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Patterns of Inequalities in the Labour Market
People with Disabilities
Patterns of Inequalities in the Labour
Market
Employment patterns can show that work
is not always distributed evenly. This is
one of a series of short articles looking at
the Patterns of Inequalities in the Labour
Market. Some of this inequality may be
down to lack of hard skills or employability
skills on the part of those marginalised in
the job market and some may be due to a
myriad of other social and cultural factors.
People will have different views on the
reasons for inequality and how it should
be approached from a policy perspective.
However, it may be argued that employers
have a big part to play in providing
opportunities for work and creating a more
equal playing field, whilst also making
more effective use of the potential of the
whole labour force.
The articles will highlight a number of
groups where inequality has been shown
to exist in the jobs market. We hope to
encourage employers to consider
employing people from groups by
highlighting their unique skill sets, which
they may have initially dismissed, thus
promoting fair and equal opportunities to
work in the interests of a fairer society and
more competitive businesses.
Defining Disability
The range and severity of disabilities varies hugely.
However, according to the Equality Act (2010) a disabled
person is someone with
a physical or mental
Around one in five people
impairment that has a
of working age in Wales
‘substantial’ and ‘longare registered as disabled
term’ effect on their
or has a health condition.1
ability to do normal
According to the NHS
around half of those
daily activities.1
people in the UK with a
However, Disability
disability (of working age)
Wales define disability
are employed.2
as “the loss or limitation
The rate of disability does
of opportunities to take
increase with age, so older
part in society on an
age groups have a higher
proportion of people who
equal level with others
are disabled or suffer from
due to social and
health problems.3
environmental
1
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/walesbarriers”. 2
news/one-fifth-welsh-working-age-1799601
2
3
We will focus on:
People with disabilities;
Immigration;
Gender inequality;
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender (LGBT);
Age and Employment:
o
Young People;
o
The Over 50s; and
Ex-Offenders.
1
2
3
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Disability/Pages/
Disabilityandwork.aspx
Disability Wales
3
http://wales.gov.uk/docs/statistics/2011/1112
maintains that the
06sb1152011en.pdf
concept of disability can
be looked at in two
ways. One approach is
known as the ‘medical model’ of disability which sees the
lack of participation and involvement as being due to the
limitations which disability causes. Conversely the ‘social
model ‘of disability highlights that most problems which
disabled people face are due to society or social barriers but that these can be changed.
www.gov.uk/definition-of-disability-under-equality-act-2010
http://www.disabilitywales.org/social-model/
http://www.disabilitywales.org/social-model/
Guidance, support and training is available to help disabled people into employment.
Government-backed schemes can help, while awareness-raising initiatives
are challenging the stereotypes about people with disabilities to ensure that
everyone has a fair chance of working.4
Traditionally people with disabilities were provided with employment in separate
organisations. This ‘sheltered employment’ practice developed after the end of World
War II to provide injured service personnel with employment opportunities. Remploy,
which was up until a few years ago a big employer of disabled people, developed
from this policy.
However, this approach has been superseded by
the view that people with disabilities should be
integrated into the mainstream workforce and in
recent years government policy has been
focused in this direction.
This change of policy has led to the development
of a range of initiatives which are aimed at
encouraging employers to recruit people with
disabilities. So there is now a range of financial
assistance available to employers to help cover
the costs of reasonable adjustments to the
workplace to enable employers to facilitate the
employment of people with disabilities or health
conditions. Money can be used for a range of
things including:
Only 15 per cent of people with
autism are in full-time
employment, despite the fact that
79 per cent of people with autism
who receive out of work benefits
indicate that they want to work.
For many all they need is a
combination of the right support
and the opportunity to make their
ambition a reality.
http://www.autism.org.uk/workingwith/employment-services.aspx
Adaptations to existing equipment;
Purchase of special equipment;
Help with travel to work expenses;
Provision of workplace support workers or job coaches;
Disability awareness training for colleagues; and
Provision of sign language interpreters for job interviews.
Encouraging applications from disabled people is good for business as it:
Can help you to increase the number of high quality applicants available;
4
//www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Disability/Pages/Disabilityandwork.aspx
Create a workforce that reflects the diverse range of customers it serves and
the community in which it is based; and
Bring additional skills to the business, such as the ability to use British Sign
Language (BSL), which could result in large savings.5
More Information
Employers can find out more about government financial assistance at the following
link: https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work/overview
Access to Work Scheme provides financial assistance to disabled people who are
returning to work. See the following link for details: https://www.gov.uk/access-towork/overview
Disability Wales have developed a good practice toolkit which employers may
access and use free of charge. Please see the following link.
(http://www.disabilitywales.org/toolkit/ )
The Welsh Government is seeking to expand and broaden the use of Labour Market
Intelligence (LMI) across Wales. This is part of a regular series of newsletters and articles
which are available on the Learning and Skills Observatory website
www.learningobservatory.com. If you have any comments about the sort of LMI that
you'd like to receive or how LMI has been of benefit to you, we'd like to hear from you. For
further information about the Welsh Government LMI project contact
[email protected].
5
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/employing-disabled-people-and-people-with-health-conditions/employingdisabled-people-and-people-with-health-conditions