Written evidence from Louise Farrington (DEG0028)

My name is Louise Farrington. I am responding to your call for evidence through Scope, the disability equality charity.I want to share my experiences of the barriers I've faced in work and what can be improved to help disabled people in the future.

I've answered two questions below as part of your call for evidence.

What extra support would you benefit from in work? Or what would you change about existing support on offer?

More support when asking for reasonable adjustments. More opportunities for accessing support when going through discrimination. Easier access to access to work support and more ways to contact them

Looking to the future, what does the Government need to improve on to help disabled people get into, stay and progress in work?

Institutional and societal attitudes need to change more flexibility in working patterns and more support in work. Disabled people need to be in positions of power and change makers. Nothing about us without us

The disability employment gap has been stuck close to 30 percent for over a decade, and the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic has seen disabled people falling out of work faster than non-disabled people. 

Scope wants the Government to deliver on its pledge to tackle the disability employment gap. The Government must use the opportunity of the forthcoming National Strategy for Disabled People to set out plans to close the gap.

I hope that the evidence I have provided, alongside research from Scope will prove useful to the committee.

December 2020