CSJ Report: Now Is the Time(Link Is External)
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NOW IS THE TIME A report by the CSJ Disability Commission March 2021 Now is the Time: A report by the CSJ Disability Commission © The Centre for Social Justice, 2021 Published by the Centre for Social Justice, Kings Buildings, 16 Smith Square, Westminster, SW1P 3HQ www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk @CSJthinktank designbysoapbox.com contents Contents About the Centre for Social Justice 3 Acknowledgements 4 The Commission 5 Foreword 9 Executive summary 10 Key recommendations 15 Scope of the report 17 1 State of the nation 18 1 Why we must act now 20 2 The current situation 28 2 Employment 44 Summary of recommendations 46 Introduction 52 Part 1: The Supply Side: supporting disabled people into work 53 1 Supporting more disabled people onto apprenticeships 54 2 Rolling out supported employment services 59 3 Supported internships 65 Part 2: The Demand Side: forging inclusive working environments 71 4 Disseminating best practice to employers 75 5 Improving the legal provisions for flexible working, unions and Statutory Sick Pay 79 6 Improving the Access to Work scheme 85 7 Introducing mandatory workforce reporting 94 8 Introducing pay gap reporting 99 9 Reforming Disability Confident 101 10 Leveraging government procurement expenditure 108 11 Fixing national level disability employment reporting 113 3 Education 118 Summary of recommendations 120 Introduction 123 Part 1: Creating inclusive school environments 124 1 Creating inclusive physical and digital environments in schools 125 2 Increasing the number of disabled teachers in schools and in positions of leadership 130 Now is the Time | Contents 1 Part 2: Improving our educational offer for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) 134 3 Embedding SEND in teacher training 137 4 Offering more experiences of the workplace 146 5 Strengthening transitions to employment within EHC Plans 152 Part 3: Access to, and success in, higher education 156 6 Ensuring the best use of the Disabled Students’ Premium 157 7 Reforming the Disabled Students’ Allowance 160 4 Housing 168 Summary of recommendations 170 Introduction 172 1 A new approach to building accessible homes 173 2 Improving adaptations to existing homes 181 3 A new approach to housing advertisement and allocation in the private and social rented sectors 194 5 Access to goods and services 200 Summary of recommendations 202 Introduction 204 1 New builds and extensions to existing buildings 207 2 Improving the accessibility of public buildings through licensing 213 3 Extending web accessibility 216 6 Transport 220 Summary of recommendations 222 Introduction 224 1 Promotion of passenger rights and enforcement 226 2 Inclusive physical infrastructure 234 3 Better staff training (frontline and managerial) 242 4 Improved Information 249 2 The Centre for Social Justice about About the Centre for Social Justice Established in 2004, the Centre for Social Justice is an independent think-tank that studies the root causes of Britain’s social problems and addresses them by recommending practical, workable policy interventions. The CSJ’s vision is to give people in the UK who are experiencing the worst multiple disadvantages and injustice every possible opportunity to reach their full potential. The majority of the CSJ’s work is organised around five ‘pathways to poverty’, first identified in our ground-breaking 2007 report Breakthrough Britain. These are: educational failure; family breakdown; economic dependency and worklessness; addiction to drugs and alcohol; and severe personal debt. Since its inception, the CSJ has changed the landscape of our political discourse by putting social justice at the heart of British politics. This has led to a transformation in government thinking and policy. For instance, in March 2013, the CSJ report It Happens Here shone a light on the horrific reality of human trafficking and modern slavery in the UK. As a direct result of this report, the Government passed the Modern Slavery Act 2015, one of the first pieces of legislation in the world to address slavery and trafficking in the 21st century. Our research is informed by experts including prominent academics, practitioners and policy-makers. We also draw upon our CSJ Alliance, a unique group of charities, social enterprises and other grass-roots organisations that have a proven track-record of reversing social breakdown across the UK. The social challenges facing Britain remain serious. In 2019 and beyond, we will continue to advance the cause of social justice so that more people can continue to fulfil their potential. Now is the Time | About the Centre for Social Justice 3 Acknowledgements We are grateful to the many organisations and individuals who gave their time to take part in this research, including through case study interviews, focus groups, and roundtable meetings. In particular, thank you to Claire Cookson, Derek Hirst, Professor Nick Bacon, and Norman Stromsoy, in their capacity as advisers to the Commission. A special thank you to all the organisations and people who submitted a response to our call for evidence. The report is immeasurably richer because of your expertise, knowledge, and lived experience. Finally, we would like to extend a thank you to the sponsors of this report, without whom this work would not have been possible: DFN Charitable Foundation, Rachel Charitable Trust, Shaw Trust, Microlink, Ayoa, Claro Software, and Johnny Leavesley. The views and recommendations in this report are those of the CSJ Disability Commission and do not necessarily represent those of the individuals or organisations mentioned above. 4 The Centre for Social Justice commission The Commission Kevin, Lord Shinkwin Commission Chair Kevin Shinkwin has been a member of the House of Lords since November 2015. Prior to that, he had spent almost his entire career in charity public affairs and campaigning, working for charities such as Macmillan Cancer Support, Cancer Research UK and The Royal British Legion. He has also worked in the private sector. Since being appointed as a Life Peer, he has focused on two policy areas in particular – disability equality, especially equality of opportunity, and Holocaust Remembrance, in memory of the orthopaedic surgeon who optimised his life chances and whose extended family lost their lives in the Shoah. David Forbes-Nixon Commission Deputy Chair Chairman and Founder, DFN Charitable Foundation and DFN Project SEARCH David was inspired by his disabled son Charlie to set up the DFN Charitable Foundation in 2014 and DFN Project SEARCH in 2018 to make a positive difference to the lives of young people with special educational needs and disabilities. He founded a Special School at Undershaw, Conan Doyle’s country house and operates DFN Project SEARCH, a leading supported internship programme, which has supported over 1,300 young adults with learning difficulties and autism into full time, paid jobs. David spent 33 years working as a senior financier in the City, 15 years as an investment banker and 18 years as a fund manager. In 2002, David co-founded Alcentra, a fund manager where he served as Chairman and CEO until December 2020 and grew the business to $42bn AUM. David graduated from Birmingham University in 1986 with a BSc (Hons) in Chemical Engineering. Dimple Agarwal Partner, Deloitte LLP Dimple joined Deloitte 16 years ago becoming a partner in 2009. She works with consumer business clients on organisational transformation issues, advising clients on the future of work, responding to the business opportunities and challenges as a result of the changing dynamics of society, organisation and talent. Now is the Time | The Commission 5 During her tenure as Deputy CEO UK and Managing Partner for People & Purpose at Deloitte North & South Europe (NSE), Dimple was responsible for the people agenda and the impact Deloitte has on its clients and society at large. Her work involved driving and supporting the inclusion and equality agenda. As well as serving as a member of the CSJ Disability Commission, she drove the Black Action Plan not only internally but leveraging the Deloitte platform externally (for example with the CBI). Fleur Bothwick OBE Director of Diversity & Inclusive Leadership | EY – EMEIA (Europe, Middle East, India and Africa) Fleur is EY’s Director of Diversity and Inclusion for EMEIA – 98 countries in Europe, Middle East, India and Africa. She develops and drives an integrated diversity strategy across this large multi-disciplined matrix organization. This involves stakeholder engagement, specialist consultancy, change management and brand development in the market. She is a Director of the NAS Academies Trust, having worked with the NAS to secure free school funding to open a secondary school for autistic students in her local borough and in the Queen’s 2013 New Year’s Honours List, she was given an OBE in recognition of her contribution to Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace. She is also the co-author of Inclusive Leadership www.diversityandinclusiveleadership.com Tiernan Brady Global Director of Inclusion | Clifford Chance LLP Tiernan Brady is the Global Director of Inclusion for Clifford Chance. He was the Political Director of the successful Irish referendum campaign for marriage equality which saw Ireland become the first country in the world to introduce marriage equality by a public vote. He subsequently became the Executive Director of The Equality Campaign, the successful Australian public vote campaign for marriage equality. They remain the only two countries in the world to have introduced marriage equality through a public vote. Helen Cooke CEO | MyPlus Helen is the Founder of MyPlus, the MyPlus Recruiters’ Club and the MyPlus Universities’ Club, and is recognised nationally as a leading expert in disability and employment. Helen works with organisations to provide them with the expertise to be disability confident in their strategy, their processes and their engagement. Helen is also behind MyPlus Students’ Club, an innovative website which provides disabled students with the advice, support and confidence to find opportunities and confidently apply to employers.