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Disability and Employment in Scotland: A Review of the Evidence Base

CHAPTER FOUR: DISABLED PEOPLE AND EMPLOYMENT POLICY AND LEGISLATION: THE SCOTTISH CONTEXT

INTRODUCTION

4.1 This chapter begins by discussing the nature of the equality and social justice agendas in Scotland following devolution and the connections between them. It then maps out the nature and structure of the employment and community regeneration agencies in Scotland and considers their links, first, with social justice and equality and secondly, with the UK employment and equality agenda. The particular programmes offered by a range of agencies to assist disabled people to access employment are mentioned here, but discussed in more depth in Chapter 5.

4.2 As discussed in Chapter 2, UK equality legislation is made by the Westminster government. European legislation is now also placing new obligations on the UK government to widen the scope of equality policies (Directive 2000/43/EC and Directive 2000/78/EC). In relation to anti-discrimination legislation relating to disability and employment, the UK is ahead of many other European countries, since equality legislation is already in place.

4.3 In response to the new European directives, in November 2003 the UK government announced its intention to replace the existing equality commissions (the Disability Rights Commission, the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Commission for Racial Equality) with a single equality commission, which might also deal with human rights issues. There is a commitment to establish a Scottish Human Rights Commission as a separate body. The new Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) will have an office in Scotland, which will be closely involved in policy development at both Scottish and UK levels.

THE SCOTTISH EQUALITIES AGENDA

4.4 The Scottish Executive published its Equality Strategy Working Together for Equality in 2000. This Strategy set out the Executive's plans for changing the way it works to ensure better service provision and greater equality of opportunity. It provides a framework for work on all equality areas including disability. Key to achieving this vision was a commitment to mainstreaming equality in policy and programme development, legislation, spending plans, service design and delivery. The Scottish Executive defines mainstreaming equality as:

The systematic integration of an equality perspective into the everyday work of government, involving policy makers across all government departments, as well as equality specialists and external partners. (Scottish Executive, 2000c).

4.5 The Scottish Executive designated equality a key cross-cutting issue and established an Equalities Unit, located in the Development Department, to take forward equality work and promote mainstreaming across the Executive. To date, the Executive has made progress in mainstreaming through a range of activities. These include improving data and information and increasing consultation and dialogue with equality groups including disabled people.

4.6 The Scottish Executive has focused much of its more recent work on changing attitudes to disability. For example, in the document Closing the Opportunity Gap Scottish Budget for 2003 - 2006, a commitment was made to raising public awareness of disabilities during the European Year of Disabled People.

4.7 The Scottish Executive also jointly commissioned work on attitudes to discrimination in Scotland with the DRC (Scottish Executive, 2003c), which indicated that disabled people were less likely to be regarded as the victims of discrimination than other equality groups and that people were less likely to say that they themselves held discriminatory attitudes against disabled people compared with other groups. Overall, people were more likely to say that measures to tackle discrimination against disabled people had not gone far enough rather than had gone too far. It is unclear, however, who the people who took part in the survey perceived as 'disabled' and their perceptions of 'disability' may not equate with those of the DDA. It is possible, for example, that some people do not include people with mental health problems as disabled.

THE SCOTTISH SOCIAL JUSTICE AGENDA

4.8 The social justice agenda in Scotland has a clear focus on tackling social exclusion and poverty. As we shall see in the following discussion, equality issues have been somewhat marginalized in the economic analysis which underpins work in this area.

4.9 In 1999, the document Social Inclusion - Opening the Doors to a Better Scotland (Scottish Executive, 1999a) set out the UK Government's strategy for tackling social exclusion in Scotland. The strategy created a Scotland in which:

• every child, whatever his or her social or economic background, has the best possible start in life

• there are opportunities to work for all those who are able to do so

• those who are unable to work or are beyond the normal working age have a decent quality of life

• everyone is enabled and encouraged to participate to the maximum of their potential.

4.10 Following devolution, the social inclusion strategy evolved into a social justice strategy, set out in the document Social Justice - A Scotland Where Everyone Matters (Scottish Executive, 2000). Targets and milestones were established in relation to children, young people, families and working age people, older people and communities and the Scottish Executive made a four year commitment to report annually on progress in relation to the social justice milestones. None of the milestones mentioned disabled people explicitly (although one referred to people with learning disabilities), although many implicitly related to the social position and employment experiences of this group.

4.11 In the report Social Justice…A Scotland where everyone matters: Indicators of Progress 2003 (Scottish Executive 2004b), the Scottish Executive reviewed progress in relation to the milestones, which, it claimed, demonstrated that its social justice goals were being achieved. However, the statistics indicate that there has been little progress in terms of including disabled people in employment.

4.12 The report Closing the Opportunity Gap: Scottish Budget for 2003 - 2006 is intended to explain how the budget is addressing the Scottish Executive's social justice goals. There are very few mentions of disability in the report, although ill-health is identified as an obstacle to employment. Disabled students are identified as one of the beneficiary groups of efforts to widen access to higher education and there is a commitment to working with the Disability Rights Commission to raise public awareness of disability issues. However, despite the very low employment rates of disabled people, and the growing number of IB claimants, there is no explicit commitment to channelling resources to address these problems. However, on the positive side it should be noted that the Pathways to Work Pilot in Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and Bute is one of four underway in the UK with an additional three starting in 2004. It is hoped that these pilots will be useful in providing information about the types of health and employment interventions which are likely to be useful in assisting IB claimants to re-engage with the labour market.

4.13 Among groups recognised as experiencing labour market disadvantage, disabled people have the lowest rate of labour market participation (see Table 4.1).

Source: Labour Force Survey: Office for National Statistics

4.14 This table is used to support the Scottish Executive's claim of progress in its objective of increasing the employment rates of groups, such as lone parents and ethnic minorities, which are relatively disadvantaged in the labour market. However, it does not draw attention to the fact that the employment rate of disabled people in Scotland is much worse than in GB as a whole (GB: 49%, Scotland: 39%, see table 2.3 in Chapter 2). The percentage of disabled people in employment slightly decreased between February 2002 and February 2003. At the same time, two thirds of jobless benefits claimants were on incapacity benefit, therefore the employment situation of this group is likely to have a significant impact on the proportion of people living in low income households. The report notes that about 19% of working age adults in Scotland were living in households with income below 60% of the median after housing costs, and about 40% of these adults were living in households with dependent children.

4.15 An important piece of the jigsaw, is that the majority of working age adults in workless households are likely to be incapacity benefit claimants and therefore, by definition, sick or disabled. Addressing the employment status of disabled adults is therefore critical to tackling the problems of low income households and child poverty.

STRUCTURES AND AGENCIES

4.16 Scotland has developed its own structures and agencies to deal with local economic development and community regeneration. There are currently 48 Social Inclusion Partnerships (SIPs) and 54 Local Rural Partnerships (LRPs) operating around Scotland with different origins and foci. They are multi-agency and include local authorities, health boards, further education providers, the private sector, the local community and the voluntary sector. Social Inclusion Partnerships are funded from the Social Inclusion Partnership Fund which replaced the Urban Programme in April 1999. Their remit is to promote social inclusion, challenge social exclusion and develop innovative models of working. Promoting employment opportunities in socially disadvantaged areas is a key part of this work. The regeneration arm of Communities Scotland currently has responsibility for the SIPs, and it is envisaged that over coming years they will be 'mainstreamed' into evolving local Community Planning structures.

4.17 The Scottish Executive's community regeneration statement entitled Better Communities in Scotland: Closing the Gap was published in June 2002 (Scottish Executive, 2002a). The document set out plans for the development of Community Planning Partnerships, encompassing many of the bodies involved in the SIPs. One of the goals was to build communities 'where people have the opportunity to learn, work and play'. Although enhancing employment opportunities lies at the heart of community planning, there is some evidence that efforts at local level are divorced from the wider UK context. For example, an evaluation of Pathfinder Community Planning projects published by COSLA (Rogers, 2000) indicated that only six local authorities included the Employment Service and only four were working with the Benefits Agency. Enhancing employability or job readiness through the development of literacy and numeracy was seen as a key element of community learning and development. A report on adult literacy and numeracy (Scottish Executive, 2001b) included a commitment to doubling the number of learning opportunities, making Scotland's literacy and numeracy services among the best in the world and helping 80,000 adults by March 2004. Responsibility for adult literacy and numeracy lies with the Scottish Executive Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department, although research and development functions are delegated to a new development centre, Learning Connections, which is located within Communities Scotland.

4.18 Whilst the needs of socially disadvantaged communities are prioritised in the Communities Regeneration Statement, the development of the Scottish economy more widely is managed through Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. These organisations were in place before devolution, but since 1999 their roles have evolved. Plans for the Enterprise Networks (incorporating the Local Enterprise Companies and Careers Scotland) are set out in the document A Smart, Successful Scotland: Ambitions for the Enterprise Networks (Scottish Executive 2001a). Three organising themes are identified: growing businesses, global connections and learning and skills. 'Narrowing the gap in unemployment' is identified as a major challenge, but the focus is on unemployment rates rather than joblessness. The New Deal is described as having made 'a substantial contribution, along with macroeconomic stability, to tackling unemployment'. However, the comparative lack of success of the New Deal for Disabled People, and the problem of 'hidden unemployment', particularly in Glasgow and Dundee, are not alluded to. Social justice and equality are referred to as linking issues, but are not seen as central concerns, although the need to reduce the number of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) is highlighted. However, the much larger problem of older men detached from the labour market is not given the same attention.

4.19 The Scottish Enterprise Network is responsible for key aspects of training and guidance. It manages the New Futures Fund, which has supported a number of innovative employment-focused programmes for adults experiencing multiple disadvantage. Local Enterprise Companies control the post-16 training budget in Scotland, running Skillseekers programmes for young people in the post-16 age group and Training for Work for Adults. The Special Skillseekers programme for young people with special educational needs has been replaced by Get Ready for Work, managed by the Enterprise networks with Careers Scotland providing the Personal Advisory Service aspect of the programme. Responsibility for the All Age Guidance projects and the Inclusiveness projects, funded as a result of the Beattie Report, also lies with Careers Scotland. These programmes are discussed in more detail in Chapter 5.

4.20 Finally, the Review of Scotland's Cities (Scottish Executive, 2002b) provides some interesting insights into thinking about urban regeneration and employment. The overall message of the report is that, whilst the economies of Edinburgh and Aberdeen are relatively buoyant, those of Glasgow and Dundee are struggling. The report notes that measures of unemployment are inadequate, because they do not get to grips with the problem of 'hidden unemployment', which is a particular problem in cities such as Glasgow and Dundee. However, the report is somewhat dismissive about the exclusion of disabled people from the labour market noting,

Labour market analysts take the view that an employment rate of close to 80 pre cent, measured in this way (i.e. by the employment rate) gets close to a measure of full employment as there are around a fifth of the population who are either too sick or disabled for work, full time students or early retired on significant pensions. (Scottish Executive, 2002b: 42)

4.21 The Disability Rights Commission and Jobcentre Plus analysts would take issue with the view that such a large proportion of disabled people are unable to participate at all in employment. Both groups would argue that disability is not a fixed category and the key factor affecting employment decisions is the degree of support which is available in the workplace, the effort expended on retention and rehabilitation and the economic incentives attached to labour market participation.

CONCLUSIONS

4.22 This chapter has reviewed approaches to equality and social justice in Scotland in the light of the employment of disabled people. The main findings of this chapter are:

• Within Scotland, there appears to be scope for closer articulation between the equalities and social justice agenda (this is epitomised by a diagram in the publication A Smart, Successful Scotland (Scottish Executive, 2001a) on the implications of Scotland's new economic agenda: Social Justice and Equal Opportunities are represented at opposite sides of a circle, with the key themes (global connections, growing business and learning and skills) at the centre.

• Disability should be seen as a major focus for community regeneration and economic redistribution initiatives, which lie at the heart of the social justice agenda, since the majority of the 'hidden unemployed' in Scotland are incapacity benefits claimants who are, by definition, disabled. The principal reason for poverty and economic inactivity in cities like Glasgow and Dundee is the high number of people claiming incapacity benefits, many of whom are older men who have become detached from the labour market.

• The key Scottish policy documents in the field of social justice make few connections with the UK employment policy agenda, for example, little mention is made of the reshaping of the Employment Service and the Benefits Agency into Jobcentre Plus, which is intended to offer integrated employment and benefits support to economically inactive people. In addition, the major preoccupation at UK policy level, that is the problem of hidden unemployment and the connections with disability, is referred to in some policy documents (e.g. the Cities Review) but is not dealt with extensively. Key initiatives taking place in Scotland as a result of the UK policy agenda (the implementation and extension of the DDA, the NMW, the NDDP) are again barely mentioned and are not presented as a significant part of the backcloth shaping Scottish policies.

• There are strong arguments that the major levers affecting disability and employment are to be found within the benefits system and its relationship with employment support systems. Scotland does not have control of these areas, and this may have an important impact on the country's ability to effect change in this area. It is important that the equality and social justice agendas are well connected, with a recognition that addressing the barriers faced by disabled people is germane to raising employment rates. This suggests that there is a need to look again at the responsibilities and interface of key government departments at Westminster (specifically the DfES and DWP) and the Scottish Executive (specifically the Department of Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning, the Development Department and the Scottish Executive Education Department).

4.23 Following this discussion of the equality and social justice agendas in Scotland, Chapter 5 moves on to look at the various employment programmes which have been developed for disabled people.

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