Specialist disability employment programmes
Government’s response to Liz Sayce’s 
independent review of specialist 
disability employment programmes, 
Getting in, staying in and getting on	

Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State 
for Work and Pensions by Command of Her Majesty
July 2011 

Cm 8106	£6.00	

© Crown Copyright 2011
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Sayce Consultation Team
Disability and Work Division
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Contents
Introduction by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions	
Foreword by the Minister for Disabled People
The Government’s response
	A new direction
	Access to Work
	Remploy
	Residential Training	
	Work Choice and the Work Programme	
	Working across Government 
Annex A: List of recommendations
Annex B: Terms of reference for the Sayce Review

Introduction by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
It is unacceptable that in one of the richest and most progressive countries in the world only half of disabled people are in work, compared to over three-quarters of those who are not disabled. Through our welfare reforms we have always been clear that there should be unconditional support for the most severely disabled people who cannot be expected to take steps towards work. But there are a great number of disabled people who can work, want to work, and should be supported to do so. Work is the best route out of poverty and we know that for many people it can be beneficial for their mental and physical wellbeing. 
That is why I welcomed Liz Sayce’s report into specialist disability employment programmes which looked at how the Government can better support disabled people to make that all important move into work. The recommendations contained within the report clearly imply certain changes for the services we deliver and we will be consulting on these carefully in the coming weeks. 
It is important that we get this right. If we do, we can finally start delivering the tailored support that disabled people really need. 

Iain Duncan Smith MP
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Foreword by the Minister for Disabled People
Since taking office in May 2010, the Coalition Government has set out an ambitious programme of welfare reform to ensure that people are encouraged and supported to move into and sustain work. Work is not only the best way out of poverty, it can also help improve an individual’s mental and physical health, and can help to tackle social exclusion by providing access to social networks. 
As the Minister for Disabled People, I am determined to ensure that disabled people also benefit from these reforms. The Government is committed to supporting more disabled people than ever into sustainable employment, in line with their aspirations. Using the skills and talents of disabled people is not just beneficial at an individual level, but, 
as Liz Sayce highlights, it is good for society and the economy as a whole.
The Government supports disabled people into work in a wide variety of specialist disability employment programmes that are currently available alongside the Work Programme and Work Choice: Access to Work, Remploy and Residential Training Colleges. In these difficult financial times, now more than ever it is vital that the available funding is used effectively, drawing on robust evidence about what works in the modern labour market and on how effectively our services meet the changing expectations, aspirations, and priorities of individual disabled people.
To this end, in December 2010, the Secretary of State asked Liz Sayce, the Chief Executive of RADAR, a leading pan-disability organisation in the UK, to lead an independent review of the Government’s specialist disability employment programmes.
The independent review, Getting in, staying in and getting on was published on 9 June 2011, and contains specific recommendations about how government can best use the available resources to help more disabled people into work through evidence-based, personalised support programmes.
I welcome the central theme of the Sayce Review, that resources for supporting disabled people into employment should be focused on disabled people themselves, rather than on specific institutions – this is very much in line with the Government’s drive towards greater personalisation in welfare. 
The Sayce Review makes a range of important recommendations about how to turn this aspiration into reality. When the Sayce Review was published, I confirmed that the Government would consult before moving to any decisions on the future strategy for specialist disability employment programmes. I have today published alongside this response a consultation on a number of the specific recommendations in the Sayce Review. I will work with disabled people and their organisations to explore these recommendations and I encourage responses to the consultation from disabled people, organisations of and for disabled people, employment service providers and all those who have an interest in this important topic.

The Sayce Review sets out how we can ensure that the employment support that is available in the future meets the needs and aspirations of disabled people today and for the decades to come. The Government understands the importance of supporting each individual to reach their true potential in life, whether that person is disabled or non-disabled. We have already confirmed that the budget for specialist employment support is protected. Now we have to ensure that money is used to help the maximum number of disabled people achieve the best possible jobs and careers.

Maria Miller MP
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Disabled People

The Government’s response
A new direction
1.	The Government welcomes the Sayce review which makes a large number of recommendations about how the Government can deliver more effective specialist disability employment programmes to help more disabled people move into and keep work. The recommendations range from principles that should govern the design of future disability employment programmes to practical ways in which current programmes can be improved.
2.	We agree with the central theme that resources should be directed towards disabled people themselves, giving them maximum choice and control in the services they receive. We have already confirmed that the overall budget for specialist disability employment programmes in the current Spending Review period is protected, and that any resources released from reforms would be reinvested to fund improvements to the way disability employment support is provided, after investing in support to help those people and organisations affected through the transition. The responses to the consultation published alongside this review will inform decisions about the strategy for each programme. 
3.	The changes set out in the Sayce review would represent a new direction for disability employment programmes. If implemented, they would have a major impact on some of the organisations that currently deliver employment services to disabled people, particularly Remploy and Residential Training Colleges. Before moving to any decisions in these areas, we are seeking views on the recommendations in the Sayce review – both on the recommendations themselves and, if accepted, how they should be implemented. We have today published a consultation alongside this government response.
4.	We fully support the principle of enabling and empowering disabled people to meet their employment aspirations. It is very important that disabled people are supported to take up a wide range of jobs and careers across all types of employment and in every sector. We are already working with employers, employment programme providers, disabled people, user-led organisations and representative organisations to ensure that services meet this aspiration.
5.	We also agree that employment support should be evidence-based, which means supporting people to get the kind of job they want, and focused on getting and keeping a job rather than on lengthy pre-employment preparation or training. This principle runs throughout our employment programmes and it should be no different for specialist provision.
6.	The Government supports the core principle of more choice and control for disabled people in the design and delivery of mainstream and specialist employment services. The introduction of both Work Choice and the Work Programme, for example, reflects a move away from the rigid one-size-fits-all programmes of the past to a more flexible, customer-focused approach. 
7.	
The Government is also testing innovative approaches to give disabled people control over multiple funding streams through the Right to Control Trailblazers, the results of which will be evaluated to inform future policy design. We will continue to explore how our employment services can be made available through individual budgets, informed by the results of the Right to Control evaluation.
8.	Some of our pre-existing provision for disabled people fits less well with the model that the Sayce Review envisages. To support disabled people to work in the widest possible range of jobs and careers, the Government therefore would be attracted to the idea of moving towards funding the needs of individuals and away from funding specific workplaces or facilities. We welcome views about this as part of the consultation published alongside this response.
Access to Work
9.	The Sayce review notes that Access to Work is highly cost effective, and makes the case that it should be made more widely available and funding should be increased as resources are released from the reform of less effective programmes. The delivery of Access to Work should be modernised, using internet-based technology to share information and drive down the costs of delivery.
10.	Government agrees that Access to Work has the potential to help more disabled people and to be delivered more efficiently. However, a large increase in customer numbers cannot be achieved without additional funding. The Sayce Review recommends that resources are released from reforms to Remploy and Residential Training Colleges, so that this funding could be used for Access to Work.
11.	We have already confirmed that the overall budget for specialist disability employment programmes in the current Spending Review period is protected, and that any resources released from reforms would be reinvested to fund improvements to the way disability employment support is provided, after investing in support to help those people and organisations affected through the transition. The responses to the consultation, published alongside this response, will inform decisions about the strategy for each programme.
Innovative delivery
12.	The Government supports innovative use of the internet to improve access to and efficiency of its programmes. Since December 2010, disabled job seekers have been able to find out immediately if they are eligible for Access to Work support by completing a short on-line questionnaire at Directgov. If eligible, they are then able to print off a Pre-Employment Eligibility Letter which will help build their confidence when applying for jobs and which can be shown to prospective employers. This meets a commitment in the Coalition Programme. We have also been investigating the use by Access to Work advisers of price-comparison websites for some disability-related products and services. More work needs to be done to assess how far and how fast the approach recommended by the Sayce Review can be implemented, and we will therefore undertake an initial feasibility study before confirming detailed implementation plans. In particular, we will need to ensure that information exchange is compatible with customer and commercial confidentiality.
Focus on those who can most benefit
13.	We agree that Access to Work needs to be targeted at those who can most benefit from specialist disability employment support and that some impairment groups and people from ethnic minority backgrounds are under-represented on the programme. Work is already underway to increase take-up from people with mental health conditions and people with a learning disability.
14.	We also agree that small- and medium-sized employers are less likely to have the resources and capability to fund adjustments, and that we should continue to focus support on these employers.
15.	We will review our communications strategy in light of this recommendation, working through existing networks and user-led organisations as the Sayce Review recommends. We welcome the recognition that there is a defined budget for Access to Work and that delivery needs to be managed equitably within this. We will monitor the impact of improved communication carefully in order to manage the risk of generating demands that cannot be met from within existing resources.
Service improvements
16.	The Sayce Review makes a number of recommendations about the specific services provided through Access to Work, and the way that the service is delivered. We welcome these recommendations, which are designed to make Access to Work more responsive to the needs of customers and employers.
17.	Where implementation would require additional resources, the Sayce Review recommends using resources released from reforms to Remploy and Residential Training provision. In considering whether and how to implement these recommendations we will need to take into account the response to the public consultation on those specific areas. Questions about the Sayce Review recommendations to improve Access to Work are included in the consultation published alongside this response.
A better customer experience
18.	The Sayce Review also recommends that the assessment process for Access to Work should be reformed to ensure that disabled people do not have to undergo unnecessary assessments. We recognise that many disabled people experience numerous assessments to receive the services they need enabling them to live independently and take up employment. Our aim is to minimise unnecessary assessments and to streamline processes wherever possible, however, this must be balanced with the need to ensure that taxpayers’ money is being targeted effectively and spent appropriately. We will review the assessment process for Access to Work to ensure that customers whose support needs are straightforward and have not changed do not have to go through unnecessary detailed assessments.
19.	We will also clarify the ownership of adjustments made through Access to Work, aiming to move to a position where ownership rests clearly with the customer wherever possible. We will need to look carefully at the situation where an employer has contributed to the cost.
Future funding models
20.	Taking a longer view (looking beyond the current Spending Review period), the Sayce review recommends that Government should consider innovative funding models for Access to Work, for example, an ‘AME-DEL’ model where programme costs can be funded from the benefit savings achieved from helping people get or keep a job.
21.	The Government is actively encouraging the use of innovative funding models that pay by results, including in the Work Programme, the biggest ever payment by results employment programme seen in Great Britain. Launched in June 2011, it includes a ground-breaking arrangement that uses the benefit savings it generates to pay providers. In addition, after the third year of the contract the Work Programme will be 100 per cent outcome based. 
22.	The Government is also strengthening and improving cost-benefit analysis to include a wider assessment of the full social impact of policy decisions. 
23.	We agree that Access to Work is a good candidate for payment by results funding models in the longer term and we will keep the position under review. 
Central government as an exemplar
24.	We agree with the recommendation in the Sayce Review that central government departments, and the public sector as a whole, should lead the way in the employment of disabled people. The Department for Work and Pensions has already centralised the system for making adjustments for disabled employees, supporting Line Managers with a central Reasonable Adjustments Specialist Team who can help develop effective and efficient solutions. Working through the New Generation Human Resources project we will establish and promote best practice within central government departments.
25.	Policy on funding and support for central government departments has not changed. Access to Work advisers will continue to provide advice and assessments for employees and employers in central government departments, and those departments will continue to fund adjustments for their employees to a level equivalent to that provided by Access to Work. Working through the New Generation Human Resources project we will ensure that all departments are provided with updated guidance about their responsibilities and the support available.
Remploy
26.	Remploy is now in year four of a five-year modernisation plan. In autumn 2010, the Government confirmed that the modernisation budget over the five-year plan remained unchanged, at £555 million, with an additional £111 million to meet the additional costs of restructuring. However, despite this significant investment, Remploy has not met the majority of its modernisation plan targets, which have proved to be unrealistic.
27.	
Notwithstanding the commitment and contribution of those employed by Remploy, the Sayce Review makes a strong case that a new model is needed for Remploy. In relation to Remploy factories the Sayce Review said that there was a total consensus among disabled people’s organisations and charities that the factories were not the model for the 21st Century, and noted that around half of the factory employees do not have any work to do. The Sayce Review concludes that money should be used to support individuals to achieve their employment aspirations in the widest range of jobs and careers, rather than to fund disability-specific workplaces or facilities.
28.	The Sayce Review suggests that current enterprise businesses with the potential to become financially viable should be freed from government control and encouraged and supported to transform into these alternative models. Organisations and employees should have the opportunity and support to put forward proposals to form new businesses or to acquire existing ones. Where businesses are not viable, employees should receive a comprehensive support package to find alternative employment. Wider support needs in the family and community must also be considered. Stakeholders including trades unions should be fully involved.
29.	The Government welcomes the recognition in the Sayce Review of the positive achievements of Remploy Employment Services (which are a different arm of Remploy’s operation) in helping over 10,000 disabled and other disadvantaged people to secure and retain work each year. We agree with the finding in the Sayce Review that it is not necessary for this role to be undertaken by the Government. We are therefore minded to accept the recommendation that, when appropriate, Remploy Employment Services should be moved out of public ownership.
30.	Remploy has some market leading businesses, but the current model represents poor value for money overall. It is unlikely, and it would be imprudent, to plan on the basis that there will be a significant market growth in the manufacturing sectors in which Remploy operates. We are therefore attracted by the approach to Enterprise Businesses set out in the Sayce Review.
31.	We are seeking views on the Sayce recommendations about Remploy as part of the consultation published alongside this response.
Residential Training
32.	We welcome the recognition in the Sayce Review of the unique and very valuable function which the Residential Training Colleges perform in supporting disabled people to achieve qualifications and to adapt to disability. However, compared with other specialist employment provision, the Sayce Review found that this service supports relatively few people and the cost per job is relatively high at £78,000.
33.	The review questions whether employment programme funding should be used to fund these services directly and recommends that the Department for Work and Pensions no longer funds the Residential Training Colleges as a separate provision. Instead, the Department should work with Residential Training Colleges to help them make the transition to alternative funding sources.
34.	We agree with the need to work with Residential Training Colleges to improve provision so that it can offer a more employment-focused service providing better value for money. We would not want to lose the expertise the colleges provide. Through the consultation launched today we are seeking views about whether the approach recommended in the Sayce Review is the right one, and, if implemented, how a transition to a wider range of funding sources could be achieved.
Work Choice and the Work Programme
35.	A fundamental review of Work Choice and the Work Programme was outside the scope of the Sayce Review, but they form the context in which other specialist disability employment programmes operate, and the Sayce Review makes some recommendations about the monitoring and future development of these programmes. 
36.	Monitoring the impact of employment programmes is a priority for the Government. Robust plans are already in place to monitor the delivery and impact of both the Work Programme and Work Choice. The Sayce Review recommends some specific improvements in the collection of data on disability, and we will examine the feasibility of publishing this information more systematically across the Department’s employment programmes.
37.	The Sayce Review also recommends that, when current Work Choice contracts expire, special protection for supported business places should come to an end. In the longer term, the Government should consider integrating Work Choice and Access to Work into a single employment programme delivered through individual budgets. This would sit alongside the Work Programme.
38.	The Work Choice programme already moves away from the direct funding of supported business places, for example, phasing out the direct financial subsidy of supported business places in local authority-owned businesses. Future decisions about the strategy for supported businesses and the strategy for Work Choice after the current contracts expire will be informed by the results of the consultation published alongside this response.
Working across Government 
39.	The Government agrees that disability employment is both a government priority and an area that requires close working and co-operation between departments. We have already accepted the recommendation to form a cross-government Ministerial group to oversee a new strategy for disability employment, and the group has now been established. 

Annex A: List of recommendations
General
Recommendation 1
The Department’s disability employment funding should be focused on supporting aspirations for sustainable work and career choices across all types of employment, as for other citizens, in every sector:
•	whether as an employee, entrepreneur, self-employed, or working for a social enterprise, mutual or co-operative;
•	with support to ‘get in’ work – through apprenticeships, internships, work experience, learning on the job programmes and work placements, to ‘stay in’ and to ‘get on’. 
Money should follow the individual so they can work where they choose, rather than the Department funding disability-specific workplaces or facilities. Over time all specialist disability employment support should be made available through individual budgets so individuals can select the support that best meets their needs.
Support should be evidence based which means:
•	a focus on supporting people into and in open employment, with ongoing and flexible support for employee (and employer) where needed to get in, stay in and get on;
•	rapid job search rather than assuming a series of stepping stones are needed first; and
•	rapid support and adjustments to aid job retention.	

Access to Work
Recommendation 2
Access to Work should be transformed from being the best kept secret in Government to being a recognised passport to successful employment, doubling the number of people helped. Government should improve equity of access, use innovation to create efficiencies, remove unnecessary waste and mobilise the power of peer support.	

Recommendation 2a
The Department should make Access to Work available through an internet-based portal that opens up knowledge of support, technology, services and “what works” to employees and employers. Suppliers could compete through the website thereby driving down unit costs and developing the market for disability employment support. The Department should investigate options for the website to operate independently – perhaps being opened up beyond Access to Work users – so that market forces push costs down further. This could work alongside a core advice and assessment service for Access to Work.
Further work will be required to develop the specification, but the portal should deliver:
•	increased choice;
•	improved customer experience; and
•	reduced costs.
The portal might also offer:
•	information on the range of supports, adjustments, and adaptations;
•	on-line peer support, discussion forums and reviews of products and services; and 
•	information on rights and duties of employees and employers.	

Recommendation 2b
The Department should undertake a targeted information-sharing campaign about Access to Work, concentrated on:
•	growth sectors, to enable disabled people to have a fair chance of securing new jobs as the economy grows;
•	small- and medium-sized enterprises;
•	the professional groups and trade unions who have most contact with disabled people – in particular health and social care staff; and
•	BME, learning disability, mental health, neuro-diversity and multiple impairment networks – to reach people who are under-served and/or have low employment rates.
The Department should be transparent about the limited budget and manage it in the most equitable way possible. The campaign should utilise existing structures such as Direct Gov and work in partnership with trade unions, professionals and user-led organisations.	

Recommendation 2c
The Department should increase employer confidence in employing people with fluctuating conditions by making Access to Work available to part-fund temporary cover for an employee of a small business who is off sick for a significant period of time. Funding might only be available for smaller employers, for prolonged condition-related absences. Individuals should be able to draw down support when required.	

Recommendation 2d
The Department should increase employer and employee confidence by strengthening the indicative pre-employment Access to Work eligibility, based on work likely to be undertaken, to be finalised once the exact role is known.	

Recommendation 2e
The Department should train Jobcentre Plus advisers to support and, where necessary, constructively challenge employers, where they are not willing or confident to make adjustments or introduce accessibility features to enable an individual to work successfully. This would help avoid placing the onus for negotiation wholly on the newly employed individual.	

Recommendation 2f
The Department should strengthen the role Access to Work plays in supporting independent travel where appropriate, engaging with individuals to take advantage of training and confidence-building in public transport or driving. It should then consider time-limiting – in some cases – payments for taxis. However, adequate protections must be in place for people who do need taxis long term to ensure they are not forced to stop using taxis where this would put them at significant disadvantage.	

Recommendation 2g
The Department should work with user-led organisations to provide services and peer support for people using Access to Work. This could include assessment and delivery – so the process is fully informed by what others have found most helpful.	

Recommendation 2h
Over the long term the Department should significantly expand funding for Access to Work. This could be achieved by applying the AME-DEL switch principle to release money to invest in the programme in recognition of the benefit savings it generates.	

Recommendation 2i
The Department should introduce a stronger triage system for Access to Work applicants. People who understand their support needs should not have to go through detailed assessment unless what is asked for is disputed.	

Recommendation 2j 
The Department should ensure Access to Work awards are transferable from one employer to another. Reassessments should be avoided unless necessary, and should take place only if requested by the disabled person or the type of work changes significantly.	

Recommendation 2k
Government should, longer term, radically simplify assessment, thereby saving time, money and bureaucracy. There should be an aspiration to a single, portable assessment covering employment, health and social support needs as well as benefit entitlement.	

Recommendation 2l
Government should act as an exemplar in making adjustments. As Access to Work is not available for central Government:
•	government departments should move towards centralising the budget for adjustments to ensure there is no disincentive to employing people with complex adjustment needs;
•	Access to Work advice and assessments should continue to be available to employees and employers in government departments; and
•	government departments should continue to fund adjustments for their employees to a level equivalent to that provided by Access to Work.	

Recommendation 2m
Government should ensure adjustments are funded for internships, work experience, learning on the job programmes and work placements. This can be through ring-fenced budgets within programmes, plus a ring-fenced budget within Access to Work.	
Remploy
Recommendation 3
The Department should, by the end of the current Spending Review, have introduced a new model for Remploy, and Government funding should be invested in effective support for individuals, rather than subsidising factory businesses: 
•	Remploy Enterprise Businesses should be given the opportunity – with expert support – to become successful businesses free from Government control.
•	Where this is not an option, and businesses cannot continue, individual employees should be offered guaranteed and active support to secure employment, training, or other community activity.
•	Remploy Employment Services should in future secure Government funds only by competing for contracts like other providers.	

Recommendation 3a
The Department should ensure resources released from Remploy reform (after accounting for the costs of reform) are spent on employment support that fits disabled people’s aspirations for work in all types of employment settings.	

Recommendation 3b
The Department should ensure existing employees in Remploy Enterprise Businesses are offered the opportunity and expert entrepreneurial and business support over a decent time period to develop businesses into independent enterprises, where viable – whether mutuals, social enterprises, companies limited by guarantee or other models. The Department should actively pursue partnership working between Remploy, local authorities, businesses, disabled people’s organisations and others to achieve this. Trade unions should be fully involved.	

Recommendation 3c
The Department must ensure disabled individuals working in Remploy Enterprise Businesses which are not potentially financially viable, or who wish to seek open employment, are offered comprehensive support, to be agreed between Remploy, Government, trade unions and employees, to include individual resources for a guaranteed place in Work Choice, Remploy Employment Services or alternative employment support of their choice. Remploy should ensure that practical support for wider family and community life is on offer. There should be support and life planning actively offered at least six months prior to any business change and the package should recognise people’s long-standing work with Remploy. The Department and Remploy should actively pursue links with employers to provide alternative employment opportunities.	

Recommendation 3d
The Department should ensure Remploy employees’ accrued pension rights are fully protected.	

Recommendation 3e
Remploy Employment Services should be freed to operate as a social enterprise, mutual, co-operative or other structure. Taken together with the recommendation for a new model for Remploy Enterprise Businesses, this recommendation envisages that Remploy’s future should be as an organisation independent of Government, focused on supporting disabled people to find and sustain work across the range of roles in the economy.	
Residential Training Colleges
Recommendation 4
The Department should not directly fund Residential Training as a distinct facilities-based programme. RTCs should be encouraged to seek funding from a range of sources including the Skills Funding Agency, and Work Choice and Work Programme providers funded by the Department. Colleges should be supported by the Department to make this transition.	

Recommendation 4a
The Department should encourage RTCs to explore options for:
•	developing as centres of excellence and sharing their expertise on accessibility, learning, employment, independent living skills, and adaptation to impairment through partnership working with FE and training providers, the NHS commissioning board and local authorities; and
•	adapting their provision and seeking new opportunities to operate directly in provider markets including:
o	education and training;
o	welfare-to-work;
o	independent living and adaptation to acquired impairments;
o	advising on accessibility; and
o	diversity training and workforce development.	

Recommendation 4b
The Department should use the budget currently allocated to funding Residential Training to open-up opportunities for work experience, including internships, work placements and on-the-job learning. This could be through ring-fenced funding under Access to Work.	

Work Choice/Work Programme
Recommendation 5
The Department should commit to ongoing monitoring and continuous review of Work Choice and the Work Programme. This should include:
•	publication of key performance information, including a breakdown by impairment type, qualification level and length of time out of work systematically collected across all the Department’s programmes. It is also important to gain a better understanding of disabled people’s career progression. This should help ensure all disabled people are well served, including people facing greatest labour market disadvantage; 
•	groundwork, using this information, for improved gatekeeping and pricing of different types and levels of support, so that those with the greatest support needs or disadvantage secure greater support. The Department should keep the differential pricing model under continuous review to ensure providers are encouraged to work with the full range of people; 
•	close monitoring of supply chains of prime providers to ensure that specialist organisations are being used effectively; and
•	reviews to ensure that Work Choice meets disabled people’s aspirations and is evidence-based. 
This monitoring will provide information in support of the Public Sector Equality Duty to advance equality of opportunity for disabled people.	

Recommendation 5a
The Department should, when existing Work Choice contracts expire, cease any specific guarantee of funding to supported business places, so that funding follows people rather than facilities. Learning and evidence should be used to help a transformation to support in viable enterprises or mainstream employment. Any savings should be used to support more individuals through evidence-based support.	

Recommendation 5b
When existing Work Choice contracts expire, the Department should consider rolling Work Choice funding into individual budgets with Access to Work. This would simplify the system into one general Work Programme and one individual budget-based programme so individuals have a choice over the support that they most need. This would build on learning from the Right to Control trailblazers.	

Wider enablers
Recommendation 6
The Department should make employment of disabled people a cross-government objective with joint ministerial responsibility. A cross-departmental ministerial group, including all departments with responsibilities that impact on employment outcomes, should drive a new cross-Government strategy on disabled people’s employment, incorporating the Government’s response to this review. There should be regular reporting and tracking progress externally on the Cross-Government Strategy. The cross-Government group should work closely with business and disability leaders. 	

This review has identified the following as foundations for success for an enabling state:
•	Education, health and social care systems that raise the aspirations of disabled people and their families, and prepare people from day one for a successful transition (or retention) into sustainable employment and career paths. This report encourages Dame Carol Black and David Frost in their Sickness and Absence Review to look at increasing the use of Access to Work to reduce time away from work for people acquiring an impairment.
•	Fair access to all routes into work, including work experience, internships, apprenticeships, university, learning on the job schemes, and support for setting up a business. For example, this review encourages the move towards a portfolio of evidence for apprenticeships to improve accessibility for talented people who have missed out on earlier qualifications.
•	A fair and simple benefits system that means disabled people can be confident that they are always better off in work, including self-employment, and an end to stigmatisation of benefit claimants. 
•	A public sector that leads the way as an exemplar employer of disabled people, and as a major buyer to drive wider improvements through procurement.
•	A robust legal framework to promote equality and prevent unlawful discrimination. 
•	Effective employer engagement (led by employers and employer organisations) that demonstrates the business case, identifies and promotes levers to incentivise employers, and makes it easy to employ disabled people.
•	An accessible transport system which empowers disabled people to access opportunities in the labour market. 
•	Portable social care packages that allow disabled people to move easily into and between jobs without fear of losing care and support.
•	Accessible housing that enables disabled people to have choice over where they live and work – so people can move areas for a job and secure accessible housing with ease.
•	Accessible information and digital inclusion that enables disabled people to make fully informed choices – including accessible on-line recruitment.
•	Recognition of the role and influence of families and those supporting disabled people. 	

Annex B: Terms of reference for the Sayce Review
Since taking office in May 2010, the Coalition Government has set out an ambitious programme of employment support to ensure that people disadvantaged in the labour market will get the help they need to find and keep jobs. Our aim is that government programmes should support more disabled people than ever before into employment. 
The Department will introduce the Work Programme – an integrated package of support providing personalised help to a broad range of customers. The Work Programme will cater for a wide range of disabled people. The Government recognises that many customers have complex disability-related barriers and may require more specialist support. In October 2010, the Government launched Work Choice – a new programme of support designed to help customers with more complex disability-related barriers find and sustain work. The Work Programme and Work Choice are an important stride forward in providing simple, effective customer service that draws on the best evidence about what works. 
A range of other, specialist programmes currently sit alongside the Work Programme and Work Choice – Remploy, Residential Training Colleges and Access to Work. In the current fiscal climate it is more important than ever that the funding available for employment support is used effectively. Decisions on the use of the available funding should draw on robust evidence about what works in the modern labour market and on how the support meets the needs of individual disabled people. In this context, the review will examine the Department’s current employment support for people with severe disability-related barriers to work, and make recommendations about how this can be further improved to provide better value for money over the life of this Parliament. 
In particular:
•	The review should provide the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with an independent report evaluating the current specialist disability employment programmes and suggesting what direction the strategy in this area should take.
•	Recommendations should build on the foundation provided by the Work Programme and Work Choice. While a fundamental review of these two programmes is beyond the scope of this review, the Department would welcome suggestions on improvements that could be made to their delivery.
•	The review should focus on the work of the Department for Work and Pensions, but make links with, and seek to facilitate and support from, the work of other government departments as appropriate.
•	Recommendations must be deliverable within the existing funding envelope as set out in the Spending Review settlement.
•	The review should seek to involve and consult a wide range of external stakeholders, including disabled people themselves.

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Department for Work and Pensions
11 July 2011
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