Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effect of ending the protected places scheme on (a) organisations that receive funding from and (b) disabled people in work who are supported by that scheme.

Work Choice providers and Supported Businesses have been aware that the Protected Places arrangement delivered via the Work Choice contracts would end at the end of December 2018 and will have been transitioning their businesses to manage the end of this funding stream. To support them in the transition funding for Protected Places has been extended until March 2019. We plan tp provide long-term sustainable funding for this group of people.

Supported businesses use different models to manage the Protected Places provision, so assessments are being made at a range of businesses:

1. We are working to introduce arrangements to provide continued support, exploring a new Access to Work element which might be paid to the businesses in respect of the support they provide for individuals once Work Choice funding ceases. Department for Work and Pensions officials are visiting a number of these businesses (including RSBI in Glasgow) to review the models they have in place and evaluate how new support could be implemented.