New specialist employment programme for disabled people - Provider Event (Cardiff)

Design/Procurement Workshops - learn more and contribute your views

DWP is developing new specialist employment provision for disabled people and would like to offer interested parties the chance to join us at a series of one day events during December across England, Scotland and Wales. The events offer an opportunity to learn more about and influence the emerging design of the new programme and the procurement process.

A public consultation exercise was undertaken from December 2007 to March 2008, setting out how DWP could improve its services to help more disabled people into sustainable employment 'Helping people achieve their full potential: Improving Specialist Disability Employment Services'. A full summary of responses was published on 11 November 2008 and can be found here: www.dwp.gov.uk/resourcecentre/des-consultation.asp

Earlier this year, the Welfare Reform Green Paper "No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility" (www.dwp.gov.uk/noonewrittenoff) announced that as the responses to the earlier consultation had been overwhelmingly positive, we would press ahead with implementation and delivery of the proposals. This programme will provide individually tailored support for disabled people who face significant difficulties in finding or keeping a job.

What is this new programme?

This new programme will replace the existing DWP WORKSTEP and Work Preparation programmes and the Job Introduction Scheme. The aim is to provide a tailored range of specialist services to respond more flexibly to the individual needs of disabled people and employers.

The programme’s customers

The programme will be designed to help customers whose disability may result in them facing serious and often complex barriers to finding and keeping a paid job and progressing whilst in work. The new programme will provide specialist support where mainstream provision may not be appropriate or meet the particular needs of individuals.

The forthcoming events

The design/procurement workshop events offer an opportunity to influence the ongoing design of the new provision and commercial approach to procuring the programme. Information will be presented on the:

• emerging shape of the new programme;
• enhanced role of Jobcentre Plus Disability Employment Advisers; and
• procurement approach to commissioning provision

This full day event will provide opportunity to raise questions, put forward views and instigate debate through table discussion.

Attending an event

These events are aimed at providers of employment support provision and representatives of disabled people. We will also be engaging further with potential/current service users. We will also be holding separate events specifically for supported business that currently have WORKSTEP contracts.

To enrol, please complete the attached proforma and e mail it to the address on the form. As we anticipate significant interest in the events, attendance will be restricted to one event per person and no more than two delegates per organisation. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. An agenda and joining instructions will be sent out when places are confirmed. An event pack will be issued on the day and for those unable to attend, an event update will be posted on this site in due course.

If you require this advertisement in an alternative format please email specialist.disabilityprovision@dwp.gsi.gov.uk

Design/procurement workshops - December 2008

Our target audience for these events are Providers and Representatives including:

• Disability Representative Organisations;
• City Consortia; and
• Local Strategic Partnerships.

The Cardiff event has an attendance confirmation deadline of Tuesday 25th November. To request to attend please send a completed pro-forma (below) to the email address given on the form. For provider events in other parts of the country or supported employment events see the rest of our DWP event listings.

Design/Procurement Workshops - Delegate Attendance Request Form