Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that companies that are signed up to the Disability Confident Scheme are supporting their disabled employees.

Employers that have signed up to the Disability Confident (DC) scheme are provided with the knowledge, skills and free resources they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace. The scheme is designed as a learning journey with all employers starting at Level 1 and encouraged to progress through the scheme to Levels 2 and 3. No employer is too small or new to start the journey and even the most experienced employer will still find new techniques and best practice that can help better support their employees. For example, employers signing up to the scheme are committing to ‘Ensure their recruitment process is inclusive and accessible’ and ‘Supporting any existing employee who acquires a disability or long term health condition, enabling them to stay in work’.

Throughout the pandemic, we have ensured that employers have received timely and appropriate support through the delivery of a series of practical national webinars, covering a range of employer hot topics, ranging from: New Ways of Working, Access to Work, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Virtual Hiring and Autism and Neurodiversity. We have also delivered a number of employer events, focusing on the support available to employees. In addition, all Disability Confident employers receive regular Disability Confident newsletters and other communications to support them and their employees. There are currently over 20,000 employers signed up to the Disability Confident scheme, covering over 11million employees.