AQW 27479/17-22

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 15/12/2021
Answered On Date: 04/01/2022
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for the Economy to clarify what actions he is taking to address the gap between the Disability Support Services contract within the Training for Success Programme and the new Skills for Life and Apprenticeships Programme.

Answer:

Disability support provision has been in place supporting participants on the Department for the Economy’s work-based-learning programmes since 2013. The service is delivered by specialist Disability Support Services (DSS) with the current contract let in April 2017.

Although the 2017 DSS contract is coming to an end, I can confirm that procurement of the 2022 contract is progressing well with letters of intent issued on 15 December 2021. It is envisaged that service delivery will be able to commence on 1 February following the completion of the necessary procurement activities in respect of Operational Readiness.

Although the result of the procurement exercise will mean that some participants will see a change in DSS provider their training provider will not change. Training Providers have principle responsibility for supporting participants and, in addition to the support available via DSS, a number of measures have been built into the Training for Success and Skills for Life and Work programmes to ensure that participants with a disability have ongoing access to the support they need to achieve including:

A weekly premium which is provided to training contractors for each participant with a disability to enable additional support to be provided; and

Participants with a disability are eligible for an extra year of training.

The 2017 DSS contract was due to finish on 31 December however to prevent a gap in provision all current DSS Contractors have been notified of the intention to modify the contract by extending the existing provision until 31 January 2022. DSS contractors are considering this request and the Department will notify all Training Providers of the outcome as soon as possible.