Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the White Paper entitled Get Britain Working, published on 26 November 2024, what discussions she has held with (a) disabled people, (b) advocacy groups and (c) healthcare professionals in the (i) design and (ii) rollout of measures set out in the paper.

This Government is committed to championing the rights of disabled people and the principles of working with them and disability organisations. This approach ensures we can design and deliver better support to help disabled people find and stay in work and capture the important insights from disability organisations and healthcare professionals.

The primary focus of the Get Britain Working White Paper is to tackle economic inactivity and through the measures announced in the White Paper including economic inactivity trailblazers, local Get Britain Working plans in England, the Keep Britain Working Review and others, we aim to support more disabled people and people with health conditions to find and thrive in employment.

Such ambitious plans require input and expertise from a wide range of stakeholders - from charities, community groups and employers through to devolved governments, local authorities, healthcare professionals and providers of employment support and careers advice.

Ministers continue to speak with a wide range of disabled people and disabled people's organisations to get their views on policy design and delivery. Through Ministerial visits across the country, I regularly meet with disabled people and the organisations that support them. For example, I recently met with the Trade Union Congress Young Workers Committee, where discussions were held with representatives from the Disabled Workers Committee, and with Citizens Advice, who provide a range of advice and support for disabled people.

The Minister for Social Security and Disability meets a range of forums quarterly including the Disabled People’s Organisation Forum of England made up of Deaf and Disabled people’s organisations including Disability Rights UK, Inclusion London and the Regional Stakeholder Network (RSN) made up of the chairs of 9 regional networks across England.

The RSNs include disabled people, parents and carers of disabled people and disabled people’s representative organisations, such as the Disability Charities Consortium which includes Scope, Leonard Cheshire, National Autistic Society, Mind, Mencap, Sense, Royal National Society of Blind people (RNIB), Royal National Society for Deaf people (RNID) and the Business Disability Forum.

The Minister Social Security and Disability also recently met a group of clinical stakeholders including the British Medical Association, the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, Royal College of Occupational Therapists, Royal College of General Practitioners and the Royal College of Psychiatrists amongst others.

We are also working to establish the Disability Advisory Panel, to connect the department to more voices and perspectives, and improve how we collaborate with disabled people. We are undertaking the due process required to ensure the Panel is set up in the most accessible and inclusive way, engaging with external and internal stakeholders to help guide the approach. We are working towards launching the Disability Advisory Panel in Summer 2025.

We will continue to engage with disabled people, advocacy groups, and healthcare professionals as we implement our future reforms to ensure that even more disabled people have access to the best employment opportunities