Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps they have taken to operate a disability confident scheme for those seeking promotion in their Department; and how many and what proportion of those candidates who declared themselves as having a disability and who applied under the scheme were (a) interviewed and (b) promoted in (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022.

The Department is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) leader, achieved through investment in a range of actions to support staff who have disabilities.

This includes programmes to help support career progression (including ‘Beyond Boundaries’, a cross-government development programme and ‘Power of Choice’, an internal development programme) and actions specific to recruitment, (such as guidance to ensure the language in job adverts avoids creating extra barriers and automatic interviews for those who reach the minimum pass mark at sift).

Data on the number of internal candidates who have applied under the scheme and progressed in a recruitment is below.