Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what guidance his Department provides to employers on supporting young apprentices with mental health conditions.

Nick Boles

Employers must fulfil their duties as set out in the Equality Act 2010 for apprentices as they would for other employees.

Under the Equality Act (2010), employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments for employees with disabilities (including mental health impairment) in order to ensure that they have the same access to everything that involves gaining or keeping employment as a non-disabled person.

Advice is also available to help employers and training providers understand disabilities and how to better support disabled apprentices. We have funded NIACE to produce an employer toolkit http://www.employer-toolkit.org.uk/ for employers who want to develop a more inclusive and accessible apprenticeship offer.

An Apprenticeships Equality and Diversity Advisory group helps government understand and address any apprenticeship equality and diversity issues in order to reduce barriers and make apprenticeships as inclusive as possible.

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