Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the availability of specialist disability employment advisers within Jobcentres.

Every Jobcentre has access to a Disability Employment Adviser (DEA). We have over 700 FTE DEAs across our Jobcentre network.

We regularly monitor the number of staff allocated to this role.

DEAs are trained as Work Coaches, followed by additional role specific learning designed to support their role. This learning enables DEAs to treat each claimant as an individual, understand the impact of different disabilities and health conditions, and provide tailored support to help overcome barriers to employment. Our other Jobcentre staff will make referrals to our DEAs for this specialist support where appropriate.

We have a range of specialist support to help individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. DEAs work with the local community to advocate for customers, collaborate with local partners such as employers, voluntary organisations, the NHS and local government services to facilitate support that meets local needs and promote other programmes such as Disability Confident and Work Well.