The House of Lords Public Services Committee has published its report, ‘Think Work First: the transition from education to work for young disabled people’.
The report concludes that young disabled people yearn to work and to thrive in their careers but far too many are written off and told that ‘people like them’ can never succeed.
The Committee believe we have to change this; we have to start with the presumption that young disabled people are fully capable of thriving in work, as long as they have the appropriate support, with aspiration and ambition at its heart. At every stage of a young disabled person’s development, from nurseries and schools to job centres and employers, we have to Think Work First.
Speaking on the report, the Chair of the Public Services Committee Baroness Morris of Yardley said “This report provides a blueprint for the new Government to implement its commitment to getting more young disabled people into work.
“It highlights how to put in place appropriate support for young disabled people and employers so that the system is both cohesive and effective.”
To address this, the Committee has recommended the Government focus on early support and intervention, ensuring that young disabled people can access and then remain in work once they leave education. It must also work with employers to ensure they have the tools and support they need to create inclusive workplaces and uphold the rights of disabled people.
Other significant key recommendations from the report include:
Co-production: It is vital that young disabled people – both those that are yet to leave education and those who have already made the transition – are able to be fully involved in helping to design and shape the services that support them.
Vocational profiling: This is a particularly effective way of identifying a young disabled person’s aspirations from an early age and can help schools and colleges to put the right careers support in place from the start. The Committee believes the Government should make vocational profiling a standard part of careers information, advice and guidance for young disabled people in schools.
Joined up support: The Government should work with local authorities to improve the availability of ‘ready to work’ programmes, such as that provided by ThinkForward, to support young people from school until they are settled in work.
Supported internships:. The new Government should honour the commitment of the previous Government to double the number of supported internships and take steps to make as many young disabled people as possible eligible for them: not just those with Education, Health and Care Plans. Internships should be particularly targeted at those with the highest support needs.
Education:. The Government must review and improve the support that young disabled people receive while in education, and it must also properly support local authorities to deliver EHCPs, both in terms of application timelines and the robustness of decision-making.
Careers advice: Many of the young disabled people who spoke to the Committee highlighted the poor careers advice they had received, and the Committee heard evidence from several witnesses of a lack of a systemic, specialised approach to training careers advisers working with young disabled people. The Government should review the training that careers advisers and leaders are expected to receive, making in-depth special educational needs training mandatory.
In order to ensure that these recommendations are implemented, to help young disabled people access work, Baroness Morris said: “We’ve asked the Government to provide us with regular updates on its progress with implementing our recommendations, and we look forward to receiving its response to this report.
“We want to see positive changes in the form of planned programmes and demonstrable actions not only to get young disabled people into the workplace, but to ensure they can thrive in their jobs, develop successful, sustainable careers, and realise their full potential.
“There are many excellent innovative schemes tackling the barriers that young disabled people face when trying to enter the workplace and helping them to make the transition from education to employment. However, we found that these are the exception rather than the rule and this has to change.”
Total of £63 billion of private investment committed around International Investment Summit, more than doubling amount secured at 2023 Global Investment Summit
New investments today include £6.3 billion in UK data centres as well as world class UK university Imperial College London
Innovative investment projects announced over the last month across infrastructure, renewables and life sciences will create close to 38,000 new jobs across the UK
Nearly 38,000 UK jobs are set to be created across the UK after a total of £63 billion of investment was announced around today’s International Investment Summit, turbocharging growth and innovation across the country.
The record-breaking total figure more than doubles the £29.5 billion committed at last year’s Global Investment Summit and spans partnerships across the infrastructure and tech sectors, including over a billion pounds in new investments announced today by DP World, Associated British Ports (ABP) and Imperial College London.
Through serious, stable governance, the UK is attracting tens of billions of pounds of new investment which is crucial to the government’s driving mission of delivering economic growth. Today’s historic figure demonstrates that businesses have confidence in Britain as a place to invest.
The investments follow immediate action taken by the new government to reform planning, focus on AI and data centre expansion, and set a clear commitment to net zero by almost doubling the funding for renewable energy projects.
Four major tech firms based in the US have today announced £6.3 billion in UK data centres which is critical to enhancing the UK’s AI capacity – in turn fuelling Britain’s economic growth and spurring on AI development. Data centres store the vast amount of information and data needed to power AI, and store the information generated by AI to keep the systems running.
ABP, the UK’s largest port operator, has committed over £200 million to a joint investment with ferry company Stena Line in a new freight ferry terminal at the Port of Immingham, significantly boosting the capacity and resilience of UK trade with Europe. It is expected to create around 700 jobs during construction and around 200 permanent jobs once operational.
Leading UK university Imperial College London is also today announcing a £150 million investment to secure a new R&D campus to add to its rapidly expanding deep tech ecosystem in West London. The new campus will expand scale-up capacity in the WestTech Corridor, supporting the UK’s innovation sector and driving investment, economic growth and job creation.
Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “Global investors should be in no doubt that under this new government Britain is truly the best place to do business. The record-breaking investment total secured at today’s Summit marks a major vote of confidence in the UK and our stability dividend across industry and innovation.
“We’re determined to deliver economic growth in every part of the UK and these investments, together with our forthcoming Industrial Strategy, will give global businesses the certainty they need as we lead the charge for the innovation and jobs of the future.”
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “After the investments secured as part of this summit, my optimism for Britain burns brighter than ever. It’s a sign of the confidence in the British economy.
“And it matters because it will support the growth of businesses big and small across the U.K. Helping them create new jobs and making people better off.
CEO of ABP Henrik L. Pedersen said: “We are delighted that the Development Consent Order (DCO) for the Immingham Eastern Ro-Ro Terminal (IERRT) has been granted in a timely way by the Secretary of State to allow us to move forward with investment.
“The IERRT project is a key component of our strategy to strengthen the UK’s supply chains and improve trade connectivity, whilst also bringing substantial economic benefits including the creation of hundreds of jobs during construction and ongoing operations.
“IERRT forms part of the intended £5.5bn pipeline of UK investment we have in front of us over the next 10 years and we look forward to working closely with the Government to deliver the right conditions to realise this investment.”
President of Imperial College London Hugh Brady said:“Imperial College London is investing in its ambitious vision for a new globally competitive deep tech innovation ecosystem in West London.
“The Imperial WestTech Corridor will act as a powerful engine for investment, inclusive economic growth, and job creation at a local, regional, and national level supported by the Government’s emerging Industrial Strategy.
See below for a list of all the investments announced in the run-up to and during yesterday’s International Investment Summit:
Iberdrola doubling their investment in the UK, through Scottish Power, from £12 billion to £24 billion over the next 4 years. This includes £4 billion for the East Anglia 2 wind farm off the Suffolk coast which was unlocked by this Government’s expanded allocation at the most recent wind auction round. Iberdrola Executive Chairman Ignacio Galan CBE confirmed on Friday that the UK has become their largest Investment destination.
Blackstone confirmed a £10 billion investment in Blyth, Northumberland to create one of the largest artificial data centres in Europe, creating 4,000 jobs, including 1,200 roles dedicated to the construction of the site.
Amazon Web Services announced an £8 billion investment last month which is estimated to support around 14,000 jobs per year at local businesses, including those across the company’s data centre supply chain such as construction, facility, maintenance, engineering and telecommunications.
CCUS investors (including Eni, BP and Equinor) reached a commercial agreement with the government that will unlock £8 billion of private investment to launch carbon capture clusters in the heartlands of the North West and North East of England, directly creating 4,000 jobs and supporting 50,000 jobs in the long-term.
Orsted and Greenvolt confirming that the Government’s recent expanded offshore wind auction means their projects will unlock £8 billion (Orsted) and £2.5 billion (Greenvolt) of investment respectively in their planned offshore wind farms. Orsted says its commitment will see thousands of jobs for local people, while Greenvolt says it will create up to 2800 construction jobs.
CyrusOne, a leading global data centre developer headquartered in the United States, announced plans to expand their investment into the UK to £2.5 billion over the coming years. Subject to planning permission, the two data centres should be operational by Q4 2028, projected to create over 1,000 jobs both directly and within its immediate design and construction value chain.
Octopus Energy have committed to a £2 billion investment in renewable energy generation, including four new solar farms in Bristol, Essex, East Riding of Yorkshire and Wiltshire that will power up to 80,000 homes as well as breaking ground on a new 12 MW battery in Cheshire which Octopus say will store enough power for nearly 10,000 homes every day.
SeAH Wind has made an additional £225 million investment into wind technology manufacturing in Teesside, thanks to new backing from UK Export Finance, and expects to create 750 direct jobs by 2027. This brings their total investment into the site at Teesworks up to £900 million and will help them make their ongoing factory build – one of the biggest facilities of its kind worldwide – even bigger.
CloudHQ is developing its new state-of-the-art £1.9 billion data centre campus in Didcot. The hyper-scale data centre is currently in development and will help meet the UK’s growing demand for AI and machine learning. It will create 1,500 jobs during construction, and 100 permanent jobs once fully operational.
Macquarie supporting investment of £1.3 billion into new green infrastructure including its Island Green Power solar farm in Stow, as a result of planning consents having been granted by the Government, and its Roadchef portfolio company installing electric car ultra-fast charging points across its sites along the UK motorway network.
ServiceNow also confirmed its commitment to the UK market, with plans to invest £1.15 billion into its UK business over the next five years. The investment will not only support the future development of AI in the UK, expanding its data centres with Nvidia GPUs for local processing data, but also support new office space as the company significantly grows into employee base beyond its current headcount of 1,000 employees.
Manchester Airports Group is investing more than £1.1 billion in London Stansted Airport to expand its existing terminal by around a third, help secure new air routes to key business and leisure destinations, boost local supply chains and create 5,000 jobs. This includes around £600 million to extend the terminal and £500 million to deliver a suite of improvements to the existing terminal building and wider airport estate.
Eren Holdings confirmed a £1 billion investment in the redevelopment of Shotton Mill in Deeside, North Wales which is set to become the UK’s largest recycled paper manufacturing campus. This is expected to safeguard 147 jobs and create a further 220 when the site is fully commissioned.
Network Rail and London & Continental Railways are creating a new property company which will attract additional private and public sector investment with the potential to deliver brownfield regeneration schemes across the rail estate with a value exceeding £1 billion.
CoreWeave is building on its £1 billion investment announced in May and the opening of its European headquarters in London by investing a further £750 million-plus in the UK to support the demand for critical AI infrastructure. The investment in the UK is CoreWeave’s second largest investment in a country following the USA.
DP World are investing up to £1 billion in their London Gateway container port operation. This new investment will fund two additional berths and a second rail terminal. Once built, the berths will add vital transport capacity and increase the resilience of UK supply chains, enabling businesses to access domestic and international markets and supporting the Government’s growth and decarbonisation missions.
Holtec, a major US advanced nuclear engineering company, has confirmed a significant investment of £325 million in a new factory in South Yorkshire which will supply materials for civil and defence nuclear industries. They say this will create up to 490 direct and 280 indirect jobs annually during the construction phase and 1,200 direct engineering jobs created over 20 years.
BW Group proceeding with a £500 million investment, which includes new battery energy storage projects in Hampshire and Birmingham.
Eli Lilly and Company is collaborating with government through a memorandum of understanding which will see the pharmaceutical giant intending to commit £279 million to tackle significant health challenges – including obesity. Lilly also plans to launch the first ‘Lilly Gateway Labs’ innovation accelerator in Europe to support early-stage life sciences businesses to develop transformative medicines and technologies.
Associated British Ports (ABP), the UK’s largest port operator, has announced a £200+ million investment in a new freight ferry terminal at the Port of Immingham, boosting the capacity and resilience of UK trade with Europe. This is expected to create around 700 jobs during construction and 200 permanent jobs once operational.
Imperial College London investing £150 million to build The WestTech Corridor – a new innovation ecosystem in West London which will act as a powerful engine for investment, inclusive economic growth, and job creation at a local, regional, and national level.
Haleon has received planning permission to develop a new £130 million Global Oral Health Innovation Centre in Weybridge, Surrey. This state-of-the-art facility will primarily support Haleon’s global oral health business by developing new products that advance consumers’ better everyday health.
