Disabled People & Employment: ACCESS DENIED; RIGHTS DENIED

Disabled people in the workforceLess than 50% of disabled people in employment

However rates of worklessness rise to over 80%for disabled people who have –

•Mental health issues•Learning difficulties

Yet working age members of IS tell us they would like to work, if they could…

The 14 rights to Independent Living

Educational Needs•58% of Scots disabled people have no formal

qualifications compared to 24% of those with no disability or long term illness

•Low expectations for attainment and for future.

•Colleges used as alternative to day care centres. Evidence that disabled students do not progress

•At age 16 young disabled people are twice as likely to be NEET as their non-disabled peers, and three times as likely by the age of 19.

Young Disabled People and Employment•Once young people finish their full-time

education and start to move into work, a much bigger gap between disabled and non-disabled people emerges. The gap widens to 27.8 percentage points at age 23 and then widens further to 36.2 percentage points at age 24.

Public/Employer AttitudesResearch commissioned by Scope in Sept 2011found that -

• two thirds of disabled people had experienced discrimination on a daily or weekly basis

• nearly half felt that public attitudes towards them had got worse over the past year

•Employers are part of “the public” and are thus influenced by and party to these attitudes

Employers’ Attitudes• Over 7 million disabled people are being prevented from

getting jobs or reaching their full potential by employers & recruitment providers who are imposing a ‘glass ceiling’ upon them according to the DWP’s own Disability Steering Group.

• One in five people who disclosed a mental health problem to their employers were sacked or forced out of their job.

• Research by “Time to Change” found that more than half (56%) of 2000 respondents confessed that they would not employ someone with a mental illness even if they knew they were the best candidate for the job.

Supported Employment?Disability Movement would prefer disabledworkers to be fully integrated into ALL employers’workforces. But –

•Supported Businesses exist•Recession•Continuing high - and likely to increase - levels

of worklessness amongst disabled people.

Bottom line we do not want to see any disabledworkers thrown on the scrapheap.

Welfare Reform & Employability• Contributory Employment Support Allowance now restricted

to one year

• End of ILF & threat to Motability scheme

• Restrictions on use of Access to Work funding for meant numbers of people getting fell dramatically

• Personal Independence Payment (PIP) replacing Disability Living Allowance (DLA)

• No Lower Rate Care and fewer qualifying for Mobility component

The Public Sector Equality Duty • The Public Sector Equality Duty in the Equality Act (2010)

• Puts onus on public bodies, rather than individuals

• General Duty from April 2011 for all those carrying out public functions

• Specific Duties on listed public bodies listed public bodies

• Covers ‘protected’ characteristics: disability, race, religion & belief, gender, age, pregnancy, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership.

General DutyPublic bodies must have due regard to the need to:

1)Eliminate discrimination

2)Advance equality of opportunity by –

•removing or minimising disadvantage•meeting the needs of particular groups that are different from the needs of others•encouraging participation in public life

3) Foster good relations

The Specific duties (in Scotland)• Equality outcomes• Mainstreaming equality• Assessment and review• Employment information• Gender pay gap information• Equal pay statement• Procurement• Scottish Ministers duty• Publication duty

Equality Duties

Specific Equality Outcomes -

• Scottish Regulations

• Gives power to Scottish Ministers to set specific duties for Scotland

• Must publish a set of outcomes and repeat at least every 4 years

• First set published by 30 April 2013

Preparing OutcomesPublic Bodies must -

1)Take steps to involve disabled people and those who represent their interests – i.e. Trade Unions, DPOs

2)Collect and consider relevant evidence – including first-hand evidence from disabled people.

3)If the eventual published set of outcomes does not further the 3 aims of the Public Sector Duty in relation to any protected characteristic (e.g. disabled people) they must publish their reasons for not doing so.

Co-production

•Equality outcomes•Policies•Service design

•Via DPO’s/ individual service users•Process: Strategy/ EOS/ organisational→ Review/ refine/ recycle

ILIS co-production toolkit

What the independent living movement wants as outcomes• Better recruitment & retention of disabled people

• Better career & promotion pathways

• More disabled people in promoted posts

• Services/workplaces that are more accessible to disabled people

• Disabled people’s involvement in planning

• Information/websites that are more accessible

• Disabled people on the Boards of the Public Bodies that understand the needs of disabled employees and service users