Disability employment gap

Global business collective, the Valuable 500, today announces new research showing that almost half of businesses believe that a key barrier to the recruitment and retention of disabled employees is the lack of candidates.

The Government has published a consultation on disability workforce reporting. The consultation is one of the commitments in the National Disability Strategy and will run until 25 March 2022.

The consultation seeks views on how employers with more than 250 employees might be encouraged to collect and report statistics about disability to make their workforces more inclusive. They want to build an evidence base to better understand:

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) Disability Commission has published a comprehensive report, Now is the Time, that examines disability policy across education, employment, housing, transport, and access to goods and services. BASE fed views into the report's development. We welcome its recommendations and expect it to influence the development of the National Disability Strategy.

The report has large chapters on education and employment with specific sections devoted to apprenticeships, Supported Interrnships and Supported Employment. The report also contains recommendations around support for employers, Access to Work, Disability Confident, workforce reporting and government procurement.

The 2019-20 Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF) figures for England were published today and show a mixed picture. We've posted the annual report and a spreadsheet of the disaggregated local authority rates at www.base-uk.org/employment-rates

Rates have risen again for adults in contact with mental services and now stand at 9% but the learning disability figure has fallen again, this time to 5.6%. This is very disappointing news and reflects the lack of support available to support people with learning disabilities into work. We really need DWP to take a lead on this issue and fund appropriate support in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Article 27).

The Work and Pensions Committee is investigating the gap between the employment rates of disabled and non-disabled people and how the Department for Work and Pensions can better support disabled people in the labour market.

They will be looking at trends in the disability employment gap, the economic impact of low employment rates for disabled people and the assistance available to help people in work. The inquiry will also cover the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Committee wants to hear from as many people as possible, especially disabled people, and has produced the call for evidence in text, audio, British Sign Language and EasyRead formats.

Publisher: 
Policy & research organisations
Topics: 
Disability employment gap, Commissioning, Strategy
Year of Publication: 
2020
Type: 
Report

This report from New Local, formerly the New Local Government Network, argues that the current employment support system, managed by the DWP, can often do more harm than good, leaving people distressed and fearful, and only helping to lift 4% of the group into work every year.

The report argues for greater collaboration between local government, public services, the third sector, businesses and communities with employment support being locally commissioned and embedded.

Millions of people find it difficult, or even impossible, to work due to the impact of disabilities and long-term health conditions. This is often part of a complex picture of wider social disadvantages, which can include issues such as poverty, loneliness and isolation, problems with housing, drug and alcohol addiction, and contact with the criminal justice system.

This has been compounded by record levels of unemployment in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. People who have been out of work for a long time due to this kind of complex disadvantage face not only their existing barriers to employment, but are also now at the back of a queue of millions of people who will find it easier to move into a job.

The report argues that even during periods of low unemployment, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has a poor record of supporting this group into work – only around 4% of those on associated benefits move into employment each year. The system DWP oversees has also often made people’s lives more difficult, exacerbating the stress and anxiety many already live with. Without major reform, the financial costs and human impact will continue to mount. It’s time to radically rethink support for this group.

Publisher: 
Charities
Topics: 
Disability employment gap, Job retention
Year of Publication: 
2020
Type: 
Research

This report, from Citizens Advice Bureau, sets out evidence on three key areas of employment rights in the redundancy process: fair redundancy processes, automatically unfair reasons for redundancy, and discrimination.

The report found that 1 in 6 (17%) of the working population are facing redundancy. But the findings also show this crisis is being faced unequally:

  • 1 in 4 disabled people (27%) are facing redundancy, rising to 37% for those people whose disability has a substantial impact on their activities
  • 1 in 2 people who are extremely clinically vulnerable to coronavirus (48%) are facing redundancy
  • 2 in 5 people with caring responsibilities (39%), either for children or vulnerable adults, are facing redundancy
  • 3 in 10 people with children under 18 (31%) are facing redundancy, compared to less than 1 in 10 (7%) of those who don’t have children under 18.

The Centre for Social Justice has published a new report, Commissioning Excellence in Disability , that examines DWP's nationally contracted disability employment provision. 

The report is critical of performance over recent years and highlights some of the problem areas including commissioning processes, funding models and supply chain management. It suggests ways of making better use of the expertise within the voluntary sector and makes a series of recommendations.

Publisher: 
Policy & research organisations
Topics: 
DWP, Disability employment gap, Commissioning
Year of Publication: 
2020
Type: 
Report

This report, from the Centre for Social Justice, assesses DWP's nationally contracted disability employment provision. The report is critical of performance over recent years and highlights some of the problem areas including commissioning processes, funding models and supply chain management. It suggests ways of making better use of the expertise within the voluntary sector and makes a series of recommendations.

Public Health England has issued updated statistics for the Public Health Outcomes Framework. They should that the disability employment gap for people with a learning disability and people in contact with secondary mental health services stands at almost 70% across England. The gap has increased by nearly 7% over the last 7 years.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Disability employment gap