Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the support provided by her Department in helping disabled people (a) find and (b) maintain employment.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As part of the get Britain working plan, more disabled people and those with health conditions will be supported to enter and stay in work, by devolving more power to local areas so they can shape a joined-up work, health, and skills offer that suits the needs of the people they serve.
Good quality work is generally good for health and wellbeing, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. We want people to avoid poverty, and for this to happen we must ensure that disabled people and people with health conditions have the opportunity to work and save for as long as they wish and are able to.
The DWP delivers a range of interventions to help disabled people and people with long-term health conditions to find and stay in work. We have already published several evaluations of the effectiveness of some of these programmes. These include the JOBS II evaluation, Employment Advisors in Improved Access to Psychological Therapies and the Health Led Trials.
For future interventions, the DWP is committed to adhering to HMT and Government Social Research guidelines, which includes proportionate evaluation and assessment of the effectiveness of any support in finding and staying in work, alongside wellbeing outcomes. All planned and live evaluations and evaluation reports will be registered on an Evaluation Registry from early 2025. “Evaluation” refers to impact, process, and value for money evaluation studies conducted in line with the Magenta Book.