Employers are to be given a cash incentive to give work to a young person with a disability, under an initiative launched by six Scottish charities.

The Open Doors Scotland project aims to support 350 people, aged 16-24 and who have a disability, to help them find and keep a job.

The scheme, funded by Skills Development Scotland has been set up in recognition of the fact that nearly one in five working-age Scots are disabled, and fewer than half of them have a job.

Payments of up to £1500 will be made available to employers who are willing to recruit a young person with a disability for a minimum of 15 hours per week.

Open Doors will also tailor support to individual young people to offer the help they need, such as by helping them to travel independently to and from work or offering personal development programmes or financial and welfare advice.

The lead organisations are Enable Scotland, Action on Hearing Loss, Capability Scotland, The Lennox Partnership, RNIB and SAMH.