Disability Confident Update - Access to Work Plus
Access to Work (ATW) is a demand-led, discretionary grant that supports the recruitment and retention of disabled people in sustainable, paid employment. The grant contributes to the disability related extra costs of working faced by disabled people and those with a health condition in the workplace that are beyond standard reasonable adjustments, but it does not replace an employer’s duty under the Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments.
The grant provides personalised support and workplace assessments, travel to/in work, support workers, specialist aids and equipment including vehicle adaptations to enable disabled people and those with a health condition to move into or retain employment. AtW can fund up to £65,180 worth of flexible, personalised support per person per year.
Details on eligibility and how to apply can be found at https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work
Access to Work is keen to go further and offer to support disabled people who have high in-work support needs and need more support than the current Access to Work scheme can offer. To see if we can make a difference and unlock employment opportunities for this group, Access to Work is testing a new employer offer, for employers who are willing to think differently about their vacancies and consider if they can adapt, shape or flexed job roles to enable a disabled person to retain, return or move into employment. The new Access to Work, Access to Work Plus will test whether providing:
- Disabled employees with the opportunity to access enhanced personal funding and complementing this with,
- funding for employers who are willing to make workplace adjustments that are in-excess of standard adjustments and or, shape or flex job roles to accommodate disability requirements can unlock employment opportunities for disabled people who need additional support to work.
The Access to Work Plus employer element has two funding streams:
- A workplace adjustment strand which provides a one-off payment for adaptions the employer has made to the working environment up to £1,000 to enable the disabled employee to work, and/or
- A job role strand if the employer shapes or flexes the job role to enable the disabled employee to work. The total yearly amount of funding available is £3,000. The £3,000 is banded to reflect the number of hours the employee works.
You can download a factsheet with full details to explain more, below.
