Getting in, staying in and getting on: disability employment support fit for the future

Abstract

At the age of 16, young disabled people in the UK hold the same aspirations to stay in education and find fulfilling careers as their non-disabled classmates. This independent review recommends changes to government policy to support disabled people to work in any role in any sector by doubling the numbers of people able to use Access to Work support, and raising the overall numbers securing specialist disability employment support to 100,000 within existing resources. The review aims to make the case for cross-Government work to unlock the big enablers of employment: raising aspirations of what disabled people can achieve across our education, health and social care services; and developing more equitable ways to ‘get in’ (more disabled people doing apprenticeships, work experience, work placements, and on-the-job learning), ‘stay in’ (better promotion of Access to Work for retention), and ‘get on’ (whether setting up your own business or mutual, or gaining skills for career development).