Publication
Review of the Reasonable Accommodation Fund and Disability Awareness Support Scheme
From Department of Social Protection
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Social Protection
Published on
Last updated on
The Reasonable Accommodation Fund grants and the Disability Awareness Support Scheme are key disability employment supports. Their aim is to support the employment of disabled people in the open labour market.
The Reasonable Accommodation Fund provides financial support to private sector employers, jobseekers and employees with disabilities to make the workplace more accessible. The fund is made up of four grants:
The Disability Awareness Support Scheme aims to make the workplace more supportive by providing funding to private sector employers to arrange and pay for disability awareness training for staff who work with a colleague who has a disability.
The Department of Social Protection conducted a review of the two schemes to identify issues that might account for the low uptake. In order to inform the review a public consultation ran over 6 weeks in Spring 2022. This was an opportunity for people to have their say on the future of these schemes. The Department received 33 submissions and 912 survey responses from a wide range of individuals, organisations and companies.
The public consultation identified issues with the schemes such as lack of awareness, complex application process, and low funding levels. There were also calls to expand the services that could be funded and the types of employer, employee and prospective employee who are eligible.
To help meet the needs of people with disabilities in or seeking employment, the review makes recommendations around combining the two schemes. It also suggests simplifying systems and processes, extending scheme eligibility and funding, providing approval in principle and promoting the new scheme.
ISL Video - Review of the Reasonable Accommodation Fund grants and the Disability Awareness Support Scheme
We will work over the coming months to implement the recommendations in this report and aim to have the reformed scheme in place in 2024.
We wish to thank all the people who took the time to make submissions and respond to the surveys as part of the public consultation process. The insights provided are an important part of the review.