Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 19
19
The Department, and the Department of Health & Social Care, ran a consultation from July...
Conclusion
The Department, and the Department of Health & Social Care, ran a consultation from July to October 2019 seeking views on the different ways in which government and employers can reduce ill health-related job losses.54 The Department has committed to producing a Green Paper on the topic and a related National Strategy for Disabled People and told the Work and Pensions Select Committee in May 2021 that the Green Paper was very close to being ready and that, were it not for the pandemic, it would have been launched just before Summer 2020.55 After we asked about progress on this in our evidence session, the Department published the Green Paper Shaping Future Support – The Health and Disability Green Paper, on 20 July 2021. The Green Paper said that the National Disability Strategy would be published “shortly”, and that this will “outline practical changes to tackle the day-to-day challenges disabled people face” and “set out the Government’s vision to transform the lives of disabled people by tacking action across Government and wider society.56
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
4a: PAC Recommendation: The Department must now use the consultation and the Health and Disability Green Paper to clarify how it will support disabled people and people with health conditions, and publish the National Disability Strategy. 4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 4.2 The National Disability Strategy was published on 28 July 2021. It includes wide- ranging measures to support disabled people in employment and to progress. A range of Department for Work and Pensions initiatives are supporting disabled people to stay in and enter work including the Work and Health Programme, the Intensive Personalised 19 Employment Support programme, Access to Work, Disability Confident and support in partnership with the health system, including Employment Advice in National Health Service Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services. 4.3 The department is committed to supporting individuals in low-paid work to increase their earnings or move into better paid work.