Jobcentres: Disability

(asked on 14th April 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, whether his Department is taking steps to consult with disabled people on the development of the jobcentre design guide.


Answered by
Tom Pursglove Portrait
Tom Pursglove
Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
This question was answered on 21st April 2023

The department is committed to improving access and inclusion for colleagues and members of the public through the on-going development of its Jobcentre design guides. The design guides provide the standards for future properties and major refurbishments of existing sites. In 2021/22, the department commissioned the Civil Service Policy Lab to explore best practice in Jobcentre design for disabled people and those with health conditions.

Policy Lab were set up in 2014 to support the Civil Service with specialist expertise to help understand the present, imagine the future, and design ways to achieve the intended policy impact.

The aim of the project was to work with experts, staff, and disabled people, to develop recommendations for inclusive design to inform future guidance for Jobcentres.

Research included working closely with participants, to better understand their personal ‘lived experiences’. This included in-depth interviews to understand their individual health condition and relationship with the local Jobcentre. The research included an immersive, sensory mapping approach, where the researchers’ joined participants on their journeys to the Jobcentre and around the buildings.

Supporting this work, the department also commission a specialist access and inclusion consultant, with property expertise, to oversee changes to guidance. The scope includes improving environments for more people by considering the latest guidance on neurodiversity.

Findings and insights from the research are informing the department’s new design guide for Jobcentres. This guidance is currently under development with the in-house design team. Trials will follow on several sites, which will include detailed customer evaluation of all the agreed deliverables. Stakeholder groups will also be involved in finalising this inclusive design guidance.

This work forms part of a wider programme of work the department is undertaking to look at, and continue to improve, employment support for disabled people.

Reticulating Splines