Director, Centre for Disability Employment Research and Practice (CDERP) Visiting Fellow, Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, Cornell University

Peter Smith, PhD, is an international leader in disability employment research, systems reform, and practice innovation. Following a Master’s in Developmental Disability, his doctoral research at the University of Sydney: A Systems Analysis of Factors that Lead to the Successful Employment of People with a Disability, provided a fresh evidence base for redesigning employment supports.

That research produced the Equilibrium Systems Model of Employment (ESME), a systems-based framework for understanding and improving employment outcomes. ESME now underpins CDERP’s research and consultancy work, linking policy, organisational change, and individualised practice. As Director of the Centre for Disability Employment Research and Practice (CDERP), Peter leads a program of work that connects Customised Employment with fidelity tools and psychologically informed practice.

Key initiatives include: CEQAF – Customised Employment Quality Assurance Framework, a tiered fidelity model (Silver, Gold, Platinum) for strengthening CE practice. CEOFECT – Customised Employment Organisational Fidelity & Elevating Capacity Tool, embedding fidelity at the organisational level. PIE‐CF – Psychologically Informed Employment Counselling Framework, integrating counselling theory and trauma-informed approaches with vocational practice. PIEOM – Personally Inclusive Employment Outcome Measure, a next‐generation outcomes tool focused on the quality and sustainability of employment. DERS – Discovery Experience Reflection Scale, a client‐focused tool for capturing the quality and lived experience of the Discovery process. FERS - Family Experience Reflection Scale, a family focused tool for capturing family engagement in Discovery. SCMT - Sensory Comfort Mapping Tool, a client centered tool for mapping an individual's psychological safety needs in the workplace.

Peter is also developing a longitudinal database of CE outcomes and a new conceptual model of impairment for people with intellectual, developmental and cognitive disabilities. He is a Visiting Fellow at Cornell University’s Yang‐Tan Institute on Employment and Disability (ILR School) and collaborates widely with providers, researchers and policymakers in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the USA. A regular APSE conference speaker, Peter has also mentors emerging leaders globally through the AUCD Professional Fellows Program on Inclusive Disability Employment (PFP‐IDE), a U.S. State Department initiative supporting inclusive employment in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Through these initiatives, Peter is advancing an evidence‐driven, systems‐based transformation of disability employment—linking theory, practice and policy to achieve sustainable, person‐led outcomes.

Peter is the author of peer reviewed papers, book chapters and is authoring two books, one of the ESME system and the other a new approach to Customised Employment practice.

Dr

Peter Smith

Honorary (Fellow)

School of Social and Political Sciences

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Peter Smith

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Faculty of Arts

Primary Interest

Disability and Employment

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