Employment programmes for disabled people
We know that disabled people want the chance to compete in the labour market. DWP Employment Programmes can provide the support and training to enable them to get and keep those jobs.
On this page:
- Get Britain working measures
- The Work Programme
- Work Choice
- Access to Work
- Remploy
- Specialist Disability Employment Programmes – Sayce review and consultation
More information about employment programmes is in the Welfare Reform policy area of this website:
Get Britain working measures
The flexible support that Jobcentre Plus District Managers are putting in place is being bolstered with a series of Get Britain working measures:
- Work Clubs are encouraging people who are out of work to exchange skills and share experiences, enabling individuals to take responsibility for planning their own journey back to work with the support of others going through the same experience
- Work Together is helping claimants develop work skills through volunteering, with opportunities provided by local charities and voluntary organisations
- Work Experience enables young unemployed people to get a placement with a local business which helps the young person to get valuable work experience, build their CVs and make them more marketable to potential employers
- New Enterprise Allowance supports those looking to start their own business by providing access to finance and valuable support from local business mentors
- Enterprise Clubs help people make the most of local knowledge and resources to support unemployed people who are interested in self-employment
- Sector-based work academies offer pre-employment training and work experience placements in sectors with high volumes of local vacancies – with participants receiving a guaranteed job interview upon completion.
Jobcentre Plus support
The Department is modernising the way Jobcentre Plus delivers its services. Jobcentre Plus managers and advisers, who work with claimants daily, now have the responsibility to assess the individual needs of people and offer the support they think is best. The Department is also asking Jobcentre Plus staff to focus on results and reduce bureaucracy.
Jobcentre Plus advisers, are able to offer claimants a comprehensive menu of help starting with jobsearch support, and including skills provision. They have the flexibility to tailor support to the individual at the most appropriate point in their claim.
Training
In England, colleges and other training providers funded by the Skills Funding Agency have greater freedom and flexibility to offer training that reflects the needs of the local labour market and the local community. Benefit claimants who receive Jobseeker’s Allowance or the work-related activity group element of Employment and Support Allowance are eligible for a wide range of fully-funded training to move them closer to work.
Further Education providers also have some local discretion to provide fully-subsidised courses for people on a wider range of benefits, provided the training is to help them enter employment.
Government careers advice services:
The Work Programme
The Work Programme is the biggest, single, payment by results employment programme Great Britain has ever seen, providing personalised support to an expected 2.4 million claimants over the next seven years.
The Work Programme was launched on 10 June 2011 and is replacing much of the range of employment support currently on offer, including the New Deals, Employment Zones and Pathways to Work. These programmes were overly prescriptive and failed to achieve enough job outcomes for the long-term unemployed or good value for money for the taxpayer.
Work Programme providers will be free to design support based on individual and local need. They will be paid primarily for supporting claimants into employment and helping them stay there for longer than ever before, with higher payments for supporting the hardest to help.
For the first time providers will be paid partly out of the benefit savings they help to realise when they support claimants into sustained employment, tying what the Department pays them to what they are being paid for.
Everyone who receives Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) will be able to access the Work Programme at a time that is right for them. In England, people who receive incapacity benefits who have not yet been reassessed for ESA and people who receive Income Support will also be able to access the Work Programme voluntarily. A final decision has yet to be made on the arrangements being made for these groups in Scotland and Wales.
- The Work Programme (891KB)
Work Choice
Work Choice will run alongside the Work Programme and Jobcentre Plus support, including "Get Britain working" employment measures.
Work Choice provides disabled people who have complex barriers to employment and more intensive support needs with:
- a seamless service covering all stages of the journey into work
- support to enable them to stay in work where the other DWP employment provision might not be suitable
- support for those who wish to move into self-employment.
Work Choice will simplify the current overlapping set of programmes and will reduce the number of provider contracts from more than 200 to just 28.
We expect around 23,000 people to be supported by Work Choice in each year of the programme and an average of about 9,000 people to move into employment each year.
- Work Choice (Directgov)
Access to Work
Access to Work is available to support costs faced by a disabled person, or their employer, beyond what is reasonable for an employer to meet. It has an important role to play in supporting disabled people to get and keep jobs. We have reshaped the programme to improve its focus and value. This includes:
- asking larger employers to make a more substantial contribution towards aids or equipment from April 2010, to free up resources to go to those working for smaller employers, and
- enabling customers to have an even more personalised package of support, with an individual development plan, more frequent reviews, and more intensive discussion about building independence and self-reliance.
The Coalition Agreement states that: "We will reform Access to Work, so disabled people can apply for jobs with funding already secured for any adaptations and equipment they will need."
We are continuing to look at ways of making the programme more efficient and effective, so the maximum number of disabled people can be helped to get and keep jobs. This will include ensuring that employers are meeting their duty to make reasonable adjustments to support their employees.
- Access to Work (GOV.UK)
Remploy
The year 2011/12 is the fourth year of Remploy's five-year modernisation plan. Following the Government's 2010 review of Non-Departmental Public Bodies and the spending review settlement, the budget for Remploy Limited during the five-year modernisation plan remains unchanged at £555 million. Remploy's status continues to be both a Non-Departmental Public Body and public corporation.
Remploy supported around 10,600 disabled and disadvantaged people into work in 2009/10.
DWP continues to work with Remploy to identify ways to improve the services the company provides to maximise the number of disabled people supported into sustainable employment.
Specialist Disability Employment Support
Ensuring equality for disabled people is a key priority for the Coalition Government. Since May 2010, the Government has set out an ambitious programme of employment support to ensure that people disadvantaged in the labour market will get the help they need to find and keep jobs. Our aim is that Government programmes should support more disabled people than ever before into employment.
