Department for Work and Pensions – Supplementary written evidence (YDP0075)
House of Lords Public Services Committee
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for providing employment support, including employment support for disabled people of all ages. A Deputy Director from the DWP/DHSC Joint Work and Health Directorate, Jennifer Heigham, attended a session before the Committee on 17 January with officials from the Department for Education (DfE). Following that session, the Committee shared supplementary questions with DWP and DfE.
Questions 1 – 8, along with Questions 11 - 13 have been responded to by Department for Education officials separately.
Q9. Are you aware of good practice by employers or employers organisations in recruiting or supporting young disabled people in employment?
The Disability Confident Business Leaders Group (BLG) and Professional Advisor Group members were established to work alongside DWP, with a key role in championing good practice in how employers can help disabled people, including young people, to enter and thrive in work. Currently, these two groups are supporting the organisation of several employer-focused events around the country to promote employment opportunities for disabled people, including young disabled talent.
Partnerships are an important element in how the Department is working via our employer groups to identify and learn from good practice by employers in supporting disabled people into work. For example, DWP has partnered with Microsoft, a member of the BLG and a Disability Confident Leader, to provide accessibility awareness training in mainstream technology to work coaches in Jobcentres across the country, enabling them to help more disabled jobseekers, including young jobseekers, to secure employment and retain employment.
The learning is called Accessibility Fundamentals and is a one-hour learning product. The ambition is that all customer-facing DWP colleagues complete this learning, and to date over 26,500 colleagues have done so with overwhelmingly positive feedback.
DWP will be working with colleagues in Microsoft to raise awareness of accessibility functions across DWP networks and beyond, to deliver outcomes for our customers as well as making an offer to upskill colleagues in other Government Departments.
The partnership with Microsoft on accessibility has created global and cross-government interest and we will continue to collaborate with them to share information using the partnership as template for successful delivery and incorporating the lessons learned.
Microlink, another Disability Confident Leader, is also providing accessibility training to Jobcentre Plus staff and we are collaborating with them to deliver a series of workshops on practical steps employers can take in support of disabled people.
For the last three years, DWP have worked in collaboration with the Business Disability Forum to include three Disability Confident Awards for employers who have actively encouraged the employment of disabled people during the last year. This activity has contributed to a catalogue of employer case studies that the DWP Disability Confident team have developed which celebrate and showcase exemplar employer behaviours relating to disability employment. One such example from Forever Savvy, who provide vocational training and support to adults with learning disabilities, features a young person with autism who has been supported to obtain sustainable employment. Training and support through Forever Savvy to enable the young person to prepare for the world of work, and help through Access to Work in the form of a job mentor, have meant the young person could prepare gradually for entering and thriving in employment.
Finally, DWP continues to work with Department for Education so that anyone searching for an apprenticeship opportunity on Find an apprenticeship - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) website can filter opportunities by Disability Confident employers.
Q10.Please can you provide some additional information on the programme to strengthen the Disability Confident scheme: what actions will you take to do so, and what are the timelines?
In late 2021 we began a review of the Disability Confident Scheme, announced in the National Disability Strategy (NDS). In January 2022, the High Court declared that the NDS was unlawful. On appeal, in July 2023 the Court of Appeal found in favour of the Government.
Following the decision that the NDS was lawful, work on the Disability Confident Review was resumed in August 2023 and the recommendations were finalised. DWP is implementing the recommendations over the course of 2024, beginning with strengthening the scheme criteria for all members and tailoring the scheme for SMEs. The Department is working closely with the Business Leaders Group to take this forward.
The Review made several other recommendations to improve the scheme including:
Work is well underway on implementing the recommendations. For example, the Disability Confident Policy Team and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) have worked in partnership to develop an updated Manager’s guide, which aims to support line managers and anyone who leads another individual or team – from those working in large organisations to owner-managers of small firms or anyone with an interest in the management of people with a disability or long-term health condition. This guide aims to be a quick and easy reference tool for managers to use in their daily work, providing key information and advice on the employment of disabled people. The guide will be published in Spring 2024.
By April 2024, we will also have implemented changes to the Disability Confident membership IT platform. These changes will improve the journey for employers through the scheme and increase their engagement with regular prompts to undertake actions to support disability employment.
Finally, once the Buckland Review into autism and employment has been published, we will be considering how some of the recommendations made in that review can be supported by the Disability Confident scheme.
Q14. What are the implications of changes to the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework for local authorities’ work supporting disabled people into work.
DHSC split the update to the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF) into two phases, the first being a technical update to the metrics since some of the measures pre-dated the Care Act. DHSC intend to do a further, more substantial, update to the framework in 2025/26 so that it reflects the changes as a result of social care reform, particularly new and better data, and how ASCOF is positioned alongside, and can use the lessons learned from other frameworks like CQC’s new performance assessment of LAs.
In revising the framework, among other things, DHSC sought to expand its remit so that it would capture a bigger proportion of people who receive care and support, and to address concerns regarding the accessibility of ASCOF and its many metrics. DHSC wanted to align ASCOF to its 2021 white paper: the 10-year vision for the sector; making use of new data sources such as our new local authority person-level data collection which asks councils to provide better information about people who have learning disabilities and autism, and also about their employment status; and distinguishing ASCOF from CQC’s new LA performance assessment framework where LAs will be assessed, at a granular level, on how they are meeting the needs of all individuals including those with learning disabilities. Better data and a new CQC assessment framework will increase transparency about how councils are meeting all needs and provide a greater understanding on the variability of services between councils.
Q15. Do you have any results that you can share for the evaluation of the adjustment passport pilot?
Following a successful pilot delivered in three universities (Wolverhampton, Manchester Metropolitan, and Kings College London), an Adjustments Planner for students in higher education and university was launched in November 2023.
The pilot was evaluated by the universities, with 242 students providing a mix of qualitative and quantitative evidence. The evaluation has not been published by DWP as it is owned by the universities, but copies have been shared with stakeholders and are available on request. The key findings from the evaluation are as follows:
Students welcomed the Planner’s focus on adjustments rather than on disability and they could clearly envisage the Planner’s potential to support students throughout their careers.
To respond to evaluation feedback and expand the offer, a pilot Adjustments Planner for Vocational Programmes was launched in February 2023. This Adjustments Planner provides a communication tool to support discussions about future career ambitions and the in-work support that is available to young disabled people. The Planner documents the young person’s adjustments and in-work requirements, removing the need for the young person to repeat personal details and undergo an Access to Work assessment.
17 educational providers across the country (England, Scotland, and Wales) are taking part in the pilot, the providers are working with up to 100 interns/apprentices and trainees to complete a planner and provide feedback on the format and the effectiveness of the planner in supporting conversations and obtaining adjustments.
The Adjustments Planner for Vocational Programmes pilot will end in February 2024. The pilot will then be evaluated and if successful, the Planner will be launched ahead of the new academic year.
Q16. In the context of the Universal Support offer, what plans are there, if any, to increase the trust disabled people have in the DWP?
Universal Support is a new voluntary programme designed to support disabled people and people with defined barriers into sustained employment. The programme will be based on proven models of “place, train and maintain” support. It will be grant funded and delivered by local authorities and their partners. Referrals will be identified through local services e.g. health routes and third sector organisations, as well as DWP Jobcentres. Universal Support is a significant increase in investment to help disabled people who want to work to receive the support they need to help them to do so. It is part of a wider package of additional support to help those with health conditions and disabled people to start, stay and succeed in work.
Q17. How does the £4000 pot for support services within the Universal Support schemes link with the funding for access to work?
The funding for Universal Support will enable local authorities to set up evidence-based support services to help disabled people and those with health conditions and other complex barriers to employment into work. Those who are eligible will be able to receive, on a voluntary basis, up to 12 months of support. Universal Support employment support specialists will work with participants to identify good matches with open labour market jobs and then provide ongoing support to the participant and their employer to enable work to be sustained. Once fully rolled out Universal Support will support 100,000 participants each year.
Working Universal Support participants will remain eligible for Access to Work in a similar way to anyone else working with a health condition or disability. Access to Work provides grant funding to individuals to contribute to the costs of adjustments that can enable them to work - which go beyond the reasonable adjustments employers are required to make under the Equalities Act.
Universal Support will be funded via grants to local authorities. The funding is to deliver support based on models of supported employment (also known as “place, train and maintain”) that are underpinned by strong evidence of positive impacts and effectiveness around participants sustaining employment. Universal Support will not offer financial incentives or reimbursement to employers, as the evidence demonstrates that the “place, train and maintain” model is more effective in achieving sustained employment for disabled workers than employer incentives. There are, therefore, no employers awaiting reimbursement from Universal Support.
Q18. What stage has the Access to Work Plus trial reached? What evaluation has been conducted on AtW+, and what are the next steps for the programme?
Access to Work Plus (AtW+) is still in the testing phase. To date (February 2024), 125 AtW+ awards have been made and DWP is working to increase this number ahead of the closure of the trial and evaluation. We expect the evaluation to conclude in Summer 2024, with the findings helping to inform future decisions on AtW+.
Q19. Written evidence from the DWP did not refer to Restart or IPS (individual placement and support) schemes. Is it the departments intention to roll both schemes into universal support?
Universal Support is not a replacement for the Restart Scheme – Restart will continue as a separate mandatory employment support programme for the long term unemployed. The Government’s Back to Work Plan and Autumn Statement announced the Restart Scheme will be extended for two years to June 2026.
Eligibility to Restart will also be expanded to those who have been unemployed for at least 6 months (rather than 9 months as is now), enabling people to access Restart’s support earlier in their claim. Earlier intervention aims to reduce the risk of claimants becoming long term unemployed and flowing into inactivity.
Government funding is provided for the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) supported employment intervention to be delivered to a variety of target groups. Funding will continue alongside Universal Support for delivery of IPS for those experiencing Severe Mental Illness and IPS for those with Drug and Alcohol Dependency.
Universal Support funding will enable scaling up the delivery of IPS in Primary Care (IPSPC) and so IPSPC will no longer run as a separate programme once Universal Support has fully rolled out. An expansion of IPSPC has already been funded from the Universal Support budget – increasing from two to twelve areas in England (now covering 42 top tier Local Authorities). Two Health Board areas in Wales are due to mobilise new Universal Support funded IPSPC services soon. Through Universal Support IPSPC will be made available in all areas of England and Wales alongside another “place, train and maintain” intervention based on the Supported Employment Quality Framework (SEQF). DWP has been testing delivery of SEQF through the Local Supported Employment programme which has been providing support to learning disabled and autistic job seekers.
9 February 2023