A partnership of the Social Exclusion Task Force, the Department of Health and the Department for Work and Pensions have published a cross-government Learning Disability Employment Strategy, called Valuing Employment Now: Real Jobs For People With Learning Disabilities. The aim of the Strategy is to focuses on adults with moderate and severe learning disabilities. It recommends a range of measures to tackle the issue, including the following:
* promotion of the fact that people with learning disabilities can work and have careers
* increased employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities across the Department for Work and Pensions and in the NHS
* Government departments to receive guidance on targeting people with learning disabilities in recruitment campaigns
* recruitment of job coaches to offer people with learning disabilities support to find and retain employment
Care Services Minister Phil Hope said: ‘Two thirds of people with a learning disability would like to work. Huge progress has been made in getting physically disabled people into employment but more must be done to help people with a learning disability – we’re missing a huge talent pool which employers can tap into.
‘The public sector has an important role to play to deliver the strategy, which is why it commits Government departments and the NHS to increasing the number of jobs they offer to people with learning disabilities.’
