Cardiff Business School experts help drive change in disability employment

Academics from Cardiff Business School have played a key role in shaping a major Welsh Government report on tackling the disability employment gap.

Anything’s Achievable with the Right Support: Tackling the Disability Employment Gap is an inquiry into barriers faced by disabled workers in Wales. It highlights the urgent need to improve job opportunities, employer support, and public sector leadership to ensure disabled people can access and thrive in quality jobs.

Despite some progress - Wales’ disability employment gap has reduced from 35.4 percentage points in 2015 to 30.9 in 2024 - the report warns that change has been too slow.

It calls for stronger legal protections, better employer guidance, and proactive measures to turn policy commitments into meaningful action, including publishing a Disability Rights Action Plan and incorporating the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People into Welsh law.

Cardiff Business School’s contribution

Cardiff Business School academics provided key insights that shaped the report’s findings, particularly in employer attitudes, recruitment challenges, and policy interventions.

Professor Debbie Foster played a pivotal role, opening the inquiry as Co-Chair of the Welsh Government’s Disability Rights Taskforce. She highlighted the persistent challenges faced by disabled workers and the importance of embedding disability rights into Welsh law, noting that:

Ruth Nortey, a PhD student, contributed evidence from her research into the effectiveness of the UK’s Disability Confident scheme and the potential for an employer kitemark in Wales to improve workplace inclusivity.

Professors Melanie Jones and Victoria Wass emphasised the importance of data in driving policy change, calling for more consistent and accurate reporting on disability in the workforce. Professor Jones stressed that better data collection would allow meaningful comparisons over time and across organisations, with government playing a crucial role in ensuring transparency.

The report also highlights the critical role of employers in closing the employment gap. Professor Victoria Wass argued that past efforts had placed too much emphasis on incentivising disabled people into work rather than addressing employer responsibilities: “If employers aren’t employing, you’re very limited in what you can do… we need to refocus policy attention on what’s happening with the employers.”

Read the full report.