Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities

1. Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities IASE Conference 2006 Tony Tyrrell WRC Social & Economic Consultants

2. Content of Presentation • What’s the problem? • Key statistics. • What the literature says. • Level and type of engagement with PwD. • The five pillars of the Strategy. • Conclusion.

3. The Problem • The low employment rate of people with disabilities reflects a failure of government social policies. Societies hide away some disabled individuals on generous benefits. Others isolate them in sheltered work programmes. Efforts to help them find work in the open labour market are often lacking. The shortcomings affect moderately disabled individuals, as well as those with severe handicaps, but are particularly true for people over age 50. … Recent research in 20 countries found none to have a successful policy for disabled people (p. 1, OECD, 2003c).

4. Some Key StatisticsEducation, Welfare/Unemployment, Employment • c. 51% of people with disabilities aged 15 to 64 years have no formal second level qualifications (vs 18.8% people without a disability); • between 1997 and 2004 an absolute decrease of c. 77k in the number of long-term unemployed welfare recipients (-62.0%) and absolute increase of 56k in recipients of welfare payments related to illness or disability (+42.0%); and, • c. 300k people aged 15 to 64 years with a disability or long-standing health problem of whom c. 111k were in employment - an employment rate of 37.1% compared with 67% amongst the non-disabled population (2004);

5. Core Issues from the Literature (1):Employment and Labour Market Integration of PwD

6. Core Issues from the Literature (2):Employment and Labour Market Integration of PwD

7. Schematic Overview of Participation by People with Disabilities in Education, Training and Employment Programmes

8. Pillar 1

9. Pillar 2

10. Pillar 3

11. Pillar 4

12. Pillar 5

13. Conclusion • Motive • Means • Opportunity