Skills and Employment Board supported by Employers' Forum on Disability

21st December 2006

Employers' Forum on Disability (EFD) welcomes the appointment of representatives from eight of its members to London's new Skills and Employment Board.

The appointments include five of Employers' Forum on Disability's core funders; Merrill Lynch, Lloyds TSB, Jobcentre Plus, Learning and Skills Council and the London Development Agency.

EFD supports Chairman Ken Livingstone's pledge that the board needs to "work with London's employers to ensure Londoners receive the training they need to get jobs."

However, EFD also believes that the long-standing issue of unemployment and the skills shortage in London cannot be properly addressed unless disability and how it affects business is taken into account.

EFD believes that the newly appointed Board needs to engage employers at the earliest possible opportunity on the business case for employing disabled people. 

Susan Scott-Parker, chief executive of EFD says: "It's essential that the Skills and Employment Board consider the contribution that people with disabilities have to make.

"There are at least 1.5 million part time disabled workers not reaching their potential nationwide.

"It's also known that nearly half of unemployed disabled people believe they could work with adjustments.

"The Skills and Employment Board need to get the message across to employers that with a few simple adjustments there is an untapped workforce of talented disabled people who want to work."

Ends

Notes to editors

Media enquiries, please contact:

Brenda Otema, Communications & Marketing Officer
Employers' Forum on Disability
Email: brenda.otema@efd.org.uk
Telephone: 020 7403 3020

About Employers' Forum on Disability

Employers' Forum on Disability is the employers' organisation focused on disability as it affects employers and service providers. With over 300 members, EFD represents organisations that employ around 20 per cent of the UK workforce.Since its establishment in 1991, EFD has worked closely with government and other stakeholders, sharing best practice to make it easier to employ disabled people and serve disabled customers.

www.efd.org.uk