Unemployment: People with Autism

Baroness Leaman Excerpts

Thursday 25th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

The noble Baroness makes an extremely important point. One reason we have focused the nature of our support through the connect to work specialist programme, which works with people who are disabled or have a health condition, is because everyone is different. Autistic people are different from each other, and there is also significant co-occurrence of autism and other neurodivergent conditions. I realise that I am telling this to a Member of the House who knows more than I will ever know about this, but she knows of what I speak. We have set out to make sure that, in that programme, someone has a specialist jobs coach who will work with them and find out what their barriers and their goals are and what they want to be. A recent example is of a young man who got his dream job in a hobby store: he needed his job worker, who went to the interview with him, went through the induction and worked with the employer to make the right adjustments, and now the young man is a really happy and thriving member of staff. That is what we can do well.

[Baroness Leaman (LD)]

My Lords, in response to the Think Work First report, the Government accepted the recommendation to double the number of supported internships and to expand eligibility beyond those with an EHCP. Can the Minister tell the House what, if any, targets have been set to achieve this expansion and, therefore, when young autistic people without an EHCP will be able to access a supported internship in every part of the country?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

What I have been trying to describe is our intention to make sure we have personalised support. The noble Baroness raises an important question. She will know, from having seen the work done and from the early report from the Department of Health, which looked into questions around prevalence of autism and other neurodivergent conditions, that one challenge is that people are having to seek out diagnosis in order to get support. In fact, we need to make sure that support is not dependent on diagnosis. Let me be really clear that a diagnosis of, for example, autism is absolutely not a requirement for engaging with employment support. We are determined to make that available. A diagnosis may be the right thing and may help many people, but it is not a prerequisite for our support.