Increasing employment of disabled people in public sector: our response to consultation

Summary of the Analysis of the Consultation Responses

10. The consultation which ran between end April and 15 August 2018 was open to the public, though the key audiences were public sector bodies, disabled people’s organisations (DPOs), and disabled people. We received 110 responses^[3]. Forty five percent of responses (49) were from the public sector of which just over half (27) were from local government and a further 14 were from other public bodies, including a range of Scottish and some UK level organisations, regeneration agencies, and non-ministerial public bodies.

11. In addition, we held six workshops across Scotland to give individuals and organisations an opportunity to come together and discuss the issues set out in the consultation. These were attended by over 200 mainly third and public sector organisations, as well as a number of individuals.

12. We commissioned Cambridge Policy Consultants (CPC) to undertake an analysis of the responses received and write up a report^[4] for the Scottish Government for publication. Their analysis showed that just over half of respondents were not in favour of targets. This varied across sectors, with third sector organisations generally being more in favour of targets than public sector bodies.

13. Both those in favour, and those not in favour of targets, were in general agreement that preparatory work to enable culture change would be required in the first instance, including: changing attitudes; increasing awareness of disabilities/ long term health conditions; supporting workers to feel comfortable sharing information about disabilities/ long term health conditions; as well as improving the collection, analysis and use of data.

14. Of the respondents who did favour targets, the preferred option was that the Scottish Government should set a target for its own core Civil Service workforce (option D)^[5], while working with other public bodies to encourage them to set their own voluntary targets.

15. A number of themes emerged from the consultation around areas where respondents felt that public sector bodies could make improvements to increase the number of disabled workers and improve their experience of employment. Respondents suggested for example:

• Improving recruitment and application processes to better support disabled people to apply and go through the interview processes. For those with learning disabilities this could, for example, include more widespread use of initiatives such as Project SEARCH;
• Reassuring disabled candidates applying for jobs that a fair and transparent recruitment process will be undertaken (e.g. through a campaign);
• Improving cultures and increasing awareness of disabilities, including delivering training around this, so that all workers have better knowledge of disabilities and long term health conditions and what this may or not may mean;
• Introducing or extending flexible working that suits the person’s needs better, and so that the retention of disabled people in the workforce could be improved;
• Reviewing sickness policies so that long term health conditions or disabilities are taken into account and better managed;
• Improving and providing appropriate advice and guidance on the duty of employers to make reasonable adjustments so that both employers and workers are aware of what is available and what their rights and responsibilities are;
• Working better with local authority employability teams and others to use and improve available assistance and knowledge to support disabled people into sustainable work;
• Ensuring that disabled people have the correct financial support to supplement incomes.

16. The analysis of the findings from the consultation sets out broad areas for potential actions the Scottish Government could take. These focus on:

• Addressing concerns that many disabled people have about declaring disability/ long term health condition by demonstrating the benefits of sharing this information and dispelling fears about how personal information is used at work;
• Supporting public sector employers to improve their knowledge and understanding of their disabled workers and their needs, in order to enable disabled workers to perform at their best at work;
• Supporting public sector employers to develop workplace cultures that are positive, inclusive and supportive of disabled people;
• Building up a more detailed and accurate picture of disabled people within the public sector workforce to enable relevant targets to be set.

17. Specific actions could include:

• Training and development for teams and managers, including identifying and sharing good practice;
• Action to improve data quality and consistency, such as:
  • an agreed understanding of what constitutes disability or long term health conditions, with consistent definitions, terminology and use of language;
  • sharing the benefits for disabled workers in declaring a disability; and,
  • providing assurances about confidentiality in relation to workers’ data.

18. It is clear that many respondents to the consultation proposed that the Scottish Government should set targets for its workers. The Cambridge Policy Consultants’ (CPC) report suggests that the Scottish Government therefore adopt a staged approach with regards to target setting. This could include introducing a range of measures to improve Scottish Government workers’ disclosure and reporting, and creating a more supportive organisation which is more disability-aware. Alongside this, the report recommends that the Scottish Government considers setting targets for its own workers. This could be followed by exploring how to apply this to the wider public sector - using the learning gained from its own implementation and adaption to inform how targets could best be applied.

19. The report with the full analysis of the consultation findings, including its Executive Summary, can be found at: http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781787815988

20. The consultation responses (where respondents have agreed to making these public) can be found at: https://consult.gov.scot/fair-work-employability-and-skills/disability-employment/