Welfare to Work

[Excerpt] This paper explores welfare to work policy in the UK and sets out ways in which the delivery of that policy could become more efficient and effective by making small but significant changes to the approach. Employers and intermediaries must reposition disability from an issue to do with incapacity, doctors, damage and cost – to one concerned with capability, the workplace and investment in human potential. Employers, disabled people and intermediaries must all engage – and have high expectations of each other. We set out the case for an employer engagement strategy that supports welfare to work and maximises impact on employer behaviour by: • Repositioning the employer from ‘problem’ and ‘target’ (i.e. people whose attitudes must be changed) to valued ‘end user’, customer and potential partner. • Streamlining the ‘disability to work supply chain’ so that it more efficiently delivers suitable disabled candidates to employers equipped and supported to hire them on the basis of their capability, to retain them and to develop their potential. We believe it is necessary to reframe the welfare to work challenge as a supply chain challenge and outline 6 fundamental principles that should underpin any welfare to work policy