Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential merits of integrating (a) health and (b) social care services with access to welfare advice.

We understand the importance of ensuring local services are joined up and providing personalised wrap around support. In the recent Pathways to Work green paper the Government announced that we would establish a new guarantee of support for all disabled people and people with health conditions claiming out of work benefits who want help to get into or return to work, backed up increased funding each year up to £1billion a year by the end of the scorecard.

As part of the mission led government, regular cross government collaboration takes place at both Ministerial and official level. The Government is committed to supporting disabled people and people with health conditions and has a range of support available so individuals can stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. In England and Wales, these measures include joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies, Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care and WorkWell, as well as support across the UK from Work Coaches, Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants.

Good work is good for health and wellbeing, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key.