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1712679

	registered interest
	date	22/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Employment: Disability
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department it taking to help ensure that disabled people have access to reasonable adjustments in the workplace.
	tabling member constituency	Battersea
	tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
	uin	23028
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2024 answer text <p>All employers have a duty under the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents" target="_blank">Equality Act 2010</a> to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ in the workplace where a disabled person would otherwise be put at a substantial disadvantage compared with their colleagues. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Equality Act and providing guidance on reasonable adjustments.</p><p> </p><p>For disabled people who require adjustments which are beyond reasonable adjustments, Access to Work (AtW) can provide a grant for the disability related extra costs of working a disabled employee may face. To support employers an AtW case manager will contact the customer’s employer ahead of making an AtW award to offer advice on reasonable adjustments an employer can provide and the support available under the AtW scheme.</p><p> </p><p>DWP has worked with stakeholders to develop a series of Adjustments Passports and Planners to support disabled people, and those with a health condition, with the transitions into employment and between jobs. The Adjustments Passport and Planners provide individuals with an up to date document of their adjustments and working requirements and empower the holder to have more structured conversations about their disability with their employer. They also raise awareness of Access to Work, and where an application is made, help to reduce the need for another assessment, enabling support to be put in place more quickly.</p><p>The Disability Confident scheme provides employers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace. When an employer signs-up to the Disability Confident scheme, they agree to commitments which include anticipating and providing reasonable adjustments as required. They also agree to support any existing employee who acquires a disability or long-term health condition, enabling them to stay in work. The scheme provides resources for members including the recently published <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disability-confident-and-cipd-guide-for-line-managers-on-employing-people-with-a-disability-or-health-condition" target="_blank">Disability Confident Manager’s Guide</a> which explains how managers can make and review reasonable adjustments, consider flexible working, and includes examples of other types of adjustments.</p><p>As part of the government's response to the Health is Everyone’s Business Consultation, DWP has developed a digital service for employers, offering tailored guidance on health and disability. The service is called <a href="https://www.support-with-employee-health-and-disability.dwp.gov.uk/support-with-employee-health-and-disability" target="_blank">Support with Employee Health and Disability</a> and is live across GB, testing very well with employers. Developed with small and medium enterprise (SME) employers, using user centred design principles, the service offers a simple, interactive and highly usable resource which helps employers to feel more confident having conversations about health and disability, as well as understanding and fulfilling their legal obligations on topics such as reasonable adjustments, and signposting to sources of expert support.</p><p>The fit note includes an option to allow a healthcare professional to indicate that a patient ‘may be fit for work subject to the following advice’ and provide general details of the functional effect of the individual’s condition and recommend common types of workplace adjustments. However, over 10 million fit notes each year are issued in England without any such advice, resulting in a missed opportunity to help people get the appropriate support they may need to remain in work.</p><p>That is why we announced funding in the 2023 Autumn Statement to test new ways of providing individuals receiving a fit note with tailored support, including referral to support through their local WorkWell service pilot. To support this, we launched a Call for Evidence to seek views on how the current fit note process works and the support required to facilitate meaningful work and health conversations and help people start, stay and succeed in work.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 25/04/2024 09:52:00 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova

1712680

	registered interest
	date	22/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Medical Certificates
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Prime Minister’s speech on welfare of 19 April 2024, who the specialist work and health professionals are that will be responsible for issuing fit notes.
	tabling member constituency	Battersea
	tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
	uin	23029
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2024 answer text <p>The trailblazers announced at Autumn Statement 2023 will be delivered in NHS Integrated Care Systems and fit notes will continue to be issued by the registered healthcare professionals working within the NHS who are specified in legislation – Doctors, Nurses, Pharmacists, Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists.</p><p> </p><p>Our ambition is to co-develop a new fit note process delivered through multi-disciplinary teams, bringing together the issuing of fit notes with health and work advice to support people who are at risk of falling out of work or who have already fallen out of work due to ill health.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 25/04/2024 09:54:37 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova

1702501

	registered interest
	date	19/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Health Services: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of classifying covid-19 as an occupational disease for healthcare workers; and whether his Department has had discussions with relevant professional bodies on that matter.
	tabling member constituency	Sheffield Central
	tabling member printed	Paul Blomfield
	uin	22721
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2024 answer text <p>The DWP is advised by the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC), an independent scientific body, on changes to the list of occupational diseases for which Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) can be paid.</p><p> </p><p>The Council considered the available scientific and epidemiological evidence around COVID-19 infection and published a Command Paper entitled, ‘COVID-19 and occupational impacts’ in November 2022 found <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-and-occupational-impacts" target="_blank">here.</a></p><p> </p><p>The Command Paper recommends that the list of prescribed occupational diseases for which IIDB can be paid should be expanded to include health and social care workers with five serious pathological complications following COVID-19 infection.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is currently carrying out a detailed assessment of the report’s recommendations and will respond in due course.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 25/04/2024 11:41:58 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4058 label Biography information for Paul Blomfield

1702221

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Carer's Allowance: Telephone Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the (a) average and (b) maximum amount of waiting time when contacting the Carer's Allowance Unit by telephone.
	tabling member constituency	Wirral West
	tabling member printed	Margaret Greenwood
	uin	22579
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2024 answer text <p>Telephony is our customers’ primary channel to contact us. We continually assess the number of calls we are receiving and the associated waiting times, deploying resources accordingly to support service levels wherever this is possible.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 25/04/2024 13:56:13 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4400 label Biography information for Margaret Greenwood

1702247

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Access to Work Programme
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time was for an initial assessment for people on the Access to Work Scheme in 2023.
	tabling member constituency	Wirral South
	tabling member printed	Alison McGovern
	uin	22547
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/04/2024 answer text <p>The average waiting time for a decision on an AtW application for the financial year 2023/24 was 45.1 days.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 24/04/2024 16:40:11 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4083 label Biography information for Alison McGovern

1702248

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Employment: Disability
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of the Disability Confident scheme on the disability employment gap.
	tabling member constituency	Wirral South
	tabling member printed	Alison McGovern
	uin	22548
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/04/2024 answer text <p>Disability Confident (DC) is one of a range of policies to support disabled people into work and to close the disability employment gap. It is difficult to isolate the direct impact of individual policies on the disability employment gap as numerous, interacting factors are at play, including overall labour market trends and changes to the composition of the disabled population, in addition to the effects of disability employment policies and programmes in themselves.</p><p> </p><p>When an employer signs up to DC, they agree to commitments which encourage employers to think differently about disability and to take positive action to address issues disabled employees face in the workplace. There are currently over 19,000 DC members and they estimate 11.5 million employees in total working in their businesses.</p><p> </p><p>In September 2023, the Department <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disability-confident-survey-of-participating-employers-may-2022" target="_blank">published findings</a> from a survey with members of the DC scheme, conducted by an independent research agency[1]. The research explored the effect that signing up to the DC scheme had on members’ recruitment and retention attitudes towards disabled people.</p><p> </p><p>The DWP and Cabinet officials regularly meet with Ministerial Disability Champions to drive this agenda across Government. The Champions’ role is to ensure disability inclusion is a priority in their Department’s work. They are helping to deliver our commitment to support disabled people in the UK through creating more opportunities, protecting their rights and ensuring they fully benefit from, and can contribute to, every aspect of our society.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>[1] The survey was conducted in February to March 2022. In total 1,233 survey interviews were conducted with scheme members.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 24/04/2024 16:52:08 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4083 label Biography information for Alison McGovern

1702249

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Support
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Universal Support pilot schemes.
	tabling member constituency	Wirral South
	tabling member printed	Alison McGovern
	uin	22549
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/04/2024 answer text <p>Universal Support is being delivered in two phases. The expansions to Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (IPSPC) and the Work and Health Programme (WHP Pioneer) are being rolled out for phase one of the service. The aim of phase one is to provide help to up to 50 thousand more disabled people and those with health conditions who want to work, while learning more lessons about how to scale up support for these groups.</p><p> </p><p>WHP Pioneer data will start to be published from May 2024. We are committed to publishing IPSPC programme data in due course. The interim and final evaluation reports for Universal Support Phase 1 covering WHP Pioneer and IPSPC will also be published.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 24/04/2024 16:42:53 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4083 label Biography information for Alison McGovern

1702282

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Department for Work and Pensions: Departmental Responsibilities
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he is taking steps to ensure that his Department's (a) policy and (b) guidance is (i) trauma-informed and (ii) co-produced with lived-experience experts.
	tabling member constituency	Wirral South
	tabling member printed	Alison McGovern
	uin	22550
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/04/2024 answer text <p>The DWP is committed to being a more Trauma Informed organisation. We have a dedicated programme which will integrate the six key pillars of the approach as defined by the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities (December, 2022) which are safety, trustworthiness, choice, empowerment, collaboration and cultural consideration. Our programme looks at these six pillars within the contexts of application to our colleagues, our customers, our culture, and the context of our interaction- whether that is a physical, telephony, digital or postal interaction. We are learning from best practice demonstrated by organisations such as NHS Education Scotland, Work Services Australia and the Wales ACES Hub to shape the future prioritisation of this work.</p><p> </p><p>The integration programme is in its early phases, and we appreciate that it will take time to realise the benefits of changes we implement. We are learning from the continued progress of leaders in the field including programmes such as the Scottish National Trauma Transformation Programme. We recognise that an important aspect of many programmes is policies and procedures and intend to replicate this focus within our own work whilst recognising that the programme does not seek to change <em>what</em> the department does, instead we are impacting <em>how</em> we do this, which will extend to supporting our policy development.</p><p> </p><p>We recognise that any truly trauma informed system is shaped by lived experience experts and we fundamentally believe in the co-production of this programme. This is why we have an extensive network of diverse internal and external stakeholders who are engaged in shaping the programme through ongoing forums and insight activity. We are also currently collaborating with the University of Salford on research which explores how trauma informed the department is through conversations with customers, colleagues and external stakeholders. The outcome of this research will help to shape the future priorities of the programme. Finally, we are currently exploring how we establish our own co-production forums for the programme taking advice from expert stakeholders to ensure we create a safe, empowering space for lived experience experts to whilst establishing trust in the ongoing aims and progress of the programme.</p><p /> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 24/04/2024 16:48:06 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4083 label Biography information for Alison McGovern

1701765

	registered interest
	date	17/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Employment: Visual Impairment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number of economically active individuals there were (a) in total and (b) with self-reported sight problems in England in 2022-23.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol South
	tabling member printed	Karin Smyth
	uin	22322
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/04/2024 answer text <p>The information requested can be found in the table below.</p><p><strong>Labour market status by main or secondary long-term health condition,</strong></p><p><strong> 16 to 64, England, 2022/23</strong></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Labour market status</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Total</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Difficulty in seeing</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total</p></td><td><p>35,038,400</p></td><td><p>487,200</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Economically active</p></td><td><p>27,551,700</p></td><td><p>238,800</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Source: Annual Population Survey (APS) – unpublished</p><p>Notes:</p><p>Numbers are rounded to the nearest 100.</p><ul><li>Numbers are central estimates and subject to sampling variation. The precision of these estimates will be limited by sample size.</li><li>Annual Population Survey data has not been reweighted to incorporate the latest estimates of the size and composition of the UK population.</li><li>Figures for ‘Difficulty in seeing’ are unpublished but are a variation of those contained within: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/the-employment-of-disabled-people-2023" target="_blank">The employment of disabled people 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a></li></ul> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 22/04/2024 14:17:40 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4444 label Biography information for Karin Smyth

1701843

	registered interest
	date	17/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Children in Care: North of England
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the recommendations of Child of the North APPG's report entitled Children in Care in the North of England, published on 17 April 2024.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	22330
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/04/2024 answer text <p>DWP recognises the challenges care leavers face as they move out of the care system and has in place a series of easements aimed at simplifying and improving their interaction with the benefit system. In addition to the intensive tailored support the Youth Offer provides for young people with additional barriers to work, we are working with employers through the Care Leaver Covenant to help care leavers find more employment opportunities; and with DfE to ensure care leavers can access the right skills, opportunities and wider support, to move towards sustained employment and career progression.</p><p> </p><p>Furthermore, to help achieve the missions set out in the Department for Education’s response to the independent review of children’s social care 'Stable Homes, Built on Love' DWP has already committed to proactively explore additional easements to enhance the support offer for care leavers and work with DfE officials to explore how to improve transition for care leavers entering the benefit and employment support system.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is committed to supporting families on lower incomes and expects to spend around £306bn through the welfare system in Great Britain in 2024/25 including around £138bn on people of working age and children. We have uprated working age benefits by 6.7% and raised the Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30<sup>th</sup> percentile of local market rents, benefiting 1.6 million low-income households.</p><p> </p><p>We have consistently set out a sustainable, long-term approach to tackling child poverty based on evidence about the important role of work, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risk of child poverty. The latest statistics show that in 2022/23, children living in workless households were over 6 times more likely to be in absolute poverty (after housing costs) than those where all adults work. This is why, with over 900,000 vacancies across the UK, our focus is firmly on supporting people into and to progress in work.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 24/04/2024 16:10:57 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell