PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Apprentices: Disability and Specific Learning Difficulties (4 April 2019)

The government wants to make sure that the benefits of an apprenticeship are available to all, including people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities (LDD). We are developing new communications and guidance products to demonstrate to people with LDD that apprenticeships are an option for them, and to support employers to employ apprentices with LDD. We have integrated the Department for Work and Pension’s Disability Confident campaign into the apprenticeship recruitment service so that the Disability Confident logo is displayed on apprenticeship vacancies for campaign-registered employers.

We are working with local partners through our pacesetter project to test policy approaches and deliver tangible progress towards growing numbers of LDD apprentices. Pacesetters include councils, a school, and the learning disability charity Mencap.

Our Apprenticeships Diversity Champions Network has grown to over 70 members since its launch in 2017. Many members have set aspirational targets for the number of LDD apprentices in their own workforce, and introduced initiatives designed to increase participation: for example, Walsall Council have extended their Positive Action Scheme to include those with special educational needs and disabilities.

Our funding system, which provides additional support to training providers, is intended to encourage the successful take-up and achievement of apprenticeships by those with LDD. We continue to monitor the impact of these measures to ensure they support the achievement of our targets.

We are making progress against our measure of success for a 20% increase in the proportion of starts by people with LDD by 2020 (from a baseline of 9.9% in 2015/16 to 11.9% by 2020). In 2017/18, apprentices from this group made up 11.2% (42,200) of total starts.