Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy published 28 July 2021, whether his Department has nominated a senior civil servant to champion accessible communications across government.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Claire Pimm, Director of Communications, National Resilience Hub is the nominated senior civil servant to champion accessible communications across government.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy published July 2021, what recent steps his Department has taken on (a) encouraging and supporting workplace disability networks, (b) achieving and maintaining the highest level of Disability Confident accreditation, (c) ensuring responsive and timely support to meet workplace adjustment needs and (d) developing and embedding flexible working.
Answered by Michael Ellis
For management and staffing purposes Downing Street is an integral part of the Cabinet Office.
The Cabinet Office has a disability network, known as the ABLE network. The ABLE network is supported through a number of wider disability specific communities. At the Civil Service level, the ABLE Chair meets with other Disability chairs at the Civil Service Diversity Network where best practice is shared at the CS level. In addition, the Cabinet Office supports ABLE’s membership of Purple Space where all disabled network colleagues have the choice to link up with disability networks across the Purple Space community which has cross sector membership where disability inclusion knowledge is shared across different organisations.
Cabinet Office was reaccredited as a Disability Confident Leader in January 2021. This is the highest level of accreditation that can be achieved for the scheme.
The Cabinet Office Adjustments team is a dedicated resource within the Department that provides advice to employees and managers. The team aims to respond to all requests for assistance within three working days. For employees requiring workplace adjustments, the team provides end-to-end support to managers to implement physical adjustments. Managers are also supported by a Casework Service provided by MoJ (the Cabinet Office third party supplier) on the implementation of non-physical adjustments.
The Cabinet Office embraces flexible working and this is often used as workplace adjustment to enable colleagues to work to their full potential.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy published July 2021, what recent steps No. 10 Downing Street has taken on (a) encouraging and supporting workplace disability networks, (b) achieving and maintaining the highest level of Disability Confident accreditation, (c) ensuring responsive and timely support to meet workplace adjustment needs and (d) developing and embedding flexible working.
Answered by Michael Ellis
For management and staffing purposes Downing Street is an integral part of the Cabinet Office.
The Cabinet Office has a disability network, known as the ABLE network. The ABLE network is supported through a number of wider disability specific communities. At the Civil Service level, the ABLE Chair meets with other Disability chairs at the Civil Service Diversity Network where best practice is shared at the CS level. In addition, the Cabinet Office supports ABLE’s membership of Purple Space where all disabled network colleagues have the choice to link up with disability networks across the Purple Space community which has cross sector membership where disability inclusion knowledge is shared across different organisations.
Cabinet Office was reaccredited as a Disability Confident Leader in January 2021. This is the highest level of accreditation that can be achieved for the scheme.
The Cabinet Office Adjustments team is a dedicated resource within the Department that provides advice to employees and managers. The team aims to respond to all requests for assistance within three working days. For employees requiring workplace adjustments, the team provides end-to-end support to managers to implement physical adjustments. Managers are also supported by a Casework Service provided by MoJ (the Cabinet Office third party supplier) on the implementation of non-physical adjustments.
The Cabinet Office embraces flexible working and this is often used as workplace adjustment to enable colleagues to work to their full potential.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy published 28 July 2021, what steps his Department has taken to date towards considering how it can best support those standing for public office and those who hold public office.
Answered by Michael Ellis
It is the Government’s ambition to see more disabled people in public office.
Officials in the Cabinet Office Disability Unit continue to work with colleagues at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DHLUC) on this issue. DHLUC is developing a new scheme to support those seeking to become candidates and to support those who have been elected to public office. That work is a part of the 2022/23 local government improvement work which will be launched from April this year.
Officials are also speaking to the National Association of Local Councils and the Local Government Association about enhancing support and guidance for disabled councillors.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy, published 28 July 2021, what recent steps his Department has taken to identify and seek collaborative ways to co-create communications and continue sharing accessible formats.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Following the publication of the National Disability Strategy, the Cabinet Office has continued to issue internal guidance on accessibility to government departments reiterating their duties under the Equality Act 2010. This is to ensure that communications are accessible using appropriate and inclusive formats.
The Cabinet Office has continued to liaise with departments to encourage and support the development of accessible content - most recently to mark the International Day of People with Disabilities.
The Cabinet Office also created a disability communications stakeholder working group in 2020 and regularly engages with that group to improve new messages.
GOV.UK ran an audit in 2020 to identify and improve content and navigational issues. Following the audit, GOV.UK has updated publishing tools and guidance, and worked with departments to ensure their content adheres to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy published on 28 July 2021, what steps the Central Digital and Data Office took towards the continuation of its programme to make online public services accessible.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Since the publication of the National Disability Strategy last July, the Government’s Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) has also published the outcome of its monitoring of the UK’s public sector websites and mobile applications. This can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/accessibility-monitoring-of-public-sector-websites-and-mobile-apps-2020-2021/accessibility-monitoring-of-public-sector-websites-and-mobile-apps-2020-2021.
The report also explains CDDO’s ongoing work to implement the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (“accessibility regulations''). This includes publication of guidance on how users can report accessibility issues with a public sector website or mobile app and guidance on how to make mobile apps accessible. CDDO will continue to monitor public sector websites and mobile applications throughout 2022.