Kevin Rowan

Jun 5 2006 By Kevin Rowan, The Journal

Economic inclusion is, for good reasons, flavour of the month at the moment.

The current Regional Economic Strategy mirrors government policy in its attempts to see enabling all potential workers to access work opportunities, and the most recent DWP Green Paper emphasises some key groups that can benefit from specific support to gain employment.

The TUC is committed to equality for disabled people. When barriers to employment are removed disabled people have repeatedly shown their ability to perform on equal terms in the same occupations as non-disabled workers.

These barriers include systematic discrimination, in both attitudes and practices, inaccessible workplaces and equipment.

There are also obstacles outside the workplace itself, such as housing, education and transport.

It all makes it re3ally difficult for many disabled people to compete on equal terms in the labour market.

Many of these barriers are slowly being addressed, but much more can be done. For some reason the government does little to promote its `Access to Work' scheme, which helps employers meet any extra costs involved in employing a worker with disabilities.

The Disability Discrimination Act has been slow in having a comprehensive reach, only recently applying to FE and HE providers.

This contributes to the fact that disabled 19-year-olds are twice as likely as non-disabled people of the same age to not be in education or training.

The approach that begins with treating everyone as employable in the first instance is welcome and correct.

Strategies that help people into work are essential in an economic plan that seeks to increase labour market participation.

To be successful, however, there needs to be three stages to achieving this objective.

Firstly we should concentrate on preventing losing jobs through ill-health and disability.

Secondly, more use should be made of return to work plans for workers who become ill or disabled, including rehabilitation, job re-design and flexible working options.

Finally, where these initiatives have prevented people from dropping out of the labour market, interventions like pathways to work should be supported and their quality consistently maintained as they roll-out country-wide.