Disability employment gap

The Government is certain to miss its manifesto target to halve the disability employment gap by 2020 without decisive and innovative intervention, according to a new report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Disability. The report, Ahead of the arc , which is released today (7 December 2016) highlights that on current rates of progress it will take until 2065 for the Government's target to be reached. Authored by four professors - Victoria Wass and Melanie Jones of Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University; Nick Bacon of Cass Business School; and Kim Hoque of Warwick Business School - and Philip Connolly of Disability Rights UK, it highlights that the current disability employment gap of 32 per cent will reduce by just 2.6 percentage points by 2020 on current rates of progress, and that it will take until 2065 to reach the target of 16 percentage points. The report argues that the Government's target is highly ambitious and will only be achieved with decisive and innovative action. It outlines several new interventions that will be required if the target is to be met, focusing in particular on three currently under-utilised or neglected policy areas: - Disabled people have difficulty in accessing mainstream business networks and Government agencies administering research and innovation grants (Innovate UK and the Business Bank, for example). The Government is keen to explore self-employment and entrepreneurship as a route to narrowing the employment gap, but this is currently undermined by this lack of access to and support from the necessary networks and funding agencies.