We can’t wait 200 years to halve disability employment gap: IntoWork Convention 2016

People with disabilities and health conditions are far less likely to be in work. While 80 per cent of those who are not disabled are in work, that figure is just 47 per cent for people with disabilities. The Government had committed to halving this unacceptable disability employment gap, but analysis by Learning and Work Institute suggests this would take 200 years to achieve on current trends unless radical action is taken.

In advance of a Government Green Paper with proposals on how to support people with disabilities and health conditions find and stay in work, Learning and Work Institute’s IntoWork Convention convenes next week to debate how employment support and skills systems can rise to challenge despite diminishing resources an uncertainty post Brexit.

Learning and Work Institute is today releasing the final programme for IntoWork Convention 2016, taking place in Birmingham on 11th and 12th July 2016. Leaders and professionals, including practitioners who deliver services on the ground, and policy-makers will hear the latest thinking from Lord Freud, Minister for Welfare Reform as well as cutting-edge practitioners on issues including what works for particularly vulnerable groups, the role of employers and opportunities through new devolution powers.

Learning and Work is excited to announce the publication of two new reports at IntoWork 2016:

• Halving the Gap: Making the Work and Health Programme work for disabled people will detail our proposals on how the Government’s new flagship employment programme can deliver unprecedented employment opportunities for disabled people and people with health conditions. 
• Power to the People: The case for personal learning accounts will detail a radical new approach to funding education and training for working age people to meet individuals’ needs to retrain and upskill as our working lives become longer.

Launching the Conventions’ programme, Learning and Work Institute’ Chief Executive, David Hughes, said:

“The IntoWork convention is now in its second decade and has become the go-to event of opinion-formers and all those committed to finding sustainable employment for disadvantaged and long term unemployed people.

“With a Government target to achieve full employment, halving the disability employment gap and achieving three million new apprenticeships by 2020, I am under no doubt that we are in for two days of intense debate and discussion at IntoWork in Birmingham next week. The EU vote has heightened uncertainty but also opened up new opportunities to do things differently, not least in how current European Social Funds are placed in the future.”