Post on 21-Jan-2016
Improving employment opportunities for disabled people
Mark BehrendtPrincipal Policy Officer
Corporate Policy Unit
• 12.4% (21346 people) of the population of Richmond has a disability
• 69% (14728 people) are economically active compared to a London average of 49.9%
• Economic activity rate for non disabled people is 78.1%
• However, only 2.7% of our workforce has a disability despite their being 8.5% of the boroughs working residents being disabled
• Significant proportion of the council’s disabled clients of working age are unemployed
Current situation
• Remove barriers within the council to the employment of Disabled people
• Improve support for all our disabled clients in finding employment
What does the council need to do?
• Senior management and councillors recognising that the council’s work force must be more representative and that there are some significant barriers that need to be removed
• The Disability Discrimination Act and the Disability Equality Duty
• Local Public Service Agreement targets
What is driving change?
• Largest employer is the council – we need to set an example
• Using the Disability Equality Duty to be more
proactive.
• Example - scheme is to remove the barriers to employing people with learning disabilities
Removing Barriers
• Changes to HR policies
• Support for People with Learning Disabilities
• Support for managers
Example: Making Positive Changes for people with learning disabilities
• Support available for people with Mental Health problems and for people with Learning Disabilities
• Gaps in the provision of employment support for
people with physical and sensory impairments
• Barriers to extending support
• Improve pathways to the support that is available
Supporting disabled people to find employment
• Change has started
• Long term and sustainable improvements
• Continuous change and improvement
Any questions?
Conclusion