27 January 2006

Incapacity benefit reforms will fail if we don't make it easier for employers to say yes

Government plans to get one million disabled people into work are welcomed by the Employers' Forum on Disability. However, the incapacity benefit reforms ignore the fact that only employers have the jobs and ultimately the success of the reforms will depend on the extent to which employers say ‘Yes, I can and will employ this person’.

Forum Chief Executive, Susan Scott-Parker said:

“How can one million people return to work if the employer is not factored into the plan? We need to help disabled people to find the right jobs and help employers to find the right people. The government must understand that you can't get people into jobs unless the needs and expectations of employers are met.

“All evidence suggests that by equipping employers to recruit disabled people, we could streamline the system, reduce waste, cut costs and deliver a more equitable labour market. A huge improvement would be seen at reasonable cost if the employer was simply positioned as a valued ‘customer’ by government, the voluntary sector and employment services.”

Scott-Parker went on to say:

“Historically the system has been designed more to ‘push’ disabled people at the world of work generally, rather than to help employers ‘pull’ disabled applications towards particular jobs.

“In order for the Government to achieve its aim of increasing the number of disabled people in work, it must also develop an employer engagement strategy which facilitates the process employers, intermediaries and disabled people go through, as people move into work.”

The Employers' Forum on Disability, with nearly 400 private and public sector members has been working to make it easier for business to employ disabled people, serve disabled customers and work in partnership with disabled people for over 15 years.

Targeted recruitment schemes such as the Forum's ‘Recruitment that works’ approach, link employers, intermediaries and job seekers systematically to ‘pull’ disabled people to apply for particular jobs, have been shown to have real potential to bring more disadvantaged into work.

ENDS

For further information, please contact the Press Office

Employers' Forum on Disability
Telephone: 020 7089 3020
Email: issy.rule@employers-forum.co.uk

Notes to editors:

A better ‘push-pull’ balance is needed

Employer engagement obliges the system to position the employer so that they are valued, and supported, as an essential part of the supply chain. ‘Upstream’ success in any supply chain is determined by its ability to meet the needs of the ‘downstream’ user or customer. Successful work placement systems achieve an optimum, and flexible balance of push and pull.

Push and pull stands for the forces in any supply chain which need to be properly balanced so that actions which push people at employment generally - such as vocational training, CV preparation, improving motivation, are balanced by actions which pull particular applicants to particular employers - such as job matching, and attracting a wider pool of candidates for particular and specific jobs.

We need a policy framework that supports 'intermediaries/suppliers' to deliver more disabled and other disadvantaged people into existing jobs by enabling the 'end user' of that supply chain, the employer - to pull more disabled people more efficiently into particular jobs.

A better push-pull balance is particularly crucial for those disadvantaged job seekers who when they are just pushed at employers generally, are 'knocked out' by barriers outside their control, such as low expectations, inaccessible transport or lack of disability expertise on the part of the employer or intermediary. 'Pull' usually requires employers to remove barriers in their system and facilitates a process which removes barriers outside the employer control such as lack of access to public transport.