Will I keep my job?—Disability management for employment retention

Abstract

The UK government is keen to reduce the number of people on disability benefits. Many employers and practitioners lack awareness of the practical and financial support available to them in employment retention situations. Disability Management for Employment Retention (DMfER) is a 30-month project, part funded by the European Commission's Leonardo da Vinci programme. It aims to assist individuals, their employers and advisers, to develop positive strategies for staying in work and to raise awareness amongst policy makers of the benefits of retaining disabled workers. Project partners in Spain, Sweden, Poland and UK have identified and exchanged good practice in the area of employment retention. A lack of training materials was identified in three key areas:1.Information on employment retention2.The business case describing the benefits of employing disabled people3.How to best influence policy makers and what changes to policy need to be made or introduced in partner countries.Partners are piloting newly developed training modules and an Employment Retention Toolkit with various stakeholders and working towards accreditation. DMfER provides a new model for working with employers, disabled people and organisations from the statutory, private and voluntary sector to support disabled people to stay in work.