Employment: Autism and Learning Disability

(asked on 14th April 2023) - View Source
Questioner
Vicky Foxcroft Portrait
Vicky Foxcroft
(Labour - Lewisham North)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, to which local authorities the Department has provided funding to deliver a model of supported employment to increase the employment prospects of autistic people and people with severe or specific learning disabilities.

Answered by
Tom Pursglove Portrait
Tom Pursglove
This question was answered on 19th April 2023

Autistic people and people with severe or specific learning disabilities are the least likely of all disabled people to be in work. We are providing £7.3m of grant funding to local authorities to deliver Local Supported Employment, supporting around 2,000 autistic and learning-disabled people to find and stay in work. Grant funding for LSE has been awarded to the following 23 lead local authorities in England and Wales:

  • Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council
  • Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
  • Bradford Metropolitan District Council
  • Cheshire West and Chester Council
  • City of Cardiff Council
  • Durham County Council
  • Gloucestershire County Council
  • Hertfordshire County Council
  • Kent County Council
  • Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council
  • Lancashire County Council
  • Leicester City Council
  • Lincolnshire County Council
  • Norfolk County Council
  • Oxfordshire County Council
  • Pembrokeshire County Council
  • Salford City Council
  • Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
  • Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
  • Southampton City Council
  • Surrey County Council
  • The Council of the City of Wakefield
  • Tower Hamlets London Borough Council

In three areas, local authorities are working together by forming a cluster to provide this support, taking the total number of local authorities to 28. These are:

  • Kent County Council are working with:

o Medway Council

  • Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council are working with:

o Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council

o Sheffield City Council

  • Pembrokeshire County Council are working with:

o Carmarthenshire County Council

o Ceredigion County Council

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