About SUSE

Two café employees, wearing casual clothes and aprons, giving a high five to each other outside the shop.

The Scottish Union of Supported Employment (SUSE) is the national representative body for supported employment providers and anyone interested in ensuring that disabled people across our country have the opportunity of a working life.

We bring organisations together to campaign, network, improve how we work and share our experiences. Our aim is to support disabled people to find and retain paid work by increasing the availability, quality and impact of supported employment services in Scotland.

This is a critical time for our sector.  In April 2018 the Scottish Government launched the Fair Start Scotland programme, which expanded supported employment services across Scotland. In addition, the launch of the action plan to tackle the Disability Employment Gap in Scotland (3 years ago only 45% of disabled people are working, compared to 81% of their non-disabled peers) has led to the creation of Apt Public Social Partnership (PSP), which SUSE is the lead partner. This is a once in a generation opportunity for SUSE to shape the future of employment services for disabled people and fundamentally improve the life chances of thousands of people who have been marginalised in our communities. Latest figures show that 50% of disabled people are working.

SUSE started in 1995 and has played a leading role in the employability sector in Scotland most notably by working with government to develop a Supported Employment Framework for Scotland (2010), intended to ensure that providers are working to a consistent model and clients have a guarantee of a quality service.

In 2017 significant changes took place at SUSE.  A new Chairperson took up post and the board decided to create a CEO role to take the organisation forward.  Since then we have improved the governance of our organisation by developing a new mission statement and vision, recruited new trustees, revised our Articles of Association, developed a 3 year Strategy and Business Plan and launched a new membership offer. We have also reinvigorated SUSE as a campaigning and lobbying organisation and we have hosted a number of successful members’ events and conferences.  We are a credible voice with the Scottish Government, local authorities and funders and have played a leading role in the Scottish Government’s Expert Advisory Group on the Disability Employment Gap.

We are now working to:

  • Establish SUSE as a centre of excellence for supported employment and a hub for training, research, quality and workforce development.
  • Campaign for more supported employment provision and better services for disabled people.
  • Support our members to grow by piloting new approaches and bringing people together to collaborate and win new business.