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Leading UK disability organisations, including charities, academics and trade unions, have united to urge the government to take more action to end employment discrimination against disabled people. Following the publication of the government’s National Disability Strategy earlier this year, the group has launched a Disability Employment Charter as a clear mandate for action: outlining the steps government and employers must take to address the disadvantage disabled people experience in UK workplaces.

BASE has responded to the consultation on DWP's Health & Disability Green Paper, Shaping Future Support

The Open University has published its annual Business Barometer report for 2021. 

The key points are:

Audrey Bodman will be delivering a free 90 minute training session via Zoom on Thursday 7th October and it's all about making new calls. 

This training session is aimed at those within the employability, skills and social care sectors who might be new to making calls to employers or have never had any training. It’s definitely a refresher for those who have worked with Audrey before as she’ll be going into more detail on tips previously shared via webinars, tips or within the Facebook group.

The European Union for Supported Employment is organising a seminar for employers about inclusive recruitment practice. It will feature presentations by a number of well-known companies working across Europe and aims to offer tips to employers about best practice in inclusive recruitment.

There have been a number of ministerial changes announced in the recent reshuffle.

The new Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work is Chloe Smith MP. She replaces Justin Tomlinson who has been appointed Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. Chloe is the ninth person to occupy the role since 2010.

DWP is currently holding engagement events regarding their new dynamic procurement system (DPS) for the replacement Flexible Support Fund (FSF2). They have published slides from the event and these are attached below. It is expected that the new system will go live from November and all suppliers will need to gain fresh accreditation on the system if they wish to quote for work. Suppliers can register on the new DPS system from 20 September.

DFN Project SEARCH is running a series of workshops where they will present and discuss the data they collect around their Supported Internships. They use this data to to help them understand what's working well and what isn't. They've analysed this information for their 2020-2021 cohort and will share it at the workshops. Topics covered will include overall employment outcomes, average salaries and hours and Intern demographics and more.

The events can be booked through Eventbrite.

DWP has issued an invitation to tender for an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Accreditation Pilot. The Invitation to Tender (ITT 21630) is available to view on the Bravo Solution website and closes on 20 September.

BASE is one of 80 signatories to a letter to the Prime Minister calling on him to drive forward a coordinated cross-departmental approach to tackling short-term and long-term youth unemployment to ensure that there will be no ‘lost generation'.

The 80 organisations have come together through the Youth Employment Group to warn that despite government efforts for youngsters to get the help that they need to get into work through investment in employment support, education, training and jobs, the challenge for young people is far from over.

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