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Written Question
Employment: Learning Disability
Tuesday 4th April 2017

Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to encourage the full-time employment of adults with special learning needs; and what progress was made in (1) 2015, and (2) 2016.

Answered by Lord Henley

The Government strongly supports the need to provide more employment opportunities to adults with a learning disability or autism.

In 2015 3,140 individuals with a learning disability started the Work Choice programme, with 61% achieving a job outcome. 2016 annual data are not yet available. In 2015 the department introduced Specialist Employability Support (SES) to provide up to a further 1700 places per year intensive and personalised support for people, including those with learning disabilities.

Disability Confident works to influence employers to take on more disabled people, including those with learning disabilities, and to market Access to Work to disabled people.

Access to Work has a new Hidden Impairment Support Team which aims to give advice and guidance to employers, and offers eligible workers an assessment of their needs at work and a support plan.

Last year, Paul Maynard MP led a taskforce that made recommendations to Government on how to improve access to apprenticeships for people with learning disabilities. Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education are working together to implement all of these recommendations.

Looking forward, we are testing ways to improve our support for people with learning disabilities through a Local Supported Employment proof of concept and Supported Work Experience for young people, which offers young people with learning disabilities and other long term conditions a chance to spend time with an employer.

Written Question
Employment: Learning Disability
Tuesday 22nd December 2015

Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to encourage the full-time employment of adults with special learning needs, and what assessment they have made of how successful those measures have been in 2015.

Answered by Baroness Altmann

Increasing disability employment is a key part of the government’s aim to achieve full employment. That is why this Government has an ambition to halve the disability employment gap by creating the opportunity for a million more disabled people to work.


The Government has a variety of initiatives and programmes in place to support and encourage people with special learning needs to find and retain work. Performance statistics are published for a number of these.


For example:

  • Access to Work provides on-going personalised in-work support for disabled people who are in work or about to start work on a full or part-time basis. Access to Work has had a Hidden Impairments Specialist Advisory team since September. We are also considering whether the Mental Health Support Service model of support could benefit those with hidden impairments other than mental health conditions. Last year Access to Work supported record numbers of people with a Learning Disability or Dyslexia recorded as their Primary Health Condition (6,580 people supported – 520 more people than in 2013/14).

  • The most recent Access to Work statistics are attached at Annex A.

  • Work Choice is a specialist disability employment programme which provides tailored support for disabled people who face the most complex employment barriers to find and stay in work. DWP has improved the referral process for Work Choice to ensure that information about candidates’ hidden impairments is shared with Work Choice providers. In 2014/15, 5,670 people with a Mild or Moderate to Severe Learning Disability recorded as their Primary Disability were referred to Work Choice. Since 2010, 19,410 people with a Mild or Moderate to Severe Learning Disability recorded as their Primary Disability have started Work Choice, of whom 8,600 have started work – giving a job outcome rate of around 44% for this group.

  • The most recent Work Choice statistics are attached at Annex B.

  • The Government’s Disability Confident campaign works with employers at a national and local level to help them to understand the benefits of employing disabled people, and promote good practice in recruitment and employment of disabled people, including people with special learning needs.

  • DWP also works in close partnership with the Hidden Impairment National Group (HING), a national network of disabled people, medical professionals/ academics and disability specific organisations. This collaboration has produced an ‘Uncovering Hidden Impairments’ toolkit, which supports organisations in both the private and public sectors to confidently recruit and retain talented individuals with hidden impairment conditions, such as special learning needs.

  • Jobcentre Plus continues to offer a range of support, including a free helpline for claimants who have difficulty making claims for benefit online because of dyslexia or similar conditions. DWP is working in partnership with Autism Alliance UK to build an autism network across Jobcentre Plus by training nominated autism leads, including Work Coaches and DEAs.

  • We have worked with Community Service Volunteers to introduce the Job-Shadowing Work Placement Initiative for young disabled people, including those with special learning needs. The first tranche had a 65% participation rate for young people having autistic spectrum conditions