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Liz Sayce

Liz Sayce. The Right to Work. The UK and the global context. Disability Rights UK & UNCRPD. National charity ‘Disabled people leading change ’ Working for equal participation for all Majority of trustees, staff and volunteers with lived experience of disability or health conditions

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Liz Sayce

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  1. Liz Sayce The Right to Work

  2. The UK and the global context

  3. Disability Rights UK & UNCRPD • National charity • ‘Disabled people leading change’ • Working for equal participation for all • Majority of trustees, staff and volunteers with lived experience of disability or health conditions • Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will examine the UK in 2017 • DR UK is producing a Shadow Report Disabled People Leading Change

  4. DR UK’s work • Information, advice, policy and campaigning with disabled people and member organisations • All information and advice designed by and for disabled people • Website reaches 1.5 million people each year. 39.7K twitter followers • Projects: eg research led by disabled people – from research ‘subjects’ to creators of knowledge

  5. Implementing the right to work • Under UNCRPD Governments need to: • Proactively tackle discrimination (4, 1, e) • Reform old laws and adopt new ones (4, 1 a and b) • Mainstream disability in existing laws and policies (4, 3) • Progressively realise those elements of the rights in the UNCRPD that are economic and social in nature (4, 2) • Take the collective voice of persons with disabilities seriously in the setting of policies (4, 3) • What does this mean for Article 27, right to work? • (clauses e-k) Disabled People Leading Change

  6. e. Promote employment opportunities & career advancement • In UK in June 2016, 47.9% of disabled people (over 3 million people) are in employment – up by 2% since June 2015. • But the gap between disabled and non-disabled people has stayed the same - at around 30% - for a decade • So has there been a ‘progressive realisation’ of the right to work? • Career progression? Disabled people more likely to be in junior roles. • Those in work earn on average 90p per hour less than non-disabled people Disabled People Leading Change

  7. Other countries with higher disability employment rates have stronger policies eg: • Sweden: the employer has duty to retain or redeploy a worker who acquires a health condition or disability Disabled People Leading Change

  8. UK and Poland: similar disability employment gap Disabled People Leading Change

  9. Emerging good practice • Getting into employment through apprenticeships and supported internships. We influenced government to: • Make it easier to get an apprenticeship even if you don’t have good exam results in English and Maths • Give employers incentives if they take on a disabled apprentice Disabled People Leading Change

  10. Emerging good practice • Guides so disabled people know how to get skills and employment; and how to stay in work Disabled People Leading Change

  11. Emerging good practice • Working with employers to promote career development opportunities for disabled people • Leadership Academy for disabled people in work keen to progress in their careers: 80% achieved career aspirations eg promotions, leading new projects • ‘I Can Make It’campaign to open up employment opportunities for young disabled people

  12. f. Promote opportunities for self-employment, entrepreneurship • Research by Professor Melanie Jones shows in UK, disabled people are more likely to be self employed than non-disabled people • Because of both positive ‘pull’ factors – the attraction of self employment – and ‘push’ factors, like difficulty in getting open employment, or transport difficulties • Our All Party Parliamentary Disability Group is conducting an inquiry: recommendations due late 2016. For instance, government rules on business loans and Access to Work make it harder for people who are sometimes unwell to show they have a viable business and to get loans or support Disabled People Leading Change

  13. UK NHS the 5th largest employer in the world Disabled People Leading Change

  14. g. Employ people with disabilities in public sector • National Health Service (NHS) plans a Disability Workplace Equality Standard. It may require action and monitoring • Civil service: employment of disabled people is increasing, but still lower at senior levels. See DR UK research at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/416858/Disability_Rights_UK_final_report.pdf • Some countries eg USA require that all organisations contracted by government employ disabled people (7% in USA) or have action plans to reach that goal. Disabled People Leading Change

  15. Emerging good practice • Good practice includes employing people living with mental health conditions in the NHS – either as ‘peer support workers’ or in regular jobs, from psychiatrist to support staff. • Perkins found, from 1995 to 2009, 185 people with mental health problems gained employment in a mental health Trust. By 2007 it was 23% of all recruits – and 31% of the most senior staff. This changed conversations and culture and broke down the ‘us’ and ‘them’ culture • http://www.cpft.nhs.uk/Downloads/DVD-Documents/Recovery/sainsbury%20centre%20presentation%20employment%20agenda.pdf Disabled People Leading Change

  16. h. And in private sector • More disabled managers changes culture Disabled People Leading Change

  17. In private sector • Our legislation requires private and public sector organisations not to discriminate; and to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ • In other areas of equality, there are strong incentives or requirements of large employers, for instance to say how many women serve on their Board • There is no requirement to say how many disabled people they employ, at what levels • Government promotes a ‘disability confident’ campaign. Employers can sign up – if they wish – and adopt policies and practices. But they do not have to show they actually employ disabled people Disabled People Leading Change

  18. i. Ensure reasonable accommodations in the workplace • Employers are obliged to make adjustments when ‘reasonable’ and some have great practices • If not, the individual must pay to take a case to Tribunal – and numbers going to Tribunal have gone down • Where adjustments go beyond what is seen as ‘reasonable’ the Access to Work programme can fund support, travel & equipment. It serves 36,000 people per year • But 300,000 leave work each year due to a health condition or disability; and there are over 3 million disabled people out of work. The programme is small scale Disabled People Leading Change

  19. j. Promote work experience in open labour market • The big opportunity in Britain is a government commitment for 3 million new apprenticeships by 2020. We want a fair proportion of these to be for disabled people – but there are barriers • School and business partnerships • We also have supported internships eg Project Search for people with learning disabilities Disabled People Leading Change

  20. k. Promote vocational rehabilitation and return to work programmes • There is good international evidence, including randomised control trials across Europe, on what supports people with mental health problems – and learning disabilities – to get and keep open employment. This includes: • enabling everyone who wants to to ‘have a go’ • supporting people to seek jobs that interest them • rapid job search • flexible and time unlimited support • This approach is significantly more effective than traditional vocational rehabilitation or training people first. It can also reduce hospital admissions • https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/ips-evidence Disabled People Leading Change

  21. There is emerging evidence that ‘peer support’ can boost employment prospects of disabled people. People trust this support, it offers role models, encouragement and practical tips http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/2016/may/peer-support-could-boost-work-prospects-disabled-people • But in UK, large government programmes do not meet performance targets. They tend to be ‘one size fits all’, sometimes compulsory and often are not trusted • I reviewed programmes for Government in 2011. This resulted in some shift from separate to mainstream employment https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/49779/sayce-report.pdf • Programmes are currently being changed. We expect a government ‘Green Paper’ later in 2016 Disabled People Leading Change

  22. So how might we judge a country against Article 27? • UK Government is committed to halving the employment gap between disabled and non-disabled people. It isn’t clear how or when. In the last 10 years, no change • We have anti-discrimination law – though it is difficult to use your rights. House of Lords concluded practice in all areas must be improved https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/equality-act-2010-and-disability/news-parliament-2015/equality-act-report-published/ • We have many initiatives – but often small-scale (like Access to Work) and/or they lack power (like Disability Confident – where employers can reach level 3 without necessarily employing disabled people) Disabled People Leading Change

  23. Ways forward • We need a cross-government strategy to achieve the right to work. Employment opportunity is affected by many things – independent living support, transport, housing, education, skills…… • We need effective levers to influence employer behaviour – including through government procurement (as in the USA) • We need to build trust in the system. Benefit and social care cuts have left some people frightened – and it’s harder to ‘try work’ when you feel afraid. Disabled People Leading Change

  24. Conclusion • The UNCRPD requires governments to do several things. There are questions on whether the UK Government has fully: • ‘Progressively realised’ the right to work – since the disability employment gap has been static for 10 years • Proactively tackled discrimination; and reformed old laws and adopted new ones. The House of Lords recommended changes to equality law and better ways for disabled people to use their rights; but government rejected most of their recommendations • Mainstreamed disability in existing laws and policies. We have some specifics – like measures to make apprenticeships more inclusive – but we do not yet have a cross-government strategy that mainstreams disability Disabled People Leading Change

  25. Conclusion • Taken the collective voice of persons with disabilities seriously in the setting of policies. Government does involve disabled people and our organisations. But many disabled people are mistrustful of the ‘system’ because of new assessment procedures that some people find degrading and anxiety provoking • Overall, we will use the opportunity of the examination of the UK to highlight the issues of greatest concern to disabled people – including the right to work • We seek to learn from Poland and other nations and share our learning too Disabled People Leading Change

  26. liz.sayce@disabilityrightsuk.org • www.disabilityrightsuk.org Disabled People Leading Change

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