AQW 2178/17-22

Mr Stewart Dickson
Alliance Party
East Antrim

Tabled Date: 17/02/2020
Answered On Date: 04/03/2020
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities for an update on the implementation of the Disability Employment Strategy.

Answer:

My Department is fully committed to supporting people with disabilities and health conditions progress towards, move into and stay in employment, and does this through a number of programmes.

The current Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities is a five year strategy which will run until March 2021 in which my Department has a clear lead responsibility for the implementation.

Some key achievements my Department has made to date within the strategy include:

Under Theme One ‘empowering people to secure paid employment’:

established a Disability Employment Stakeholder Forum. This forum was established in 2016 and has brought together key officials, along with representatives from the disability sector to monitor and positively influence the implementation of the strategy,

from April 2019 to January 2020 supported 3421 people through our disability employment programmes and supported 38 of these into employment.

Under Theme Two, ‘job retention and career development’:

from April 2019 to January 2020 my Department supported 2419 people to retain employment;

Workable Programme eligibility has been reduced from 16 hours to 10 hours to allow more people to access the Programme;

Access to Work and Workable participants can also participate on the Condition Management Programme to help them stay in work; and

The Condition Management Programme has been extended to all Universal Credit regimes and Steps 2 Success participants.

Under Theme Three, ‘working with employers’:

‘Employing People with Disabilities – a positive action guide for employers’ was launched in January 2019.

Work will continue alongside our partners in the disability sector to ensure we offer the support required for people with disabilities and health conditions to progress towards and remain in employment.