BASW calls for Access to Work Scheme to be protected
BASW has written to the Minister for Social Security and Disability, Sir Stephen Timms MP urging the UK Government to ensure that Access to Work remains a robust, accessible, and equitable scheme that supports—not hinders—disabled people’s right to work. It also insists that any changes to the scheme must be done in consultation with disabled professionals, not imposed upon them.
Access to Work is a publicly funded discretionary grant scheme aimed at supporting disabled people to thrive in the workplace. It provides practical and financial forms of personalised support, such as covering travel costs, specialist equipment, support workers, and other modifications to workplace environments. The programme is available in all parts of the UK apart from Northern Ireland, where a separate system is in place.
However, as part of the proposed package of welfare reforms outlined in their Pathways to Work green paper, the UK Government is considering reducing the level of support being made available through the programme.
The letter, sent by the Co-Chair of BASW’s Neurodivergent Social Workers Special Interest Group, Scott Richardson warns that such a cost-cutting measure will create barriers to employment for disabled people, while also increasing the risk of staff burnout, stress and poor mental wellbeing.
This is not only unfair and exclusionary to individuals but is also unhelpful for the social work profession as a whole given the already significant recruitment and retention challenges the profession faces across the UK. It would therefore be detrimental to enact changes that risk making social work a less accessible career option and certainly runs contrary to the government's aim of helping more disabled people to start and stay in work.
In our manifesto for social work – Time to Get it Right – published ahead of last year’s General Election, BASW highlighted that there is already a lack of understanding by employers around the country on how to apply the Access to Work scheme. This in itself maintains systemic barriers to people with disabilities. We therefore called for more to be done to ensure that the scheme is better understood by employers, easy to access, and that there are sufficient resources to meet demand.
If the government is to deliver on our ask, then it is critical that the current provision of funding is adequately protected first and foremost. You can read our full letter that raises this issue with Mr Timms here.
If you would like to be kept informed of our response, please contact jonny.adamson@basw.co.uk
