8 December 2011
Capita Symonds has been appointed by The Secretary of State for
Work and Pensions to carry out Disability Workplace
Assessments.
The three year contract, which has a possible
extension of a further two years, is linked to the government’s
Access to Work Scheme. Access to Work is a specialist disability
programme delivered by DWP which provides practical advice and
support to disabled people and their employers to help them
overcome work related obstacles resulting from disability. It does
this through a system of grants towards these additional employment
costs.
Capita Symonds’ work will include the
provision and management of suitably qualified and experienced
assessors to carry out face to face ‘holistic’ assessments of
disabled employees at their workplace to identify a range of
solutions and recommend reasonable adjustments. The team will then
produce a report detailing the outcome of the assessment along with
recommendations for funding. Up to 9000 such assessments are
expected to be carried out each year.
Of the seven regional contracts available,
Capita Symonds was successful in three - Central England, North
West England and North East England - and was placed as reserve for
the remaining four.
As part of the contract it is expected that
approximately 30 professional assessors will join Capita Symonds
both under TUPE and through recruitment, complementing the
company’s existing assessment teams.
The operating model is based on tablet technology with a
bespoke software application being developed by Capita
Symonds.