Disability Action Yorkshire plea to Harrogate businesses to help disabled people succeed in jobs market

The Disability Action Yorkshire survey hopes to win backing from employers in Harrogate to demonstrate there is a clear need for the charity’s application.

Jackie Snape, chief executive of Disability Action Yorkshire, said: “We are reaching out to local businesses in the hope that, with their help, we can secure the lottery funding grant.

"If successful, this would enable us to give additional support to disabled people in our region.

“Our project will support people to gain experience of different working environments by working with local businesses to offer taster sessions, extended work experience and trial jobs. We will also deliver training to local businesses so they can confidently recruit and retain disabled employees.”

The Harrogate charity boss’s plea comes at a crucial time as the Government attempts to redress the disability employment gap.

The pandemic saw a fall in disability employment rates, reversing the positive trend over prior years.

As of Q2 2021, the disability employment rate was 52.7 per cent lagging short of the 81 per cent for non-disabled people.

Now the goal is to secure employment for one million more disabled people between 2017 and 2027.

But Jackie Snape believes that, if Disability Action Yorkshire wins its application, the National Lottery grant will enable it to further its efforts in helping disabled people into paid employment and supporting them when they have done so.

“For some time now, we have been helping disabled jobseekers unlock Access to Work grant funding, assisting them in the application process whilst offering support to help them once in employment.

“If we were successful in our application for the lottery funding grant, we would then be able to enhance our services to help disabled people from across the Harrogate District find work and prosper in employment.”

The Disability Action Yorkshire survey can be found here:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/DAYEmployersSurvey

Further information about Disability Action Yorkshire, is available from its website at:

www.disabilityactionyorkshire.org.uk