Chamber and committees

If it exists, I will send it to the committee.

Yes—although the Scottish Government civil service has its plan, which I referred to, and I gave you the Scottish Government statistics. I am not the permanent secretary and I am not in the civil service, but I am delighted with the progress that the permanent secretary is making.

Yes. You have highlighted the forthcoming bill; my officials will be engaging on that in relation to the employment sphere. Although it will not be a bill that is just about employment, we will certainly engage on it. Engagement has begun already, but things are at quite an early stage. Susan Ferguson will come in to elaborate on her involvement.

Absolutely. I, too, was struck by the comment that that has been identified as an issue. The benefit of having a committee inquiry is that it can take evidence and flag up issues to Parliament and ministers. I will definitely take away that message from today and investigate the matter. I also await the committee’s recommendations.

Like the committee, I have visited fair start Scotland projects and offices around the country. I was at the opening of the new office in Ayr a month or so ago, and I met disabled people whose lives have been turned around by getting work through fair start Scotland. I am sure that you have heard similar stories. It is humbling and heart-warming to hear how people’s lives have been transformed by getting into work. A lot of good stuff is happening but, as I said, if there are gaps, we want to know about them.

Good morning, committee. Thank you for inviting me along today and for the opportunity to discuss the disability employment gap, the progress that is being made and the challenges that remain, which I am pleased to see the committee is investigating.

The latest statistics show that we are making progress. The disability employment gap has reduced by 6.2 percentage points to 31.2 per cent, compared with 37.4 per cent back in 2016. That reduction has been due to a larger rise in the employment rate of disabled people relative to the increase in the employment rate of non-disabled people. It means that we are currently on track to achieve our ambition to halve the gap to 18.7 per cent by 2038. However, I think that we are all aware that significant challenges remain, including creating a culture of change in workplaces where disabled people can, we hope, be welcomed for the benefits that they bring.

As you will no doubt know, the employment gap between disabled people and their non-disabled peers is not a new thing, and it certainly exists throughout the United Kingdom and Europe to a greater or lesser extent. It is clear that no Government has found a very simple answer to the issue, but we know that taking an approach that meets the needs of each disabled person is key. That is why our devolved employability programmes use a person-centred approach to reduce or attempt to eliminate the barriers for disabled people. However, we need to do more to support people with learning disabilities, for example. Similarly, young disabled people need support to raise and meet their own aspirations through education and beyond.

Information is still emerging on the long-term impacts of the pandemic on the disability employment gap. It has added to the structural issues, but we are doing our best to mitigate that. For example, in relation to mental health, we have established a platform with information and guidance for employers, which I think we discussed the last time that I was before the committee.

Our commitment to at least halve the disability employment gap is an integral element of the Scottish Government’s fair work agenda. We published a refreshed fair work action plan late last year, setting out how we will continue our progress towards making Scotland a leading fair work nation and, as part of that, halving the disability employment gap. We will continue to work with people with lived experience to refine and develop our employability programmes, and we will work with employers to support them to make the cultural change that we want to see in all of Scotland’s workplaces.

I am saying that it is difficult to pick one particular factor that has led to the progress that we are making, because various things are happening. It is a complex area, as we have discussed before. There are many people with different types of disabilities, and there is a lot of crossover between long-term sickness and disabilities. The statistics are going in the right direction, with more people who have disabilities getting into work and the gap closing. We are making progress. However, we are doing lots of different things to address the issue, so it is difficult to say which factor is having the biggest impact.

There is work under way. It would probably take me a while to dig out the information now, but I am happy to follow up with the committee on the exact timetables. We are reviewing some of our plans—2024 comes to mind as a target date. However, we rely on people self-reporting disabilities—

In addition, I note that the Scottish Government does not collect all the data; a lot of the labour-market data is collected at United Kingdom level. We have given a commitment to look at what we can do in Scotland to improve the data. I know that Lewis Hedge will want to say something, because he is much closer than I am to that particular aspect.

We carried out a review of supported employment, which reported last year. We are working through the recommendations. I would want to double-check which recommendations might link to your question, because a lot of issues along those lines, which we have given a commitment to take forward, were identified.

On the “no one left behind” approach, I take your point about needing a single standard across the country and there being a postcode lottery. Obviously, if the committee has more to say about that in its inquiry, I will certainly want to hear it.

The “no one left behind” approach is about person-centred support so that, locally, people can have help that is bespoke for their needs. The case worker who helps them will deal with transport and other issues. We are trying to take a person-centred approach so that, if a person has transport challenges in a rural area or elsewhere, they will get advice and help with that as part of their support package.

We are trying to address the issue through taking a person-centred approach to help people. That could be about help with childcare or transport. The approach has been developed over the past couple of years, and we are hoping to build on it.