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1149527

	registered interest
	date	15/10/2019
	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 Schemes: Disability
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much funding her Department allocated to Work Choices in the latest year for which figures are available.
	tabling member constituency	Wirral West
	tabling member printed	Margaret Greenwood
	uin	633
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/10/2019 answer text <p>The Department for Work and Pensions spent £22.4m on Work Choices, including Remploy, in the financial year 2018/19, which is the latest full year spend is available.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Eastleigh answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 21/10/2019 12:13:21 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4400 label Biography information for Margaret Greenwood

1205402

	registered interest
	date	18/06/2020
	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 Schemes: Disability
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures have been put in place since the publication of the National Audit Office report, Supporting Disabled People to Work, to better measure the outcomes of their job centre offer, specifically around measuring (1) progress towards work; (2) time spent with customers; (3) customer satisfaction; and (4) data on satisfaction or quality of referrals to third party provision.
	tabling member printed	Lord Shinkwin
	uin	HL5939
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/07/2020 answer text <p>Since the National Audit Office’s report on Supporting was published in March 2019, we have been working to fulfil all of its recommendations. For example, as part of the evaluations of Work and Health Programme and Intensive Personalised Employment Support, we will measure the impact of the programmes on participant employment outcomes.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>We have invested in 60 minutes additional work coach time per claimant per year to offer ‘supportive steps’. For some claimants, this extra support may include activities and tailored support around work options, journey towards work and work preparation activity.</p><p> </p><p>In September 2019, the Department created a Customer Experience Directorate to further our commitment to improve customer service.</p><p> </p><p>We have strong oversight of DWP contracted employment provision. Since the publication of the report we have reviewed and revised our commercial processes.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 01/07/2020 16:58:32 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
	tabling member	4557 label Biography information for Lord Shinkwin

1205403

	registered interest
	date	18/06/2020
	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 Schemes: Disability
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what improvements have been made to measuring the outcomes since 2017 of nationally contracted programmes that support disabled people to work.
	tabling member printed	Lord Shinkwin
	uin	HL5940
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/07/2020 answer text <p>The new nationally contracted employment programmes for disabled people since 2017 are the Work and Health Programme (WHP), which began in November 2017, and Intensive Personalised Employment Support (IPES), which began in November 2019. Both of these programmes are being delivered as Randomised Control Trials to enable us to measure the average impacts they have on participants’ employment. Both include full evaluations which will also capture the impact on wider health and wellbeing outcomes.</p><p> </p><p>Separately, both of these programmes also have defined job outcomes which are used for the provider payment models and for performance management purposes.</p><p> </p><p>In the Work and Health Programme, a participant is classed as achieving a job outcome when they have reached a specified level of earnings once in employment, or reach six months of being in self-employment. The specified level of earnings varies across the different regions. The national WHP and the majority of Local Government Partners have an earning threshold as 16 hours per week for 26 weeks at the National living wage. However, for the West London Alliance this is at the London Living Wage and for Greater Manchester Combined Authority at the Real Living Wage. Job outcome rates are published in the Work and Health Programme statistical publication attached.</p><p> </p><p>For IPES, there are two job outcome measures used; a lower threshold income measure, which is defined as earnings equivalent to eight hours per week for 26 weeks; and a higher threshold, which is the equivalent to 16 hours per week for 26 weeks. There is not currently a statistical publication for IPES as the programme has not been running for long enough.</p><p> </p><p>WHP was the first programme to utilise HM Revenue &amp; Customs Real Time Information data in its identification, payment and validation of employment programme outcomes. This use of earnings has ensured that only sustained outcomes are paid for with participants having to acquire a pre-defined level of earnings synonymous with six months in employment, rather than a durational outcome. This has had significant advantages in terms of speed and reducing the resource required by the Department for Work and Pensions and contracted providers in tracking and evidencing outcomes.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 02/07/2020 14:02:51 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott attachment 1 file name HL5940 attachment.xlsx title Work and Health Programme Statistics
	tabling member	4557 label Biography information for Lord Shinkwin

1306328

	registered interest
	date	25/03/2021
	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 Schemes: Disability
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of companies signed up to the Disability Confident scheme; and what assessment she has made of the effect of that scheme on employment rates for disabled people.
	tabling member constituency	Ealing, Southall
	tabling member printed	Mr Virendra Sharma
	uin	175786
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/04/2021 answer text <p>In 2017 the Government set a goal to see 1 million more disabled people in employment over the next 10 years. In the first three years of the goal (between Jan-Mar 2017 and Jan-Mar 2020) the number of disabled people in employment increased by 800,000. The rate of disabled people in employment also increased, by 4.4 percentage points to 53.4%, in the same period.</p><p>The Disability Confident scheme is a learning journey that aims to provide employers with the knowledge, skills, and resources that they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace. No employer is too small or new to start the journey and even the most experienced employer will still find new techniques and best practice that can help them. As of 28th February 2021 over 19,900 employers had signed up to the scheme. Disability Confident is only part of a wider range of services that will support disabled employees into work and stay in work.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 13/04/2021 13:47:51 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	1604 label Biography information for Mr Virendra Sharma

1329834

	registered interest
	date	04/06/2021
	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 Schemes: 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 she is taking to ensure that companies that are signed up to the Disability Confident Scheme are supporting their disabled employees.
	tabling member constituency	East Renfrewshire
	tabling member printed	Kirsten Oswald
	uin	10438
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2021 answer text <p>Employers that have signed up to the Disability Confident (DC) scheme are provided with the knowledge, skills and free resources they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace. The scheme is designed as a learning journey with all employers starting at Level 1 and encouraged to progress through the scheme to Levels 2 and 3. No employer is too small or new to start the journey and even the most experienced employer will still find new techniques and best practice that can help better support their employees. For example, employers signing up to the scheme are committing to ‘Ensure their recruitment process is inclusive and accessible’ and ‘Supporting any existing employee who acquires a disability or long term health condition, enabling them to stay in work’.</p><p> </p><p>Throughout the pandemic, we have ensured that employers have received timely and appropriate support through the delivery of a series of practical national webinars, covering a range of employer hot topics, ranging from: New Ways of Working, Access to Work, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Virtual Hiring and Autism and Neurodiversity. We have also delivered a number of employer events, focusing on the support available to employees. In addition, all Disability Confident employers receive regular Disability Confident newsletters and other communications to support them and their employees. There are currently over 20,000 employers signed up to the Disability Confident scheme, covering over 11million employees.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 10/06/2021 14:12:30 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4413 label Biography information for Kirsten Oswald

1329835

	registered interest
	date	04/06/2021
	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 Schemes: Disability
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many companies are signed up to the Disability Confident scheme; and what estimate she has made of the impact that scheme has had on the number of disabled people in employment.
	tabling member constituency	East Renfrewshire
	tabling member printed	Kirsten Oswald
	uin	10439
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2021 answer text <p>There are currently over 20,000 employers signed up to the Disability Confident scheme, covering over 11m employees.</p><p> </p><p>In November 2018, we published the results of survey research which explored the effect that signing up to the Disability Confident scheme had on recruitment and retention attitudes towards disabled people. The researchers interviewed employers of all sizes, ranging from very small organisations with low levels of staff turnover to large companies employing thousands, and a key finding was that signing up to Disability Confident resulted in half (49%) of employers interviewed taking on at least one disabled member of staff, rising to 66% amongst larger firms. The full report may be viewed here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disability-confident-survey-of-participating-employers" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disability-confident-survey-of-participating-employers</a>.</p><p>We will be conducting further research this year, to establish the value added by Disability Confident and explore the behaviours of employers and their recruitment and retention practices. Disability Confident employers have also offered over 60,000 specific work opportunities, which include: work experience, work trials, Apprenticeships, Traineeships, job shadowing, student placements, Sector Based Work Academy Placements as well as job vacancies.</p><p>The Government is committed to a goal of seeing a million more disabled people in work in the decade to 2027 and reducing the disability employment gap. In the first three years of the goal (between 2017 and 2020), the number of disabled people in employment increased by 800,000<sup>1</sup>. Between 2014 and 2020 the disability employment gap also reduced by 5.2 percentage points.</p><p> </p><p><em><sup>1</sup></em><em>The underlying data behind this figure is currently under review by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and is therefore subject to change.</em></p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 10/06/2021 15:47:54 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4413 label Biography information for Kirsten Oswald

1330680

	registered interest
	date	08/06/2021
	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 Schemes: Disability
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the recommendations from the Social Security Advisory Committee in its recent report on the quality of her Department’s engagement with disabled people when designing or evaluating programmes that affect them.
	tabling member constituency	Battersea
	tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
	uin	12294
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/06/2021 answer text <p>I am grateful to the Committee for their report and pleased to see that our sustained efforts to engage with disabled people have been recognised. We are planning to respond to the Committee in the coming weeks.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 11/06/2021 13:53:15 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova

1338891

	registered interest
	date	22/06/2021
	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 Schemes: 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 her Department is taking to ensure that the Government’s new employment programmes including Kickstart and Restart meet the needs of disabled people.
	tabling member constituency	Battersea
	tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
	uin	20510
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/06/2021 answer text <p>The Kickstart Scheme provides flexibility and support for young people who may need to work reduced hours because of their specific requirements, such as a health condition. These are to be discussed and agreed with the Kickstart employer.</p><p> </p><p>Restart Scheme participants can take up part time roles as we have not specified the number of hours someone should work. Restart Scheme providers will receive an outcome payment when a participant earns over a certain threshold (the equivalent of six months’ work at the National Living Wage, with 16 hours worked each week), therefore part-time workers will take longer to reach this threshold, should their income be at a similar level. Based on experience of other programmes, this threshold is considered a reasonable proxy for sustainment of a job outcome and we believe this approach will ensure people are supported to find and stay in sustainable employment.</p><p> </p><p>There are currently no plans to extend the eligibility criteria of the Kickstart Scheme or the Restart Scheme.</p><p> </p><p>Disabled people, including those on Employment Support Allowance, who require more intensive employment support would have access to both the Work and Health Programme (WHP) and Intensive Personalised Employment Support (IPES) and can volunteer for this support at any time irrespective of benefit claimed or no benefit. The WHP predominantly helps people with a wide range of disabilities and health conditions to enter into and stay in work, and is suited to those who expect to find work within 12 months. IPES is an intensive, highly personalised voluntary support package that is flexible to participants’ needs. It supports disabled people with complex barriers to work who would be more than 12 months from the labour market without the benefit of IPES support.</p><p> </p><p>Young people with a disability or health condition on Universal Credit who wish to take up the opportunity of a Kickstart job can discuss what roles they are interested in and any reasonable adjustment they require with either a Work Coach, Youth Employability coach or Disability Employment Adviser. If adjustments are required to enable the young person to take up a Kickstart job these are to be discussed and agreed with the Kickstart employer.</p><p> </p><p>The Restart Scheme will be fully accessible for all scheme participants, including disabled people and people with health conditions. At the core of the programme is the requirement on providers to design and deliver a personalised service that addresses individuals’ support needs. Under the terms of the Equality Act, providers will be required to enable equal access to the provision. Restart Scheme providers will also be required to be Disability Confident Leaders, and therefore to be fully aware of best practice in supporting disabled people.</p><p> </p><p>The department will be monitoring the characteristics of people who participate in employment programmes. We will be evaluating the Kickstart Scheme and Restart Scheme to explore the delivery and outcomes from the programmes. This will include capturing the experiences of a range of participants, including disabled participants.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies grouped question UIN 20513 20514 20515 question first answered 30/06/2021 16:26:59 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova

1338893

	registered interest
	date	22/06/2021
	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 Schemes: 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 her Department is taking to ensure economically inactive disabled people are supported to find jobs.
	tabling member constituency	Battersea
	tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
	uin	20512
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/06/2021 answer text <p>The Government is committed to improving the lives of disabled people, and will publish a National Strategy for Disabled People shortly. The Strategy will be informed by insights from the lived experience of disabled people, focusing on the issues that disabled people say affect them the most in all aspects and phases of life, including employment. Employment will be a central theme of the strategy.</p><p>A range of DWP initiatives are supporting disabled people to stay in and enter work. These include the Work and Health Programme, the Intensive Personalised Employment Support programme, Access to Work, Disability Confident and support in partnership with the health system, including Employment Advice in NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services. The Government has also increased the number of specialist Disability Employment Advisors (DEAs) in Jobcentres.</p><p>The Department will shortly publish a Green Paper on health and disability support which will consider how we can improve our current service, provide extra support to navigate the system and seek to better understand how we can improve the current employment support offer.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 29/06/2021 14:09:57 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova

1345805

	registered interest
	date	12/07/2021
	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 Schemes: 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 her Department is taking to ensure economically inactive disabled people are supported to find jobs; and if she will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	31280
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2021 answer text <p>The Government is committed to improving the lives of disabled people, and will publish a National Disability Strategy later this year. The Strategy will be informed by insights from the lived experience of disabled people, focusing on the issues that disabled people say affect them the most in all aspects and phases of life, including employment.</p><p>A range of DWP initiatives are supporting disabled people to stay in and enter work. These include the Work and Health Programme, the Intensive Personalised Employment Support programme, Access to Work, Disability Confident and support in partnership with the health system, including Employment Advice in NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services. The Government has also increased the number of specialist Disability Employment Advisors in Jobcentres.</p><p>In addition, the DWP will shortly publish a Green Paper on health and disability support which will consider how we can improve our current service, provide extra support to navigate the system and seek to better understand how we can improve the current employment support offer.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 15/07/2021 14:01:19 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms