The Disability Confident scheme review

The Government committed to reviewing the Disability Confident (DC) scheme by the end of 2021. The DC scheme is widely used by our members, and we therefore spoke to them to get feedback as part of the Government’s review. You can download our submission to this review at the right hand side of this page.

The review asks:

• If Levels 2 (Employer) and 3 (Leader) of the scheme are sufficiently challenging.
• What the challenges are when moving from Level 2 (Employer) to Level 3 (Leader).
• What employers think of the ‘Offering an interview’ (OAI) scheme.
• What additional support would help employers move through the Levels.
• When an accreditation should be revoked.
• The success criteria that should be used to measure the impact of the scheme.

We also recommended that the criterion on suppliers and partners must move away from merely encouraging sign ups to the scheme, and should instead require Disability Confident employers to ensure their chosen suppliers deliver contracts that are accessible and inclusively designed.

Other feedback from members that we discussed in our submission includes:

• Offering employers a named contact in the DC team to support them and ask questions.
• More timely and targeted communications that inform employers signed up to the scheme of new changes to the criteria or process when they happen.
• Greater transparency about the Business Leaders Group, and involving all employers signed up to the scheme in giving feedback.

Thank you to our members who took the time to speak with us about their experiences of the scheme. We will continue to work with the DC team on this work.