A contribution to halving the disability employment gap
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Disability report entitled ‘Ahead of
the arc’ authored by Professors Victoria Wass and Melanie Jones, Cardiff Business
School; Professor Nick Bacon, Cass Business School; Professor Kim Hoque, Warwick
Business School and Philip Connolly, Disability Rights UK, highlights the current
disability employment gap of 32 per cent will reduce by just 2.6 percentage points by
2020 on current rates of progress, and that it will take until 2065 to reach the target
of 16 percentage points. The Government’s target is highly ambitious and will only be
achieved with decisive and innovative action. It outlines several new interventions
that will be required if the target is to be met.
the arc’ authored by Professors Victoria Wass and Melanie Jones, Cardiff Business
School; Professor Nick Bacon, Cass Business School; Professor Kim Hoque, Warwick
Business School and Philip Connolly, Disability Rights UK, highlights the current
disability employment gap of 32 per cent will reduce by just 2.6 percentage points by
2020 on current rates of progress, and that it will take until 2065 to reach the target
of 16 percentage points. The Government’s target is highly ambitious and will only be
achieved with decisive and innovative action. It outlines several new interventions
that will be required if the target is to be met.
- Active promotion into self-employment and entrepreneurship through inclusive business networks, access to development grants and start up loans.
- Extending the Race Disparity Audit and Gender Pay Gap Reporting to include monitoring of disability employment towards progressive targets including targets on the adoption of disability equality practices.
- Use public sector procurement (worth £242 billion in 2015) leverage potential by stipulating that public sector contracts will only be granted to firms that monitor disabled people’s employment and commit to improvements by adopting an inclusive approach to the recruitment and retention of disabled people.
