Last Friday I hosted my Disability Confident Fair at the Thomas Wall Centre in Sutton in partnership with Sutton Job Centre Plus and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Through Disability Confident, DWP are working with employers to:
- challenge attitudes towards disability;
- increase understanding of disability;
- remove barriers to disabled people and those with long term health conditions in employment;
- ensure that disabled people have the opportunities to fulfill their potential and realise their aspirations.
The event brought together local charities, support groups and disability confident employers to showcase what they do and how they support disabled people in training and employment. Amongst the stallholders were the Sutton Job Centre Plus, Sutton Uplift, Sutton Mental Health Foundation, Orchard Hill College, Natwest, Embracing Mental Health, Ingeus, Sutton College, Sutton and District Training, Remploy and Sutton Mencap.
I invited local business owners and managers to come down and speak with the stallholders to find out more about how they could become a disability confident employer. The stallholders shared their experiences in employing disabled people and what support they could offer local businesses in doing so.
After speaking with everybody I encouraged the business owners and managers to sign a pledge to take steps to becoming a disability confident employer, and I am pleased that we got so many signed up, including from Sainsburys, Sutton Council, HSBC, Santander, Tinies Childcare and Sutton Housing Partnership.
I want to say a big thank you to all the stallholders for coming along to pass on their knowledge, and to everyone who came to learn more and sign the pledge to become a disability confident employer. I want to especially thank Janine and everyone at the Sutton Job Centre who helped me set up this event.
If you want to find out more about becoming a disability confident employer, please do get in touch.
You can see a gallery of photos from the event below.
