Disabled people have to be at the table with the government to 'keep Britain working'

The release of the government-commissioned ‘Keep Britain Working’ report brought mixed responses from disability groups. Many acknowledge the positive progress as it recognises the barriers faced by disabled people. Others say there’s not enough detail and it’s still too focused on “fixing” disabled people.

My initial response was that there are two big things missing that expose much deeper underlying issues. Firstly, the report separates people who are long-term sick from disabled people.

If you go by equality law, having a long-term condition, impairment or illness (including mental health issues) that impacts your ability to carry out every day activities, then you qualify as disabled even if you choose not to identify as such.

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This is important because this is when employers are obliged by law to make “reasonable adjustments” to help you stay in or be recruited into a job. That this concept appears not to have been fully-grasped is concerning.

The second important issue lacking in the report is its failure to acknowledge that the work environment and culture are often contributory factors to sickness, particularly for people suffering with their mental health. We hear about a lot of burnout and poor people management practices.

There’s a fear among employers about what to do and how to do it, and a fear among employees not wanting to disclose what they’re going through. As a result, people go off sick and lose contact. All of that’s real, but it’s not going to be fixed by creating a more sophisticated absentee management system, which is essentially what the report recommends. It’s an entire culture change that is required, and that takes years to happen yet is barely touched on in the report. 

But what really struck me was the power dynamic that they’ve put in place to tackle this. The report very much talks about this being a shared responsibility between employers, government and disabled people. Yet, when it talks about putting a plan in place to develop systems and processes that will help to manage it all, disabled people aren’t truly at the table.

Responsibility for developing and trialling systems over the next three years will sit with co-chairs that represent businesses, the Department of Work and Pensions, the Department for Business and Trade, and the wider government. Disabled people, the third party with equal responsibility, according to the report, are to be merely consulted with.

My concern goes beyond ensuring disabled people’s rights are advocated for in the solutions. It’s about recognising that disabled people have expertise of equal value that is just as crucial to the process. Why waste more time asking more non-disabled people to conjure up solutions that we’ve already tried and tested?

No matter how many focus groups you hold with disabled people, you won’t get the depth of expertise needed to get into the heart of the analysis or reform workplaces to be more inclusive. We have decades of experience of what works in the workplace across multiple industries and hundreds of types of disability, impairment and illness. Centre them in the solutions.

And then there’s the whole fit-note system. The Doctors’ Association has already raised concerns on other government suggestions, particularly around work advisers going into GP surgeries.

The devil is in the details. This report is a pathway, a direction of change and all the details come in later. But when you’ve got a dynamic where disabled people aren’t at the table to shape that change, only being consulted, it speaks volumes.

It’s already limiting its potential to make real lasting change. The vanguard group must have a representative from the disabled community to bring solutions to the table. We have that knowledge and expertise. We’ve been named in the report as having equal responsibility, so let us have an equal role in providing the solutions.

Claire Fisher is disability rights advocate at Inclusion Barnet, a dynamic peer-led disability organisation based in North London with a national reach through its Campaign for Disability Justice, of which Fisher is head of strategic communications.

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