Extension of New Dealfor Disabled People

The Government has extended the New Deal for Disabled People(NDDP) across a number of areas and is intending to extend this servicenationwide. During the last three years it has piloted a number of differentinitiatives, seeking to find ways to help sick and disabled people move fromwelfare to work.

Building on some of the successes of these pilots a newprogramme of job brokers have been introduced. Their role will be to assistboth clients and employers remove the barriers which have prevented disabledpeople entering employment and ease their transition from welfare to work.

The new service went live in July and preferred bidders havenow been announced, and will be working with the Employment Service in developingtheir ideas for this new service. Shaw Trust was a major provider under thePersonal Adviser pilots, the forerunner of the job-broking scheme, and ShawTrust now provides the new job broking service, called Shaw Trust employment inWales, Newham and Tyne and Wear. We are also working in partnership with TheEnham Trust in Kent and Royal British Legion in Hampshire to run this service.

The second phase of the extension of the NDDP is to be aseries of retention and rehabilitation projects. These are aimed at getting employedpeople, who develop health or disability problems, back to work as quickly aspossible, or help prevent them from losing their job as a result of theirhealth or disability.

During the last two years Shaw Trust has operated a retentionpilot in South Wales. We have had a lot of success in both preventing peoplefrom losing their job, and getting people who thought they would never workagain back to work, either with their current employer or another employer.

A number of organisations have submitted initial ideas whichwill now be explored with Government officials before new projects commencelater in the year.

Although the extension of the NDDP must be welcomed giventhe scale of unemployment amongst disabled people, the extra 120 million overthree years for job broking, 12 million for retention and rehabilitation aimedat helping 100,000 get back to work is nowhere near the investment needed. Alsothe funding fails to recognise the multiple barriers disabled people face whenreturning to work and the level of support they require if that work is to besustained.