Connect to Work may help workers- but are our businesses ready?

On 4 September, 2025, the Government launched its new ‘Connect to Work’ programme in England and Wales. The £338 million initiative, aimed at helping people with disabilities and long-term health conditions to make their way back into employment, will now provide coaching sessions from employment specialists, job matching services, and ongoing support to encourage long-term employment. The ambition is to develop a more inclusive economy which enables people to get into work ensuring employment opportunities for all.

Sounds great!

But I have one question- (albeit a very important one) - are the businesses that will employ people with disabilities and long-term health issues truly ready?

Coaching, upskilling, building confidence, and preparing people for work all sounds very well, but it only tackles one side of the challenge. If someone with a disability or long-term health condition enters a company that doesn’t have inclusive practices, accessible environments, and most importantly, an inclusive culture, will they even make it into the interview room?

Getting past the cultural gap

I’ve always said, when it comes to potential employees with disabilities, you can provide all the ramps, rails and accessible entrances you want, but if you don’t change your workplace culture, your door will always be closed.

If businesses lack inclusive mindsets, accessible practices, and a positive perception of disability, candidates may never get past the phone call they make, they may never be able to send the application form as it’s not accessible or impress the interviewee- as they have had no disability awareness training and are unaware of their own unconscious bias.

In short-  it doesn’t matter how well prepared someone is, if the organisation isn’t committed to inclusivity, that preparation will have been made in vain. 

And that’s where the Government could do more…

Without the cultural shift, that (let’s face it), many businesses need, programmes like Connect to Work risk becoming a revolving door. They help candidates into the interview rooms, but the staff interviewing could be the true obstacle between those candidates and a new career.   

Shouldn’t we fix Access to Work FIRST?

One big elephant in the room which we also need to talk about, is the current failure of Access to Work. According to research released just this month by the National Association of Welfare Rights Workers or NAWRW (Oct 25), it has become very apparent that the Access to Work scheme (a government grant which provides a contribution for the support of people with a disability to overcome barriers to work), continues to disappoint. (Read more about that here).

The failure of this system is already resulting in huge challenges for people with disabilities.

Recipients have claimed that they commonly experience huge delays, grant cuts, tough restrictions, and unnecessary bureaucracy. Some people in the NAWRW case studies claim that the system has caused enormous issues in their work lives.

So, the big question is – if Access to Work is under pressure and fundamentally failing now, how will it cope now that Connect to Work is supposedly placing tens of thousands of people with disabilities into employment, many of which will certainly require its support?  Without proper consideration and fixing the current Access to Work system, it only paves the way for more challenges ahead, leaving both employees and their employers more frustrated and unsupported.

Lessons From Ireland

Now, you may well have seen my recent vlog about Ireland taking its own steps to address this balance, by introducing the Work and Access Initiative. This programme provides up to €20,000 in funding for employers to train staff, adjust workplaces, and improve accessibility. By focusing not just on candidates, but also on organisations, Ireland is helping to build the right environments, improve its workplace cultures and conditions for long-term, inclusive employment.

Taking action

It goes without saying that the Connect to Work programme is a vital step in the right direction, it plans to deliver localised, tailored support to over 85,000 people who are sick, have disabilities or face complex barriers to work. However, for it to succeed, we must support businesses to build inclusive cultures so that when candidates step through the door, they’re met with understanding people, inclusive workplace cultures and an equal opportunity to succeed. We must also ensure our current systems function correctly before advancing, as trying to develop Connect to Work, before addressing the failures of Access to Work, will only create even more issues and stretch an already crumbling system. 

If you are a business that would like to be prepared, and properly welcome and sustainably recruit staff with disabilities, so that they are given the opportunity they deserve, then why not contact us… and we can help you level the playing field.

CHRIS JAY- MANAGING DIRECTOR – BASCULE DISABILITY TRAINING