To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's press release entitled £7.6 million to help 2,000 adults with autism into work, published on 18 August 2022, whether he plans to increase funding to help support adults with developmental language disorder into work.
Answered on
21 November 2022
The press release refers to our new Local Supported Employment (LSE) service, which aims to help people with learning difficulties and/or autism find and retain work. We are working with 29 local authorities across England and Wales to deliver LSE up until March 2025. Adults with developmental language disorder (DLD) living in those local authority areas will be able to benefit.
There are also other DWP services that can assist adults with DLD. Additional Work Coach support for health journey claimants is a new Work Coach led support offer, which aims to help more disabled people and claimants with a health condition into, and towards, work. This trial of additional Work Coach support is initially available across a third of Jobcentres in England, Scotland and Wales, with plans for the support to be rolled out wider from 2023.
Our Disability Employment Adviser (DEA) role delivers direct support to claimants who require additional work-related support and advice above our core Work Coach offer. DEAs continue to support all Work Coaches to deliver tailored, personalised support to all claimants with a disability or health condition.
Access to Work is a demand-led discretionary grant scheme that provides funding for the extra disability-related costs people have when starting work or maintaining employment, which go beyond the employer’s duty to make reasonable adjustments. It can also support disabled people on an apprenticeship, traineeship, or Supported Internship.
People in particular disadvantaged groups continue to benefit from support through the increased Flexible Support Fund and priority early access to the Work and Health Programme. Intensive Personalised Employment Support provision provides highly personalised packages of employment support for disabled people who want to work but have complex needs or barriers and require specialist support to achieve sustained employment.
We are working with employers to encourage them to become Disability Confident. The Disability Confident scheme encourages employers to think differently about disability and health and to take positive action to address the issues disabled employees face in the workplace.