Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to close the learning disability employment gap.

In 2017 the Government set a goal to see one million more disabled people in employment between 2017 and 2027. The latest figures released for Q1 2022 show that between Q1 2017 and Q1 2022 the number of disabled people in employment increased by 1.3m – meaning the goal has been met after only five years.

The disability employment gap was 28.2 percentage points in Q1 2022. This is a decrease of 0.2 percentage points on the year, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points since Q1 2020 and an overall decrease of 5.6 percentage points since the same quarter in 2014.

Learning Disabled people often face very significant challenges in being able to work, but their employment rate has also shown an improvement. The Annual Population Survey reports that in 2020/21 25.6% of people with severe or specific learning difficulties as their main health condition were in work. This compares to 2013/14 where 17.0% were in work. The increase from 2013/14 to 2020/21 is statistically significant.

Learning disabled people often need extra support to be able to secure, sustain and succeed in employment. We have taken a range of steps to ensure that support is available when needed.

We have strengthened our Disability Employment Adviser role, delivering direct support to claimants who require additional work related support and supporting all work coaches to deliver tailored, personalised support to claimants with a disability or health condition including those with a learning disability.

DWP has also been working with the National Autistic Society to design and develop a service delivery framework for people with Autism. The service delivery framework aims to transform the service available to jobseekers on the autism spectrum, and will also have benefits for learning disabled customers. This trial is now complete with all 15 sites having passed their accreditation test. We are considering how best to take this forward across the entire Jobcentre network.

Learning disabled people can access further employment support through Jobcentres including priority access to the Work and Health Programme in England and Wales, for people with health conditions, and Intensive Personalised Employment Support provision across the UK, which provides highly personalised packages of employment support for disabled people and people with health conditions who require specialist support to achieve sustained employment. Access to Work is also available, which is a demand-led discretionary grant scheme that provides funding for the extra disability-related costs people have when starting work or maintaining employment. Over the last 5 years the number of learning disabled people receiving AtW support each year has risen from 210 to 380.

This autumn DWP will invest over £7 million in Local Supported Employment services, working with around 20 Local Authorities to enable more learning disabled and autistic social care users to access the support needed to help them get into and remain in employment.

Learning disabled young people on their transition to employment can benefit from Supported Internships, which are aimed at young people with a learning disability or autism who have an Education, Health, and Care (EHC) plan. Supported Internships usually last for 12 months and provide support from a specialist job coach. Whilst the Department for Education lead on this in England, the Department for Work and Pensions provides support through Access to Work where needed.