seven - Job retention: a new policy priority for disabled people

Summary

Introduction

The New Labour government elected in 1997 stressed its commitment to promote social inclusion, and prioritised a broad programme of ‘welfare-to-work’ initiatives to move people out of unemployment and dependence on social security benefits and into paid work (DSS, 1998). While the primary focus has been on ‘pathways to work’ issues (DWP, 2002), this chapter concentrates on the extension of this policy agenda to ‘job retention’ and sustained employment.

The discussion begins by outlining the interest in job retention and then consider the different programmes directed at disabled people. In practice, the design of employment support policies and the development of ‘good practice’ in the workplace have followed the implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995. An immediate issue is their impact on workplace attitudes and practices. The chapter concludes by illustrating the potential for involving organisations of disabled people, and a comprehensive, ‘disabling social barriers’ perspective in the development of employment support policies.

Job retention issues

Throughout the last quarter of the 20th century, campaigns by organisations of disabled people against social and environmental barriers included calls for a redirection of employment policy to address exclusionary workplace structures, attitudes and practices (Barnes and Mercer, 2003). These anti-discrimination struggles had a growing impact on how policy makers viewed disabled people's participation in the labour market. Employers, too, began to consider their responsibilities to disadvantaged groups, while also examining the ‘business case’ for taking positive action on disability (Zadek and Scott-Parker, 2001).

Over this period, the unemployment rate of disabled people remained at twice that of non-disabled people, with only 49.1% economically active in spring 2003 compared with 72.5% of the non-disabled population (ONS, 2003). While the first policy task was to support unemployed people into work, interest then focused on ‘job stability’ or the length of time an individual remained with an employer. This was further distinguished in some accounts from ‘job retention’, although its meaning has varied. One approach expanded the definition:

staying with the same employer, with the same or different duties or conditions of employment. (Thornton, 1998, section 1.3)

Another perspective linked job retention to individual level changes:

employees who remain in their job when their own circumstances change, such as the onset of sickness or disability or having a child. (Kellard et al, 2001, p 9)