Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps they have taken in their Department to operate the Disability Confident employer scheme for those seeking a lateral transfer; and how many and what proportion of candidates who declared themselves as having a disability and who applied under that scheme where (a) interviewed and (b) laterally transferred in (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022.

The Department of Health and Social Care is proud to have achieved Disability Confident Leader status under the Government’s Disability Confident scheme.

The Disability Confident scheme was formally launched by the Department for Work and Pensions in November 2016. It is designed to give employers the skills, techniques and confidence they need to recruit, retain and develop disabled staff.

To receive an interview, applicants must meet the minimum criteria for the role. Exceptions may apply if, due to the volume of applications, we are not able to interview all eligible candidates who qualify under the scheme.

In the table below we have outlined the overall number of existing Civil Servant candidates who applied for a job advertised either across the Department of Health and Social Care or across the Civil Service; and whose application was both under the Disability Confident scheme and not on promotion within each calendar year.

Please note that disabled candidates may apply for roles outside of the Disability Confident scheme and there is no obligation to disclose a disability when applying for a role. The question of "Applying for Promotion" is only asked for vacancies which are advertised internally or across Government and therefore no externally advertised vacancies are included in the data set. Candidates may withdraw from the process between application, interview or being offered the role.