UNISON – the public services union – Written evidence (YDP0068)

House of Lords Public Services Committee

Inquiry into the transition from education to employment for young disabled people

About UNISON

UNISON is the UK's largest trade union with 1.3 million members, 1 million of them women. Our members are people working in the public services and for private contractors providing public services including in the essential utilities. They include frontline staff and managers working full or part time in local authorities, the NHS, the police service, colleges and schools, the electricity, gas and water industries, transport, non-departmental public bodies and the voluntary sector.

As a trade union UNISON regularly engages with employers and government to protect and improve the pay and conditions of all who work in public services as well as the services they provide to society. UNISON represents around 100,000 young workers. Based on government data, we estimate we represent up to 200,000 disabled workers. We have a National Disabled Members Committee which helps develop our policy on disability equality and have used the experience of our young and disabled members to inform the response to this consultation.

Inquiry Question 1:

The support available for young disabled people and how effectively education systems provide careers advice, guidance and support to meet the needs and career aspirations of young disabled people.

UNISON agrees that the inquiry should focus on disabled young people rather than confining consideration to those with an education health and care plan as only a minority of disabled young people have an EHCP[1].

We are concerned that disabled young people face significant barriers in accessing employment, reflective of a working world that continues to exclude disabled people. Across the EU the disability employment gap for people with limitations in basic activities is about 20% with some countries achieving 10%[2].  The lowest gaps are in Luxembourg, Latvia, Spain and France with the UK in the highest quartile for both disabled men and women. According to a 2019 report[3], the gap still varies between countries even when controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. There is no inherent reason why the UK disability employment gap should be so high.  Other European countries with similar economies have shown that it is possible to reduce the gap to much lower levels.

The most recent ONS statistics on the prevalence of disability in younger people has shown a significant increase in young people declaring a disability. Part of the reason for this may be the inclusion of mental health impairments in the census question for the first time[4] but it underlines the growing need for support for younger disabled people, in addition to the potentially significant impact of poor mental health on younger disabled people.

It is well documented[5] that child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) is under enormous pressure. Up to 1.4million children are estimated to have experienced mental health problems but many of these disabled young people are struggling to get support, with a consequent impact on their chances of gaining and retaining employment.

A recent House of Commons briefing[6] on young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) highlights that young disabled people are twice as likely to be NEETs than non-disabled young people. This underlines the gap in outcomes for young disabled people.

UNISON represents members delivering careers services in schools, careers companies and further and higher education. Over the last 13 years we have seen the abolition of the Connexions Service in England which provided careers advice to young people in schools and colleges. This has been replaced by broad duties on education providers and local authorities to provide careers support, and by the National Careers Service in England. However much of this support is delivered through websites, one-off text chats and apps, rather than the face to face, sustained and tailored service young disabled people need. With different systems in place in the other nations, there is also a postcode lottery with reduced services available for young disabled people in England.

Lack of funding for specialist provision has led to an over-reliance on generic careers advisors, with the potential for inappropriate guidance being given by well-meaning generalists without specific knowledge of the barriers faced by disabled young people in the labour market and services that might address this. There is a real need for dedicated disabled students careers advisers in schools and colleges. Currently there is in effect a disincentive for new graduates to become a Careers Adviser and specialise in this way due to issues such as instability of employment and pay.

As a result of the above issues, many young disabled people don’t realise that working in public services might be a career open to them and in particular they may not understand the vast array of roles available and the consequent potential of finding a job that can be adjusted to meet their needs and help them fulfil their potential.

UNISON is calling for:

• Increased investment in qualified professional, high-quality and tailored face-to-face careers advice for young disabled people in all schools and colleges, including in England.
• Introduction of specific programmes to train careers advisers specialising in working with young disabled people, with incentives for graduates to train and take up these roles.
• Investment in CAMHS so that the increasing need for mental health support for young people can be addressed.

Inquiry Question 2:

The accessibility of careers in public services to young disabled people when they are first entering the job market: the Committee will ask for examples of good and poor practice in recruitment.

The disability employment gap currently stands at almost 30%[7] and is now at its widest point since 2018. This highlights the barriers faced by disabled young people entering the job market, with a 52% employment rate amongst disabled people of working age compared to an 82% employment rate among non-disabled people.

Although both the NHS and local authorities, for example, have national graduate schemes, and there are routes into careers across the public services including through apprenticeships, UNISON is not aware of any specific public service providers who could be used as examples of best practice in recruiting young disabled people. We do however know of schemes, e.g. North Yorkshire County Council, where the local authority offers an in-house apprenticeship to every care leaver they are responsible for. It remains the case that many employers, including public service employers, fail to see the business case for employing young disabled people and instead focus on myths around the “cost” of employing disabled people. Not enough is being done by government to dispel these myths and to address the underlying issues, such as the need for more investment and publicity for Access to Work (see Inquiry Question 3 below). 

Government has continually been reluctant to require employers to publicly state the percentage of disabled people in their organisation despite this being the only proven way to ensure employers do more to recruit (and retain) disabled staff. A previous voluntary disability reporting system[8] had very little impact, with a CIPD poll finding only 21% of employers were aware of it and 54% had no plans to adopt it[9]. It is UNISON’s experience that only a mandatory system will achieve the results required.

UNISON is calling for:

• Mandatory publication of the percentage of disabled people at every level of the workforce for all employers with 250+ staff (the disability employment gap)
• Increased investment in and publicity for Access to Work

Inquiry Question 3:

How effective are government programmes which support or encourage employers to employ disabled people, particularly young disabled people? Does this differ by condition or disability? How could they be improved?

Access to Work

UNISON’s research[10] has identified that Access to Work is a key issue for disabled workers with many UNISON members reporting massive waiting lists to get the support they need.  Tackling the backlog where disabled workers are waiting 6 months or more for support needs to be a top priority for government.

However, even where they were lucky enough to get assessed, many UNISON members reported that their employer refused to implement the recommended adjustments. For young disabled workers, it can be difficult to hold employers to account and to insist recommendations are followed up on. There is no “right” to Access to Work recommendations and so there is no way of enforcing them.

UNISON member: “First experience [of Access to Work] in 2017 was very quick and lots of helpful recommendations made - however my employer at the time ‘decided’ I didn't need some things and I was too inexperienced to speak up.”

For many of our members, Access to Wok reports simply sat on a shelf with the employer refusing to take them forward, often on grounds of cost. Access to Work funds much of the cost of adjustments for smaller employers but larger employers, including in the public services, are expected to cover most of the cost themselves, up to a limit. However time and again large public service employers tell our members they can’t afford to implement Access to Work recommendations. This is a worrying pattern that needs to be addressed through considering whether further funding or a stronger onus on employers to implement recommendations should be introduced.

UNISON is calling for:

• Immediate investment in Access to Work to remove the backlog and ensure disabled workers get the support they need in a timely manner
• Consideration of ways of ensuring Access to Work recommendations are implemented by employers

Disability Confident

Disability Confident is a government scheme designed to encourage employers to recruit, retain and develop disabled people. However, our workplace reps find there is often no relation between employers who have signed up to Disability Confident and those who have not but have a genuine commitment to recruiting and retaining disabled people.

UNISON has been a partner in the development of the NHS Workplace Disability Equality Standard[11] and data from this has also underlined the lack of correlation between Disability Confident employers and the recruitment of disabled workers.

UNISON has a very small number of examples where signing up to Disability Confident has led the employer to consider negotiating improved policies for disabled workers, but this is a tiny minority.  Conversely, we very frequently have reports from workplace reps that Disability Confident employers are dragging their feet in providing reasonable adjustment or pursuing disabled workers through unnecessary sickness absence and capability procedures.

The key issue is the lack of any link between becoming a Disability Confident employer and any measurable outcomes for disabled people.  Level 1 is simply a statement of intent with no real actions required and only Level 3 (leader) involves any independent assessment.

Unless Disability Confident is strengthened to include actions and measurable outcomes at Level 1 and 2 to employ and retain disabled people, and stronger monitoring of results, it will not deliver greater employment of disabled people. The Disability Employment Charter[12], of which UNISON is a founding member, calls for Disability Confident employers to reach minimum thresholds regarding the percentage of disabled people in their workforce and the removal of accreditation from employers that do not move up within 3 years from Level 1 to Levels 2 or 3. UNISON supports this approach.

UNISON is calling for:

• Mandatory publication of outputs/outcomes and independent assessment to be included in all levels of Disability Confident
• A clear link to increases in the employment of disabled people for progress to the next level including a requirement to achieve a level of disability representation in the workplace at levels two and three

• Removal of accreditation after 3 years from employers who do not progress from Level 1

Employment support programmes

There are a variety of different employment support programmes available to young disabled people, including apprentices, supported employment and internships.  However many of these programmes have been introduced on a pilot basis and results are still being assessed. Progress has been slow and there is a real need to move beyond small scale pilots that are only open to a limited number of disabled people and to instead look at rolling out nation-wide services that can be accessed by all young disabled people.

Employment support services still default to a ‘one size fits all’ approach. There is also an over-reliance on online support.  Employment support programmes will only work for disabled people if they include tailored support delivered by specially trained staff who understand the labour market disadvantages that disabled young people face.

Although ONS data shows that the employment gap for younger disabled people is not as high as other age groups, economic activity at this age can become entrenched for life and government should establish tailored support schemes to help young disabled people find and retain employment so they do not face a lifetime of economic activity that could be avoided.

UNISON is calling for:

• Government investment in UK-wide specially tailored and professional employment support for disabled people

Inquiry Question 4:

How effectively are the rights of disabled people upheld and enforced in the workplace? What barriers do young disabled people face in accessing the support (including legal support) that they need and are entitled to? How could enforcement mechanisms be improved?

Reasonable Adjustments

UNISON’s 2019[13] and 2023[14] reports on the experience of disabled workers in public services demonstrates the ways in which disabled people are being failed in the workplace. 74% of disabled workers reported being refused some or all of the adjustments they need to do their job, a figure that has increased by seven points since our earlier research. 

“Impact on team performance” was the biggest reason given for employer refusals to reasonable adjustment requests.

UNISON’s research found that in many cases disabled workers never even get a response to their reasonable adjustment requests. They are simply ignored by the employer. For young workers it can be even more difficult to chase managers up for a response as they may worry about “blotting their copy book” at an early stage of their working life.

There is a limited amount a disabled worker can do if they are ignored in their requests for reasonable adjustments. To asset their rights they would need to raise a formal grievance and from this potentially raise an Employment Tribunal claim. It is a very brave young worker who would go down this time consuming, costly and emotionally draining route so early in their career.

This problem is a symptom of the decline of collective bargaining in the UK compared to other EU countries. Whilst trade unions have faced a hostile environment (acknowledged as the hardest amongst OECD countries) since the 1980s bargaining coverage has fallen faster than union membership itself. There are therefore very few workplace forums, even in public services, where disability related employment can be addressed collectively rather than as an individual contractual or legal issue.

UNISON’s research also found that even where adjustments were agreed, 23% waited a year or more for the agreed adjustments to be implemented, a figure unchanged in the four years between the two UNISON reports. Many disabled workers reported this delay had meant increased sickness absence and resulting capability proceedings.

As a result of lack of reasonable adjustments, disabled workers ended up resigning from their job or being sacked due to performance or sickness issues that could have been avoided with the right adjustments.  31% of disabled workers in UNISON’s 2019 survey felt they had been unfairly treated because of their disability-related sickness record and of these 45% had been subject to a capability process and 28% had been subject to a disciplinary. This is a key driver of the disability employment gap and is part of the reason why the disability pay gap currently stands at £3,700, with disabled workers driven out of the workforce due to a lack of enforcement of the duty to provide reasonable adjustments.

UNISON member: “I feel I am in a constant battle to remain in work. Reasonable adjustments at sickness review are agreed, initially they are carried out and then start failing. Emotionally I’m at the point where I’m beginning to think about giving my job up because fighting my condition is tiring enough!”

UNISON strongly believes that government needs to take robust action to improve enforcement of the duty to provide reasonable adjustments. We are founding members of the ground-breaking Disability Employment Charter which includes a call for a two-week deadline for responses to reasonable adjustment requests and a right to more timely implementation of agreed adjustments[15]. UNISON fully supports this approach.

UNISON is calling for:

• A new right to a response to reasonable adjustment requests within two weeks
• A new right to reasonable adjustments being delivered in a “timely” manner
• A step change in the enforcement of the duty to make reasonable adjustments through consideration of fixed penalties and other options so a protracted employment tribunal is not the only option for disabled workers denied the adjustments that could keep them in employment
• An update of the Employment Code accompanying the Equality Act 2010 to include examples of timescales for the implementation of different adjustments

Disability Pay Gap and progression in employment

Where disabled workers are successful in finding and keeping a job, there remains a very significant pay gap of £3,700 compared to non-disbaled workers[16].

Lack of access to progression in work is a key driver of the disability pay gap which needs to be addressed, alongside the employment gap.  UNISON’s 2019 report found that 23% of disabled workers said they did not have equal access to training and 32% said they did not have equal access to promotion. Without the reasonable adjustments they are entitled to by law, progressing in work is often impossible for disabled workers.

Existing support for disabled workers tends to focus on voluntary approaches, such as Disability Confident (see below). In general UNISON’s experience is that voluntary approaches are unlikely to achieve the significant changes required to significantly reduce the disability pay gap.

Without mandatory requirements to publish pay gap data, it is difficult to hold employers to account for this lack of progression.

UNISON is calling for:

• Mandatory disability pay gap monitoring and robust and measurable action plans to tackle the gap

Home working

UNISON’s 2023 research has found that:

• 43% of our disabled members are now working from home more than they did before the Covid pandemic.
• 21% had been turned down for homeworking or made to come to the workplace more often than they wanted
• Of those who were refused homeworking, the biggest reason given (60%) was that the employer wanted “bums on seats”.
• Of those disable workers who were told their job couldn’t be done from home, 63% said their job could be done from home if changes were made to their duties.

UNISON disabled members report that they benefit from working from home due to more breaks, being better able to manage pain and better able to control the working environment to help with their impairment. The biggest disadvantage reported was isolation from the team.

Changes to the right to request flexible working, which can include an element of homeworking, are welcome but they by no means go far enough. Flexible working is only a right to make a request, not a right to have this granted, and there remain restrictions on how often it can be requested and a multitude of ways employers can refuse it. In contrast, homeworking as a reasonable adjustment should be a far stronger right as this is based on the Equality Act 2010. The issue is that employers often don’t accept homeworking could be a reasonable adjustment so that it is very difficult for young disabled workers to make this case locally.

A stronger right to homeworking, where this is the workers choice, could assist younger disabled people to access work with less of an impact on their impairment. However there remains a myth in public services that unless the worker is present at their desk (“bums on seats”) they can’t be working. This needs to be addressed through better training in outcomes based management and a move away from more traditional inputs based management.

Nonetheless UNISON also believes there is a need for safeguards to ensure homeworking is not forced on young disabled workers as a way of employers to avoid their duty to provide accessible workplaces. Home working must be a choice, not an imposition.

UNISON is calling for:

• Disabled people should have a clear and enforceable right to work from home as a reasonable adjustment

Disability Leave

Disability leave is planned or unplanned time off from work for a reason related to someone’s disability. It is a type of reasonable adjustment which disabled workers may be entitled to under the Equality Act 2010 and it is referred to in the statutory Employment Code that accompanies the Act[17]. Case law has established that disability leave should be considered for treatment, rehabilitation or assessment or where the worker is waiting for other reasonable adjustments to be put in place[18].

UNISON’s 2019 research found that only 8% of disabled workers had access to disability leave.  This rose to 17% in our 2023 report, which is a very welcome improvement but remains at an abysmally low rate.

The refusal of many public service employers to agree to disability leave as a reasonable adjustment for a period of mental illness in particular means that many young disabled workers end up pushed out of employment due to their sickness absence record, further fueling the disability employment gap. 

UNISON is calling for:

• A strengthened right to disability leave

Support for independent living

Many young disabled workers rely on Personal Independence Payments (PIP) to support them in living independently including in retaining employment. However, UNISON’s 2018 report, Punished for going to work[19], found a strong concern from disabled workers that being in work was a barrier to them receiving PIP or receiving it at the full rate and that this was used against them by assessors.

UNISON member: “I feel I’s very unfair that because I return to work when I’m well that they reduce my money. I work when I’m well and stay at home when I’m ill. I feel I’m being punished for going to work.”

UNISON member: “They need to know disabled people can work. They act like if you’re working you shouldn’t claim PIP.”

The impact of this was not only financial but was particularly felt by those on the higher Motability allowance who lost their means of travelling to work.  Some members reported having to give up their job as a result.

UNISON member: “No car, no option to continue with employer. On sick leave at the moment. But want to work”

UNISON is further concerned about the punitive nature of Work Capability Assessments (WCAs) and the sanctions and conditionality regime which undermine the supposed supportive approach of the DWP to disabled people seeking employment. Recent changes that would make PIP the “passport” to receive other disability benefits replaces one broken system (WCAs) with another and also leaves discretionary decision making in the hands of work coaches, with no recourse to appeal. 

UNISON also strongly believes the benefits system, including Universal Credit, is not flexible enough to support disabled people in re-entering employment with the continued existence of cliff edges and perverse incentives. 

UNISON is calling for:

• PIP to be redesigned to put the independence of disabled people, including the right to work, at its heart
• An end to punitive sanctions and the five week wait for Universal Credit and re-institution of disability premiums
• A less rigid benefits system that acknowledges the needs of disabled people and can accommodate flexible working

October 2023