This PES Network webinar overviewed the latest policy and practice for enhancing labour market access for people with disabilities. It followed the launch of the recent PES Network practitioner toolkit on this topic and included presentations of practical initiatives involving PES and input from the major organisation representing persons with disability in Europe.

The event started with an overview of the European Commission’s new Disability Employment Package - a flagship initiative of the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030, including reflections on some of the challenges being addressed to ensure its full implementation.

A PES Network expert then presented the network’s new Practitioner Toolkit on strengthening PES to improve the labour market outcomes of persons with disabilities, which explains why action is needed by PES, what tools they can use and the five concrete steps that PES can follow ‘to go from intention to implementation’.

Participants then heard presentations on two practical examples of initiatives involving PES aimed at supporting labour market access for persons with different forms of disability:

• DuoDay - a one-day national event in France during which jobseekers with disabilities can visit workplaces to discover more about the sector and their future career prospects - by the French PES (Pôle Emploi).
• The Individual Placement and Support (IPS) methodology used in Flanders (BE) to provide rapid job search and employment support to clients with mental health issues - by GTB an NGO working with the Flemish PES (VDAB)

A representative from the European Disability Forum highlighted the importance of inclusion both for the labour market as a whole and for the many individuals and families affected by some form of disability, welcoming the attention being paid by the PES Network to this topic and supporting the need to include a stronger disability perspective within PES.

A Q&A session took comments and questions from participants with observations highlighting the need to adapt workplaces to people with different forms of disability, to understanding how jobs are changing in a context of greening and digitalisation and what new opportunities this may create for people with disabilities and the importance of partnership-based approaches.

A representative of the PES Network Secretariat wrapped up the webinar by encouraging people to use the recently published Practitioners’ Toolkit and highlighting that this issue will remain on the agenda of the PES Network into the future, including an upcoming episode of PESPod on the topic of inclusion.

A recording of the webinar is available on YouTube.