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Disability

Access all Areas

Access all Areas is our new section dedicated to supporting and promoting employment opportunities for disadvantaged groups.

As part of the launch of Access all Areas we have investigated some of the schemes Job centre Plus have available to support people with disabilities Accessing Employment.

Job centre Plus provides a range of support to assist customers with disabilities and health problems to find and retain employment.

As well as the New Deal initiatives there are a number of disability specific programmes, including Access to Work, Work Preparation and WORKSTEP. These programmes are designed to help overcome, or remove the barriers that a customer faces when looking for work or when they are already in a job. Offering very practical support, these three programmes deal with specific areas where the customer or their employer may need help. In this way the customer can fulfil their potential and achieve the maximum satisfaction in their chosen area of work.

WORKSTEP

WORKSTEP provides job support to over 26,000 disabled people who face more complex barriers to getting and keeping a job, but who can work effectively with the right support. It enables eligible disabled people to realise their full potential to work within a commercial environment, giving them, whenever possible, an opportunity to progress into open employment.

Benefits

• Available in a wide range of jobs from high street shops to national organisations.
• Equal pay with colleagues doing same or similar work.
• Availability of a WORKSTEP provider to help with your career development.
• Training opportunities to help you progress.

(Picture: Man in a wheelchair with his hand on a door handle and is talking to a Man standing up)

Access to Work

Access to Work (AtW) is available to help overcome the problems resulting from disability. It offers practical advice and help in a flexible way that can be tailored to suit the needs of an individual in a particular job. However, it does not replace the normal responsibilities of the employer to implement Health and Safety regulations or replace the responsibilities required by the Disability Discrimination Act.

Benefits
• AtW helps you progress by tackling some of the practical obstacles you maymeet at work due to your disability.
• Available to job starters and people already in work and the self-employed whose disability is likely to last 12 months or longer.
• Applies to any paid job, part-time or full-time, temporary or permanent.
• Is tailored to suit your own particular needs in your chosen field of work.
• Support at interviews through CSI (Communicator Support at Interview) which meets the full cost of hiring an interpreter.
• Specialist coaching or other assistance through a support worker.
• Special aids equipment or adaptations to existing equipment.
• Adaptation to premises.
• Help towards special travel costs.

(Picture: Job Centre Plus Logo)