The Department proudly supports the Disability Confident Scheme, and has renewed its status as a Disability Confident employer. No single official works directly on the scheme, and in line with Civil Service guidance, we have moved away from standalone roles and teams to embed equality, diversity, and inclusion activities within existing human resource portfolios and roles. Activity to support the recruitment and retention of colleagues with a disability is undertaken across our recruitment, talent, and employee experience teams.

In the last calendar year, 11.3% of successful applicants applied under the Disability Confident Scheme. This is a slight increase from last year, at 10.9%. We additionally review our disability representation rates on a regular basis to monitor the impact of our recruitment practices and policy changes. We also have dedicated staff networks to support our disabled employees and celebrate achievements. Turnover of permanent employees who have declared they have a disability is currently approximately 6%, which is significantly lower than the average permanent staff turnover of colleagues who do not have a declared disability.

In 2023, we launched a new Workplace Adjustments policy, process, and passport. The new process is designed to ensure everyone in the Department can access the support they need as easily and quickly as possible via a person-centred approach that identifies and seeks to remove workplace barriers.

We also delivered several talent schemes that can assist in supporting the retention and development of disabled colleagues. This includes Beyond Boundaries, a 12-month programme for the Senior Executive Officer grade and below, to support candidates in reaching their full potential. As part of the programme, to support disability positive action, last year we ringfenced six job places out of 30, based on the proportionality of our disabled workforce, the People Survey, and recruitment data. We expect to take similar action this year.

In addition, the Future Leaders Scheme (FLS) is a 12-month accelerated development scheme for Grade 6 or 7 colleagues, who have the potential to progress to the Civil Service’s most senior and critical leadership roles. There is an option for those candidates who declare a disability or long-term health condition, or both, to enrol on the Disability Empowers Leadership Talent Association (DELTA) integrated scheme. In 2022, we had four candidates participate in DELTA out of the 21 successful FLS candidates, and two out of 26 in 2021, as per the data from the Cabinet Office. It should be noted that due to the sensitive nature of the programmes, not all participants are comfortable in being open about participation in DELTA, especially those with disabilities who have yet to disclose this to their colleagues or managers.

Finally, the Department’s mutual mentoring programme encourages underrepresented groups, including colleagues with disabilities, to mentor senior civil service colleagues to help increase the engagement and retention of underrepresented staff, and increase cultural intelligence in senior leaders.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

The FCDO is an accredited 'Disability Confident Leader' under the government's Disability Confident Scheme (https://disabilityconfident.campaign.gov.uk/) which denotes organisations which have a positive commitment towards disabled people. Since April 2022, FCDO has a designated team which provides Reasonable Adjustments to its disabled UK-based staff in line with the Equality Act 2010. It also provides its disabled staff with a Workplace Adjustment Passport to facilitate the seamless retention of adjustments on a change of line manager, job role or move between business areas. FCDO's Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) provides guidance to hiring managers at each stage of recruitment to ensure applicants with disabilities are not disadvantaged. Candidates who opt in to the Guaranteed Interview Scheme who meet the minimum criteria for the role and who have demonstrated an acceptable mark in their application, will be offered an interview for the role. Any reasonable adjustments required at interview will be considered and implemented. Additional support for hiring managers is available by request. We remain fully committed to supporting disabled people globally through creating more opportunities, protecting their rights and ensuring they fully benefit from, and can contribute to, every aspect of our society.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) receives its human resources shared service from the Government Legal Department (GLD). The GLD are signed up as Disability Confident and have progressed through the levels, achieving Disability Confident Leader (Level 3) status.

Please note that, excluding the GLD, I am responding on behalf of the AGO only, and not the departments superintended by myself and the Attorney General (the Crown Prosecution Service, HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, and Serious Fraud Office).

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is a committed Disability Confident employer and takes several steps to support this initiative. Not one single individual works solely on this area of work, with the remit spread across individuals within HR (including Recruitment, Health, Safety and Wellbeing, Talent, and Culture and Inclusion), as well as line managers and staff networks.

All recruiting managers are provided with information on applying the Disability Confident scheme during recruitment, and our dedicated recruitment team ensures compliance with Civil Service Recruitment Principles and centrally approved schemes like Disability Confident. We regularly monitor data to ensure the scheme's effective application and measure its impact. Prospective candidates are informed about reasonable adjustments available during the recruitment process, in line with our legal obligations, to ensure fairness and inclusivity.

DSIT achieved Disability Confident Leader (DCL) (Level 3) status in February 2024, validated by an independent organisation, and our efforts include making workplace adjustments, providing disability awareness training, and encouraging open discussions about disabilities. The effectiveness of our efforts is assessed through continuous monitoring and feedback, inclusive recruitment practices, and engagement with the Voluntary Reporting Framework. We will look to review the effectiveness of our efforts periodically following the achievement of DCL status.

Future steps involve enhancing policies and practices based on best practices and stakeholder feedback and strengthening our engagement with the Voluntary Reporting Framework to better monitor and report on disability inclusion, mental health, and wellbeing.

The department has been a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) member since 2017 and has ‘DCS Leader’ status. In line with the requirements of DCS, the department has supported staff with career progression through, for example, ‘Beyond Boundaries’, which is a cross-government, development programme and has ensured that its approach to recruitment is inclusive.

The department does not have officials directly supporting the DCS. The principle of the scheme is to be embedded within the department’s internal Human Resource polices and processes.

The department’s Diversity & Inclusion Strategy 2022/2026 is driven by evidence of where to support staff, including those with disabilities. The department evaluates the impact of this strategy annually to identify areas for improvement and celebrate success.

The enablement of the Disability Confident scheme is embedded throughout the employee lifecycle, and the teams that support the employee lifecycle.  This is in line with the Ministry of Justice’s new HR operating model whereby strategic Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) activity is mainstreamed into the department’s HQ People Function.  This approach assures that any related Ministry of Justice workforce activity is aligned to Civil Service reform priorities and the strategic objectives of the Civil Service People Plan and Civil Service D&I Strategy, including recent, updated Ministerial guidance on EDI activity in the Civil Service.

The Ministry of Justice’s approach to the delivery of the Civil Service People Plan and Civil Service D&I Strategy includes the ongoing assessment of work to support recruitment and retention of disabled staff. The Ministry of Justice has been taken part in the Disability Confident scheme since 2017.

Further steps to recruit and retain disabled staff that are aligned to the Disability Confident scheme include:

• Information in job adverts about the Disability Confident scheme, how to request a reasonable adjustment to the application process and the Disability Confident interview scheme, which provides candidates with an option to “opt-in” to be considered for an interview as a disabled candidate if they meet the minimum criteria for the role.

• The Ministry of Justice provides individual focused support to ensure our disabled staff have workplace adjustments they require, including an in-house workplace adjustment service. The department seeks to continually review the effectiveness of this offer.

• The Ministry of Justice values the talent of all staff, including those with a disability. The department participates in the Civil Service ‘Future Leaders Scheme’ Disability Empowers Leadership Talent (DELTA) scheme and is piloting a new in-house talent offer for disabled staff in 2024.

DLUHC is a Disability Leader at Level 3 and we have ongoing work to detail and monitor our progress regarding Disability Confidence, this includes improving accessibility of recruitment, providing learning & development opportunities for disabled staff and building a more inclusive workplace culture for disabled staff.

We look at a range of data sets to assess the effectiveness of this work including recruitment and turnover data and People Survey responses. The staff who work on this initiative do so as part of their wider responsibilities.

DfTc was reaccredited as a Disability Confident Level 3 status “leader” in April 2024. There are no officials working directly to support this scheme. The activities that support the scheme are embedded within our HR policies and practices and the broader accountabilities of HR professionals’ roles. The Disability Confident reaccreditation process includes an assessment of the effectiveness of DfTc’s work in supporting the recruitment and retention of disabled people. This assessment will be used to develop further steps to support the department's recruitment and retention of disabled people.

Defra has achieved Level 3 (Leader) of the Disability Confident scheme, this achievement is renewed every 3 years and we are currently working towards the renewal for 2024.

Although not working directly on the scheme, our Director General for Strategy leads as a senior Disability Champion, along with 2 Deputy Directors as Deputy Disability Champions, and they support and champion the requirements of the Disability Confident scheme within Defra.

These appointments are as recommended by the Disability Confident scheme provisions and additionally there is a Defra group Disability Board, chaired by the Executive Champion. This Board’s role is to ensure that actions and plans are in place and regularly reviewed to meet the provisions of the Disability Confident scheme and wider action to support employees with disabilities, impairments and long term medical conditions across the department.

Over the last 3 years disability representation across Defra group has increased from 14.3% to a representation rate of 17.2%. Within core Defra the current representation rate is 16.8% which is in line with the current disability target representation of the UK working age population.

Cabinet Office successfully accomplished Disability Confident (DC) level 3 leader status in February 2024. We have been Disability Confident in Level 3 for the last 4 years. We continue to work closely with the Business Disability forum that validated our DC and are working through our recommendations in all areas.

Cabinet Office takes a departmental approach to Disability Confidence to embed core areas across the department. Some examples of officials supporting this are the Workplace Adjustments Team and the Recruitment Team. All colleagues involved in the end to end process of recruitment campaigns undertake activities that support the scheme such as Vacancy Managers, HR Business Partners and Civil Service Resourcing colleagues.

The effectiveness of that work in supporting the scheme in both recruitment and retention was postively reflected in the feedback as part of the assessment in the Disability Confident Scheme. The re-accreditation of Disability Confidence Level 3 Leader status demonstrates the effectiveness of all the work we do in the department.

All areas received positive feedback and also some recommendations to support the development of those areas. We will be working through the recommendations from the validator to continue to be a leader in Disability Confident.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) is a Disability Confident Leader. While there are no dedicated roles working on Disability Confident, several teams lead work to support the scheme. This includes the recruitment team that ensures activity is compliant with the scheme, and all recruiting managers are provided with information on how to apply the scheme. The department monitors data regularly to ensure that the scheme is effectively applied. DESNZ provides prospective candidates with information on reasonable adjustments that can be made in line with our legal obligations. The department’s Disability Confident self-assessment has been validated and is regularly reviewed.

DCMS has been a member of the Disability Confident scheme since 2017 and had its accreditation as a Disability Confident Leader renewed in April 2024. Activity to support our membership of the scheme, and disabled colleagues more generally, is mainstreamed into the work of the People and Workplace team including health & safety, recruitment, HR policy, inclusion and career progression.

During the time that DCMS has been part of the scheme the proportion of disabled colleagues has increased from 8% in 2021 to 12.2% in 2023 (2024 data not yet published). DCMS won a Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative award for Creating Disability Confident Recruiters in 2023 and analysis of our recruitment data for 2023/24 shows that a higher proportion of disabled candidates were successful at the sift stage compared to the proportion that applied. Analysis of our retention data shows no difference between retention rates for staff with a declared disability and those without. To maximise retention we provide workplace adjustments, access to supportive staff networks, an employee assistance programme and targeted development for people with declared disabilities to ensure they can thrive in their career at DCMS.

Further steps we are taking include:

• Operating fortnightly application and interview advice workshops to support candidates.

• Increased promotion of reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process and education of recruitment panels on how to support reasonable adjustments.

• Developing an inclusive recruitment workshop for recruitment panels.

• Launching a sponsorship programme for people with disabilities.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) holds Disability Confident Leader Level 3 accreditation (the highest possible level). One official works directly on supporting the Disability Confident Scheme as part of their role. DBT monitors the impact of the scheme using recruitment and retention data, among other data sources.

DBT has a staff Disability Network and has committed to delivering optional Disability Confident learning for staff each quarter. DBT is doing work to eliminate biased language in our job adverts and reviewing its employer brand to ensure we continue to attract a high performing and diverse workforce through open and fair competition.

DWP as part of its Policy portfolio is responsible for the administration of the Disability Confident Scheme – but this answer relates to how DWP as an employer uses and supports Disability Confident. DWP is committed to Disability Confident and back in November 2023 was re-accredited for the next three years as a Disability Confident Leader – the top-level award. In June 2023, 22% of DWP staff indicated that they had a disability (an increase of 3.7% compared to June 2021) and 13.6% of Senior Civil Servants in the department declared a disability (an increase of 1.6% compared to June 2021) – hence support in this space is a departmental priority.

There are no officials working specifically on Disability Confident outside of policy group in DWP – but we do have a Disability Lead working in our Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing team who supported the co-ordination of the evidence.

As part of this submission DWP provided a large amount of evidence on the good practice that is happening with a focus on disability. This included but was not limited to:

• A review of the Workplace Adjustments processes, with a focus on ensuring adjustments are quicker and easier to put in place.
• Supporting our THRIVE network – an EDI Network focussed on supporting colleagues with a Disability or long-term limiting condition.
• Ensuring products and services offered to colleagues are accessible – both physical spaces managed by estates and virtual digital spaces.
• Establishing a centre of expertise for resourcing, which includes a team focused on diversity and inclusion in recruitment – the team leads on ensuring our recruitment processes are inclusive, fair and open for all.
• All recruitment follows the fair, open and on merit principles and is name-blind to provide anonymity and prevent bias in the process. Specific guidance is also provided to hiring managers including DWP Recruitment of Disabled People Guide and Supporting Disabled Employees: Line Manager’s Best Practice Guide.
• The department has been awarded Disability Confident Leader and RNIB Visibly Better Employer status which is promoted on Civil Service Jobs adverts, diverse jobs boards, social media, and Civil Service Careers websites.
• Taking all reasonable steps to overcome any barriers that may impede people with any kind of disability including mental ill-health. Our recruitment process allows for reasonable adjustments to be instigated on an individual basis and considered at each stage of the recruitment process.
• Trialling new approaches across the recruitment and selection process to understand their impacts on diversity outcomes. This results in new approaches being adopted where data shows they work such as the implementation of sharing interview questions in advance of interview into recruitment policy in June 2023.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) successfully renewed its Disability Confident Level 3 Leadership Certification in January 2024. This demonstrates our commitment to making the MOD a place that welcomes and encourages people with disabilities.

The MOD has a Disability Champion who is responsible for promoting inclusive behaviour; the postholder facilitates constructive challenge, fosters good relations in the workplace and contributes to the development of an inclusive culture. The Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) is owned by a HR Diversity and Inclusion policy lead who is responsible for engaging with stakeholders across the Department to ensure disability sits at the heart of our policies and processes and can be measured against the DCS criteria.

MOD supports the use of the DCS within its recruitment of civilian personnel and all MOD appointments advertised through Civil Service Jobs ask applicants if they wish to apply using DCS when they start their application. It is MOD policy that candidates using the scheme will be invited to interview provided they meet the minimum essential criteria for the advertised position. Recruiting panels also consider and implement any reasonable adjustments needed for interviews to ensure the selection process is fair for all candidates.

MOD also provides adjustments to support employees with disabilities throughout their employment as part of our responsibilities as an inclusive employer. These provisions take various forms, such as smart and flexible working, the provision of equipment and furniture for both office and home working, and IT software.

The MOD continues to monitor the effects of all actions aimed at making Defence a more attractive, diverse and inclusive employer. This work is having a positive effect on our overall representation of people who have declared a disability which has risen to 14% as at October 2023, an increase of 1.2 percentage points from April 2023.

The MOD has a range of inclusive training and career development opportunities, which are offered on a fair and open basis. The Future Leaders Scheme for eligible Grade 6&7 personnel, and the Senior Leaders Scheme for eligible Senior Civil Servants both offer successful candidates an accelerated development offer for those with a declared disability. The MOD’s Autism Exchange Intern Programme, developed in 2015, is a multi-award-winning programme which supports young people who are on the autistic spectrum to degree/postgraduate level qualifications. Reverse mentoring and challenge boards have also been implemented across the Department using staff from a range of under-represented groups, including those with disabilities. The MOD Talent Management Toolkit also offers advice and guidance to managers to ensure that all employees are treated fairly with regards to career advancement.

Finally, MOD has a DCS action plan and works with relevant stakeholders to implement actions; the group meets regularly to review progress against agreed actions.