Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that employers provide disabled people with the support they need to stay in work in (a) Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency and (b) the rest of England.

Access to Work aims to support the recruitment and retention of disabled people into employment. It is a personalised discretionary grant that provides support with workplace adjustments beyond an employer’s obligation as outlined in the Equality Act 2010.

As part of our Plan for Change, and as set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper published in March, we are consulting on the future of Access to Work and how to improve the programme to help more disabled people into work and support employers ensuring value for money for taxpayers. We will review all aspects of the Scheme following the conclusion of the consultation and carefully assess the impact of any proposed changes.

In our Get Britain Working White Paper, published November 2024, we committed support for employers to recruit, retain and develop staff. As part of that, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade have asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead ‘Keep Britain Working’, an independent review to consider how best to support and enable employers to recruit and retain more people with health conditions and disabilities, promote healthy workplaces, and support more people to stay in or return to work from periods of sickness absence. Sir Charlie Mayfield will deliver a final report with recommendations in the autumn.

At national level, DWP promotes the Disability Confident Scheme which encourages employers to create disability inclusive workplaces and to support disabled people to get work and get on in work. It provides employers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace and to take positive action to address the issues disabled employees face.

We recognise the need to make the scheme more robust, and we will work with employers, disabled people, and disabled people’s organisations to realise its full potential.

In addition, DWP's current offer to employers includes a digital information service, (www.support-with-employee-health-and-disability.dwp.gov.uk/), which provides tailored guidance for employers to support employees with health and disability to remain in the workplace. This includes guidance on disclosures and having conversations about health and disabilities, plus guidance on legal obligations, including statutory sick pay and making reasonable adjustments.

The St Albans and Hemel Hempstead Jobcentres provide support to constituents in Harpenden and Berkhamstead. Disability Employment Advisers work with employers to ensure they are aware of the support available. An example of this is the work undertaken by Disability Employment Adviser Leaders in collaboration with Hertfordshire County Council, through Inclusive Job fairs raising employer awareness of Disability Confident and Access to Work. If the employer is not already signed up to Disability Confident, we encourage them to do so. Our Jobcentres offer retention support to constituents already in employment when they either become disabled or their health deteriorates to such an extent it impacts on their ability to carry out their role at work. The Jobcentre Teams will support the customer and the employer to get the appropriate support/ adjustments in place to ensure the constituent stays in employment.