Tag: disabilty

£60 million fund launched to transform employment support

Businesses, charities and innovators are being invited to compete for a share of up to £60 million to transform how disabled people and those with health conditions are supported into work, the Government has announced today [14th July].

  • Businesses, charities and organisations to bid for up to £60 million to fund innovative ideas to support disabled people move closer and into work.
  • Expert panel – including Paralympian Tanni Grey Thompson – to help design the fund and shortlist best ideas
  • Comes as part of £3.5 billion employment support package to knock down barriers to opportunity for disabled people and those with health conditions.

The Government’s Pathways to Work Innovation Fund is a ‘call to action’ for the private, voluntary and public sectors to come forward with the most ambitious, creative ideas to help disabled people and those with health conditions get into and on at work.

The Fund will open for bids in September, with organisations across the UK invited to compete for funding to test genuinely new approaches to employment support.

With 2.8 million people currently out of work due to ill-health, and the Keep Britain Working review estimating economic inactivity caused by health conditions costs the UK economy £212 billion a year, the Government is looking to work alongside business, charities, tech innovators and disabled people themselves to tackle the issue and improve employment support.

The Fund forms part of the Government’s commitment to break down barriers to opportunity for disabled people backed by £3.5 billion in tailored employment support. This includes intensive, one-to-one job help from specialist advisers in their own communities, meeting people where they are, alongside a joined-up work and health offer.

https://twitter.com/DWPgovuk/status/2075852621819064804/video/1

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said: “We inherited a welfare system which has locked too many disabled people and those with health conditions out of work.

“We’re determined to ensure no talent is left behind, and that people are given the support they need. Through our £3.5 billion Pathways to Work employment support offer, we’ve seen that personalised support can be life-changing.

“Now we’re calling on business, disabled people and charities to work with us, and bring forward their ideas to transform employment support.”

An expert panel – including Paralympian Tanni, Baroness Grey-Thompson – will help shape the fund’s design and advise on which bids should be funded, ensuring the voices and experience of disabled people are placed at the very heart of the process.

It comes as the Department is embracing innovation by using technologies including AI and machine learning to deliver more efficient services, modernise systems and support more people into work, including a new tool to help people into jobs.

Paralympian and Member of House of Lords, Tanni, Baroness Grey-Thompson, said: “I am delighted to be joining this expert panel at such an important moment. Finding and sustaining work matters enormously – not just for individual wellbeing and independence, but for society as a whole.

“We know that with the right support, disabled people can and do thrive in the workplace.

“The world is changing rapidly, and the systems that support disabled people must keep pace with that change. This Fund is a real opportunity to back the bold, creative ideas that can make that happen.”

To mark the launch, the Work and Pensions Secretary will today visit TechUK, the UK’s leading technology trade association, where he will meet with their members at a tech and innovation showcase to see cutting-edge innovation in action and discuss how technology can help transform people’s working lives.

The new approach comes alongside wider Government action to help people into work and fulfil their full potential, as part of reforms to the broken welfare system this government inherited, including:

  • Rebalancing Universal Credit to remove the perverse incentives that push people away from work.
  • Introducing a Right to Try Work Guarantee, giving everyone who can work the chance to do so without fear of losing their benefits.
  • Investing £3.5 billion in tailored employment support for sick or disabled people.
  • Increasing face-to-face assessments for health benefits.
  • Tackling fraud and error in the benefits system, saving £14.6 billion over this Parliament
  • Alan Milburn is due to bring his final recommendations later this year on tackling the barriers young people face, and the Timms review is looking at how to make sure PIP is fit and fair for the future.

Antony Walker, Deputy CEO of TechUK, said: “The announcement that the Department for Work and Pensions is investing into an Innovation Fund is very welcome. Thousands of disabled people and those with health conditions are locked out of the workforce, not for lack of talent, but because of barriers that persist across many careers.

“Our members are already developing and deploying innovative technologies that are breaking down those barriers, helping people to find work, stay in work and thrive in their careers.

“This investment has the potential to build on that success, accelerating the adoption of proven solutions and supporting even more disabled people to access rewarding employment while helping employers tap into a wider pool of talent.”

The Pathways to Work Innovation Fund will open for bids in September 2026. Full details on how to apply will be published in due course.

Local social care charity launches 40th Birthday Fundraiser

Local social care charity Cornerstone is calling on the local community to get behind its newest initiative to celebrate its 40th birthday.

Cornerstone supports over 3,000 people with disabilities and other long-term health conditions across Scotland including across Fife, Edinburgh, Lothians & the Borders. The charity provides care and support services to 236 people with disabilities locally.

During the last 40 years Cornerstone has been a pioneer; changing the face of the care sector through adopting and promoting a person-centred approach whilst also championing the belief that everyone should be given the opportunity to play an active part in their own community.

The charity was founded in February of 1980 but due to COVID-19 hasn’t been able to celebrate its birthday with the people that it supports, due to lockdown measures. As a result, the charity is asking members of the local community to join them in the last month of their fortieth year to take part in their ‘40 Miles for 40 years of Care’ fundraiser.

Participants are challenged to run, walk, cycle or even space hop 40 miles in their local area during the month of February and raise £100 each for Cornerstone. 

As a social care charity Cornerstone has been significantly impacted by the pandemic.  Sadly, a number of services have had to close and there is increased pressure being felt by carers and family members across the country.

The prospect of further austerity measures presents real, quality of life challenges to the people we support, coupled with a linked increase in feelings of loneliness and isolation. Support from the local community would help keep the people the charity supports connected to the people, hobbies and interests that they care about during lockdown, and beyond.

Louise Baxter, founding trustee and wife of Cornerstone’s late Founder Nick Baxter said: “Every year, since 1980, has been a milestone in Cornerstone’s journey, taking the charity from nothing to supporting 3,000 people with disabilities across Scotland.

“Your challenge whether it’s walking, cycling or running helps to ensure Cornerstone will be there for the next 40 years. Every single pound that you raise will be expressed in Cornerstone’s work to promote human dignity, lust for life, enjoyment and a better quality of life for people with disabilities and their families.”

Could you help Cornerstone be there for people with disabilities in Fife, Edinburgh, Lothians & the Borders by taking part in their #40for40 Challenge?

If you’re interested get in touch with the charity by emailing getinvolved@cornerstone.org.uk.

Participants will be given online support from the Cornerstone fundraising team including a social media template where they can share posts and graphics as well as a Birthday Wish with the Cornerstone team, and the people that they support.

Restrictions on disabled people’s rights must not become the new normal

Temporary Coronavirus Act provisions due to be debated in the House of Commons on Weds 30 September could substantially restrict or curtail important, hard-won rights that disabled people rely on for their quality of life, says a new report by Westminster’s Women and Equalities Committee.

The Committee insists that they must not become new norms, setting back disabled people’s rights by many years.

The Committee’s scrutiny has focused on three areas:

Care Act easement provisions

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have duties to assess and meet care and support needs that meet certain criteria. Where local authorities’ resources are severely affected by the pandemic, the Coronavirus Act can essentially replace these with a duty to do this only where failure to do so would be a breach of an individual’s human rights. In some cases this is a would be a greatly reduced level of support.

Temporary Mental Health Act provisions

The Coronavirus Act allows applications for temporary detention under the Mental Health Act (sectioning) to be made by a single doctor, and extends some time limits, for example the time someone can be detained awaiting medical assessment from 72 hrs to 120, and removing the 12 week time limit on remand to hospital.

Education, Health and Care Plan duties to young people with SEND

Parents of children, and young people aged 16-25, with special educational needs or disabilities, have a right to request their local authority carry out an assessment of their child’s (or their own, if aged 16-25) education, health and care needs (Children and Families Act 2014).

Where these met the threshold, local authorities have a duty to secure a package of integrated support known as the Education Health and Care Plan within 20 weeks. The Coronavirus Act gives the Government the power to modify this absolute duty to one of “reasonable endeavours”. Regulations also temporarily suspended the time limits.

The report also looks at the statutory arrangements for the six month reviews of the Coronavirus Act, arguing that the “take all or leave all” approach to continuing the provisions is unsatisfactory.

This is an interim report of the Committee’s inquiry into the impact of coronavirus on disabled people’s access to services [link]. The full report will be published [check] later in the autumn.

Chair’s comments

Committee Chair Caroline Nokes said: “Restricting disabled people’s hard-won rights must not become the new normal. This pandemic is an unprecedented challenge for Government but we must ensure that does not become a reason to turn the clock back on equality.

“The “take all or leave all” binary vote will present MPs with no real choice over provisions which have clear and obvious equality impacts for their disabled constituents, and which they may believe are no longer justified – either now or over the 2 year lifetime of the Act.

“The Government must demonstrate its commitment to equality by ensuring that any proposals which potentially restrict disabled people’s hard won rights are properly considered, and separately from the statutory vote.”

Care Act Easement Provisions

If the pandemic had been more clearly under control, the Committee would have recommended repeal of these. But given the precarious stage of the pandemic, and the fragility of the social care sector it accepts that they might need to remain over the winter. The report recommends that these should be kept under constant review, and if the pandemic stabilises or improves they should be repealed at the second six monthly review in spring 2021 – or sooner.

Detailed information about the number and groups of disabled people affected, and the impact on services, proved impossible to find. Together with a lack of published data, this left the Committee unable to scrutinise the impacts properly.

The report calls on the Government to demonstrate that it is keeping local authorities’ use of Care Act easements under thorough review and allow for proper scrutiny of data, and to publish Think Local Act Personal’s report and accompanying data on the effects of the pandemic on social care provision to inform the debate in the House of Commons on Weds 30 September.

Finally, it recommends that Government guidance to local authorities must make it clear that any pre-emptive triggering of easements would be a misuse of the provisions and could leave local authorities open to legal challenge.

The report also notes that the pandemic has brought a range of pre-existing systemic problems in the social care sector into sharper focus. There is an urgent need for a more sustainable funding solution; resolution of workforce issues including high staff turnover and low pay, and closer integration with health services, as well as a need to value this sector more highly. These issues will be covered in the main report.

Mental Health Act

The temporary provisions have not been needed in England so far, and evidence suggests that future need is unlikely. These also go against the grain of long awaited MHA reforms intended to address inequalities in the system.

The Committee recommends that the Government should either repeal these, or suspend them – leaving the option of reinstating them if they become needed; if the pandemic stabilises or improves they should be repealed at the second six monthly review in spring 2021 – or sooner.

Local authorities: Education Health and Care Plan duties to children and young people with SEND

Was it really necessary to leave many children and young people with SEND with little or no support for three months? The Committee accepts that local authorities needed some flexibility with these duties at the peak of the pandemic, but calls on the Department of Education to review its processes with a view to making faster decisions to return to full duties.

It also calls for: clearer Government guidance on fulfilling the ‘reasonable endeavours’ duty, including minimum standards and a range of examples of good practice; a clear national strategy for managing the backlog of assessments; and for any future relaxation of duties to be local, in direct response to local effects of the pandemic, rather than national.

The Committee heard evidence that the pandemic had exacerbated pre-existing and widely acknowledged systemic issues in the wider SEND system including: funding, inconsistencies in provision, poor integration of services and a lack of accountability in the system. These will be considered in detail in the main report later in the autumn.

There’s more to come

While the temporary measures discussed here are an important part of many disabled people’s concerns about the unequal impact of the pandemic, this interim report does not provided a full picture of their lived experience.

The Committee has heard a much wider range of evidence and will publish a main report later in the autumn. This will scrutinise the clarity and accessibility of the Government’s consultation and communications, and disabled people’s wider experience of accessing health and social care.