Recommendation 13

HM Government Acknowledged

The Government recognises that work is not an option for all disabled people, but many disabled people who can and want to work find themselves excluded from the workplace. For those disabled people who do find themselves excluded, the National Disability Strategy includes a comprehensive set of measures to support disabled people into good jobs and enable them to thrive in the workplace: 12 Disability employment gap: Government response • A new Adjustment Passport, to be piloted during 2021 by DWP and a new online advice hub will offer accessible information and advice on employment rights for disabled people, which was launched in July by BEIS, in partnership with Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas). • The Cabinet Office will consult on workforce reporting on disability for large employers, exploring voluntary and mandated workplace transparency, and publish a set of next steps. • For disabled people who can and want to work, DWP has committed to explore offering earlier and more intensive back-to-work support in Jobcentres for people before their work capability assessment (WCA). • DWP has rolled out a new approach to conditionality for disabled people and people with health conditions. This starts with a voluntary approach to agreeing useful work-related activity if appropriate, whilst maintaining the ability to introduce mandated activities if these will offer the best approach in supporting the claimant. The aim is to enable an honest and open conversation between a person and their work coach about what they can do and the space to try out and expand activities over time without risking a sanction. • DWP will increase places on Intensive Personalised Employment Support (IPES) by 25 percent. • This will help ensure that more disabled people and people with health conditions will be able to rapidly access appropriate tailored support. Disability Confident employers are encouraged to obtain advice and support from Jobcentre Plus, Work Programme providers, recruiters and/or your local disabled people’s user led organisations (DPULOs) and regularly advertise vacancies with them as part of their Disability Confident commitments. They may provide advice on offering placements and work trials and job carving of opportunities (where the role focuses on tasks the disabled person is able to do and those they are unable to do are allocated to others). The Disability and Health Green Paper sets out the Department’s ambition to support and empower disabled people to achieve their full potential, while the Government’s response to the Health is Everyone’s Business consultation sets out how we will improve support for people in work. In-work Support Information and advice