Sayce Review

The Department's disability employment funding should be focused on supporting aspirations for sustainable work and career choices across all types of employment, as for other citizens, in every sector: whether as an employee, entrepreneur, self-employed, or working for a social enterprise, mutual or co-operative; with support to 'get in' work – through apprenticeships, internships, work experience, learning on the job programmes and work placements, to 'stay in' and to 'get on'. Money should follow the individual so they can work where they choose, rather than the Department funding disability-specific workplaces or facilities. Over time all specialist disability employment support should be made available through individual budgets so individuals can select the support that best meets their needs. Support should be evidence based which means: a focus on supporting people into and in open employment, with ongoing and flexible support for employee (and employer) where needed to get in, stay in and get on; rapid job search rather than assuming a series of stepping stones are needed first; and rapid support and adjustments to aid job retention.

Access to Work should be transformed from being the best kept secret in Government to being a recognised passport to successful employment, doubling the number of people helped. Government should improve equity of access, use innovation to create efficiencies, remove unnecessary waste and mobilise the power of peer support.

The Department should make Access to Work available through an internet-based portal that opens up knowledge of support, technology, services and "what works" to employees and employers. Suppliers could compete through the website thereby driving down unit costs and developing the market for disability employment support. The Department should investigate options for the website to operate independently – perhaps being opened up beyond Access to Work users – so that market forces push costs down further. This could work alongside a core advice and assessment service for Access to Work. Further work will be required to develop the specification, but the portal should deliver: increased choice; improved customer experience; and reduced costs. The portal might also offer: information on the range of supports, adjustments, and adaptations; on-line peer support, discussion forums and reviews of products and services; and information on rights and duties of employees and employers.

The Department should undertake a targeted information-sharing campaign about Access to Work, concentrated on: growth sectors, to enable disabled people to have a fair chance of securing new jobs as the economy grows; small- and medium-sized enterprises; the professional groups and trade unions who have most contact with disabled people – in particular health and social care staff; BME, learning disability, mental health, neuro-diversity and multiple impairment networks – to reach people who are under-served and/or have low employment rates. The Department should be transparent about the limited budget and manage it in the most equitable way possible. The campaign should utilise existing structures such as Direct Gov and work in partnership with trade unions, professionals and user-led organisations.

The Department should increase employer confidence in employing people with fluctuating conditions by making Access to Work available to part-fund temporary cover for an employee of a small business who is off sick for a significant period of time. Funding might only be available for smaller employers, for prolonged condition-related absences. Individuals should be able to draw down support when required.

The Department should increase employer and employee confidence by strengthening the indicative pre-employment Access to Work eligibility, based on work likely to be undertaken, to be finalised once the exact role is known.

The Department should train Jobcentre Plus advisers to support and, where necessary, constructively challenge employers, where they are not willing or confident to make adjustments or introduce accessibility features to enable an individual to work successfully. This would help avoid placing the onus for negotiation wholly on the newly employed individual.

The Department should strengthen the role Access to Work plays in supporting independent travel where appropriate, engaging with individuals to take advantage of training and confidence-building in public transport or driving. It should then consider time-limiting – in some cases – payments for taxis. However, adequate protections must be in place for people who do need taxis long term to ensure they are not forced to stop using taxis where this would put them at significant disadvantage.

The Department should work with user-led organisations to provide services and peer support for people using Access to Work. This could include assessment and delivery – so the process is fully informed by what others have found most helpful.

Over the long term the Department should significantly expand funding for Access to Work. This could be achieved by applying the AME-DEL switch principle to release money to invest in the programme in recognition of the benefit savings it generates.

The Department should introduce a stronger triage system for Access to Work applicants. People who understand their support needs should not have to go through detailed assessment unless what is asked for is disputed.

The Department should ensure Access to Work awards are transferable from one employer to another. Reassessments should be avoided unless necessary, and should take place only if requested by the disabled person or the type of work changes significantly.

Government should, longer term, radically simplify assessment, thereby saving time, money and bureaucracy. There should be an aspiration to a single, portable assessment covering employment, health and social support needs as well as benefit entitlement.

Government should act as an exemplar in making adjustments. As Access to Work is not available for central Government: government departments should move towards centralising the budget for adjustments to ensure there is no disincentive to employing people with complex adjustment needs; Access to Work advice and assessments should continue to be available to employees and employers in government departments; and government departments should continue to fund adjustments for their employees to a level equivalent to that provided by Access to Work.

Government should ensure adjustments are funded for internships, work experience, learning on the job programmes and work placements. This can be through ring-fenced budgets within programmes, plus a ring-fenced budget within Access to Work.

The Department should, by the end of the current Spending Review, have introduced a new model for Remploy, and Government funding should be invested in effective support for individuals, rather than subsidising factory businesses: Remploy Enterprise Businesses should be given the opportunity – with expert support – to become successful businesses free from Government control. Where this is not an option, and businesses cannot continue, individual employees should be offered guaranteed and active support to secure employment, training, or other community activity. Remploy Employment Services should in future secure Government funds only by competing for contracts like other providers.

The Department should ensure resources released from Remploy reform (after accounting for the costs of reform) are spent on employment support that fits disabled people's aspirations for work in all types of employment settings.

The Department should ensure existing employees in Remploy Enterprise Businesses are offered the opportunity and expert entrepreneurial and business support over a decent time period to develop businesses into independent enterprises, where viable – whether mutuals, social enterprises, companies limited by guarantee or other models. The Department should actively pursue partnership working between Remploy, local authorities, businesses, disabled people's organisations and others to achieve this. Trade unions should be fully involved.

The Department must ensure disabled individuals working in Remploy Enterprise Businesses which are not potentially financially viable, or who wish to seek open employment, are offered comprehensive support, to be agreed between Remploy, Government, trade unions and employees, to include individual resources for a guaranteed place in Work Choice, Remploy Employment Services or alternative employment support of their choice. Remploy should ensure that practical support for wider family and community life is on offer. There should be support and life planning actively offered at least six months prior to any business change and the package should recognise people's long-standing work with Remploy. The Department and Remploy should actively pursue links with employers to provide alternative employment opportunities.

The Department should ensure Remploy employees' accrued pension rights are fully protected.

Remploy Employment Services should be freed to operate as a social enterprise, mutual, co-operative or other structure. Taken together with the recommendation for a new model for Remploy Enterprise Businesses, this recommendation envisages that Remploy's future should be as an organisation independent of Government, focused on supporting disabled people to find and sustain work across the range of roles in the economy.

The Department should not directly fund Residential Training as a distinct facilities-based programme. RTCs should be encouraged to seek funding from a range of sources including the Skills Funding Agency, and Work Choice and Work Programme providers funded by the Department. Colleges should be supported by the Department to make this transition.

The Department should encourage RTCs to explore options for: developing as centres of excellence and sharing their expertise on accessibility, learning, employment, independent living skills, and adaptation to impairment through partnership working with FE and training providers, the NHS commissioning board and local authorities; and adapting their provision and seeking new opportunities to operate directly in provider markets including: education and training; welfare-to-work; independent living and adaptation to acquired impairments; advising on accessibility; and diversity training and workforce development.

The Department should use the budget currently allocated to funding Residential Training to open-up opportunities for work experience, including internships, work placements and on-the-job learning. This could be through ring-fenced funding under Access to Work.

The Department should commit to ongoing monitoring and continuous review of Work Choice and the Work Programme. This should include: publication of key performance information, including a breakdown by impairment type, qualification level and length of time out of work systematically collected across all the Department's programmes. It is also important to gain a better understanding of disabled people's career progression. This should help ensure all disabled people are well served, including people facing greatest labour market disadvantage; groundwork, using this information, for improved gatekeeping and pricing of different types and levels of support, so that those with the greatest support needs or disadvantage secure greater support. The Department should keep the differential pricing model under continuous review to ensure providers are encouraged to work with the full range of people; close monitoring of supply chains of prime providers to ensure that specialist organisations are being used effectively; and reviews to ensure that Work Choice meets disabled people's aspirations and is evidence-based. This monitoring will provide information in support of the Public Sector Equality Duty to advance equality of opportunity for disabled people.

The Department should, when existing Work Choice contracts expire, cease any specific guarantee of funding to supported business places, so that funding follows people rather than facilities. Learning and evidence should be used to help a transformation to support in viable enterprises or mainstream employment. Any savings should be used to support more individuals through evidence-based support.

When existing Work Choice contracts expire, the Department should consider rolling Work Choice funding into individual budgets with Access to Work. This would simplify the system into one general Work Programme and one individual budget-based programme so individuals have a choice over the support that they most need. This would build on learning from the Right to Control trailblazers.

The Department should make employment of disabled people a cross-government objective with joint ministerial responsibility. A cross-departmental ministerial group, including all departments with responsibilities that impact on employment outcomes, should drive a new cross-Government strategy on disabled people's employment, incorporating the Government's response to this review. There should be regular reporting and tracking progress externally on the Cross-Government Strategy. The cross-Government group should work closely with business and disability leaders.