My Lords, Amendment 1 would build on Clause 1, which sets out the Government’s commitment to report to Parliament annually on the progress made towards full employment. Producing an annual report which illustrates progress towards full employment across the UK demonstrates this Government’s clear intention and continuing commitment to building a strong economy, growing business and ensuring labour market opportunities for all.
The purpose of this amendment is to require a further annual report to Parliament on the progress that has been made towards narrowing the disability employment gap. The amendment would also require the report to include how the Government have defined the disability employment gap, how they will assess whether progress has been sufficient and what remedial action will be taken if progress is insufficient. The amendment also requires that the report should include data on progress in increasing the employment rates of specific groups of disabled people, including people with autism, a learning disability, mental health problems and visual impairments.
I hereby formally commit the Government to report on our progress towards halving the disability employment gap in the annual report on full employment—no ifs, no buts. Halving the disability employment gap is a crucial part of achieving our full employment aspirations and a key priority for this Government in its own right. I hope also that, following my meeting with Peers on this very subject last week, they are assured of my commitment and that of my honourable friend, the Minister for Disabled People, who was also at that meeting.
4 pm
There is no need to include a reporting duty in the Bill to drive progress or signal commitment in this area. We have already said that we will publish a White Paper later this year to set out our plans for improving support for disabled people and people with health conditions, to further reduce the disability employment gap and to promote integration across health and employment. Last summer, we established the new work and health unit between the two departments,
the DWP and DH, to bring together and drive progress in this area. Clearly, to pick up the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood, employers are key in this. That is what the Disability Confident campaign is about, which has shown some good success.
On the detail of the full employment report that we are talking about, the Government have already said that we will use the first annual report to set out a framework for considering full employment in a modern economy. However, I must make a point about specifying the particular groups that this amendment does. The Government are acutely aware that many of the most vulnerable in our society are affected by multiple conditions. Reporting progress against specific groups would draw focus away from others while failing to reflect this nuance. We are committed to enabling all disabled people to fulfil their potential.
The noble Baroness, Lady Thomas, raised a point about the various programmes, voluntary and mandatory, that we put through. We are building our knowledge about how to help people, and the new work and health programme will provide specialist support for claimants with health conditions and disability, including of course those with mental health conditions. Noble Lords will be delighted to know that one of the reasons we are driven in this direction is because we have been so successful in getting people back to work. People with health conditions are now becoming the biggest group and therefore the group we need to concentrate on.
I offer assurance, particularly to the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans, that our treatment of progress on the disability employment gap will include information that will allow people to understand the key drivers of changes in this vital area, such as changes in the prevalence of disability and health conditions and demographic changes. For this reason, the amendment is unnecessary. We have, I think, encapsulated its spirit in my formal commitments.
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, for tabling Amendment 42. I clearly need to acknowledge her particular interest in the area of mental health. She knows that I support her in trying to get support for those with mental health disorders, and I hope I can reassure her with this answer. Before I start, I have to say that the intention behind this particular amendment is not entirely clear. I have therefore assumed that it seeks to remove all work-related requirements for claimants with a mental and behavioural disorder within ESA or universal credit, where they are found to have a limited capability for work, although I must point out that this is not quite achieved by the drafting.
I understand the motivation behind this amendment, but I am afraid I cannot agree with it. It is fundamentally opposed to the direction of travel since the publication of Waddell and Burton’s seminal report in 2006, Is Work Good for Your Wellbeing?, which I know has influenced me and, indeed, the department ever since. Growing evidence over the last decade has shown work can help keep people mentally as well as physically healthy and help to promote recovery if someone falls ill. Indeed, NICE guidance recognises that work is a key component of recovery from a mental health condition.
In contrast, there is a strong link between not being in work and poor health, including poor mental health. In recognition of this link, we believe that where appropriate it is right to offer people work-related support. That is why over the next three years the Government are investing £43 million to develop the evidence base on what works for those with mental health conditions. This will be done through a series of voluntary pilots that will test a different approach of combined health and employment support for benefit claimants with or at risk of mental ill health.
Furthermore, the spending review announced an increased commitment to support people with health conditions and disabilities. This is on top of the additional funding announced in the summer Budget of £60 million in 2017-18, rising to £100 million by 2020-21, to support claimants with a limited capability for work. In addition, as I have already mentioned, the Government have committed to publishing a White Paper that will set out reforms to improve support for people with health conditions and disabilities. I certainly look forward to taking advantage of the noble Baroness’s expertise and getting some advice from her as we develop our proposals.
I recognise that there are concerns that some people with a mental health condition or behavioural disorder may not be able to cope with the work-related requirements placed on them. I reassure noble Lords that claimants who are placed in the work-related activity group agree, through discussion with their work coach, steps that are reasonable for their circumstances, taking into account their mental health condition. In a small number of cases where an individual may not agree with the steps their work coach has proposed, there are checks in the system which allow the individual to ask for this to be reviewed. Clearly, to pick up the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood, this is an area we are watching with an eagle eye and we will develop processes to make sure this works, whether it is through a work coach, a specialism, support for that work coach, or whatever it takes.
I turn to Amendment 43. I am sorry that the noble Lord, Lord Layard, is not in his place—I think there was a slight mix-up. I have talked to him in great depth on this matter and the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, was good enough to allow us to debate it today by formally introducing it. He has a long-standing commitment to mental health generally and improving access to services, and I admire him greatly for that. This amendment seeks to put a statutory duty on the Secretary of State to encourage and assist all ESA claimants with a mental and behavioural disorder as a primary medical condition to be referred immediately to treatment in local NHS services as soon as they are awarded a benefit. There are actually technical issues that mean that it would not be possible to implement but, subject to my discussions with him, the noble Lord is interested in the direction of travel here rather than the precise amendment. What he is actually after is timely access to appropriate treatment—a point made by my noble friend Lord Lansley. On this point, I can offer assurance that it is absolutely the Government’s intention to improve the links between health and employment support, recognising timely
access to health treatments can help individuals return to work quicker—a point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher.
There are a number of significant measures the Government have taken and are taking to improve that access. I remind noble Lords that we have the national rollout of the IAPT programme: over £400 million was provided by the Government during 2010 for that. More than 100,000 people have been supported to recover since the programme started in 2008, and Department of Health officials are currently working closely with NHS England to build on the success of the programme to date in the light of the recent spending review settlement.
As we have already discussed, we are committed to halving the disability employment gap. That is why we are investing the £43 million I mentioned to develop the evidence base on what actually works. The voluntary trials will test a different approach of combined health and employment support. This includes a trial to test co-location of IAPT within jobcentres currently under way in Canterbury, and we plan to roll this out more widely in a number of still-to-be-determined jobcentres.
On our further commitment to the joint work and health unit, we are spending more than £115 million on the unit, including at least £40 million for the health and work innovation fund—again, to pilot new ways to join up health and employment. I believe that the forthcoming White Paper will address some of the challenges of how we improve access to treatment and provide it earlier. Again, I will take advantage of the advice of the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, and the noble Lord, Lord Layard, in making that work as well as I can.
The amendments cover a lot of ground and touch on some very important issues. I hope that I have been able to assure noble Lords of the Government’s commitment and determination in this area and that the noble Baroness will feel able, on the back of those commitments, to withdraw the amendment.