Asked by: Lord Shinkwin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which disabled peoples' organisations were involved in (1) developing the criteria for the tendering process of the Cabinet Office’s systematic review of the lived experience of disabled people (CCZZ21A07), and (2) appointing the body responsible for the review.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The systematic review is part of Disability Unit’s ongoing work to improve and systematise the evidence base on the lived experience of disabled people in the UK.
The tendering process has been overseen by Disability Unit (DU) staff as well as procurement specialists from Crown Commercial Service (CCS). We do not know about those from the CCS side, but some DU staff involved do have lived experience of disability.
The scope and criteria were drawn up by Disability Unit, informed by knowledge of the existing evidence base and its gaps, and also incorporating the focus areas of the National Strategy for Disabled People. Since the tender was conducted as an open competition, all of the criteria (e.g. the requirements and the evaluation criteria) for the tendering process were available on Contracts Finder.
Asked by: Lord Shinkwin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the panel overseeing the tendering process for the Cabinet Office’s systematic review of the lived experience of disabled people (CCZZ21A07) (1) includes, or (2) is chaired, by a disabled person.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The systematic review is part of Disability Unit’s ongoing work to improve and systematise the evidence base on the lived experience of disabled people in the UK.
The tendering process has been overseen by Disability Unit (DU) staff as well as procurement specialists from Crown Commercial Service (CCS). We do not know about those from the CCS side, but some DU staff involved do have lived experience of disability.
The scope and criteria were drawn up by Disability Unit, informed by knowledge of the existing evidence base and its gaps, and also incorporating the focus areas of the National Strategy for Disabled People. Since the tender was conducted as an open competition, all of the criteria (e.g. the requirements and the evaluation criteria) for the tendering process were available on Contracts Finder.
Asked by: Lord Shinkwin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what internal meetings they held between the Cabinet Office and other government departments to draft the National Strategy for Disabled People; and on what date each meeting took place.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The National Strategy will be subject to the usual processes for collective agreement by ministers which are outlined in the Cabinet Manual. It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place through Cabinet and its Committees is not normally shared publicly.
We’re working hard to deliver the National Strategy for Disabled People to support our ambition to level up opportunity and inclusivity, and will publish the strategy this year. It will be informed by insights from the lived experience of disabled people, focusing on the issues that disabled people say affect them the most in all aspects and phases of life, including employment, housing, education and transport.
The Cabinet Office Disability Unit, established in November 2019, is leading and coordinating this work at official level within Government, and also with external stakeholders. The unit has engaged widely across government departments to support the development of the National Strategy. No meetings have taken place with other government departments specifically to draft the National Strategy, but regular meetings have taken place to develop the Strategy. We are also working closely with the 13 Ministerial Disability Champions on the development of the National Strategy.
The Disability Unit has also engaged with a diverse range of external stakeholders through our Disability Charities Consortium, Regional Stakeholder Networks and UK Disability online survey. By 4th March, the survey had generated more than 14,800 responses from disabled people, carers and the wider public. Other engagement has included businesses and business organisations, regulators, academia, professional bodies and the Devolved Administrations.
Asked by: Lord Shinkwin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish (1) the procedure, and (2) the timeline, for the sign-off of the draft National Strategy for Disabled People by (a) relevant lead officials in (i) the Cabinet Office, and (ii) the Department for Work and Pensions, (b) the relevant Cabinet Office Minister, (c) the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, (d) the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (e) Secretaries of State whose departments are affected by the strategy, and (f) the Prime Minister.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The National Strategy will be subject to the usual processes for collective agreement by ministers which are outlined in the Cabinet Manual. It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place through Cabinet and its Committees is not normally shared publicly.
We’re working hard to deliver the National Strategy for Disabled People to support our ambition to level up opportunity and inclusivity, and will publish the strategy this year. It will be informed by insights from the lived experience of disabled people, focusing on the issues that disabled people say affect them the most in all aspects and phases of life, including employment, housing, education and transport.
The Cabinet Office Disability Unit, established in November 2019, is leading and coordinating this work at official level within Government, and also with external stakeholders. The unit has engaged widely across government departments to support the development of the National Strategy. No meetings have taken place with other government departments specifically to draft the National Strategy, but regular meetings have taken place to develop the Strategy. We are also working closely with the 13 Ministerial Disability Champions on the development of the National Strategy.
The Disability Unit has also engaged with a diverse range of external stakeholders through our Disability Charities Consortium, Regional Stakeholder Networks and UK Disability online survey. By 4th March, the survey had generated more than 14,800 responses from disabled people, carers and the wider public. Other engagement has included businesses and business organisations, regulators, academia, professional bodies and the Devolved Administrations.
Asked by: Lord Shinkwin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government on which dates the draft National Strategy for Disabled People was given (1) to the relevant Cabinet Office Minister, (2) to the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, and (3) to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The National Strategy will be subject to the usual processes for collective agreement by ministers which are outlined in the Cabinet Manual. It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place through Cabinet and its Committees is not normally shared publicly.
We’re working hard to deliver the National Strategy for Disabled People to support our ambition to level up opportunity and inclusivity, and will publish the strategy this year. It will be informed by insights from the lived experience of disabled people, focusing on the issues that disabled people say affect them the most in all aspects and phases of life, including employment, housing, education and transport.
The Cabinet Office Disability Unit, established in November 2019, is leading and coordinating this work at official level within Government, and also with external stakeholders. The unit has engaged widely across government departments to support the development of the National Strategy. No meetings have taken place with other government departments specifically to draft the National Strategy, but regular meetings have taken place to develop the Strategy. We are also working closely with the 13 Ministerial Disability Champions on the development of the National Strategy.
The Disability Unit has also engaged with a diverse range of external stakeholders through our Disability Charities Consortium, Regional Stakeholder Networks and UK Disability online survey. By 4th March, the survey had generated more than 14,800 responses from disabled people, carers and the wider public. Other engagement has included businesses and business organisations, regulators, academia, professional bodies and the Devolved Administrations.
Asked by: Lord Shinkwin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will publish in one document all the questions in the Cabinet Office’s National Strategy for Disabled People Citizen Space Survey.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Government is committed to transforming the lives of disabled people, and will publish the National Strategy for Disabled People this year. It will be informed by insights from the lived experience of disabled people, and will focus on the issues that disabled people say are most important across all aspects of life.
On Friday 15th January, we launched the online UK Disability Survey, which complements the range of engagement already undertaken and ongoing, including lived experience research with disabled people, discussions with the Disabled Charities Consortium, the Regional Stakeholder Networks and others. Contributions to the survey will feed not only into the development of the strategy but also its delivery.
The survey questions were also included in the Easy Read document published online on the survey page (link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disability-in-the-uk-survey). The key findings and analysis of the survey will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Shinkwin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what reasonable adjustments they have made to ensure that the timeline for disabled people to respond to the Cabinet Office Disability Unit’s National Strategy for Disabled People survey takes into account the extra time that it will take some respondents to complete the survey on account of their disability.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Government is committed to transforming the lives of disabled people, and will publish the National Strategy for Disabled People this year. It will be informed by insights from the lived experience of disabled people, and will focus on the issues that disabled people say are most important across all aspects of life.
On Friday 15th January, we launched the online UK Disability Survey, which complements the range of engagement already undertaken and ongoing, including lived experience research with disabled people, discussions with the Disabled Charities Consortium, the Regional Stakeholder Networks and others. Contributions to the survey will feed not only into the development of the strategy but also its delivery.
The survey questions were also included in the Easy Read document published online on the survey page (link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disability-in-the-uk-survey). The key findings and analysis of the survey will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Shinkwin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish (1) the arrangements, and (2) the methodology, for analysing responses to the Cabinet Office Disability Unit’s National Strategy for Disabled People survey; and what assessment they have made of the time required for this analysis per thousand responses.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Government is committed to transforming the lives of disabled people, and will publish the National Strategy for Disabled People this year. It will be informed by insights from the lived experience of disabled people, and will focus on the issues that disabled people say are most important across all aspects of life.
On Friday 15th January, we launched the online UK Disability Survey, which complements the range of engagement already undertaken and ongoing, including lived experience research with disabled people, discussions with the Disabled Charities Consortium, the Regional Stakeholder Networks and others. Contributions to the survey will feed not only into the development of the strategy but also its delivery.
The survey questions were also included in the Easy Read document published online on the survey page (link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disability-in-the-uk-survey). The key findings and analysis of the survey will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Shinkwin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many responses to the Cabinet Office Disability Unit’s National Strategy for Disabled People survey they received within (1) the first, (2) the second, and (3) the third, week of the survey’s launch; and when they plan to publish the key findings of this survey.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Government is committed to transforming the lives of disabled people, and will publish the National Strategy for Disabled People this year. It will be informed by insights from the lived experience of disabled people, and will focus on the issues that disabled people say are most important across all aspects of life.
On Friday 15th January, we launched the online UK Disability Survey, which complements the range of engagement already undertaken and ongoing, including lived experience research with disabled people, discussions with the Disabled Charities Consortium, the Regional Stakeholder Networks and others. Contributions to the survey will feed not only into the development of the strategy but also its delivery.
The survey questions were also included in the Easy Read document published online on the survey page (link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disability-in-the-uk-survey). The key findings and analysis of the survey will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Shinkwin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what improvements have been made to measuring the outcomes since 2017 of nationally contracted programmes that support disabled people to work.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The new nationally contracted employment programmes for disabled people since 2017 are the Work and Health Programme (WHP), which began in November 2017, and Intensive Personalised Employment Support (IPES), which began in November 2019. Both of these programmes are being delivered as Randomised Control Trials to enable us to measure the average impacts they have on participants’ employment. Both include full evaluations which will also capture the impact on wider health and wellbeing outcomes.
Separately, both of these programmes also have defined job outcomes which are used for the provider payment models and for performance management purposes.
In the Work and Health Programme, a participant is classed as achieving a job outcome when they have reached a specified level of earnings once in employment, or reach six months of being in self-employment. The specified level of earnings varies across the different regions. The national WHP and the majority of Local Government Partners have an earning threshold as 16 hours per week for 26 weeks at the National living wage. However, for the West London Alliance this is at the London Living Wage and for Greater Manchester Combined Authority at the Real Living Wage. Job outcome rates are published in the Work and Health Programme statistical publication attached.
For IPES, there are two job outcome measures used; a lower threshold income measure, which is defined as earnings equivalent to eight hours per week for 26 weeks; and a higher threshold, which is the equivalent to 16 hours per week for 26 weeks. There is not currently a statistical publication for IPES as the programme has not been running for long enough.
WHP was the first programme to utilise HM Revenue & Customs Real Time Information data in its identification, payment and validation of employment programme outcomes. This use of earnings has ensured that only sustained outcomes are paid for with participants having to acquire a pre-defined level of earnings synonymous with six months in employment, rather than a durational outcome. This has had significant advantages in terms of speed and reducing the resource required by the Department for Work and Pensions and contracted providers in tracking and evidencing outcomes.