Government consults on disability workforce reporting

The government is undertaking a consultation on whether workforce reporting on disability should be introduced for employers with 250 or more employees.

It forms part of its National Disability Strategy, published last July, and includes a consideration of both mandatory and voluntary reporting practices. An existing voluntary framework has been in place since November 2018 and is aimed at organisations with over 250 staff, but could also be used by smaller employers.

However, the success of voluntary approaches may be gauged by the some of the findings of the 2021 Health and wellbeing at work report by the CIPD HR professionals’ body. This indicated that only around a fifth (21%) of respondents were aware of the voluntary framework.

Over a quarter (28%) said their employer had no plans to adopt the framework — rising to more than half (54%) of small- and medium-sized enterprises (compared with just 16% of larger organisations with more than 250 employees).

The consultation runs until 25 March 2022.

https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/health-wellbeing-work-report-2021_tcm18-93541.pdf

https://equalityhub.citizenspace.com/disability-unit/disability-workforce-reporting-consultation