On the International Day of Disabled People (yesterday), North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood, who is Chair of the Assembly Cross Party Group on Disability, called for more to be done to remove barriers for disabled people and for a “greater push” by those in power to ensure the public sector are aware and adhere to the Public Sector Equality Duty.
Mr Isherwood made the plea when responding to the Statement by the Minister for Economy and Transport: ‘Disabled People's Employment’ in the Welsh Parliament.
Speaking in the Chamber, Mr Isherwood, who in March 2013 chaired an event 'Towards an Enabling Wales: improving employment prospects for disabled people', in September 2013 chaired a parallel meeting in North Wales with the theme of disability and employment and in March 2017 sponsored and spoke at the ‘Engage to Change Project’ event in the Assembly, said:
“Many of the barriers that disabled people face are illegal. We have in Wales, as in the UK, under the Equality Act 2010, a Public Sector Equality Duty, and regrettably, I still find, when representing disabled constituents with public bodies, they rarely, if ever, volunteer the existence of the duty until I make them aware of it. And that has also applied to employment or disabled people and disabled people seeking to negotiate perhaps the planning process for self-employment purposes.
“So, how can we give that a greater push, not to make Local Authorities and others feel this is an imposition, but an opportunity to make things work better for everybody, improve lives and ultimately reduce pressure on statutory services?”
Mr Isherwood agreed with the Minister’s comments that more needs to be done to reach the UK average employment rate for disabled people, where the figure is 48.6 per cent in Wales, but stressed that in terms of Autism, National Autistic Society research in 2016 found that only 16 per cent of working-age Autistic people were in full-time employment.
He said: “That had flatlined for a decade, and the figure was believed to be even lower in Wales. So, how do you propose to focus not only on the general disability rights agenda, in terms of employment, but on the disparity that exists across different conditions, and also the disability pay gap, which in Wales remains, I believe, at 9.9 per cent between disabled and non-disabled people?”
Mr Isherwood went on to question the Minister over his hopes to provide Disabled People's Employer Champions and called for them to have “lived and/or direct experience rather than be well-meaning people, but people who do not have that key added asset”.
He also referred to his visit to Remploy in Wrexham last year to discuss their launch of the UK Government employment support programme, the ‘Work and Health Programme’, in Wales, and his call at the time for the Welsh Government to provide assurance that its new employability programme adds to rather than replicates UK Government programmes in Wales including this and the ‘Disability Confident’ scheme supporting employers to make the most of the talents disabled people can bring to their workplace.
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