Welfare Reform Bill

This group of amendments concerns employers and attitudes of employers and what the Government will provide to individuals to help them to return to and remain in work. I shall deal first with the amendments proposing that a person’s limited capability for work or work-related activity should be based on the grounds to the grounds of his condition, as opposed to being limited by his condition. These amendments are born out of concern that disabled people may find themselves suffering unfair discrimination by employers because they have a disability. While I agree that the attitude of many employers to people with disabilities—particularly a mental health condition or learning disabilities—is something that we need to change, I would point out that it is unlawful under the employment provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act for employers to discriminate against disabled people in recruitment and employment. It is not appropriate for any assessment of capability for work in determining entitlement to ESA to take account of potential unlawful actions by employers. The way we determine entitlement to benefit must be defined in a way that applies nationally and consistently, not in a way that is dependent on local conditions, such as the attitude of different prospective employers. In the revised PCA, we have a method for fairly and objectively assessing benefit entitlement on the basis of a person’s functional limitations resulting from his physical or mental condition. It is an assessment that will be consistently applied throughout the country. Introducing societal factors, such as employer attitudes, into the assessment would mean we would have to consider factors that might vary locally, which would undermine this principle of consistency. It would mean entitlement to ESA would be dependent upon factors such as where a customer lived, instead of upon the individual’s level of functional limitation. The noble Lord has also tabled AmendmentNo. 84, which relates to Clause 18 to ensure that any pilots we run, "““encourage employers to recruit and retain””" individuals. The powers set out under Clause 18 are designed to ensure that any pilots have a clear purpose in mind, which is to allow people with the ability to return to work to realise their potential. We are determined to explore a broad range of avenues that might lead to better outcomes for employment and support allowance customers. By offering a tailored package of help and support, including such schemes as access to work, we help customers become job-ready. Existing legislation, in particular the employment provisions in the Disability Discrimination Act, already requires employers not to discriminate against disabled people in recruitment and employment. Those provisions also require employers to make reasonable adjustments to overcome any substantial disadvantage a disabled person might face, compared to a non-disabled person. We are already working closely with employers and will continue to do so. For example, we have undertaken a series of campaigns to raise awareness and understanding of the DDA among employers, especially small and medium-sized employers, and to encourage them to fulfil their duties. Building on that, we want to raise awareness and promote the employers’ role in the recruitment of people leaving benefit. At a local level, Jobcentre Plus is leading the way in securing the effective, voluntary engagement of employers. In the provider-led areas of Pathways, for example, we specifically ask during the bidding process for information about providers’ involvement or links with local employers and employment agencies and how they will meet local labour market conditions. However, we do not believe that it is appropriate or effective to increase the regulatory burden on employers. Amendments Nos. 57 and 58 relate to Clause 10 and concern the work-focused health-related assessment. This is an additional stage that we are adding to the PCA process to focus on a customer’s residual capacity and on what health interventions would help to increase it. At the work-focused health-related assessment, we will be exploring with customers the barriers that they perceive between themselves and the labour market. Some of the barriers will be medical, but it is likely that some of them will relate to other factors, such as a lack of appropriate skills or the need for workplace adaptations. We are not suggesting that those non-medical barriers will be ignored, but we want the work-focused health-related assessment to focus on what health-related interventions—for example, a course of cognitive behaviour therapy—might help to improve a customer’s functional capability. We know that early intervention can have a beneficial effect on health and capability, so we want to ensure that any health-related barriers are identified and acted on as soon as possible. That is why the assessment will be carried out by trained healthcare professionals. That is not to say that the assessment will not also deal with other matters, and we expect the healthcare professional carrying out the assessment to be able to identify, in general terms, occupational or other factors that are creating a barrier to work. Information from the work-focused health-related assessment will be given to the personal advisor. Although personal advisors are unlikely to have the skills needed to identify health-related interventions, they will be able to providehelp and support to address societal barriers, such as skills needs or low confidence, during work-focused interviews. It would not be the most effective use of scarce resources to expect healthcare professionals to provide customers with information which is available from other sources. In relation to occupational factors, the first PCA, including the work-focused health-related assessment, will be carried out during or soon after the 13-week assessment phase. As I said, as well as identifying health-related interventions, the healthcare professional will be identifying other factors that are creating a barrier to return to work. They will consider workplace factors in general terms. For example, they will be able to advise whether a customer has mobility problems making it difficult to assess a workplace, or if a customer has difficulty standing for prolonged periods of time. At this early stage, however, without a specific job in mind for the customer, it is not yet appropriate to carry out a detailed workplace assessment. Turning to some of the specific questions raised and the issue of the DWP and its record on this matter, we always need to do more. We need to be mindful that reporting on disabilities is self-reporting by employees and we need to understand the figures better. The noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, quoted some figures on joiners and leavers. I cannot comment without more detail, but I suspect the problem is partly to do with the recent restructuring of the department. Perhaps he will let me have the source of those figures so that I can look at them in more detail. The noble Lord asked about co-operation between the DWP and the DTI on the matter of workingwith employers. There is wide cross-governmental co-operation in relation to the employer engagement agenda. The DWP, Jobcentre Plus, the Health and Safety Executive, the Department of Health, the NHS and the DTI are exploring together how they may best contribute, particularly in relation to issues affecting people with mental health problems. I want to take a moment of the Committee’s time to run through some of the things that the Government are doing on a cross-governmental basis to help people who have mental or physical disabilities into employment. We recognise that the problems faced by people with mental health conditions in particular are varied and complex, which is why the changes to the Disability Discrimination Act are important. We also recognise that there is no magic bullet and that one department alone will not be able to tackle these problems. In October last year, the Department of Health launched a new initiative called ““Action on Stigma: Promoting Mental Health””, which was on ending discrimination at work. The scheme provides employers with a set of core principles that they should seek to follow and a clear process to help them do so, as well as information, advice and support via nine regional employment support teams. We also have the cross-cutting review that the Chancellor announced in Budget 2006 looking at mental health problems and employment outcomes. Our strategy of engaging employers is advised by the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit report Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People and the National Employment Panel’s Able to Work report. The clear message is that success will be best achieved through a sustained campaign led and delivered by employers, supported by the Government and in consultation with disabled people. We believe that committed employers should be given the opportunity to develop and spread positive ideas on an employer-to-employer basis. If we look generally at the Government’s record on supporting people with disabilities, we have strengthened civil rights and the Disability Discrimination Act has been strengthened to provide protection for an additional 600,000 disabled workers. We have brought 7 million more jobs and 1 million more employers within the scope of the employment provisions, and we have established the Disability Rights Commission. I have already mentioned the National Employment Panel and the Able to Work report. The issue of training and awareness raising for employers is an important point. We actively promote the availability of all our disability services and programmes—the noble Baroness asked about that—including Access to Work among both disabled people and employers. Information on all of them is freely available in jobcentres and on the Jobcentre Plus website, as well as through disability organisations. Jobcentre Plus invests £300,000 a year in marketing and publicising its disability services and programmes, including Access to Work. Leaflets and information about Access to Work are freely available in Jobcentres, and disability employment advisers regularly meet local employers to promote the full range of disability services, including Access to Work.