"Less than half (47%) of disabled people are in employment compared to 80% of the non-disabled population'. The government seeks employers' views as to how to reduce this disparity.
The green paper sets out a number of proposed solutions and asks for views from employers, disabled people and their carers, specialist disability groups and healthcare providers on whether the government is doing the right things to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their potential.
The paper identifies that the main issue is to remove the barriers that are currently preventing those with disabilities and long-term health issues from fulfilling their potential in relation to their career ambitions. It is recognised that being in work and good health often go hand in hand.
The consultation is open until 17 February 2017.
The green paper has a strong focus on the role of employers in supporting disabled people and people with health conditions into work. It looks at how a shift in workplace attitudes might be achieved in order to remove some of the stigma and discrimination in relation to disability. It also looks at the actions that employers can take to prevent employees being ill in the first place, to promote wellbeing, to manage long term sickness absence and to support an employee back into work.
Views are sought on a number of areas, including:
Although the green paper itself is some 95 pages, we would recommend that employers familiarise themselves with, at least, chapter four and consider whether there is any action they could be taking to address the gap in employment, for example:
It will be interesting to see the responses to this consultation and whether in time we will see a change whereby employers are required to auto-enrol employees into health insurance schemes, similar to the recent changes for pensions.