Debate contribution: Disability and Work Strategy

Debate contribution by Mr Gordon Lyons on 6 October 2025.

MLA

Mr Gordon Lyons

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

6 October 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Ministerial Statement

Heading

Disability and Work Strategy

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5156588

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I will make a statement to the Assembly on my plans to bring forward a new disability and work strategy for Northern Ireland. Disability influences lives in many unique and personal ways, and the issues that disabled people face can be complex and intersectional. Given that one in four working-age people in Northern Ireland is disabled, few of us are untouched by disability, yet many disabled people and people with health conditions face multiple barriers that can lead to poverty, social exclusion, inequality and disadvantage, among a range of other challenges. Employment can offer a means to help address and overcome many of the challenges faced, yet, despite the representation of disability across society, only 41% of disabled people in Northern Ireland are in work.

That is the worst figure in the UK.

Furthermore, disabled people who are in employment tend to occupy lower-quality jobs, earn less and find it harder to progress in their careers. Put simply, Northern Ireland’s performance in disability employment has not been good enough. I want us to do better. I am, therefore, bringing forward a new disability and work strategy for Northern Ireland. Co-produced by a wide range of partners, including those with lived experience of disability, the strategy sets out a clear commitment to see an additional 50,000 disabled people in the workforce by 2036 and a disability employment rate of 50% and growing. That will ensure that more disabled people and people with health conditions have access to, can sustain, and can thrive in quality employment in an inclusive Northern Ireland labour market. The work intersects with a range of strategic agendas, such as the Executive's anti-poverty strategy, the skills strategy, the autism and mental health strategies and the review of special educational needs provision. Of course, it also aligns with our forthcoming Executive disability strategy, which I plan to bring forward in the coming weeks. In co-producing the strategy, we have placed people with lived experience of disability at the centre, involving them at every stage to ensure that we have identified and shaped the change needed to achieve better outcomes. We have a wealth of experience in our voluntary and community sector, which has delivered close support to disabled people for many years. The sector's insight and value cannot be overstated, alongside the contributions of all partners across the disability and work agenda. We have worked with a diverse group of over 100 stakeholders, including disabled people, community and voluntary organisations, employers and their representative bodies, central and local government, academics and trade unions, each contributing their views, experiences and priorities to help inform and shape the strategy and its actions. That partnership working will continue as we move forward through detailed design, implementation and monitoring of interventions. The strategy is constructed around four themes. Under a personalised support theme, the strategy recognises that each person has unique circumstances, needs and ambitions when it comes to work. So much good work is already being delivered by many dedicated and expert individuals across our disability and work ecosystem. The theme aims to build on those foundations to ensure that we meet the diverse needs of disabled people, whether through light-touch interventions or through more specialised, long-term and ongoing interventions such as the supported employment model. Our support must work for everyone. We will achieve that by having more and better engagement by our front-line teams; by identifying improvements and ensuring stability in our pre-employment and in-work supports; and by further integrating health and employability provision to create clear employment pathways for disabled people, working closely with the Department of Health. Under a second theme of inclusive skills, careers and educational transitions, we will ensure that skills provision and careers advice is accessible and tailored, that support is available for those who wish to pursue self-employment and that young people with special educational needs are supported during key educational transition points as they begin their employment journeys. We will continue to work closely with the Department of Education, the Department for the Economy and wider partners in the space to ensure a joined-up approach that removes cliff edges and delivers continuous support. The strategy's third theme focuses on supporting and enabling employers. While employers play a crucial role in the agenda, we need to recognise that they, too, need support to help them to shape our workplace cultures and employment practices and contribute to more disabled people finding, sustaining and flourishing in employment. We will advocate for the benefits of disability employment, help build employer awareness of best practice and make it easier to navigate and benefit from the support available. We want to see workplaces where disabilities and health conditions can be disclosed with confidence and where line managers are supported to respond to the needs of their staff effectively. The fourth and final theme consists of a range of actions that are deemed to be strategic and structural enablers. The theme enhances partnership working, drives and informs our activity, sets out commitments related to the public sector leading by example and delivers clear reporting and monitoring of progress under the strategy. For the first time in our history, we are proposing a disability and work council for Northern Ireland, which will have oversight of delivery against our commitments. It will be tasked with coordinating and supporting delivery, engaging with disabled people and employers and co-producing interventions. Its membership will comprise a wide representation of expert partners, and, alongside my Department, it will be jointly chaired by a disabled person. During the lifetime of the strategy, its delivery will be continuously monitored, with annual progress reports and a midpoint review to ensure that we are responsive to any wider influences and opportunities that may arise. Today, I am launching a 12-week public consultation on the disability and work strategy. The wide-ranging conversation with society provides an opportunity for everyone to contribute their views and highlight any areas that can be strengthened further. As part of the process, we will host a series of roadshow events, and documents will be available in a range of accessible formats to make it as easy as possible for everyone to contribute to the consultation. I will take a moment to stress the need for adequate resources to implement the strategy. Disability employment is not a challenge that my Department can solve in isolation. We have worked closely across the Departments to commit to actions under the strategy, and the Executive have given their endorsement, but, without additional resources to implement actions, we will not see the important changes that we all want to see or the wider positive impacts on economic inactivity, poverty, health and well-being, social inclusion and our economy. Our forthcoming three-year Budget provides the opportunity to kick-start the momentum. I intend to include the resourcing requirements for the strategy in my departmental bid, and I encourage other action owners to do the same. It is essential that the resourcing bids are met in full, or we risk continuing to see many disabled people excluded from the labour market and deprived of the opportunity to fulfil their career ambitions. The support of my Executive colleagues and Members of the Assembly is essential to secure the necessary resources to deliver the strategy in full. I sincerely thank everyone across the disability and work ecosystem who has contributed to the development of the strategy. Your insight, experience and commitment have shaped a vision that is ambitious, inclusive and achievable. To disabled people and those with health conditions across Northern Ireland, I say this: I see your talent, your drive and your aspirations. The strategy is about matching your ambitions with real opportunities and creating the conditions for you to thrive, not just survive, in the workplace. You deserve nothing less. No single person or organisation owns disability or employment. Real change will come only when we work together as government, employers, the voluntary and community sector and society as a whole, sharing the responsibility and pushing each other to go further. In bringing forward the strategy, I am committing to action. We will build on what works, change what does not and ensure that every disabled person has a fair chance to access, sustain and progress in quality employment. It is not just a strategy; it is a promise: a promise of progress, partnership and possibility. Together, we will deliver change that is felt in workplaces, communities and lives. Let us get it done, and let us make a difference. I commend the statement to the House.

I do not want to jump ahead of the consultation process that will take place. It is the same as with the anti-poverty strategy, which he mentioned: we genuinely want to hear from people about what they want to prioritise and what, they think, should be put in that may not be in there yet. I give this commitment: I will fund everything that I am able to fund. I have already set aside funding and made bids for some of the actions that I can take. That is why I believe that it will make a difference. Some of it will require investment, but we will get a return on some of that investment as well. Much of it is also about a culture change that we need to see. I will make sure that I put the funding in place, and I call on Executive colleagues to do the same not just because we will get that economic and financial return on it but because of the difference that it will make not just to the lives of disabled people across Northern Ireland but to wider society and to employers, who will have the opportunity to open themselves up to that incredible talent pool which, right now, is not being accessed.

That was a topic of extensive debate during the co-production process with those involved. That figure was landed at because people believe that it is ambitious but achievable. It takes us up to where the rest of the UK is. I want to remove the disability employment gap entirely and ensure that everybody has the opportunity to thrive in work, but we have to be realistic about what is achievable. It is an ambitious target: for context, an additional 50,000 people in work is the equivalent of everybody in the Civil Service and the entirety of those working in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. That shows how ambitious the target is. It is something that those involved in the process were very supportive of. I highlight to the Member that there will be annual reports and that midpoint review five years in. If that target needs to be changed, it is certainly something that we are happy to look at.

1,797 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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