- Conference
- 2010 National Disabled Members' Conference
- Date
- 9 July 2010
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
This Conference is concerned that disabled people may become the first casualties of current job cuts in the public sector. Conference is also concerned that disabled service users will suffer if there are less disabled people employed in the public sector. It is very unusual for any workforce to reflect the percentage of the population who are disabled.
*There are currently 1.3 million disabled people in the UK who are available for and want to work.
·Nearly on in five people of working age (7 million, or 18.6%) in Great Britain is disabled.
·Only half of disabled people of working age are in work (50%), compared with 80% of non disabled people
·Employment rates vary greatly according to the type of impairment a person has; only 20% of people with mental health problems are in employment
·23% of disabled people have no qualifications compared to 9% of non disabled people
·The average gross hourly pay for disabled employees is £11.08 compared to £12.30 for non disabled employees.
Targets for the number of employees with a disability tend to be set at around the 5% mark. Once an organisation hits this target they sit back and congratulate themselves instead of taking positive action to recruit disabled people or encourage existing staff to declare their disability. Conference recognises that the public sector is one of primary employers of disabled people. therefore cuts to public sector funding will have a disproportionate impact on disabled people.
This Conference calls upon National Disabled Members Committee to work with National Executive Committee to:
1.Lobby for disabled people to have a higher profile in public sector employment
2.Encourage Regions and Branches to proactively engage with Employers to set targets for employing disabled people that reflect the make up of the local working age disabled population.
3.Lobby Local and National Government to provide training and development that is tailored to help disabled people access employment