assessment system for school‐leavers with disabilities to identify their capacity for work and the type of transition‐to‐work programme best suited to each person. Participants were 1,556 high school students in four cohorts who left school between 1999 and 2002. Each school‐leaver was assessed by rehabilitation counsellors for functional ability and capacity for work. In a supplementary study, the 2002 cohort was assessed by special transition teachers using a short screening tool. The results demonstrate that there is a predictable hierarchy of functional acquisition among school‐leavers with disabilities and that the single best predictor of future capacity for work and need for transition‐to‐work programmes among this group of young people is the capacity to manage activities of daily living. The results also demonstrate that a short screen used by teachers, together with a behavioural assessment, is sufficient to stream school‐leavers with a disability into a range of transition‐to‐work programmes.

Keywords:

• Capacity for work
• Disability
• Function
• Functional hierarchy
• School‐leavers

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the New South Wales DADHC. The original report to the Department (NSW ATLAS Consumers and Their Prospects) is available on the Centre for Health Service Development website (http://www.uow.edu.au/commerce/chsd/2001-2003otherpubs.html).