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Employment of Persons with Disabilities in the Public Service: Progress and Way Forward

This presentation provides an overview of the employment of persons with disabilities in the public service, including trends, progress, and interventions. It also addresses the policy on reasonable accommodation and assistive devices, as well as training initiatives. The presentation concludes with a discussion on the way forward to improve the representation of persons with disabilities.

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Employment of Persons with Disabilities in the Public Service: Progress and Way Forward

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  1. PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE BY THE DPSA: EMPLOYMENT OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN THE PUBLIC SERVICEMarch 2013.

  2. Presentation layout • Background • Population: Census 2011 • Trends • Progress Report • Progress on Interventions • Reasonable Accommodation • Way forward

  3. Background • In 2000 Cabinet set a target of 2% representation of persons with disabilities in the Public Service, which was not met; • During a review of progress in 2005, Cabinet took a decision to have 2% representation of people with disabilities by December of the same year, which was later extended to March 2009; • In December 2012 Cabinet retained the 2% representation of persons with disabilities; • In December 2012 the representation of people with disabilities in the public service was 0.38% • The next slide provides us with the categories of disabilities and their prevalence (Census 2011).

  4. Population of Persons with disabilities (Census 2011)

  5. Trends March 2010 0.20% March 2011 0.32% June 2011 0.33% September 2011 0.36% December 2011 0.36% March 2012 0.36% June 2012 0.37% September 2012 0.38% December 2012 0.38% • The trends above show that even though the public service is failing to meet the 2% equity target, the PS is not loosing these employees in large numbers. The pace is slow. • Scrutiny of departmental data reflects movement between departments and the DPSA is keen to understand why is there such movement. A study to this effect will be conducted and concluded in this financial year.

  6. Progress Report: People with Disabilities As at 31 December 2012 Persal data reflected the following statistics: •  There were 1,340,410 employees in the Public Service of which • 5127 were persons with disabilities which translates to 0.38% representation; • 2106 were female employees with disabilities (41.07%); • 82 PWD were at Senior Management Service (Levels 13-16); • 206 PWD were in Middle management while • 4839 PWD were at Levels 1-9. • Of the 39 national departments, seven departments achieved the 2% target and 11 were above 1%; • They are: Government Communication and Information Systems 2.24%, Dept of Labour 2.44%, PALAMA 2.04%, Dept of Public Enterprises 3.38%, Dept of Social Development 2.13%, Dept of Tourism 3.84%, Dept of Trade and Industry 2.46%, Dept of Women, Children and People with Disabilities 5.55%).

  7. Progress Report cont. • Provincially, departments that have achieved 2% are: • Free State, Sport, Arts , Culture and Recreation 2.12%, Gauteng, Office of the Premier 2.13%, Limpopo, Sport, Arts and Culture 2.13%, Office of the Premier 2.25%, Mpumalanga, Finance 2.36%, Office of the Premier 2.72%, Public Works, Roads and Transport 2.24%, North West, Sport, Arts and Culture 2.31, Northern Cape, Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs 2.74% and Western Cape, Local Government 3.96%. • The Department of Public Service and Administration is at 1.08% • See attached for detailed representation for all departments.

  8. National and Provincial Statistics

  9. Progress continued • As part of monitoring compliance and to enforce mainstreaming of disability in programmes of departments, the DPSA made an input to include Diversity Management as an indicator in the self assessment tool (M-PAT) of the DPME. • The template designed for the implementation and reporting on the JobAccess Framework has been explained to provincial departments; • The Policy on Reasonable Accommodation and Assistive Devices has an attachment that provides a costing model on its way to Cabinet. The costing model gives examples of types of devices and relative cost to assist with budgeting. • In preparation for the implementation of this policy, the DPSA has been running organisational readiness workshops with departments since February 2013. Four provinces (NC, NW, FS and Mpumalanga) will be covered by March 2013 with national departments and the remaining five provinces covered in the 2013/14 financial year. • This policy will also address issues of transport, personal assistants and care givers which were raised by civil society at a previous PC meeting. • Training on the Disability Management Course by PALAMA: At our February 2012 briefing, we informed the Committee that PALAMA had trained 566 officials. An additional 198 has since been trained to date giving a total of 764.

  10. Progress continued • A strategy to reduce the recruitment period and the vacancy rate in the public Service was approved by the MPSA in 2011. Within this strategy, the recruitment of Persons with Disabilities was identified as a targeted short-term measure to address the challenge of meeting disability employment equity targets. • To operationalise the above, a workshop was held on the 16th of November 2012 with representative from all provinces and some national departments to discuss implementation. The workshop looked at: - special measures to be taken when advertising - special methods to source applicants with disabilities such as through NGOs - Role of certain sector organisations, DPSA and the OTPs • Through this strategy, departments will be able to accelerate and increase the appointment of people with disabilities. • Some departments have already started advertising posts with a clear indication that people with disabilities would get preference (Department of Home Affairs recently advertised over 20 posts from Chief Director downwards). We are monitoring these departments to collect and share good practices.

  11. Progress continued • In November 2012, the DPSA presented the 2011/12 Annual Employment Equity report to Cabinet with various recommendations including accountability for employment equity. Cabinet noted the report and took the following decisions: 1. retains the current equity target of 50% women at Senior Management Service (SMS) level and 2% employment of people with disabilities in the Public Service; 2. that Ministers and Heads of Department are held accountable for the achievement of targets during their performance assessments and agreements; and 3. re-iterates that the Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities finalise a database of skills of people with disabilities and that the statistics on existing targets for disability and gender representation be circulated to Members and HODs. • Since then, the MPSA and DG-DPSA have written to their colleagues informing them of these decisions and need to start implementation; • Provincial visits that are currently taking place are assisting department to budget for reasonable accommodation as part of capacity building.

  12. Progress on the implementation of remedial plans • In our last report we indicated that the DPSA will continue to work with departments that had achieved less than 1% of the required 2% employment equity target: • Following these visits, there is more buy in and awareness from managers and this has minimised challenges and resistance to support disability focal points • Reasonable accommodation and provision of various assistive devices has improved following consultations on policy development by DPSA and awareness raising by the DWCPWD. • There is a better understanding of disability management within departments. • More departments are establishing partnerships with organisations of persons with disabilities and the positive impact of this should be evident in the coming year. • More departments are calling for guidance relating to procurement of devices and attention is paid to signage at entrance points, access points and use of voice over in lifts. • More departments have established forums of persons with disabilities. • Innovations noted: Partnerships with local driving schools to give driving lessons to disabled employees in Mpumalanga and training of interns in Sign Language interpreting in North West

  13. Reasonable accommodation • Domesticating the UNCRPD • The DPSA developed a booklet: Handbook on Reasonable Accommodation for People with Disabilities in the Public Service in 2007. Definitions and guidelines on how departments can provide reasonable accommodation as part of the organisation’s operational requirement are based on the articles of the convention • The JobACCESS Framework and Implementation Guidelines 2005 are also a resource kit that assist with infusing a human rights approach to recruitment , employment and retention of persons with disabilities in the Public Service. • Departments are to report progress to the DPSA on a half yearly basis

  14. Reasonable accommodation 2. Draft Policy on reasonable accommodation provides for: . Accessible public transport is a challenge for persons with disabilities and this is addressed in the Policy on Reasonable Accommodation and Assistive devices by linking it to the PSCBC Resolution 3 of 1999 Part X which empowers Executing Authorities to approve a policy that will manage the transportation of employees with disabilities in exceptional circumstances; . The policy also highlights the fact that it is not always that reasonable accommodation will have financial implications. In some instances, policies such as Flexi Hours, work from home could suffice. . Personal Assistants and Care Givers; employees with certain types of disabilities may require one of these two support mechanisms. This is often due to the nature, or the severity of the impairment. This could be in the form of a person who assists the employee with a disability to address personal needs or a sign language interpreter for a deaf person. Details on this are covered in the policy.

  15. Wayforward • The DPSA will continue to provide support to departments in preparing for the implementation of the Policy on Reasonable Accommodation and Assistive Devices. • The DPSA will also strictly monitor and report departments that are not submitting their quarterly reports on the Job ACCESS Framework. • PERSAL clean-up: a meeting was held with National Treasury to review parts of the system which have discouraged many employees from declaring their status. This was particularly so in relation to health profile questions. A letter has been written to formalise the amendments. • Movement within the Public Service. • During the financial year 2012/2013 DPSA will conduct a study to determine the reasons for the movement of persons with disabilities in the public service.

  16. THANKYOU

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