The role of the government: employment policy
There are mainstream and special employment policies and programmes for people with disabilities. Increasingly, mainstream education and training is being promoted, and people with disabilities are expected to use the employment services available to all unemployed people.2 However, there is no specific information regarding the use of these programmes by people with mental health disorders. The main policies and programmes that encourage access to competitive employment specifically for people with disabilities are:3, 4
*Vocational preparation and placement services contracted by local Placement, Assessment and Counselling Teams (PACTS) to independent specialist agencies for disabled people who require assistance beyond what is available in mainstream employment services;
*Access to Work, a co-ordinated programme of financial assistance and practical aids to help overcome obstacles in the workplace or in getting to work;
*Disability Working Allowance, a social security benefit supplement for low-income earners, designed as an incentive for partially disabled employees and self -employed people;
*The Supported Employment Programme, which works with selected employers to provide subsidised work for people with severe disabilities through the Supported Placements Scheme;
*The New Deal for Disabled People, a scheme launched by the British Government in 1998 and aimed at people who would like to reenter the labour market without losing the security of benefits. Thanks to changes in benefit regulations which promote access to work for the disabled, people in the program may keep their benefits for their first year of employment. However, only one of the ten organisations which took part in a pilot employment program focused on people with mental health disabilities, which illustrates the difficulty in helping people with a history of mental illness return to work. The fact that mental illness is often cyclical, recurrent, and hard to predict can make the goal of permanent employment problematic.5
AGENCIES REPONSIBLE FOR IMPLEMENTING EMPLOYMENT POLICY
A number of agencies are responsible for promoting and implementing the UK's employment policy for people with disabilities.
*The Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) is responsible for most aspects of the national employment policy. It oversees the employment provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) through the National Council for the Employment of People with Disabilities.
*The Employment Services (ES) agency, located within the DfEE, operates Access to Work, oversees PACTS, and the Supported Employment
