Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will provide dedicated funding for assistive technology to support disabled people to access services in jobcentres.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
I would refer to the answer already given at PQ 181920 in relation to the support provided to customers in our Jobcentres.
As part of its commitment to make services accessible to all customers, the Department provides computers for customer use in Jobcentres which have assistive technology built into them and are managed separately from the wider DWP IT estate. The Department also provides a range of peripheral items in each Jobcentre such as alternative keyboards. This provision has funding identified and ring-fenced within the current spending review period.
The DWP have also improved access to our Wi-Fi services in all Jobcentres, allowing customers to use their own personal devices if they prefer.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to introduce (a) screen readers, (b) specialist screen magnification software and (c) refreshable braille displays in jobcentres.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department provides computers for customer use in Jobcentres which have assistive technology such as screen readers and screen magnification built into them. Although Jobcentres do not offer the use of refreshable braille displays, customers are able to access a wide range of services which can support their needs such as braille and large print documents being made available upon request.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what step his Department is taking to make job centres accessible.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Each jobcentre is constructed to the legislation relevant at the time of the project. Legislation continues to evolve leading to newer sites typically including more inclusive design than older ones.
Access audits are now being carried out for all new building acquisitions and major refurbishment projects. Recommendations from these audits then become part of the scope for the works being carried out.
Where individual access issues have been identified, local operational adjustments are made to support the claimant.
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.
Assistive technology is provided in new jobcentres and in locations where major refurbishment work is being carried out. The assistive technology being provided is briefly summarised below:
We also offer a range of services and assistive technology to help claimants who have accessibility needs including Video Relay Service, Next Generation Text Relay, braille and large print, free phoneline, audio CD and home visits.
Asked by: Lord Addington (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that all schools have access to assistive technology for any pupil who would benefit from it as a result of a disability or special educational need.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All schools have duties under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments, including the provision of auxiliary aids and services for disabled children, to prevent them from being put at a substantial disadvantage. If a pupil has an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, the school must work with the local authority to ensure that all the relevant duties under the 2014 Children and Families Act are met, including securing Special Educational Provision (SEP), which may include the provision of assistive technology.
Children and young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN) have more access to assistive technology, following investment in remote education and accessibility features which can reduce or remove barriers to learning. The department has expanded training to increase school staff awareness of assistive technology and, in particular, to increase awareness of assistive technology that is already available or can easily be obtained, such as text-to-speech tools. Impact data from this programme will provide a fuller picture of how training can support the wider continuous professional development for learners with SEN.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding her Department is providing to grassroots music venues in Stockport constituency.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which are the lifeblood and research and development centres of our world-leading music sector.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues at every level. We work with industry and across Government to improve the sector's economic resilience to future economic shocks, as we did through the pandemic, and the recent Energy Bills Support Scheme.
On Stockport specifically, across all artforms and disciplines, Arts Council England have invested £4.45 million since 2018/19 in 56 projects. This includes 13 successful music specific applications, with examples for grassroots music venues as:
Several Stockport-based DJs and music producers have received support via the Develop Your Creative Practice fund, most recently (in 2022) including producer and label owner Jamie Manion who received £8,000 to develop their music productions skills.
In 2021, OmniMusic, a Stockport-based charity using assistive music technology to enable disabled and non-disabled musicians to make and play music received £14,600 for their ‘Reaching Out’ project.
Three Stockport based projects received funding from the Culture Recovery Fund; two were individual DJ/producers and one was music based ‘Rising Stars North West Community Interest Companies’ - one of the few ethnic minority led arts, music, and creative media organisations in Stockport - received £71,000.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the SEND and alternative provision improvement plan, published on 2 March 2023, to include a commitment to provide staff training in assistive technologies to all schools.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
High-quality teaching is central to ensuring that pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) are given the best possible opportunity to achieve in their education. The SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan outlines the department’s approach to building the capacity to achieve the behaviours and the culture required for the successful implementation of these policy reforms.
To support all teachers, the department is implementing a ‘golden thread’ of teacher training reforms which begins with initial teacher training and continues into early career teaching, through to middle and senior leadership. These reforms are designed to ensure teachers have the skills to support all pupils to succeed, including those with SEND.
The department is expanding training to increase school staff confidence in using assistive technology (AT). Following the promising results of the initial pilot, we are extending assistive technology training to a further 150 maintained schools. The extension, known as the ‘AT Test and Learn’ programme, will teach mainstream school staff how to use AT effectively, with a focus on the technology schools already have available or can easily obtain, such as text-to-speech tools.
The department wants to build on the learnings from last year’s pilot, where participants reported improved awareness, understanding and confidence in using AT and assessing its effectiveness. By running the AT Test and Learn training over 6 months and commissioning a comprehensive impact evaluation, we will gain a more thorough picture of how AT training can support wider SEND training.
Asked by: Lord Addington (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure through ongoing continual professional development that all teachers and support staff are made aware of potential benefits, and given some instruction of, the implementation of assistive technology for those with special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is expanding training to increase school staff confidence in using assistive technology (AT). Following the promising results of our initial pilot, we are extending assistive technology training to a further 150 maintained schools. The extension, known as the ‘AT Test and Learn’ programme, will teach mainstream school staff how to use AT effectively, with a focus on the technology schools already have available or can easily obtain, such as text-to-speech tools. It will build on last year’s pilot by training more schools over a longer period and with more impact data to gain a fuller picture of how AT training can support wider Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, continuing professional development.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to install assistive technology for disabled people in jobcentres.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This is already happening, we now have over 7,981 devices, for dedicated use by customers, across our Jobcentre estate which have in-built accessibility features. We also constantly review the number of computers available and have capacity to increase the number of devices quickly, if the need arises.
The software in use on these machines is continually upgraded as and when required to ensure their continued use for customers. In addition to this further support is available to customers where reasonable adjustments are identified and recorded. Each Jobcentre District Office has been provided with the following items for use by customers if requested:
We have opened a number of temporary sites across the estate to support delivery of face-to-face public services. As part of this work, Customer Computers are also available in these sites.
We have also improved access to our Wi-Fi services in all Jobcentres, allowing customers to use their own personal devices if they prefer, to access internet services.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what proportion of their Department's employees are recorded as having a disability.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Latest figures show that 13% of Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) staff have disabilities which is line with the rates of the UK Economically Active Population. Regular analysis of diversity data is conducted to understand the demographics of our workforce, enable strategic decision making and review the impact of people policies. FCDO secured accreditation as a Disability Confident Leader in July 2021 and has a designated team, alongside staff networks that support workplace reasonable adjustments and Assistive Technology for employees in line with the Equality Act 2010.
Asked by: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress his Department has made on the delivery of measures proposed by the Right Support, Right Place, Right Time Green Paper.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) green paper consultation closed on 22 July 2022. The department is currently reviewing the feedback received and using this, along with continued engagement with the SEND system, to inform the next stage of delivering improvements for children, young people and their families.
The department is committed to publishing a full response to the green paper in an Improvement Plan in early 2023.
Ahead of the Improvement Plan being published, we are taking forward two additional measures to support children with SEND. The first is an investment of £21 million into training 400 more educational psychologists, who play a critical role in the educational support available to children with SEND. The second is the extension of a training programme for up to 150 more schools, for teachers to use assistive technology to better support their pupils with SEND.
These measures will continue to support the system in delivering change and continue to improve the outcomes and experiences of children and young people with SEND and those who need AP.