EFD welcomes new Work and Pensions Committee report

30th October 2007

Employers' Forum on Disability (EFD) welcomes the Work and Pensions Committee's report, ‘Full Employment and world class skills: Responding to the challenges', published 30 October.

EFD agrees with the committee that the Department for Work and Pensions needs to explore ways to assist disabled people to find and sustain work.

In it the committee asks the Department for Work and Pensions to clarify its role in brokering local partnership working.

EFD chief executive Susan Scott-Parker says: "EFD is in support of the Work and Pension Committee's report, particularly the recommendations on local partnership working.

"The system which helps disabled people find work has been designed more to ‘push' disabled people at the world of work, rather than help employers ‘pull' disabled applications towards their jobs.

"The DWP must, as this new report says, clarify its role and set out departmental responsibilities for taking the lead in the various government initiatives which are underway.

"If government equips employers to recruit disabled people, we could streamline the system and deliver a more equitable labour market."

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