Durham County Council has been officially recognised as a Disability Confident Employer. Disability Confident is a nationally recognised accreditation scheme which encourages businesses to recruit and retain disabled people and people with health conditions for their skills and talent. The council recently achieved the Level 2 Disability Confident Employer status by proving its commitment to actively employ, retain and support disabled people. Durham County Council is now recognised as going the extra mile to make sure disabled people get a fair chance. Cllr Jane Brown, Cabinet member for social inclusion, said: “Nearly 7 million people of working age in the UK are disabled or have a health condition. Encouraging applications from disabled people is good for business. As the largest employer in the county, we have an obligation to lead by example and this is just one of the ways we do that.”
Disability Confident is a Department for Work and Pensions initiative which seeks to: • Engage and encourage employers to become more confident so they employ and retain disabled people and those with long term health conditions. • Increase understanding of disability and the benefits of employing or retaining disabled people. • Ensure disabled people have opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations. • Make a substantial contribution to halving the disability employment gap. To find out more about the scheme visit www.gov.uk/dwp/disabilityconfident or contact the Equalities team on equalities@durham.gov.uk or 03000 268 022
