Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what programmes are currently in place to increase the number of people with learning difficulties taking part in apprenticeships.

Apprenticeships are available for all people of all backgrounds including people with Learning Difficulties and Disabilities (LDD) to start, progress or to re-train in a variety of industries.

In recent years we have seen an improved representation of people who have declared LDD starting apprenticeships, and we want this to continue. We have improved our Find an Apprenticeship service to allow people to identify Disability Confident Employers offering opportunities and ensuring apprenticeships are available to all.

In partnership with the Disability Rights UK, we launched a Disabled Apprentice Network to provide insight and evidence on how to attract and retain disabled people into apprenticeships. Disability Rights UK published a report during National Apprenticeship Week 2022 to support employers to improve the diversity of their apprenticeship programmes whilst highlighting the barriers people may face when undertaking an apprenticeship. In this report, the apprentices identified the opportunity to build confidence, skills and networks with people with different experiences and gain paid work experience as the key points which influenced them towards undertaking an apprenticeship.

To ensure that more people who declare LDD feel confident to undertake apprenticeships, we have lowered the English and Maths requirements to apprenticeships for a defined group of individuals with LDD. We have also introduced British Sign Language (BSL) as an alternative to English Functional Skills for those who have BSL as their first language.

Furthermore, we make £1,000 payments to employers and providers for taking on 16 to 18-year-olds, or those 19 to 24 with an Education, Health and Care Plan and also offer £150 per month to help providers make reasonable adjustments for eligible apprentices with special educational needs. Providers can claim additional funding if the cost of support exceeds this rate.